"Grease" Is Still the Word

I slept in this morning and just watched Donald Duck cartoons and ate oatmeal for breakfast before it was time to head for work. It was a lovely day for a ride, too. It was windy, but the sun was back out. The wind kept it warm without getting as ridiculously hot as it did last week. It's too early for that.

The nice weather kept people out of the Acme, too. It was dead when I arrived, and while it did get busy enough that I wasn't bored this time, it never got really crazy. My relief was right on time, and I had no problems picking up oatmeal, milk, and tea. (I forgot the tea yesterday and wouldn't have been able to fit the oatmeal and milk with everything else on my bike.)

I changed shirts after I arrived at home, grabbed my jacket and purse, and headed back out again. I deposited my paycheck in the ATM machine, then walked down to WaWa for a soda fountain Cherry-Chocolate Coke Zero. It was nice to be able to enjoy the lovely weather. There were lots of other people out and about, too - bike riders, a gaggle of teenage boys on their skateboards (who really shouldn't have been riding them on busy West Clinton Avenue), people taking their toddlers for a ride in strollers, dog walkers, people chatting on porches and working in their yards.

When I got in, I baked Banana-Dried Cranberry Muffins while watching the first Grease. Yes, Grease is still the word, and it's still a lot of fun...especially now that the widescreen DVD allows you to see more of the numbers. Every kid who grew up in the 70s, 80s, and 90s probably knows the plot by now. Sweet Australian girl Sandy falls for hot greaser Danny in Rydell High School in 1959, but his buddies think she's a little too sweet. Danny tries to show Sandy that he can be the upstanding guy she wants, but Sandy might be having her own second thoughts on being "too pure to be pink"...

What I like about the first movie is the 70s grit that has attached itself to this supposedly 50s tale. They may be adults, but they talk like teenagers do, even now. There's a surprising amount of sex talk that went right over my head as a kid but comes off as pretty realistic now, including Rizzo's dealing with her little problem towards the end. I also liked Sandy being Australian; I know it was probably their way of writing Olivia Newton-John's obvious accent into the script, but it actually makes more sense. In the book and original show, Sandy's just from a Catholic school in the same town. Here, she's REALLY a fish-out-of-water, not just from a different faith but a totally different country and way of living.