dream and a million dollars

A couple days ago I had a dream and wrote this down:

This morning I had a follow-up dream to a dream I had a few months back. I did't remember the original dream until I was having this one this morning (I suppose, though, that it is possible that I didn't have the original dream, but that the memories of the original were merely facets of this one - when we dream a memory, is it a memory of a dream, or just a...dream?).

In the original dream, I was back in high school and I was bound and determined to take Michelle Mroz to a dance. But Tony Fry was dating Michelle. Or someone like Tony Fry. Did tony have braces? He was something of an amalgam of male oppression from early high school. Anyway, I don't really remember much from the first dream except Michelle wearing a nice dress for the dance and the Tony figure punching me in the face and me realizing it was the only time I'd been punched (although, this isn't true - it would've been the 2nd time; the first time was with Shawn Landis in 7th or 8th grade - Shawn [always one to pronounce to teachers that he didn't need to learn because he was heir to Landis Plastics, with which most teachers would admit to not being familiar, usually only slightly deflating his argument] later went on to become a club kid of some notoriety and we would be friendly during my early twenties, during my exploits as as cocktail waiter/bartender).

In this dream, it is a few weeks later and I am still sort of bound to Michelle, yet we are not "an item." Instead, I'm acting as some sort of institution of self-discovery for her. I am telling her that she doesn't need a guy to define her and that she should do what she wants and that in all of Tony's blustering and anger he hasn't once thought of what she wanted and that that is inconsiderate. All this I don't really remember, it's just sort of the feeling I get from the dream. I remember also that the Tony character comes down a set of stairs and eventhough he is pretty angry with me, he shakes my hand and I tell him he's the only person who's ever punched me.

Right now I'm watching Million Dollar Baby and it's sooo good. It wasn't even in my Netflix. My friend Ezra had it and gave it to me. I hesitated even despite all the Oscar-worthiness I knew it had. Boxing totally grosses me out on so many levels, but I just was riveted.