A few of my friends and I were reminiscing the other day about the places we used to go for lunch during high school. There was a pizza place made famous by the titular CJ Riders. McDonalds, where we used to all use the school newspaper's buy one get one free coupon for Big Macs every day for two weeks following the paper's monthly release (it didn't hurt that we were in the Journalism class and could swipe extra copies of the paper as needed). A friend who wasn’t in Journalism had a BOGO method that was very nearly the equivalent of the coupon: he would buy a Quarter Pounder with Cheese every day, eat thru 75% of it, then bring it back to the counter and said it wasn't cooked enough, "Are you trying to kill me!?!" He would get a second burger free every time.

Taco Viva was great for liquid lunches; they would actually sell us a pitcher of beer to have with our food. One of my friends would distribute pairs of his dad’s used construction worker gloves for us to wear before we went in and then each of us would conspicuously remove them at the counter while placing our orders. Now, I know the drinking age at the time was 18 not 21, but come on, we were 15 and 16 years old and were wearing school uniforms!

There was this other great place that sold hot dogs, chili dogs and the like. It’s long gone now. It was a gutted out caboose from an old train converted into a snack shack. Once in a while we would go there. None of us could remember the name of it though. We thought and thought. No one could remember the name. Someone said they'd Google it when they got back home and come up with the name then tell us all later. Turned out he couldn't find it on Google. So it goes.

A few days ago, while I was eating a hot dog, it hit me: 'Trolley Dog', that was the name.
I called one of my friends and told him. “Yea,” He said all excited, “Trolley Dog, that's it!" He asked how I came up with it. I said simply, "With my brain."

Well, he must have told the other guys that I finally came up with the name of old Trolley Dog because a few minutes ago one of my friends called me and asked, "Hey, they said that you came up with Trolley Dog using My Brain, but I can't seem to find it, is it My Brain dot com or dot org or what?!?!"

The best dreams happen after you've woken up for a brief while, then head back to the still. This morning was an example. My brother and I were standing on a city sidewalk outside a nightclub that was adjacent to a Chineese restaurant (it must have been New York City because I once had egg rolls in a chinese restaurant there when it was subzero outside). We were watching our vapored breath in the crisp air and reveling in the aftermath of the show our new rock and roll band, The Magic Lions, just played. We were energized, drinking cold beer in the cold night. I was singing 'The Spider and the Fly' to myself: ...Thinkin', sinkin', drinkin'. A man in a sharp looking coat came out of the club and acknowledged us with a silent nod. We nodded back. There were a few more visible breaths, a couple more beer sips. Then he asked, "You guys know the story of Rocky?" We looked at him. He continued, "You know, the movie Rocky." He started to hum Bill Conti's "Dah dah da da da da da da da da da..." I looked at the guy like he was crazy, my brother said, "Of course we know it: down and out boxer falls in love with a pet store girl, fights the champ, goes the distance, becomes a local hero." The man smirked and nodded, "True, true." He paused a moment, "But that's the plot, not the story." My brother and I finished our beers and were about to go back inside when the man produced two more bottles and handed them to us. He went on, "Rocky's a movie about opportunity." We agreed. The man kept talking, "The big star, Apollo Creed, had a huge show planned, the fight to end all fights, a spectacle like nothing before. But at the last minute, his opponent had to cancel. The show was doomed, or so it seemed. Turns out, they were able to make an even better bigger and billing than the one they had had. Apollo finds somebody no one knows about yet and gives him a chance at the championship. He even said, 'This is the land of opportunity, isn't it?'" The man seemed to be warming up to the chill in the air. We popped open the beers and looked at him as if to say, politely, what's your point? Then he made it, "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the national tour manager for Aerosmith. They're headed out on the road, it's going to be a huge show, but the problem is the hot new band that they signed as the opening act just cancelled earlier today." He handed us each a business card. "That was a great set in there tonight, give me a call tomorrow, early." He started walking away into the night, then turned and beamed, "Congratulations, tonight, you guys are Rocky Balboa. The tour starts in three days."

Then I woke up. It was a great dream.