Today I strolled in at 10:35 am. Hell I woke up at 9, snorted at the alarm clock and went right back to sleep for 10 minutes until I woke up with a start and thought "what the hell am I doing???". So anyhow, I strolled in at 10:30 and proceeded to have an email exchange that goes something like this:

CI: TGIF!!!! Ok, I’m not really that excited but in any case, lunch today on the terrace?

VW: We should get drunk at lunch one day - how fun would that be?! I'm in, even though there's no booze :)

CI: Yo…that would be great! How about one of those days right before a holiday I’ll bring in a little bottle of something and we hit up the soda machines at lunch time and indulge?

Me: I'm down for lunch but how would ya'll feel about maybe wandering outside? As in, going to a restaurant instead of the terrace? Just a thought either way I'm down for spending some QT w/ya'll.

CI: OMG you’re so precious ;-p…let’s get the hell outta dodge…any suggestions?

VW: I'm up :) We gotta get Bina out. I'm putting on my camo make-up right now. You will be extracted around noon, prepare yourself.

CI: Oh yeah…Operation Get Bina Out is official *cue 007 theme music*

VW: *I've secretly always wanted my own theme music!* When I took that bar, my theme song was "You're the Best Around" - oh, c'mon, you know it...from the Karate Kid. My roommates wanted to kill me.

CI: That was my JAM!! Back when I thought Ralph Machio (is that how you spell his last name?) was going to be my first boyfriend…you know, cuz he lived down the street and we went to the same school though he was like 10 years older than me…but I digress

Me: Talking about Karate Kid, it was on TV the other night and I realized that the chick who was his romantic lead was so much LARGER than him. It's astounding how little his puny arms looked when around her. She's also the same chick who opposited Tom Cruise in Cocktail when he was still hot and I wanted to run away with him and live in sin. Now, not so much. I don't want theme music (though the one you mentioned Vee was one of my favs) I want a bat signal!!! Mine will be in the shape of a phoenix!

CI: Can we talk about the demise of Tom Cruise? I’m not sure if it was when I realized he was short or when I finished puberty… I want a drum roll to one of the beats from “Drum Line”

VW: always thought he was cute, but my heart belonged to Val Kilmer as "Ice Man." I still pause, rewind, and play again the volleyball scene from Top Gun. Now, Val, looks like this [insert picture of tubby VK walkin' around w/o a shirt, gut hanging out over pants, one nipple unusually bright red with a dot of white (go figure), neck sunburned with a grimace and a white stetson here]

CI: LMAO!! I almost spit my water out onto my keyboard/monitor!!! You know who was my MAN? Patrick Swayze…yes, looking super gay in those tight booty-choker pants from Dirty Dancing….”nobody talks to my Baby like that” or whatever the line was…sigh…now he’s between chemo and dead.

Me: Um it's, "no one puts baby in the corner". And now I'm scarred from the picture below *mental grimace*.

My man when in the day was the dude from 16 Candles, Jack Ryan aka Michael Schoeffling. Good lord I had a thang for that guy and believed that one day my Jack Ryan would lift me up from the depths of geek-dom after which my fabulousness would be realized (and be envied by one and all). yeah that didn't happen. Oh well. BTW, the most amazing morph I saw was Anthony Michael Hall going from this: [insert a headshot of AMH in his 'Breakfast Club' phase] and this: [insert pic of AMH from his new show, which I can't remember the name too.]


VW: Oh, yeah, Jack Ryan was totally dreamy.

CI: That’s what I call a geek gone right…
___________________________________________________________

And it goes on and on. Just a day in the life of us. I swear these are the sorts of emails that make me want to come to work. Sad but true.

**Note: I realize that the character in 16 Candles was Jake Ryan, not Jack so for those Molly Ringwald fans out there who is even now scowling and looking outraged I have only one thing to say to you...bite me.