In two countries, or perhaps none...

Well, in the first day back after my long "no sleep period" while returning home, at the surface things seem surprising normal. I have had a really busy morning, with unpacking, calling several people, and general organization. I was not too tired, but around 2 pm decided that a short neap seemed like a good idea.

I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly, with my head wrapped in a pillow as I sometimes do. The sun was bright outside, and I didn't close the shades - this way my body presumably understands that it is daytime, and not night. I didn't set an alarm clock, and intended to nap for an hour or so.

During my sleep, I dreamed wildly, although I can't remember at the moment what the dream was about. Then, I was awakened from my dream by a sound I thought I recognized - something that sounded like someone using the electric garage door opener, then changing their mind. A sound like errrrrrr (pause) errrrrr - each for about 2 seconds. I sprang awake, opened my eyes, and had absolutely no clue where I was. It was the strangest feeling! At first I thought I was in the hotel in Vyburg - lots of light coming from the window. But no... Hmm. Well, not in an apartment, so must be in a hotel somewhere! I sat there for perhaps 10 more seconds, looking around, still totally clueless. Everything seemed familiar, no doubt, but I could not place where I was, or what that sound could have been. Finally I deduce that I am home, but can't remember where home was (I was thinking that I was in my previous house). Then the nature of the (remembered sound) came to me - it must have been the garage door. But why up and down?

Well, I now remember that I had given the garage door opener to the neighbors so that they could feed our fish. Was it them? Yikes - better check. I get up.... Still very disoriented, I realize I am about to go downstairs with no cloths on - not a good plan. So I pull on my jeans - inside out. Fixed the problem (at this point, we are probably 40 seconds from waking up). I run downstairs, and look in the garage.

Well, two cars are there - Oh, Gwendolyn must have just come home from work.... But wait, something is not making sense. Oh - Gwendolyn is still in Russia, and her car is here because I will have to pick her up from the airport.

Since no one is there, I stumble back to bed, even though my heart is racing from the confusion. I still don't know to this day if there was a sound at all, or if I dreamed it, and I will probably never find out. Very strange feeling, however!

Well, I obviously fell asleep again, because I had another really strange lucid dream. For those who don't know, lucid dreams are those, usually had in the morning, where you can control (to some extent) the dream, go back and manipulate it, and ask yourself questions during the dream itself to try to understand what is going on. Not everyone has them, but I do sometimes and find the experience fascinating.

I can only remember segments, and of course it is very hard to describe the "feel", only the facts. To confuse things further, during the dream I kept pausing the dream to analyze what was going on - this was still part of the dream itself, though, not something I thought about afterwards so I put this stuff in [[small font]]

I am sitting outside a house, on an old fashioned swing that is hung from a tree. The ground below is dusty reddish brown with occasional tufts of grass, and I am looking at a rather large house - it is quite old, with chipping paint, two stories, including a lower basement section, but it has modern windows on the top story and perhaps a straw thatched roof. [[I thought about this, and decided it felt in the dream like the combination of our current (modern) house and a Russian village dacha house, with a bit of my childhood home in Pennsylvania thrown in for good measure]] I can't see any, but I get the impression that there are goats and cows grazing on the tufts of grass out of view somewhere. It is a dry summer, but the trees are high, with light streaming though them. [[I consider this, and realize the contradictions, that such a place does not exist, and that it is a fabrication of the dream going on - this does not surprise me, of course, and I tell myself to just accept this as it is, that this is why these dreams are so much fun]]

The house is on the top of a hill, on a ridge, with other house further down the road as it wanders down hill. I feel confused on what my role is here, because this does not feel like my property, but on the other hand, I know I own it and am responsible for it. It almost feels that I inherited it and now have it to manage, but don't know any of the people in the village, and don't know how I should behave.

A young women and her husband walk down the path, and head for the house's basement. She seems to be wearing a long, colorful dress in a "village" style - almost an Indian style, it feels to me. They see me, and then shyly tell me that they are of course going to use the banya in my house. I tell them "of course", figuring it is something I am clearly supposed to know about, even though it surprises me.

Next scene. I am sleeping in the top story of this house (indeed, in the same room our actual house has). It is bright and sunny, and the room feels like our bedroom. I am awakened (in my dream) by a noise or alarm clock [[Sound familiar? During my dream I did not realize it, but it is amusing to note that this is almost a replay of the garage door awaking that happened earlier]]. I get up, but cannot wake up, my eyes are still closed. Now somehow I am in the back yard of the house, still with a dusty yard, looking at a modern, white contemporary house across the street. Gwendolyn tells me that in the house there is an exchange student, and that we should go see her. I recall the girl earlier (who now feels Asian, not Indian to me), and wonder if it is the same girl. [[At this time during the lucid dream I stopped it and tried to review my current situation - did we currently have an exchange student? Did this student student represent on of our past students? Was it the new student that just arrived at our friends?]]. I want to find out about her, but can't force myself awake enough to do so - I can just open my right eye, and try as I may, cannot get my left eye to open at all. [[I think about it in the dream and realize that this his sounds like the puppies Nina recently acquired - when I left Russia, one puppy's right eye had just started to open, with the left still shut.]]

At this point, I decide to stop the dream and wake myself up enough to take some notes - otherwise I would forget it all.

For an entire hour after I got up, I still had this lingering feeling that I was still not entirely sure if I was actually awake or not. it is the strangest thing. Also amusing is that I keep looking for snacks that we never have here in the US - Russian chocolates, wafer cookies, and ice cream bars in the freezer. I guess I do navigate by food!