Headed out shortly after the episode ended. I considered walking, but though clouds moved in by the time I left, they hadn't yet burst. I actually got to the Collingswood Library five minutes early. Karen arrived shortly after 10, having had a hard time finding parking. We went straight upstairs and into their study room.
We didn't get as much done as I would have liked. She couldn't get into my Indeed account on her laptop. We had to reset the password. Indeed's never done much for me, anyway. I look at listings, see they want more experience or skills than I have, I go to the next one, I get frustrated that there's nothing out there for me and give up. I wish job hunting wasn't so scary! Why do they have to make things so complicated? Isn't there anyone who just needs someone to write or type?
We finished at quarter after 11. She had another appointment. I told her I'd keep looking later in the day, after I'd rested. While I do want to do data entry, medical work sounds boring as heck. I doubt local theaters would need secretaries or would be hiring, and I'm not sure I could handle the fast pace of television. I don't really know what interests me, beyond media history. I know I shouldn't be picky. I know I should take the best job that's available with my skill level, but I'm just so tired of doing work I hate.
Cheered myself up with a stroll down Haddon Avenue. I did most of my shopping in Collingswood back in late December, but the thrift shop Time Lapse was closed twice when I was there. I finally caught it on a day when it was open. After much-searching through shelves of toys from the 80's and 90's, board games of everything from Monopoly to Barney Miller, books, comics, and records. I came up with the Strawberry Shortcake Christmas Album and the inspirational book The World According to Mister Rogers.
Since it's a block away and i hadn't eaten there for a while, I had lunch at Tortilla Press. It was 11:45 when I went in, just fifteen minutes after opening, and there was no one there but the staff. I was likely their first customer. I sat at a table next to the wide window that opens onto Haddon Avenue. It wasn't open today. It finally started to rain as I enjoyed sweet potato fries dusted with cinnamon sugar and an enormous chicken burrito with fresh salsa and cilantro slaw, but the rain didn't last long. By the time I finished, so was the rain.
Stopped at Dollar General on the way home. My left arm between my shoulder and my elbow has been sore for days. I think I pulled a muscle. I needed a new container of roll-on Icy Hot. The old one expired last year.
Headed home after that and went nowhere else. I was so worn out when I got in around 1:30, I went down for a nap. Got up at 3:30 to hear rain drumming on the roof. Sometime between 1:30 and 3:30 it started pouring and blowing like crazy. The storm's been off and on, sometimes heavily, for the rest of the night.
I tried to do job research, but it was the same old thing. I'd look at a job, only to see even so-called entry level jobs required a year of experience or more. I tried for two hours, but saw nothing. I tried data entry jobs, and I tried writing jobs.
Broke for dinner at 6:30. Watched Match Game '74 while I ate. Fannie opens the show with a close view of her unique sequined stop sign sweater. There were also the odd answers to what the Mission: Impossible crowd would do to Brett (some of which she wasn't too happy with), and to "__ Johnson" in the Audience Match.
Had vanilla wafers for dessert while watching Match Game Syndicated. Once again, they skipped an episode, taking us to the end of Nipsey Russell's last week. He gets to toss out his last great poem on Congress as a response to a question as to what kids who wanted to be clowns join in 1979. Nipsey wasn't happy with Brett's answer to that question...and Gene wasn't happy with Charles'! (Loved Dick Martin's answer, though.)
Alfie Wise, best known for 70's and 80's comedies like Hooper and Cannonball Run, made his first appearance the next week. Gene even gave him a kiss on the cheek. I like Alfie, He was funny and cute, and I really wish he'd been on the show more often. Patty Duke and Debralee Scott were also funny and cute, even when they tried to hide their bad answers.
Ended the night back on YouTube with another favorite childhood comedy that's currently free there, License to Drive. Teenager Les Anderson (Corey Haim) is obsessed with cars and with school beauty Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham). Mercedes, however, is going out with a handsome, if controlling, older Pakistani man (Michael A. Nichols), and Les flunks his driver's exam when he sleeps through driver's ed class. Even worse, his nerdy, anti-capitalist sister Natalie (Nina Siezemasko) passes, and his parents ground him for lying about it.
He's over the moon when Mercedes agrees to go out with him in order to make her boyfriend jealous. He'll borrow his grandfather's beloved 1972 Cadillac, then take his girl for a spin for an hour or two. What could be more harmless? As it turns out, anything. Mercedes gets drunk after her boyfriend dumps her, and then his buddy Dean (Corey Feldman) talks him into a night on the town. After that night on the town results in everything from a local gang chasing them to a drunk stealing the car, Les comes to realize that while it can be nice to step out of your comfort zone, they're also teens, and there are just some things they're not ready for yet.
I thought this movie was hilarious as a 9-year-old. My family taped it off cable around 1989-1990 and ran it constantly. On one hand, there are some very funny lines (I still have some of them memorized) and a unique cast. Goofy Carol Kane definitely makes an interesting pregnant mother (check out what she eats that grosses out her family), Richard Masur is great as Les' strict but largely loving dad, and there's also James Avery as the driving examiner from hell. I also appreciate that, unlike Ferris Bueller during his day in Chicago, Les retains some charm during his wild ride through the LA suburbs and doesn't come off as a total jerk.
On the other hand, the movie hasn't dated terribly well. The story is cliche and can come off as cheesy, and the treatment of its few female characters isn't always the best. There's also the ending. Mr. Anderson forgives Les a little too easily for getting his mother to the hospital, despite lying about his license and wrecking the car. I hope he was still grounded for two weeks. Not to mention, I suspect a lot of teens would actually agree with some of Natalie's anti-Capitalist statements nowadays, but in the 80's, they were brushed off and played as silly.
I'm going to say your mileage may vary, depending on your tolerance for teen shenanigans, 80's comedies, and Feldman and Haim. If you're a fan of either of them or comedies from the late 80's-early 90's in general, jump in this Mercedes.
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