Forced Labor

I went in to the place where I worked a few hours early, and when I got there my boss showed me that he had some new mattresses on sale there. He asked if I would help him move them towards the front of the store and I did, but then he asked me to keep working. In fact, he told me all sorts of things that he wanted me to do immediately... but since I wasn't scheduled to start work for another few hours, I told him that I couldn't do it.

At this point he got mad and started yelling at me and telling me that I was fired and to get out of the store. I started shouting back at him and grabbed my aluminum bat and headed towards the office where the managers and store owners were located.

I went in to all the rooms, but I couldn't find anyone with the authority to overrule my asshole boss, so I smashed my bat across someone's desk and told them that they had better find someone or there was going to be trouble. Right after that everyone ran out of the building and closed the store, leaving me sitting there alone waiting for anyone to handle this issue.

Country Thrift Store

I was riding my bike along a long stretch of highway out in the country, when I came upon a huge chunk of pavement that wasn't quite done yet. All of the cars were being filtered into the opposite lanes while the construction crews continued working on the new section of road.

Off to the left there was a big metal pole building that turned out to be a thrift store, however nobody could get to it from the highway because the exit ramp had not been completed yet. Of course since I was riding a bike it was no problem for me to ride along the dirt where the road was going to be, up over a half-assembled bridges, and up to the building.

When I got there the people greeted me like they knew me. Another customer came up to me and asked if they sold microwave ovens there, and I pointed him to the shelves where they were sitting, and explained that sometimes they also auction them off in the large room towards the rear of the building.

I wandered over to the electronics section pretty much as soon as I got there, and as usual (in my dream, apparently I had been here many times) there was a large bin full of rare Atari 2600 games. As I began to look through them, I saw one titled "Radar Jaws" and then another that was obviously a pirated multi-cart due to the "guts" not fitting entirely in the case. In fact, it was held together with a rubber band.

I don't remember any of the other titles, but I did look through and pick out quite a few of the games - while thinking in my head that I was glad that I told people to take their games there for .50 credit towards other things in the store, because there was one person that must have had all these rare games, and they kept on bringing them there for me to snag at .99 a piece.

Camping Trip

Me and some friends went on a camping trip, apparently somewhere down south, which included a boating trip. Well, not so much boating... but yeah... me and Matthew Lillard (Shaggy) were trying to talk Jeff Gordon into riding in the separated bed of a pickup truck, in this fast flowing river. Me and Matt had already taken a ride, but Jeff was being a baby and didn't wanna do it.

He finally jumped in after the peer-pressure got to him, and me and Matt started pushing him out into the rapids. We were supposed to hold on to the truck bed so that he didn't get away from us, but we just let him go and he wooshed away down the river and crashed into the front of someone's house that had been flooded out.

By the time that me and Shaggy had swam to that house to make sure he was okay, he was inside in the living room, talking to the old couple that lived there - bitching about how mean everyone was being to him. When we went in, he told us that at 9:00am the next morning he was gonna get in his car and go home.

I told him that he couldn't wuss out, because "You and me are kinda in the same boat... we race in Nascar, but we don't have that southern cred... we don't have a kewl accent like Sterling Marlin or something." (Apparently I was a driver as well *shrug*)

I don't know if we convinced him or not, but we ended up hiking along a railroad track into the country, and found a place with a bunch of big flat rocks where we could set up our gear and sleep. We first started to sleep ON the tracks, but then realized that was a bad idea and moved a few feet away from them.

When I woke up I was in a big hotel in Atlantic City, someplace where I used to work. I went in to the arcade and looked for my wallet, which I had stashed underneath one of the change machines. Once I found my wallet I went back out to the lobby with my friends so that I could ride this big sphere that went up and down in the middle of this multi-story open room.

After that I went to another arcade, and actually ran into the same kid that was in the other arcade when I found my wallet. I apologized to him for banging into him, and he was kewl about it.

Abandoned Jail / Hotel / Store

I had been thrown in jail for something, along with Nick and a few other friends. I remember that it was like our 4th or 5th day there, and that Nick was getting out soon, but that I had to spend a whole month there. I was starting to freak out due to claustrophobia, and was able to escape from my cell and into the main part of the building.

It was dark outside, and there were barely any lights on inside this old multi-story building. I went down a few flights of stairs to what I thought was the ground level, but I was really still on the 2nd or 3rd floor when I came around the corner of the stairwell.

The walls were plaster... old, discolored, water-stained, with pieces of the plaster cracking and falling out onto the wet carpeting. I had a bat with me, and I swung it to each side of the doorway before I entered this giant dark room... which ended up being a huge, open storage area where supplies were kept.

A few other escapees were there, and we began looking through all of the goods in the near-darkness, but discovered that everything had already been opened and gone through... none of the food was fit for eating anymore.

As some of us started to leave the creepy dark building, I ran into Kayla... she was making a big deal about how she was a member of the club that met in the downstairs parts of the building, and that I had to leave because I didn't have a pass.

Meeting Friends for a Meal

I was hanging out with Jim, Adam, and Alex at some random hotel somewhere... having sort of a party. Jim and Alex we're doing their own thing, I was trying to just get some sleep, waiting for Adam to get back from wherever he was with his girlfriend. When he got back to the hotel he had a Poison CD that she had given him, and he gave it to me since he already had a copy.

We all wanted something to eat so Jim started making one of those crappy "do it yourself from scratch" pizza kits, but it turned out pretty crappy so we all went to a local VFW to get in on the "all you can eat" charity dinner.

I was waiting for the food to be done by spending some time in their "internet booth" watching little flash animations of Star Wars scenes. When I got done watching them, I exited the booth and found that my whole family was there eating - and that I had waited too long and had missed the serving of the food. They saved me a plate of noodles, potatoes, and beef, but the quality was poor and I was very unhappy. I ate what I had, and headed back to the line for dessert, which was just being served.

Up To No Good

It started out that my cousin and I were sneaking in to some old abandoned warehouse. At least we thought it was abandoned... but it turns out that it was actually being used by Armond, my old boss, to store a bunch of old stuff for some new stores he was opening up.

We had barely made it through the front loading docks when Armond and a team of investors came around the corner and caught us. He looked at me with disappointment, for sneaking into his place. I explained that we thought it was an abandoned building, and I asked if he was going to be opening a new store or something. He asked "Why?" in a suspicious voice, and then we began to talk about random "store stuff" that I can't quite remember.

Then I was somewhere else, sometime during the night, sneaking into a trailer house with a couple of other people. We were looking for someone, but I can't recall who. After we got in there, Samuel Jackson came in with a gun and started shouting at all of us. I hid in a back room and held really still, and he didn't notice that I was in there.

I then jumped out one of the windows and ran down the street and hopped into this old dune buggy / oldies looking car with great big wheels. I started driving away, but realized that I was actually on a track - like those car rides for kids that you see in amusement parks. I was able to navigate my way up the track and into some trees, narrowly making the sharp turns without falling off the track.

Once I was in the trees, I hopped out and ran into a mall that was up there. (*shrug* don't ask me heh) I ran into a department store and grabbed a belt that was laying on one of the counters and slipped it on and then I ran out the door, with cashiers and people chasing after me.

Redneck Store Detention

I had gone on vacation to somewhere down south with my parents and my cousin Mongo. Well, Mongo and I decided to go out and explore the local town where we were staying, and we walked up the street and started to go into this big ratty looking discount store.

Before I even got through the door, some hillbilly came up to me and said that I wasn't allowed going in, because I wasn't "edjeekated" enough. I started arguing with the guy and eventually a female manager came up and asked what the problem was. As the redneck kept shouting and cussing I calmly explained to the woman that we were there on vacation, staying at a hotel only a few blocks away, and that we just wanted to come in and look around and maybe buy some things.

Her verdict was the same as the first guy's... we were undesirable characters and we would not be allowed into the store. I stood on the edge of the store's entry way and taunted the first guy, trying to get him to fight with me, but he wouldn't take the bait. Then Mongo decided he was going to go in anyway, and as soon as he did one of the security guards grabbed him and handcuffed him.

He hadn't done anything wrong, but they told me that he was going to be taken to the jail in downtown Cleveland, and that unless I wanted to have the same fate that I better leave. I got out my cell phone and started to call the police to tell them what was going on at this store, but Mongo told me not to do it - since he didn't have insurance on his truck, and he thought that they'd find out and take his license away from him.

More Random Nostalgia

I was vacationing in Atlantic City and walking along the boardwalk when I ran into Ami, a girl that I went to school with. She was sitting up on an inclined section of the boardwalk, looking down at the ocean as her boyfriend Dave went swimming.

I stopped to talk to her and catch up on old times, but she was too pissed off about the things Dave was doing. Now, all Dave was doing was swimming in the ocean, but for some reason Ami didn't want any part of that. I kept telling her that it isn't often that she'd be near the Atlantic Ocean, and that she shouldn't miss what might possibly be her only chance to go swimming in it.

Just as I finished saying that, Dave came up to us. She introduced me to him, even though I already knew him, and then she invited me to go back to our old school to look around with them. We got to the school, and again, Ami didn't seem happy. The kids were getting ready to eat lunch in the cafeteria, but she wanted to eat lunch somewhere else.

I finally convinced her that we should eat in the cafeteria, since we hadn't stepped foot in that place for about 25 years, and she finally agreed to go... although she whispered to me that we had to sit near the elevator, because that's how Dave wanted it. *shrug*

We sat down to eat, and now suddenly the elevator was actually a way to get to the top of this giant ferris-wheel type ride, outside in some park. Before we could even start eating, Dave ran off and headed over to the elevator. It is hard to describe, because it couldn't be done in real life, but there was a "doggy door" sized elevator door at ground level, and then another "normal" sized entrance a few feet above it.

Everyone was getting in through the doggy door, but Ami and I were too big. Dave had already left Ami behind, and began climbing up to the normal elevator door - because he HAD TO RIDE THE ELEVATOR. Some sort of obsession or something. Once again Ami was pissed off. By then I began to realize that it was because Dave actually didn't like doing ANYTHING that Ami wanted to do, and vice versa. I'm not sure why they were even a couple.... heh

Old Dreams and Demon Babies

I was standing in line with a bunch of people at some indoor fun-park type thing. We were in a dark enclosed area, with several lines waiting to get into these doors that led to the next part of the ride we wanted to get on. The closer you'd get to the doors, the more the floors would shake and wobble. We were expecting there to be something really grand on the other side...

When the doors opened, only one person at a time could go through... and it was a water slide type ride. Everyone, as soon as they saw this, got annoyed because nobody had any intention of getting wet. However in order to continue on the ride and get out, we had to get on our butts in our normal street clothes and slide down this gradual water slide that led into a large dark area, filled with Disney-esque animatronic characters and brightly lit scenes.

I started down the slide, but was able to divert myself somehow off of the main path and into a "back area" of the ride. I was dropped into a very familiar area, where you were almost participating in a live videogame. I was now on an innertube, sliding quickly through the hallways covered in bones and skulls, heading towards what appeared to be a dead end.

I knew I had been there before, because I wasn't worried about the dead end... I knew at the end of the hallway that there was a secret opening to the left, where a giant demon monster would be waiting to attack me and stop my progress. My only weapon was a motion activated gun, which would shoot bullets for the first 9 shots, and then a huge burst of energy on every 10th shot.

I reached the end of the hallway, and my innertube was not cut up by all of the bones and teeth and piece on the floors. And as I expected, the demon crashed through the wall to the left of me and I began shooting. The gun was huge... you had to hold it by handles on both sides, and to shoot it you had to lunge it forward and then back, repeatedly. I knew that a couple of "10th shot" blasts would kill him, and it did... he fell to the ground.

I decided not to go into the secret area, because I could see more giant demons walking around in there, so I turned and headed back up the hallway from which I came. At this point it turned into a hallway from my elementary school. As I began heading back towards an exit, lots of little demon children and babies started trying to attack me.

I still had the gun, but I wasn't shooting at them. Instead, I was swinging the gun around wildly, smashing the demon kids in the heads, knocking them to the ground and then continuing on. At the very end of the hallway, right by the exit, there was a child-sized ride-on train that would also demonized, driving around in circles, blocking my escape.

The train actually had a front which was the head of Beetlejuice, with its mouth full of sharp teeth, angrily biting at anyone that tried to get past it. I took a few swings with my gun, and despite hitting it, it didn't fall down as easily as the demon kids. I hit it in the side a few times, but couldn't knock it over, so eventually I smashed it in the face as hard as I could and then ran through the exit.

Cougar

I was attending a party in some old building, with Tabatha from work and Pam Gerun, one of my friends from back in high school. We were upstairs looking for people we knew whenwe came across big table full of brochures. Apparently this party was sponsored by a motorcycle dealership, as they had brochures for all of the new bikes that were being released this coming year.

We never found anyone that we knew, so Pam and I went outside to sit in the grass beside the house and talk. She was sitting in a papasan, and I was just sitting on the ground. Just then, a cougar came around the corner, as if it was stalking us. I told Pam to cover her head with a blanket, and she did that just in time so that the cougar didn't know she was sitting there.

I grabbed a blanket and covered up too, and was safe, but then I saw my cat walking towards me from the other direction and I had to get up to grab him and then we both hid back under the blanket. By this time though, the cougar had seen me and Kitty, and he started pawing at the blanket, knowing that we were under there.

He finally pulled the blanket back enough that he could stick his paw in. He pawed around for Kitty, but once he realized couldn't grab anything (he didn't have any claws) he got frustrated and left.

Huge Mish Mash

Ami, an old classmate of mine, were walking around on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, going in and out of shops. We had a couple other friends with us, although I couldn't identify who they were. We were walking and bitching about how it sucks to get old, and how nice it was when we were young and everything was new and hopeful.

Ami pointed out a place where she knew some of our other friends were, so we went inside. She said I had to walk into the bathroom to get one of them. I only had socks on, so it was nasty walking into this bathroom without something protecting my feet. Inside there was a guy resting on a stretcher... it was David Riggs. He still looked the same age as we did when we were kids, but he was adult sized. Hard to explain, but he looked really odd. He seemed mentally retarded too, as he kept saying "You Bobby Parsley! You Bobby Parsley!" He didn't remember me until I reminded him about doing Young Authors Conference work with him in Mrs Boyer's class.

As I left there, Ami was gone, and for some reason I was now walking around on all fours. I think it had something to do with an injury. I was going into a school cafeteria, so I tried to get back up and stand just on my legs so that nobody would make fun of me. It really hurt, and I didn't look natural, and one girl in there smiled and said "I remember making fun of you during Knight Rider!" I have no idea what she meant, but she was smiling and didn't mean anything bad by it.

After I left the cafeteria I was now at a big auction. I went there because I knew they had a bunch of rare videogames. I found the pile of old NES games... all of them were boxed, in almost new condition, and they were the rarest of the rare titles. (Although in reality, all of the titles were games that don't even exist.) I was waiting for the auction to start so that I could bid, then some kid comes over and offered the auctioneer 20 bucks for the stack. I was upset, and motioned to the guy that I wanted to bid too.

I didn't end up getting the games, instead choosing to leave and go into a nearby BW3 with Ami. (She was back, for some reason.) She ran into the restaurant, since she had to use their restroom, and me and my friend came in a few seconds later. The people at BW3 thought we were food critics, so they were falling all over themselves to make us happy.

The place was crowded, so they couldn't seat us right away. Instead, they sat us separately... with me sitting at a table with a really old man and some retarded young kid. The kid kept crawling around on the floor, picking things up. It turns out he was looking for coins. The old man apparently was a coin collector and had taught the kid to look for rare coins on the floors of restaurants. *shrug* I watched him picking up coins... he found old silver dollars, weird gold pieces, and even dirty old pennies and dimes.

Hideout Hotel

For some reason I decided to rob the local drug store. I had a huge revolver, went in to the store during broad daylight, and told the first cashier near the door to give me the money. The gun went off by accident but didn't hit anyone, so my partner and I ran out of the store and down to the local creek for our getaway. My partner was a Hindi looking girl who didn't say very much, but whom I think helped me plan the whole thing.


We ran along the creek in town, and finally made our way to a big casino hotel on the edge of town. At this point that girl just vanished, because I was now by myself and it was getting dark. I hid in the front porch of an abandoned house near the casino, just waiting for someone to come get me, but nobody ever did. I kept thinking how weird it was that nobody seemed to be looking for me, since everyone at that store knew me and likely had video of the robbery.

After I felt a little safer I went into the casino hotel, walking up a narrow stairway inside the building to the 7th or 8th floor. There were windows in the stairwell, and I remarked to the person walking with me that it was neat to see such a view of Lancaster.

I went into my room, where apparently my whole family was staying, and sat and watched out the window into the near-darkness. The windows were small, only slightly larger than my head, and were placed low to the floor. At least in my room.

As I was looking out the open window, I kept seeing a girl's head poke in and out of the window directly below mine. Apparently her window was located near the ceiling in her room, because every time she looked out I could see the top of her head near the bottom of my window opening. It turns out she was doing more than just looking out her window.

This girl was actually scaling the outside of the building in the cold and snow, and somehow getting in through the windows and stealing stuff from people's rooms. When I saw that she was about to come up to my window and try to steal my stuff, I got into bed and pretended like I was asleep until she got into the room.

She tried to sneak across my bed, which was up against the wall by the window, and I grabbed her as she was almost across. She laughed in one of those "oh, I guess you caught me" kind of ways, and said that she'd just leave if I let her make a phone call to her friend. I told her that I'd get my cellphone so she could do that, and she smiled and said "I've already got your cell phone" and pulled it out of her pocket.

She made her call and asked for one favor. She wanted to know if we had any comp cards that are used in the gambling machines in the hotel. I told her I'd get her one, since it would only add to our comp points, but after looking in all of our wallets and and luggage I couldn't find any. Dad even woke up and gave a few suggestions, but it appeared that we lost them all.

Shoot 'Em Up

I was in the parking lot of the mall, driving an RV with some friends, when I giant tank came into the far side of the parking lot and started shooting machine guns at all of the cars. Not wanting to get shot, I did my best to move the RV out of the main parking lot and up against the wall of the mall.

We ran inside the mall, which actually contained shitty white-trash apartment units instead of stores. A friend and I ran inside the first one and flopped down on a couch. Nick's ex-girlfriend was there, except she was fat and had a tramp stamp. Shortly after I sat on the couch I heard the sounds of the people from the tank entering the mall, and they were all shooting their guns. One of the shooters was Justin Timberlake.

Luckily before he came in I told my friend that he should take his gun and stuff it in the crack of the couch, so that we'd be unarmed if the shooters intended to search us. I did the same, barely getting my gun into the couch before Justin walked in and started screaming at everyone.

He immediately shot one of the people that rents the apartment. Right in the face. And as soon as he did that, he turned and aimed his gun at me. I didn't make eye contact or do anything, so he settled down a bit and put his gun away and began making plans with his partners in crime.

When he thought he had us all scared enough, he started going back and forth between the living room where we were, and the kitchen. At this point I grabbed my OSU jacket and started putting it on, while also covertly reaching into the couch in order to get the gun. Unfortunately he came back into the room before I had grabbed it.

He tossed a disassembled Colt 45 at me and told me that he wanted me to clean it and reassemble. One of my stupid friends said "I think the instructions are in the couch. I think you're sitting on them." I thought for sure that Justin would want to look and see, but instead I started describing the things on the gun that were broke, and demonstrated how I wasn't going to be able to put it back together for him.

Again he walked into the kitchen, but this time Mongo was already in there and he still had his gun in his coat. As soon as Justin walked around the corner into the kitchen, Mongo grabbed him and threw him out into the lawn and shot him in the head.

Ghost Skillz

I was in the basement of my Grandma's house, and I was with someone that was helping me learn the tricks of being a ghost. Some other family actually lived in the house now... I think it was Tom Cruise, actually.. but the whole focus of this dream was learning to get around the house, using my ghosts skillz, but without being detected by the family that lived there.

My helper gave me a sheet of paper. This paper was required if I wanted to travel through doors and walls. I'd hold the paper, a glow would cover me, and then I could pass through solid objects without any resistance. However, I was told that I couldn't just go barging through walls at any speed that I wanted.

In order to remain unseen, ghosts have to creep through solid objects. If we tried to go through them too fast, the living would be able to detect us. I did it the right way a couple of times, to see if I could do it... and then of course I had to try to go through something fast to see what would happen.

I went through the brick wall separating the living area from the laundry area at a quick pace, and when I did I could tell that the glow around me was also visible to the people doing their laundry. Since my presence had already been detected, I backed through the wall and did it again - even faster this time.

I must have been VERY visible this time, because I rushed up to a little girl that was standing there - and whatever it was that she saw in me, it scared her so much that her face deformed. Her eyes sunk in and turned black, her skin became pale, and her face took on that look that you saw in the movie The Ring, when people are killed by the girl in the tape. :-) I win.

Melty

Dad and I drove to Atlantic City in my trusty Hyundai Elantra, and we parked in the Sands parking tower and were going to go inside and do some gambling. Something must have happened to my car during the trip though, because I was fiddling around with the wires underneath the dash.

I hooked up some sort of warming device to some wires located under the steering wheel. I'm not sure what I was trying to accomplish, but within a couple of minutes the thing heated up so much that it melted through all of the wires, leaving a jumble of frayed connections to some sort of control box.

I didn't tell dad about it, since I wanted us to enjoy our trip, but I remember thinking that I'd either have to win enough money at the slots to repair the car - or I'd have to start looking around for another car to steal so we'd have a way back home.

Flying / Skimming Carpet Ride

I was traveling down the road that goes out of Millersport, towards Thurston, sometime during the night. It was very dark out... not even the moon was providing any light. I was actually riding on a flying carpet, with some crappy-ass headlights, but it wasn't really doing much more than hovering a few inches off the ground - and usually actually skimming the pavement.

I was moving at a good rate of speed, probably close to what you'd do in a car... however it was very hard to control, and that wasn't made any easier due to the way the headlights would wave about. (Since they were attached to the front of the carpet.)

Right before I reached a somewhat sharp right hand curve, I hit a hill in the road that sent me flying about 100 feet into the air. I lost control of the carpet, and was just hoping that it would land somewhere safe - with me still on it. Before I knew it, the carpet and I had landed at the top of a very tall tree along side of the road.

It was suddenly light out now, and I could look down and see that there was a large fence going around the base of the tree. And just a few feet to the east of the tree was a big lake, with giant waves splashing up and down. My carpet was now sputtering and smoking, so I figured the only way I'd survive was if I tried to jump it out of the tree and onto one of the big waves below.

I gave it the gas and it awkwardly left the tree, spinning somewhat out of control towards the ground. I could tell I wasn't going to land in the water, so I pulled back on the front of the carpet as hard as I could - and crash landed inside the fenced in area.

I got off my carpet, and noticed that there were lots of people standing around and talking to each other inside the fence. I saw my cousin Mongo, so I went up to him to tell him what just happened. He smiled and laughed... and then started talking to me really fast in fluent Spanish. I looked at him with a surprised look on my face, and he laughed again - apparently because he already knew the secret of the fenced area.

Once you were inside the fence, you were only able to speak Spanish to people. It didn't necessarily mean you could understand Spanish... just everything that you said, even if you were trying to say it in English, would come out in Spanish. Apparently it took a while before that effect would show on the new people - because I still had to struggle to think of just a few Spanish sentences to say to Mongo. And he just laughed when I did, because he had no idea what I was saying.

Indescribable

I went to my grandma's house outside of Sugar Grove one afternoon because nobody was supposed to be there, and I told my friend Amanda that she could come over with her friends - because she was trying to get away from her boyfriend.

I was there for a couple hours waiting, when all of the sudden my grandma came from one of the back rooms, asking what was going on. I was surprised, because I thought she was gone - and then it got even worse, as a bunch of people from my showed up to check in on her as well.

As mom and dad walked in, I told them that I thought the house was going to be empty, and that it wasn't a good time for them to come because I had some friends showing up soon. They came in anyway. Later in the evening Amanda was finally able to come over.

However, as planned, she didn't come alone. She had a whole carload of people with her. Apparently not only was she trying to escape her boyfriend, but so were many of her friends and other family. All of my family started getting annoyed as they came in through the front door, some of them even bringing their pets with them - almost like they were refugees from a hurricane or something.

I told mom that I had warned them about this, and I took Amanda into one of the back rooms so I could talk to her - leaving all the other people that I didn't know out in the living room with grandma and my family. (Dogs barking, kids screaming, people wandering around everywhere... heh)

I told Amanda we wouldn't be able to stay, cuz my grandma would go nuts, and somehow we instantly turned up in Atlantic City on the boardwalk in the late afternoon. She and I were looking in storage units which were actually on the boardwalk. Perhaps there was going to be an auction? I'm not sure, but they were all open, and all filled with things of little interest to either of us.

Amanda just kinda vanished at this point, and I wandered into a "Skill Center" on the north end of the boardwalk. They didn't have slot machines or regular casino games, but they did have carnival type games which paid their prizes in cash instead of stuffed animals or something. The first game I came across was something like "Quarters" You would throw your quarters at tiny cups, each one marked with a different cash value. Get it in the cup, win that amount.

I was digging in my pocket for change, and came up with a handful of mixed silver change. I had plenty of quarters, but some of them were stuck together with a big glob of pink bubblegum. I was looking around for a place to stick this gummed wad of change, but I was aware that security was watching me and I didn't want to get in trouble.

I left the casino and headed down into the city a bit, which turned into Lancaster Ohio. I was walking underneath the Rt 33 overpass over Broad St and came upon a bunch of skids of "stuff" sitting in rows in a vacant parking lot. Most of it was construction supplies, but there was one skid of old Commodore PET computers that I saw.

I was trying to think of a way that I could load all of them into my car, but then some guy came along with a truck and started loading them up himself. I was screwed because my tiny car couldn't hold them. I'm not sure if he was allowed to take them, or if they were just there for anyone - but he told me that they were auction goods.

Meteor

I was in an apartment building with a bunch of friends and family, and we noticed out the sliding glass doors that there was what looked like a shooting star. The others just looked for a moment then went back to what they were doing, but I kept watching as it got bigger and bigger...

Eventually it entered the atmosphere and started breaking apart in a shower of sparks - but the main piece of this meteorite was still large and heading towards the ground. It smashed down about a mile or two from where we were, and as soon as I saw it happen I told everyone to get away from the glass windows and doors.

I jumped away from the doors and hid behind a heavy wall next to a big closet. Just as I did, the shockwave from the impact hit the apartment building and made the whole thing shake. Luckily the windows didn't break out, since nobody was paying attention to me, but the whole area was covered in a cloud of dust and debris.

Beatings

I was in high school, standing next to a trophy case in the hallway, when Misty (one of my friends I used to work with) came walking up with her arm full of spiral bound notebooks. She had a couple girlfriends with her, and she was upset because she was trying to get into some sort of contest with a business idea that she came up with - but she had been rejected. In fact, the people actually stole her idea and gave it to another girl.

She threw all of her notebooks into the trash can next to me, and ran away crying. I didn't wanna see her give up like that and accept defeat, so I grabbed all of them back out of the trash again. Some guy standing next to me grabbed one of them from my hands and started going through it. I was kinda annoyed because I wanted to be the one to help her out. And in fact, this guy was actually doing it because he liked her and knew that I did too - and he wanted to be a pain in my ass.

As he was leafing through the pages, he came across two tickets to a NASCAR race featuring Dale Earnhardt. He started to run after her, to tell her that they were still good, despite being dated for a race sometime in 1993. I snatched them out of his hand and told him that I wasn't going to let him bother her. He tried to grab at them again, struggling with me and the notebooks, and I pushed him against the wall and said "If you do that again I am going to stab you in the stomach with this pencil." Apparently my serious look and firm tone made him realize that I wasn't playing this time.

Being the ass that he was, he grabbed some of the notebooks from me anyway and started running down the hall. I grabbed him by the back of the shirt, spun him around, and knocked his feet out from under him. He fell down and I kicked him in the head twice, causing him to give up and hand the notebooks back. I guess he hadn't had enough though, because as I started to walk away he got up and came at me.

I did pretty much the same thing, tackling him by the legs and throwing him up in the air, flipping him around - and he landed on his head and hurt his neck. He was rolling around on the ground in pain, when a couple of his friends saw what I had done. His friends happened to be James Caan ("Eraser" era) and John Travolta ("Swordfish" era) James Caan came up to me and asked how I'd like it if someone did that same thing to me... and before I could say anything, John Travolta had knocked me to the ground and started twisting on my head.

I tried explaining to them what that guy had done, and that I just had neck surgery so they would likely kill me if they kept screwing with my head like that, but it didn't matter.

Spiders

I was in an old house I used to live in, on Hubert Ave here in town, and was sleeping upstairs when I noticed that I could see down into the basement through one of the heater vents. I decided to go downstairs into the basement, because it was a place where none of us ever went - and I wanted to see what else was down there.

I quickly made my way down the steps, walking through some spiderwebs at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as I did this, I realized that there were spiders hanging from all of the beams in the ceiling. I ducked to avoid them as they came down to attack me, but then I realized that having just walked through some webs - I probably already had some on me.

I started flinging my arms around, trying to shake off anything that might have already crawled on me - all the while, more and more spiders kept coming down from the beams to try to get me.

I picked up a pipe and started swinging at them as they dangled from their webs. Each time I'd hit one they'd explode in a little poof of liquid, and I managed to knock most of them away before escaping and running back upstairs, understanding now why we don't go down into the basement.