Had a really strange one last night.  I was in some kind of forest with tall grass.  Some sort of ranch.  There was a house nearby with the ranchers and my older brother was there.  I was running in the grass, chasing animals, maybe to take photos.  There was a rock formation, or a group of a trees, and when I went around it, I saw a large deer with horns like a ram standing with its female.  He must've thought my walking stick was a spear because he charged right at me.  Somehow, I knew that, to avoid being attacked, I just had to not look at him.  But he charged anyway.  I avoided getting hit, but he came back to get me.  I had to grab his horns and hang on, calling for the ranchers to help.  They arrived and subdued the animal, but not before he had bitten my left hand and wrist.  Bleeding and disgruntled, I walked back into the ranch with my brother.
 
The ranch was part of some kind of Hollywood movie set.  I later figured out that I had won some kind of contest to visit the set of the movie and go on a trip.  I had brought some friends along, as well as my brother.  The movie was a bastardization of a franchise I had once cared for, so I didn't bother to tour the lot.  Maybe that's why I was in the nature area.  Anyway, the other winners of the contest and I sat down at a square table.  A friend of mine had a plastic shopping back of snacks, including a large box of some of the instant oatmeal I would eat in high school and college.  He had the large variety box from a few years ago, the one they don't make anymore.  (Ironically enough, the modern variety boxes have less variety.)  Before I knew it, I was on the next leg of my trip.
 
They had brought us and the other winners to this tropical paradise getaway resort.  It was a beautiful beach-surrounded island city, with glass buildings, casinos, shopping areas...  It was as if the west had conquered the islands and turned them into a shopping area.  The nature was beautiful, but I was still disgruntled.  My brother went off to have a good time and I wandered around on my own.  I stood in a tall building and looked down at the beach and bay below.  People everywhere were having a great time, and there I was, recovering from my deer wounds, being angry in paradise.  In the bay, there was not a cruise ship.  There was a cruise U-Boat.  It was modern, sleek, and had the design and colour schemes of modern cruise ships.  Around the resort area, there were various reminders of the tribal peoples who used to live there, like wooden statues, torches, and a large sculpture of an axe.
 
Another portion of the trip had us board a tour bus and go into the nearby town, which really looked like an idealized American city.  My hand had healed by that time and I was lightening up.  On the bus, I met some friendly guys and we cracked some jokes when we passed the casino.  We joked about game shows, Street Fighter, and GTA IV.  The bus passed through a beautiful old town with brick buildings.  It looked like something out of a movie.  I wondered how it would look at Christmastime, and as we drove through the city, some buildings had garlands and wreathes up.  Night and snow fell, and I grabbed my camera to take a photo.  I wasn't able to focus in time on what was beyond the window, so the picture captured the girl sitting in front of me, facing me.  She was a friend of mine that I recognized.  Later, I took a seat in a section with four comfy chairs.  In front of me were two guys I hadn't met before, but in retrospect, they might have been subconsciously based on people I know.  One had glasses and was down-to-earth, the other had short light hair and was more outgoing.  Sitting next to me was a girl I knew and loved, but I had never told her how I felt.  The guy with the glasses was trying to make a move on her, and I was getting angry.
 
I hadn't seen her for a long time, so it was good to catch up again.  She had played a prank on me - she sent some angry letter to the mother of a jock and wrote that it was from me.  As luck would have it, the jock was on the bus and confronted me.  I kept my cool and told him that I don't know his mother.  Sounds like we both had a mutual enemy.  He was satisfied with that explanation and we were civil after that.  I don't know why my friend did that, but she found it was funny.
 
During our bus ride together, we saw all kinds of beautiful island scenery and I guess we managed to declare our love for each other.  My two other travelling companions, the bespectacled guy and the dude with the short hair, had found girls of their own on the bus, too.  The short haired guy shot me a thumbs-up and smile while his girl slept with her head on his chest.  Birds flew overhead (Canadian geese, oddly enough, perhaps to remind my lover and I of our homeland) and other buildings were being built by construction teams (maybe to suggest that we were going to build a future together?).  She had been drinking and felt ill, but we were happy to finally be together.  I don't know if she was based on someone I had known in real life, and I don't even remember her name or face.  You know how dream-knowledge is: there are facts and information you only know in the dream and vanish once you wake up.  But for the time I was asleep, I had her in my arms and all was well.
 
The last thing I remember before waking up was looking out the window and seeing a highway running parallel to the one our bus was on.  The sun was rising over the water and scenery was breathtaking.  The highway was low over the water and there were jet skiers racing underneath it.
 
Anyway, I woke up, and here I am now.  I don't know or even care what this dream means.  For a few hours, I was able to have a tropical vacation, see old friends, and most importantly feel love, and that made it worthwhile.