Your dreams are cooler than mine. Two nights ago I dreamt people were trying to assassinate me, and they succeeded at the end of it, by shooting me through a window while I was shaving. Not good.

I'll occasionally have dreams of tornadoes, or of being in a tiny boat in the middle of the sea at night. My least favorite dream theme is that of being stuck in the army or at a camp where I can't leave. I attribute this to my job.

I had a dream the other night that I could play the trumpet really well. I was sad when I woke up and had no trumpet talents.

That's a cool dream, treepour.

Over the last few years, my dreams, although still vivid and bizarre and interesting and sometimes cool and sometimes scary - have moved away from Nature or Great Epic Chases or Exotic Lands and have become more interpersonal based. People I know & strangers.

I occasionally have dreams in which I'm swept along in a subterranean river; as I try to hold my breath underwater, my body, hurtling through the twisting tunnels, smashes and scrapes against the hard rock walls until I take a breath and fill my lungs with water rather than feel my body being gradually shattered before I die anyway.

Treepour, you may want to read up on lucid dreaming. The start is to realize that you're in a dream when you are, but I think most adults can accomplish that. The next stage is to be able to try things in your dream to change your situation. Sounds like you're on the verge of that, somehow.

My dreams always involve really complicated three-dimensional architecture, usually massive science-fictional cities of one sort or another. I could have been a production designer. Last night it was a smaller venue, at times a kind of rock valley, at other times a building with natural contours, in both with rampways crossing a space that reached dorm-like structures.

For some reason I dream a lot of being back in college, with tests to prepare for and so on. The other night I dreamed of being at a job, except I was naked. In my dream, it was legal, just socially, uh, awkward. Very awkward.

I wish I could remember my dreams.

Hugh, I have a vivid memory of a long-ago dream of being trapped in an underground river--more like a flooded subway tunnel, with tile walls--and the current was so strong that I couldn't fight it. I was pinned by the water against the back wall of a dead-end chamber and the water was rising, certain doom approaching before I woke up.

treepour: did you wake up having to pee?

Two nights ago I dreamt people were trying to assassinate me, and they succeeded at the end of it, by shooting me through a window while I was shaving. Not good.

Yikes, sorry to hear that. When I was a kid I used to have dreams of being executed -- it was always the last few minutes before I was led from cell to the execution chamber. It was really an awful, horrible feeling.

I'll occasionally have dreams of tornadoes, or of being in a tiny boat in the middle of the sea at night. My least favorite dream theme is that of being stuck in the army or at a camp where I can't leave. I attribute this to my job.

I have tornado dreams too. Those I associate with less with "I'm afraid of what I can't control" anxiety than "something dreadful is looming on the horizon" anxiety. But then again, I grew up in tornado alley.

That army/camp thing sounds awful!

you may want to read up on lucid dreaming

I've had a few lucid dreams -- but, paradoxically, they always turn nightmarish. I posted a ridiculously long askme about it, some time ago. Since having those, I've kind of shied away from consciously employing lucid dreaming techniques. OTOH, I do sometimes have extremely vivid hypnagogic hallucinations, where I'm still kinda conscious as I go into a dream state.

My dreams always involve really complicated three-dimensional architecture

I've had a few of these. I love them, even though there's an edge of scariness to them (for me, at least) when the architecture is especially vast. One of my favorites (haven't had it in like 15 years) involved swimming in a huge crater shaped like an inverted or concave cone. The water was absolutely perfectly clear, and I could see all the way to the bottom (hundreds and hundreds of feet below). Along the sides of the cone were vast futuristic cities.

For some reason I dream a lot of being back in college, with tests to prepare for and so on. The other night I dreamed of being at a job, except I was naked. In my dream, it was legal, just socially, uh, awkward. Very awkward.

I have dreams like these too (sounds like we dream similarly, stilicho). In the test dream, there's usually one class I've completely forgotten about all semester long -- just totally forgotten that I even signed up for -- and I just remember the class the day before the final. The naked dreams are hilarious, and just as you describe -- it's somehow legal, but extraordinarily awkward.

did you wake up having to pee?

Lol! Sometimes I have dreams in which I have to pee, and I find a urinal, and start peeing, but no matter how long I stand there, I still have to pee just as bad. And when I wake up I really do have to pee, very badly. :)

Those underground river dreams sound really scary -- never had a drowning dream like that, though they sound a lot like what goes through my mind sometimes in the BART subway tunnel that goes under Bay.

For me it's not the drowning that's unpleasant (on the contrary, drowning is the only way out). It's the shattering of my limbs and the rest of my body, having my head smashed open and thinking, Oh, my head's now smashed open, that really gets me. I usually wake up moaning.

Dude, conjure surfboard.

I'm with ej, I never remember enough of my dreams to relate them. Just leftover images that fade faster the harder I try to think about them.

In an odd coincidence I also had a water dream last night, we were all swimming and there was an element of danger but it wasn't from the water. That's all I've got.