I don't remember any plot or story, but the image dominating my dream was that of a christmas tree, possibly 5' or 6' tall. it had lots of glass ornaments, on it, but no tinsel. it had no 'top' ornament either.

I would look at it, and be sad. the needles were dull, becuase it was not healthy; this was the christmas tree after christmas was over.

the backdrop for this dream was very hard to describe. also, events of the waking morning have conspired to fade this out considerably. anyhow I guess it was standard modern fantasy - there was a war of magic going on behind the modern world that most people were unaware of. I was on one side...

there were three of us that I knew of, and the person we counted on most was sick? anyhow, to face what was going to happen, I had to become a paladin. the guy explaining this to me explained; being a paladin is not, actually, a question of faith, holiness, etc. it was a question of having an ability already, something to do with your own electric field, and drinking this little vial to activate or amplify it. the vial was about the size of a 4" test tube. we were having this discussion in a dark room in a building, lit by various electronics. it takes about a night, he said, for it to activate.

so I took the vial, and slept on a cot. I had fevers and dreams, but I don't remember the dream-in-a-dream. I woke up, and found it was not just a cakewalk, I had to learn to use my brain differently. I also found as a side effect, the digital time display on the control panels sort of shorted out and flickered the number 1.

we were going on a family vacation - Clara, me, Clara's sister, and parents. in the dream, the parents kept switching between mine and Clara's.

we were driving up coast of Maine and slightly inland to Nova Scotia. sometimes we were sailing in a little metal sailboat. we were west of what was the Bay of Fundy on the map. however it didn't look like fundy.... it looked like a bay shaped like the SF Peninsula, with the square end and the farthest inland portion. I kept indicating, and trying not to obsess, that we should go there. I was ignored.

we stopped at this large not very populated mall. there was a place like a food court... maybe like a chuck e. cheeses. one could get food and sit in the middle and along the edges, near the window, there were arcade games and such. it was grey outside. one of the arcade booths was a love predictor. that was closed. there was some other love thing. I went there and got a coupon to redeem it later since they were taking their time eating.

I was going to give it to Clara, but then we were leaving and the booth wasn't quite yet open. I considered how that was wasting my money - the though only counts for so much - and how this always seems to happen on family vacation.