this one's for the grandkids

The other day Halbastram and I were discussing what makes a day one of our favorites, a day that we remember fondly and have decided that we're going to share with our grandchildren. I remarked that many people pick their weddings or giving birth or graduations as their favorite days, and while these are usually very good days and worthy of remembering, one of my favorite days was ironically pretty bad. But it was comically bad. And every time I look back on it, I laugh at how the events unfolded and regret that I didn't have anyone with me at the time to experience it with. Here it is, in as short a form as I can make it:

One random summer weekday when I was still in housewife mode, I decided, "today is nice and sunny and Halbastram left me a little cash. I think I'll take in a movie." So I shut off the air conditioner and opened the sliding glass window in the living room, leaving just the screen closed, and ventured out to the local movie theatre, which is only 3 minutes away by automobile. Rush Hour 3 had just come out, and as a fan of the previous two installments of the franchise, I figured I'd give it a chance, despite the fact that the critics hated it and even I had my doubts. But again, it was a gorgeous day outside and I was feeling extremely optimistic.

I go see the movie, which turns out to be quite awful and as I'm walking towards the front of the theatre to exit, I notice that it is raining quite hard outside. My first thought is, "well I'll just wait it out." My second thought is, "oh, shit! The window is still open at home!" So I run through the flooded parking lot to my low-sitting car and notice that the windows are all fogged up, from front to back. I sit with the defroster on full blast but with very minimal results. But I'm in a hurry and decide to just wipe down the windows and slowly peel out in the water-logged parking lot towards home.

When I arrive home, the rain has slowed down for the most part. But once I enter the building, I notice that the lights are out and the elevator isn't working. Power's out. So I have to climb the stairs to the unit and I have no idea how long the power had been out, since the power in and around the movie theater, street lights included, were still working. I reach my unit, which is sooooo freaking hot, and immediately walk over to the sliding glass window. And as I expected, the wind was blowing the rain sideways, which in turn blew the rain right into our living room. The immediate area around the window was soaked. And because it's carpet, all I can do is wait for it to dry.

So I sit in the dark, waiting until it's time to pick Halbastram up from the train station, so I can share my awful day with him.

And I attribute all of this to that awful, terrible movie I went to see. If I had just trusted my instincts, and Ebert, none of this would have happened. Now, I refuse to watch that movie ever again. It's a bad omen. It came on TBS yesterday and I quickly switched the tv to the first thing I could, which unfortunately was QVC. I've learned my lesson.

If 'The Godfather' couldn't even get it right on the third round, why did I think a crappy buddy-cop comedy could?