Some Kind of Wonderful

Buggy admitted to me, the other day, that he has never seen some of the classic movies of the 1980's and 1990's. It started off innocently, him asking me about the song St. Elmo's Fire. When I responded about the movie, I drew a blank stare. I immediately fired off the rest of the Brat Pack pcictures: Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club, The Outsiders, Red Dawn, etc. I threw in some classic John Cusack films too: Say Anything and Better off Dead ("I want my two dollars!") and still I got nothing. Weird Science? Nope. Some Kind of Wonderful? Nu-ah.

D'ya know John Hughes?

Who?

Oy - I know what Buggy is getting as a present in the Yichud room, a DVD collection of classic John Hughes movies. I guess that's what happens when you grow up watching Jordanian TV!

And speaking of John Hughes movies, I came across the following blurb in yesterday's New York Daily News Rush & Molloy gossip column.



And the Tribeca Film Festival award for least-pampered auteur goes to ... Mary Stuart Masterson. "Isn't that pretty," "The Cake Eaters" director said to her publicist when she received a rosy cocktail at the film's premiere party at Star Lounge. Then, to the flack, "You don't have to hold it for me. You're not my tray.

Now that is a celebrity who is clearly a human being. Go Watts!

Today has been a quiet day. I made an executive decision this morning to skip school, especially with the student strike now going on day 25. I wasn't feeling all that great when I woke up this morning, and since the e-mail chain from my classmates weren't very encouraging, I decided to take a pass. It's not like I have nothing to do! I've never been this busy in my entire life.

First, I had to go to the ATM and take out money to pay Itai my half of the bills this month. Of course, it's a ridiculously high amount of money but I have no choice, I have to pay it. Then, I made my way over to Supersol to pick up some food for the week and through Shabbos. Buggy is coming to Tel Aviv for the weekend, and so I planned the menu. Since it's supposed to be nice and warm this weekend, I want to keep the meals light. I'm going with a saucy chicken on Friday night, some orzo, a cauliflower and corn kugel and some string beans in lemon vinagrette. For lunch, I'm going to make the lacquered salmon from the new cookbook Mom bought me back in January, an edemame salad, a pasta salad, a garden salad and whatever leftover kugels and chicken we have from Friday night. With some fruit and sorbet for dessert. we should be all set for the weekend.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I got a call from my "caseworker" at the Ministry of Absorption and I have to come down at 8:30 a.m. to meet with her! Why I have to get the really early morning appointments, I do not know, but I'm going to suck it up and drag my lazy bones out of bed. As soon as I get the ball rolling with her - which will hopefully translate in some money getting added to my bank account, I'm going to head over to the Ministry of Insurance where I will hopefully be able to work out my health insurance issues. That needs to get taken care of ASAP, cause Maccabi is taking a huge bite out of my bank account each month! By the time that's all taken care of, it will probably be way past noon, and I have writing and cooking to do tomorrow night. Thursday will be another bright and early day as I have to go to Jerusalem to deal with some banking issues and we must go to Meah Shearim to order Benchers and Mincha/Maariv's for the wedding. It's getting a little ridiculous already!

As for the rest of my day today, I'm going to start working on my next story which is due out in class in 2 weeks, and I have to write a new business proposal. Here's hoping everyone is taking it easy in the Tel Aviv heat!