So, it’d been been close to a year and a half since my fascination with LDing ran dry. Well, not so much ran dry, but evaporated due to all the heat generated by other frictions in my life. I no longer had enough time for adequate sleep, and other, more waking-life-oriented interests took over. I occasionally missed my nighttime escapades–no, not that kind!–since I don’t naturally have very good dream recall, but my interest in LDing had precipitated vast improvements as well as a number of LDs.
Finally, yesterday, after considering starting again on numerous occasions, I made the decision at long last. I was going to DO this! Not half-heartedly, not thinking, “Oh, maybe if I think about it today, I’ll remember a few dreams tonight.” I was going to get back in the saddle and RIDE!
So I did. 
I woke up twice in the night, the first time with only a brief fragment of a dream. I meant to write it down right then, but fell back asleep in the process of trying to remember. 
But a few hours later, I awoke for the second time, right out of a much longer dream involving a twisted version of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion (alternate Disneylands are an apparent DS for me) and later being chased by a big rig. I wrote it down, feeling much like I remembered feeling back in my “glory days”, and then went back to bed, ready for my final two hours of sleep. I woke up again in another hour and a half or so, with another dream just fading from my memory. With some effort, I was able to make much of it resurface. This one involved a monster destroying a city where I was trying to escape a biology classroom in a high-rise building.
As I was writing this dream down, I suddenly was hit by a sneaking suspicion that I’d had a lucid dream. Pondering it for a moment, I realized I really had become lucid! Before the monster dream, I’d had a brief and shaky yet ever-so-promising LD! There was running and jetpack flying and strange-looking invisible electrical hands involved.
Anyway, this was all very reassuring to me, and I wanted to share it with others who are considering starting up again. Despite my long hiatus, a little effort is already putting me right back on track. You can do it, too! If you’ve taken a break but want to get started again, don’t be afraid. You WILL be successful if you just take a little time to be serious about it.
EDIT: One thing I’d been wondering was whether my dream signs would be same. Now, obviously, one night isn’t enough for me to really know, but I did notice my biggest DS from the days of old–dark environments–taking center stage in every dream I remembered from this morning. And there was also the chase element, which is a common DS for most of mankind.
It’ll be interesting to see how my dreams from these days compare to the ones I used to have. A lot’s changed in my life since then, so we’ll just have to see.
