31st August, 2011.
Wednesday.

“Fun park rowing ride”

I’m at a fun park with my family. Each of us has a special prize we can claim and it’s my turn now. I move towards a wide boat with a group of other people (possibly all women). As we climb in I’m confident that I can move with agility and balance even though it's awkward with such a crowd. Once we’re in, we have to take hold of an oar, which I find quite easily although I hadn’t noticed it until the instruction came telepathically. As we begin to row in unison our boat navigates the small man made lake, moving supernaturally fast without great exertion on our part. We enjoy the ride.

“Demonstration Film.”
I’ve somehow, accidentally inserted a DVD into my computer and it’s playing a demonstration film. It’s not something I want to watch right now so I eject it but it keeps playing regardless. I fiddle with my computer, seeing if I can work out how it's possible it continues to play and what exactly it’s about. I try to find the menu to see if there’s some kind of table of contents. I’m teetering on lucid at this time.

Now I’m transported to a pharmacy shop where part of the video plays as a three-dimensional hologram in a central spot. As I observe, I wonder what people must think about this programme but nobody appears to have noticed it.

“Volunteering in the Library.”

I find myself in a school library and it’s apparently really busy so a bunch of unfamiliar people have decided to help. I suppose that Trish is the chief librarian (as she is at the school where I work) and feel her presence in the background, although I don’t see her. There is a line of teens waiting to borrow books and a smaller line of others filling in the borrowing details. I figure I’ll help and work out procedure as I go. So, I take one of the books from one of the teenagers and I ask if the borrowing period is two weeks but he says it’s one. I endeavour to work out the due date, which I feel I do easily, and pencil in the details at the back of the book where I see previous entries. I look for a stamp but see that this isn’t the custom so I do without it.

I help a few more students. While I’m filling in details on one book I see that the entries vary. I read them – true reading as IRL – and decide to imitate the first entry. That person has written the book’s title, “Holes” and the last thee initials of the author’s name followed by the first initial. I look at that momentarily, sensing that it shouldn’t end in D as it does. Again, I teeter on lucidity: I know IRL that “Holes” was written by Louis Sachar but I can’t quite grasp the memory in the dream.

Another boy comes along and he’s found a cute little book that fits into the palm of my hand. I inspect it but it’s not a library book: it’s more like a little diary waiting to be filled. I ask him if he found it on the shelf and he says he did. I explain it’s not a library book and tell him he can have it.

The borrowers and lenders have dissipated now and I realise that I’ve been writing the number 11 for the month of November on all the books I’ve signed out when, in the context of the dream, it should have been 10. I figure it’s not too terrible a mistake to have made.

I see another person has come to borrow a book and there’s already someone there signing her out. I grab the person signing her out (even though I don’t know her) and playfully tussle with her for the pen. She submits readily but I give back the pen and let her get on with it. She makes small talk with the borrower, a short, female student, stating her belief that she’d take drugs. I disagree, saying, “You look to me like someone who wouldn’t take drugs,” and she confirms that this is the case.

I walk into an anteroom and see a local woman and her child (just an impression) in matching swimwear. Her child would be much older IRL and I don’t question why she’s in a swimsuit in the library, I simply admire the fabric.