Dreamed I was running around in a forest, both evading my father and trying to find my estranged best friend, Tiffany. I found her; she was with some woman who I did not bother looking at too closely. I was envious of their friendship. I was extremely fixated on acquiring matching dresses for the both of us. In dream-land, having matching old-timey dresses was highly meaningful I guess. Green ones, specifically. (I kept following her around the forest explaining this to her) I couldn't afford them yet, so I agreed to become involved in some strange clandestine relationship with the town baron who had some goofy 80s soap opera name like Lexter Lexington. In exchange, I assumed, he would give me enough money for the dresses. It was unclear as to what exactly our arrangement was. He just liked keeping me in his creepy manor for part of each day while he watched from afar. Anyway, it became clear that I would never get the money for the dresses, so I left. Everyone in the village was murmuring about the arrival of some sort of ghost cat-- it looked like a spotted wildcat. It came there periodically, I guess-- some considered it a good omen, others insisted it was a terrible omen. Around this time, the Gillian Welch song "The Devil Had A Hold Of Me" was playing faintly in the distance, but in the dream of course the lyrics were all about this ghost cat. (At one point I chatted with some lady who was passing by about the song, and she said "You knowww, Dolly Parton did a whole album about the ghost cat" and I was all, "What! No she didn't! I've never heard of it! You're making this up" and she seemed shocked that I hadn't heard it and went on about how it was a "Very rare and valuable record" and so on.)
The cat just roamed around town, occasionally disappearing and then reappearing in another place, and I followed it wherever it went. We reached a door-- the same door that one of my old houses had. It was purring now, and I let it out and that's all I remember.

The actual lyrics to the Gillian Welch song that was in my dream included this line: "I dreamed last night that my time was done / I dreamed last night that my time was done / And my soul flew up to the holy son" ..so that's a bit ominous. But that's what I get for listening to folk songs about the devil all the time, I guess.

Damn. I wish my dreams could be half this vivid. Insane how brains work, y'know?

Maybe you just don't remember them? I'm sure most of us simply don't remember the more vivid details of our dreams. I think the fact that I wake up constantly (possibly after every REM cycle..?) throughout the night helps. That one was one of my less vivid and elaborate dreams, actually.

Also: eating a TON of very rich cheese before bed seems to make dreams more vivid. I mean, allegedly. Not that I'd know, of course.

Rich cheeses such as?

Oh I don't know, maybe a LOT of baked brie, followed by some gouda and stilton that you eat in front of the fridge in a tired stupor at 2 am. Something like that. (Though I've also had very vivid dreams after eating a bag of cheap pepper jack cheese cubes, so. I don't imagine it matters much.)
Magic dream cheese!

I've experimented a bit with eating certain foods before sleeping to affect the intensity of dreams, and pizza + chocolate + peach iced tea is the best combo I've found so far.

And also B-complex vitamins!

I've been having vivid dreams for the past month. The details will not be disclosed but they happen. That's all you guys need to know.

Now begs the question how I can afford large quantities of gouda...