Here Comes the Rain...Finally

I awoke to heavy rain and a thunderstorm. Or, to be more specific, a thunderstorm and heavy rain woke up ME. We had one heck of a gullywasher around 6:30 this morning. I yawned, closed the windows, and went back to sleep until 10:30. I was THAT tired.

It was still raining heavily when I finally got out of bed again. I made Chocolate Chip Pancakes and continued with my Video to DVD Transfer Project. The next movie on the list was Troop Beverly Hills. This was one of my favorite movies when I was ten. Shopaholic southern California wife Phyllis Nefler (Shelly Long) has everything a woman could want...except for the love of her husband Freddy (Craig T. Nelson). He's filing for divorce because all she ever does is shop and start causes that she never finishes. Determined to show that she can change, Phyllis takes over her daughter Hannah's Wilderness Girls troop. Trouble is, these spoiled little rich girls are hardly standard Girl Scout material. Good thing Phyllis isn't, either. Can Phyllis show the girls, her family, and the Wilderness Girls brass that there's a lot more to volunteering than camping and "roughing it?"

This is still a really cute comedy, even if the attitudes towards the rich and slightly ditzy have changed dramatically since 1989. No matter how pampered and silly Phyllis seems, she's really a very nice woman who genuinely wants to help the girls be their best. I asked my mom why everyone made such a fuss over Phyllis' ideas when I was a kid. Mom told me that the important thing is a Girl Scout learns to cope with her environment...whether that environment is a seaside resort town, a campground, or a fancy city. I agree. Maybe Phyllis' ways didn't match the more extreme views of women like Velda Plundor, but they worked for the girls, and that's what matters in the end.

I called Mom while Troop Beverly Hills ran. Mom was very happy. Dad finally went up to New Bedford on a work-related trip, which means he was finally out from underfoot and she could do things around the house. Keefe got a good job at the Lobster House Restaurant in Cape May as an expediter (guy who stands at the end of the food line and brings the heavy things out) and bus boy, too. Not only do they pay well, but they're on a dock and have some of the best views in Cape May. My sister Rose's guy friends Jason and Joey Towns worked there when they were Keefe's age.

As happy as Mom is for her men, she's worried about Cape May County's lack of rain. It seems that the storms that have hit us have passed by Erma. Her garden is so dry, she rang up her water bill trying to keep it moist. She's afraid they may go into a real drought like the one in Texas if they don't get some storms soon.

The rain continued relentlessly into the early afternoon. It was raining too hard for me to ride to work. I ended up calling Dad. I got lucky. He and Jodie were originally going to help out at a local winery's wine-and-cheese tasting event, but the weather canceled those plans.

Work was short, fast, and sweet. They did try to get me to stay later, but I'm still pretty tired and sore and begged it off. I'm kind of glad. As it turned out, the rain stopped around 4, and by 6, the place was so dead, they didn't really need the extra help anyway.

Dad took me to his and Uncle Ken's place after work. Jodie was there; Rose showed up with Khai shortly afterwards. Jessa and her boyfriend turned up, too. (Jessa has the cutest new short hair-do.) Rose has been busy with working two jobs, taking the Bar, and caring for a baby and two dogs. Dad's talking about finding another cruise ship job, too.

Rose took me home around 7:30. I had a late dinner of salmon and leftovers. I was going to go online, but the internet was down. I opted to crochet and transfer more movies instead. My Favorite Year is the lovely tale of a young writer on a popular variety show in 1954 (Mark Linn Baker) who convinces the show's producer (Adolph Green) and star (Joseph Bologna) to hire an aging actor (Peter O'Toole) to guest-star on the show. Thing is, Allan Swann may have once been an Errol Flynn-type swashbuckler and Benjy's hero, but he's now a drunk and a lush. Can Benjy keep him on track for the show...and prove to him that once a hero, always a hero?

Peter O'Toole was Oscar-nominated for his marvelous performance as an aging rogue who is always "on"...even when he's a little off. Mark Linn-Baker (five years before Perfect Strangers) is a sweetly bemused Benjy. Along with O'Toole, this film is a fine showcase for character actors like Lanie Kazan (as Benjy's very Jewish mother), Green, Bologna, and Gloria Stuart (in a small but graceful part as an elderly woman whom Swann dances with at a club).

Switched to Working Girl next. We switched back to 1989 for this comedy about Tess, a secretary (Melanie Griffith) in New York who discovers her manipulative new boss (Signourney Weaver) has stolen her idea for a merger between a corporation and a radio network. Tess is determined to make the deal herself...even if it involves taking over her boss' home, office, and wardrobe when she's away after a skiing accident and getting involved with her businessman boyfriend (Harrison Ford).

Like Troop Beverly Hills, released the same year, the 80s do show on this major hit. Tess was right to want "serious hair." Hers and Joan Cusack's poofy permed dos in the beginning of the film may have been fashionable then, but they look AWFUL (and not at all right with the tiny Griffith's facial features) now. On the other hand, the looks at the business world don't seem to have dated quite as much. Harrison Ford is at his sexy best as Tess's love interest. Weaver is a terrific villain, and Cusack has so much fun as Griffith's best friend, she picked up one of the film's six Oscar nominations.