A dream about ...somewhere familiar yet altogether foreign

These dreams started back when I was going through a lot of stress.
I had problems with opiates, nose candy, meth, and other wonderful things.
It was because my dreams were hyper surreal and I couldn't tell when my dreams ended and reality began. So I just made myself numb and tried to power through it. This dream happened when I was about 12 or so, the first time. It just happened again last night.

My dream started out with me driving some indiscriminate sports car. It was very, very fast and had a neat clutch package, with a short stick 5 speed.
I was hammering through a bunch of turns going way too fast when I get this urge to slow down. I do and then I turn a corner and I come upon this school of some sort. It was a mundane looking thing, typical of 1960s construction.
I get out of the car and walk inside. It is bigger on the inside than the outside, I noticed quite soon. There were lots of people walking around, talking or standing there with other people.
A guy looked at me, said "Hey" and motioned me over with his hand.

I walk over and he claps me on the shoulder. "Long time no see, dude. How's life been treating you?"
I respond "I'm poor, my car just # the bed, and I'm pretty sure I have a serious respiratory illness but I'm too afraid to have it checked out. How's things been for you?"
He thought about it for a sec and we walked along to a warehouse of some sort, still inside the school.
"I had to bury 4 of my friends after an IED ambush and my body is FUBAR. But at least I don't have AIDs."
We both laugh at the inside joke and walk over to a table, where others were sitting.
The more we talked, the more I recognized everyone present. I didn't know their names, but I knew their faces.
It was no one I knew in real life, but rather, people I had seen in other dreams of mine that weren't quite dreams.
We were all dressed in military attire, with various weapons and gear scattered around the room.

The guy from before pointed at a map.
"Right then, so, we have xenos coming in here, friggin goblins coming in here, and oh, guess what, more people getting all pissy about their tobacco rations being reduced. Any volunteers?

I slowly raise my hand and get picked.
"Yeah, you're going to go deal with the protesters and the goblins, non lethal for the protesters this time. Please. And don't go showing off your fancy hot rod neither. If you cause the mundies to let them know you're there, the whole op is canceled." said the guy from before.
"Sorry there's nothing more exciting, but there is a lot of prep work still to be done for the real life op. Come back in a few weeks and we'll have something a bit more exciting for the boy wonder.", he said as he walked away.

So it fast forwards to me standing in front of a crowd of people.
I try to calm them down with smokes but they just stomp on them.
"I didn't vote for this, you better give me my proper tobacco rations, pig, or we're going to have trouble" yelled the ringleader.
I sigh and rehearse the script given to me.
"There is literally no more space tobacco, if you keep disturbing the peace you will be dealt with", I said.

One of them started yelling at someone walking by, and for some reason, I got the impression that we were there but not really there so it was imperative that the person walking by didn't notice us.
So I tossed a flashbang and yelled at my buddies to come with me to crack some skulls before the 'mundie' woke up.

It wasn't the first time either I had felt this way. I recognized the location as my local corner store but for some reason it didn't seem real.

The dream ended after that.

I should explain more about this school.
Other people have seen it. Other people have been in it.
But for me, it only appears when I'm about to enter something that is going to change my life for the better or worse.
Sometimes it looks like a college, with gothic cathedrals, other times, it reminds me of my elementary school.

And yesterday, something happened that is making me worry that it is the latter that will happen.
The stabilizer on my rear driver side wheel well snapped off. I was forced to pull over and get a tow home. Now, the wheel well is resting directly on the tire and I don't have enough money to replace it. I can only use my brother's POS import that is missing a mirror and has a huge dent in the side that is titling the driver side rear wheel well.
At least I'm not pregnant. That would really suck.