Last night I dreamt that I was going to school. I was on my way to my first class, but my history teacher stopped me and suggested that I go to a French class instead. I decided to do so, even though I know no French. I went to the class and saw several people I know who are a year younger than me. My physics teacher from last year was also taking the class. When I saw him, I suddenly realized that I was supposed to have Physics first period, but I had forgotten this and had mistakenly missed first period every day since the beginning of the school year. He told me not to worry, that I just needed to make up some notes. I decided to continue not going to Physics, since I had already taken the class last year and my enrollment was due to a scheduling mix-up. I began talking to my friends, and learned that one of them was dating a kid named Mark, whom I don't know in real life but who is a friend of a couple of my friends. Mark was also in the French class. He revealed to my friend Mara and I that he was planning to give his new girlfriend a plate for Christmas. (For some reason, in my dream this was a very risky venture.) We tried to persuade him not to do it, but he resisted. It then occurred to me that while I was attending this French class, I was missing the English class I was actually supposed to be taking. I decided that I would go to the French class a couple of days a week anyway, since I would like to learn French. After the period was over we went out into the hallway. My school was much bigger than it is in real life, and had two floors. My friend Sara and I watched from the second floor balcony as Mark prepared to give the plate to Zalak. (It was a pretty ordinary looking plate, although it had branches of holly painted around its rim.) Zalak exited the classroom on a horse and rode down to where he was. As he tried to give her the plate, he dropped it and it broke in half. The police came and arrested him for this. I went downstairs and found half of the plate. I thought about giving it to Mark for Christmas; however, I rejected this idea for three reasons: 1) I had never actually spoken to him before, so it might be sort of weird for me to give him a Christmas gift. 2) The plate might bring up painful/embarrassing memories for him. 3) It was only half a plate, and wouldn't be very useful. So I threw the plate in the trash. Suddenly, I was at home. It occurred to me that since I had considered giving a gift to someone I didn't know, perhaps I should give gifts to my friends in the French class. I gathered up items I didn't want, and divvied them up to give to Mara, Sara and Lana. At school the next day, I gave them their gifts. When I saw Mark, I told him I had considered giving him the half of the plate for Christmas, but I explained my three reasons for not doing so. He thanked me for my thought. Suddenly, I realized that Mark was actually my cousin, and also the younger brother of a friend who graduated a few years ago, Josh. I knew that he was the son of my mom's brother John, but I also knew that John has no children. I concluded that John had had a secret first marriage. I thought maybe that Mark and Josh were the children of John's first wife from another relationship, and were unrelated to him, but then I realized I had seen a picture of them as young children and they both had full beards and glasses, like my uncle. Clearly, they were related to him. However, then I woke up, and remembered that Mark and Josh are not related to each other or to me.
Wow...that dream was a lot longer/more complicated than I expected it to be. Sorry. 