Test Anxiety Dream, Take 1

I have a big important test on Saturday, to be certified for work. This is true. A nice lady helped me last night to study. I was not expecting this dream:

It is the kind of dark where you don't know if it is dawn or dusk. I am inside. There is someone with me, female. She tells me "you missed your test, didn't you?" "What test, OH NO!" And so I panicked. Asking what day it was, then the time, then A.M. or P.M. I finally established it was 6 A.M. on test day. I still had time, then, because it starts at 9 A.M.!
So, I rush around trying to get ready. I pick up some pants and shoes and run to the bathroom to shower. But the pants I am wearing are too tight and my skin is too sticky! I am having the worse time trying to get the pants off so I can shower. Meanwhile that female keeps bugging me! She won't just let me be, she is being the opposite of helpful, it is really aggravating. As if that were not bad enough, she comes to the bathroom door! "Do you mind? I told you I have to shower!" She acted all hurt as if she's been a good help and support this whole time. I finally get the pants off!
***
Now I am walking into a darkened living room. I am going to sit down and put on my shoes and tie them. I cannot find a clock any where! Ah, there is my cell phone. But it seems stuck on an odd screen, like a card game? So I push buttons to get to the home screen. It won't do it. Next, I try to have the screen go to sleep so I can wake it up and see the time. Still not good. So then I hold down the power button so I can get it to restart, still nothing!
I then see I am wearing these strange pants. They fit fine, but they are white with blue stripes. What the heck are THESE THINGS? SO, I have to change pants. But then I put on my shoes and as I walk a strange powder comes out of them, then I see it is like smoke! How can my shoes be on fire? I don't have any other shoes to change into, I end up taking off the shoes, waiting a bit, hearing comments from unseen people about moving so fast my shoes caught on fire. So, I close my eyes and slow my breathing, and blindly put my shoes back on and wait a moment. I open my eyes and my shoes are OK. But then I see a digital clock with red numbers that has the time as 8:45.
Shit, I'm supposed to be there 1/2 hour earlier than the 9:00 test time! So I rush out the door (after making sure I had changed pants -- yep -- and that my shoes were OK -- yep -- I don't have time for this!) and as I try to find my car, I am trying the whole time to restart my phone! It won't work! But I keep trying.
***
Then ... Strangeness. I guess I am so into getting my stupid phone to work again, I am not paying attention, because I see a large double iron gate (it has a nice curved top to it, so it is for a mansion or something) and I see it closing on me! I rush forward and I am able to make it through and it closes behind me and I move forward a bit and ... hang on, I'm going to WALK to the test? I thought I was coming out here to get in my car! So I turn around to go through the gate again. When I see game characters playing a game and part of the game is to solve the puzzle of the gate. They solve it and I fear I am a bit too far away to simply follow them through. I beg at least one of them to hold the gate for me or something. It isn't going to work, it isn't going to work, it isn't .... oh good, it worked! One of them was nice enough and I make it through the gate! PHEW! Now to find the car ...
But that is when I hear that my phone has re-started! As I go to the car I am fiddling with the phone trying to have it tell me the time, but instead I have accidentally started a game!
I cannot quit the game! I have to play through it before I can get to a screen so I can exit it. So, I think I can do that, but realize it will take too long, so here I am concentrating on the screen so it takes up my view and practically makes me inside the game trying to get myself killed asap, but how many lives do they start me out with? I seem to be losing a lot, here. It is a side-scrolling action platformer. Old-school. Like Aladin.
I FINALLY die and can exit the game, but something else is going on right in front of me! This young woman comes running up to me, begging for help. It seems her friends are loosing themselves to a game, the game is becoming their reality! "See? She has already drawing one of my friends in with her!" I see a guy jumping and floating around as if by magic, only slightly following the laws of physics. I try to stop him, I try to help him, but then another person joins in! This is not going well, what do I do?
... Then I realize that none of that matters because I was in the middle of getting to me car to take my test, what am I doing here? I turn to tell the young woman I have to go, but she is not there.
I finally get to my car and ... it isn't starting. I finally get my car to start ... funnily enough it starts at the same time I am able to get my phone to restart in the way it is SUPPOSED to be! PHEW!
But, it is now late. The test is already underway now. I consider going anyway and trying to talk my way in, but I just give up. I have my cell phone screen go blank and that has the car stop running, and I walk crestfallen back to the house.
Dejected and in shock, I plop down in a chair in the unlit living room. The woman from the start of the dream is here. "I thought you were going to take a test?" yes "Didn't you start with plenty of time?" yes "Then why were you out there wasting time playing games?" "Look! Just leave me alone! I tried to get out of here but it did not work, OK? And those games were from you!" She didn't even try to deny it, she just laughed.
Soon after, I woke up. Well, I thought I did but it turns out I was still dreaming. I hear a knocking at the door. At first, it is just like my room/apt IRL. I don't even question it as it morphs into something else. I go up to a big wooden door with all these locks on it. Well, I need to open it, anyway to get out to take my test. But ... so many locks! I remove one and now they door can be opened on a chain a crack. There on the other side I see two men. The one with the gun pointed at me says "we found this place in the phone book." I close the door, re-lock it, and rush away. As I am rushing away I quickly put a seal on the door and call out for help like a prayer or "in the astral" or maybe I said "through the astral" in the dream. I know help is coming, but will my seal on the door hold? It does. I see a man in a standing position with his arms by his side floating down towards my house, then away. He has taken away the robbers, but I cannot tell if he is the help I asked for or was coming to collect his robbers.
I finally make it out the house from another exit, and get in my car. But I forget where I was going. Someone in the back seat of the car reminds me it is to get to my test "but you're too late!"
...
That is when I FINALLY wake in the waking world for real this time. I wake with test panic. What day is it? What time is it? 8:57 am? Shit, I am not going to make it!! But that only lasts a moment as I come to my cell phone (which is working perfectly fine) to confirm that it is only Thursday, not Saturday. Which makes sense because I knew when I went to sleep it was Wednesday, and I have to work on Friday before the test day. But still ... I had a moment of panic to start me out!
So now I am going to have to remember to set multiple alarms on my phone and also on alarm clocks for Saturday morning to be sure I do not miss my test? OK, John, do not panic. Just calm down. Writing this dream down helped take my mind off the fear, but I still need to be sure I wake up in time for the test on Saturday. It stats at 9 am and I am to be there 1/2 hour before the test stats.

Rest Stop

I am in a city. Probably American. Maybe on a coast/near water? I am driving around. I see a small group of shops which includes a McDonald's. I think about stopping to eat, but what to eat this late/early?
I don't recall if I stop for food, but I now I am driving around to the back of these shops. I keep on going parallel through a road connecting fields of parking lots until I see a change to old light gray asphalt quickly turning to gravel. Here is a sharp right turn and a turn off. I think 1 or 2 cars are already here? Maybe it is only me? But I decided I need to pull over and rest so I sleep in my cart here.
When I wake, there are several cars around me, all resting. Not long after I wake, I see one car, then another wake and drive quietly off. I hear some of their plans. I decide to drive off, too.
But I get turned around and a little lost trying to get out, so I have to back track to where I was napping in order to regain my barrings. This is when the alarm in the real world goes off.