Derik Badman's Journal

I didn't intend to write about dreams so much (though at one point years ago I kept a long running dream journal that was pretty interesting (to me)), but I keep having vivid ones that are either unusual (the nightmare the other day) or typical, like last night. I have reoccurring dream features where my vision is obscured and where my movement is difficult, walking, running. In both cases I'm really trying hard to see/walk, but I just can't seem to see or get anywhere. Last night's dream combined both in pretty rapid sequence.

I was in some kind of park walking on path with some older guy. He was a gardener or farmer or something and I think I was supposed to be there learning from him. The ground to our left was packed with tall flowers of different sorts. I was asking him about them, some of them starting out looking like vegetables but then when I looked closer their were bunches of small flowers. As we passed the flowers the path turned and there were all these people walking around in small groups. There were stalls/shops ahead of us on the path, like on a boardwalk or in the concourse of Citizens Bank park. I got distracted by a group of people approaching me looking at some girl, then when I turned to look the guy I had been walking with was ahead on the path looking back at me, but there were all these people between us. I started walking faster to try to catch up with him but people were in my way. I forgot about the guy then, and in passing this turnoff that was covered and dark but seemed to have a little stall where I thought I could get a beer and sit down (this was a lot like the ballpark concourse now), I went in and it was all men in there waiting to order, but there really weren't any seats so I decided to not get anything. At this point I was carrying something and then my vision went black and I felt something fall on top of whatever I was carrying. I struggled to get my vision to clear and then I saw the object was some kind of purse/satchel. I asked a guy sitting there next to me if he knew where it came from and he said it belonged to a guy in front of my who was on the other side of a little railing thing that demarcated the line for ordering at the stall. I was worried people would think I was trying to steal out of this guy's bag, so I quick put it down on the ground behind him and moved off. I headed out opposite from the way I came in but realized it was going to get me out of the park (I'm realizing now this dream was relying on two meanings of a park). I saw stairs going down to a subway station, but turned around to go back out. This is where I started having trouble walking. I was struggling trying to get back outside, having to grab onto the wall, all off balance and my legs like glue. At one point I was somehow on the ground and my shirt got caught on something on the floor. I think that's when I woke up.

We had a lot of heavy rain late yesterday, bad enough I got one of those load phone alerts about flash flooding. This morning outside still showed the aftermath. The sides of the street were still dark with damp. Leaves and debris strewn about on the sidewalk. Drops of water hanging off plants. Half the sky was still a grey mass of smooth clouds while the other side, to the west, showed patches of morning blue amongst whiter, puffier clouds.

I think one of the dove babies on the porch is lost. Looks like there is only one there, not sure where the other one got to. I can't imagine a predator could get to them up under the porch roof. Maybe it fell down, though I don't see it on the porch. Those poor doves, they already went through a few rounds of unhatched eggs this year (they'd build the nest and then later I'd see the eggs broken on the porch).

Played D&D with ███ and some of his colleagues, finishing up an adventure we started 2 weeks ago. It's 5e and I'm playing a Tortle Warlock, so kind of a magic using ninja turtle. Not my usual type of character choice, but everyone else is playing all these non-humans (drow, dwarf, gnome, dragonborn). One thing I like about the warlock class is I don't end up having to remember how a ton of different spells work. I have a pretty limited choice at once which I prefer. Last time in ███'s game I was playing a cleric and I had so many spells I had to keep reading the descriptions to remember the point of a lot of them. One thing I don't like about rules sets with too many characters features is you end up spending a lot of time staring at your character sheet looking for answers. But I guess everyone else seems to enjoy all the buzzes and whistles.