okay. time to write this down before i forget it, or convince myself it's not true:

On Saturday, September 14, 2002, I was in San Diego with my friend Nadia Richardson. Nadia and I spent the night at her friend Bettina's house. That night, I had a dream. It went like this:

I was in the back driver's side seat of a car or van, looking out the back window. The scenery was receding before me because I was moving backwards. I was passing through a bustling street, except something told me that this wasn't an ordinary street, and the people weren't ordinary people. Everything was bathed in a golden light, and the buildings looked like they had golden trees intervowen into the walls. The best way I can explain it is that it reminded me of Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings, except with cars and buildings. I was in awe of this place, but the people who were in the car with me (they were my friends in the dream, but I don't know them in real life) seemed nonchalant.

I wanted to take a picture of this place, so I reached into my backpack to grab my camera, but my camera was stuck on something inside my bag. Then, we passed through a tunnel that went through a mountain, so I couldn't take the picture.

When we emerged from the tunnel, I was sitting facing the front of the car. I looked behind me, and saw that the golden light from the strange land behind the mountain was filtering in through the clouds. It was beautiful. I looked to my left, and saw waves crashing against a cliff. The water was covered in strange green algae that covered the waves like a blanket.

This next part is not a dream.

When I woke from my dream, I was mesmerized, and stunned because I remembered it so clearly (I still do). I told Nadia and Bettina about my dream. I also told Sherry and Tim.

Now here comes the eerie part....

A month later, Tim and I were supposed to go on a week-long cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We bought our tickets, packed, everything. Two days before departure, a hurricane hit Cabo San Lucas, and our cruise was cancelled. We were, of course, totally bummed out...so we decided to take a vacation somewhere else instead. We ended up deciding on Hawaii.

While we were in Hawaii, we rented a car and drove into the middle of the island.

I was sitting in the front passenger seat.

It was sunset, and we were driving towards a mountain. I tried to take a picture, but my camera ran out of batteries, so I couldn't. We were traveling towards a mountain. I looked in front of me and the golden light was filtering in from behind the mountain, just like my dream. This was the exact same image that I saw in my dream. Then, I looked to my right and saw waves crashing against a cliff.

Then, we drove through a tunnel that went through the mountain.

I couldn't believe it. I barely do even now.

This has raised many questions for me.

Was I fated to miss my cruise and go to Hawaii by default?

Since everything happened in reverse in real life, the strange Rivendell-like land bathed in golden light was supposd to be at the other end of the mountain. But it wasn't.

I think it's especially strange that everythng I saw in my dream happened in reverse when I actually saw it in real life, like a mirror image. I have a theory, if a very farfetched one: you know how when you look at things, the image is actually projected upside down and mirror-image onto the back of your retina, but your brain turns the image right side up for you? Maybe that has something to do with the reverse order of reality to my dream, because I was not seeing with my eyes.

This is no joke. If I can find Nadia (we lost touch), I can prove it. Sherry and Tim have vague memories of me telling them about my dream before I went to Hawaii. I wish I would have written it down so I would have concrete proof.

Can anyone enlighten me on these very creepy events? This is by far the weirdest, most fascinating thing that has ever happened to me.