Last Post Before Berkeley

This is most likely the last you'll hear from me before next week, seeing as Ryan and I are off to the Bay Area tomorrow. We'll be taking some long overdue vacation (we haven't had a trip that didn't involve being frozen in horror in our hotel room by 9/11 coverage since our honeymoon in 2000) and visiting with Doug and Kristen. The weather looks to be perfect this week - 57°-80° every day and sunny so hopefully it will be a good trip.

I'm blogging at 6:30 in the morning because I got up early to shuttle my Brazil bound parents to the airport. My brain could not process the situation when my alarm went off at 5:30 and the room was pitch black. I love how the first conclusion I always make is that I must have made a mistake and set my alarm for midnight or something.

I am now attempting to gnaw my way through what tastes like a three day old sausage biscuit from McDonald's. Maybe not the best decision to consume fast food when we'll be eating out all week, but we have no food in the house. I suppose I could have lathered up a tortilla with some peanut butter, but it's too early to be that adventurous. We also have no milk, so I am making due with just sugar in my coffee, which may be a first for me. It's actually not too bad! My dad the coffee purist would be so proud.

Normally I would have immediately crawled back into bed at this hour, but I need to remain conscious until 8:30 so I can check in for our flight tomorrow. Now that Southwest has returned to assigning every passenger a number, most people check in online to assure the best possible position. This makes for a more pleasant experience at the airport, but that just means the cattle call has gone virtual. Everyone sits at home on their laptop watching the clock (you can check in exactly 24 hours in advance) waiting to click the check in button. I can't tell you how many times I've checked in a day early to the minute and still landed in the 'B' or even 'C' section. That's why I'm downing the coffee and keeping my fingers moving. Gotta stay frosty.

So yesterday as I was doing laundry and ironing some clothes for the trip, I happened upon the 1987 Michael J. Fox vehicle, "The Secret of my Success" on cable. This must have been one of those movies that was in constant rotation on HBO in the summer, because while I don't remember it being that great of a film, I've seen it an insane number of times. I find this movie fascinating for a couple of reasons:

1) They must have had a difficult time finding leading ladies for the vertically challenged MJ Fox. I think I've only seen one of his movies where he had any height at all on his love interest (Doc Hollywood comes to mind). Helen Slater towers over him and I don't think she even wears heels.

2) It's chock full of 80's montages:
--The opening arrival sequence of Kansas boy being weirded out by the wacky New Yorkers
--Wacky sneaking around/ changing clothes sequence*
--Romantic, gettin' to know you sequence, accompanied by 80's sax music
--Work retreat, makin' it happen, impressing the bigwigs sequence
--Wacky sneaking around the house at the work retreat sequence**

That's a lot of montage. Impressive, even for 80s standards.

*Set to 80's montage fave, "Walking on Sunshine"
**Set to 80's montage fave, "Oh Yeah" (mmm bow bow, chica chica)


This 24 year old is brilliant! His crazy new ideas will save the company!

Anyway, it was amusing to see again. It's a cute, nostalgia filled movie, even with the cringeworthy romantic scenes.

Hope everyone has a great week! Stay cool!

ETA: All checked in - 'A' 21 and 22, bi***es! Sorry, I'm a little punchy. Coffee is wearing off.