Started out the day at work. Despite it being hot and humid again, I spent the majority of my shift, especially later, rounding up carts. I also had to help pick up the pillow-absorption things used for the leaks (the managers are using paper towels now, too) and ended up in the register a few times.
Dark clouds had been building up as early as eleven. I was finishing my last round of carts when I heard thunder. It started to shower, even as I was pushing carts to the front. By the time I'd gotten off work, we were in the midst of a full-blown monsoon. I waited fifteen minutes, but it didn't stop, or even really slow down. I ended up just riding home and getting soaked.
Maybe it's just as well. When I got home, I went right in the shower (after hanging up my dripping clothes). After I got out, I worked on writing. Leia, Luke, and Chewie pass through a cave made of beautiful crystals and glass. Though they enjoy admiring their reflections, when they try to leave, they become trapped in fishermen's nets. One net is glowing, and it makes Leia disappear....
When I broke for dinner, I threw together most of my remaining leftovers, then watched Viva Las Vegas while I ate. Mechanic and race car driver Lucky Jackson (Elvis Prestley) is in Vegas trying to win enough money to buy a new engine for his race car. He meets a swimming instructor (Ann-Margaret) in a car on the way to Vegas and is instantly smitten. She needs more persuasion - she doesn't like him racing cars and wishes he'd just settle down and give up gambling. He has no desire to do either. It's not until he makes it into the race that she discovers just how much the sport means to him...and how much they mean to each other.
I'm really not a big Elvis fan, but I do like this one. Maybe it's because it feels more like a real musical than most of his movies, with several plot numbers along with the usual performance solos. I especially love the hilarious number early on where Lucky tries to woo the girl of his dreams with a guitar and a duet, but her half of the song indicates she definitely isn't buying. (The title song is justly famous as well.) It helped that this was directed George Sidney, who did many of MGM's better musicals of the 40's and 50's, and that Ann-Margaret has some great chemistry with him.
If you love Elvis, Ann-Margaret, the musicals of the swinging 60's, or want to see a vintage view of Vegas, you'll be saying "viva!" to this one as well.
(Oh, and it's a good thing I didn't wait any longer to go home. The rain ended nearly an hour after I got in.)
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