The Time Of My Life

Here's something you might not know about me. I love Dirty Dancing. That's not be confused with dancing in a dirty manner - which I used to love but seem to have outgrown. I love the movie and have loved the movie for as long as I can remember. When I was little, it seemed to come on all the time and I would watch it every single time.

I have a lot of friends who were not allowed to watch it, because of the mature subject matter. If you haven't seen it yet, I won't give it away. But I watched it even when I had no idea what was really happening and I loved it.

A month or so ago, Joel and I were at a movie (The Lookout - I do not recommend it) and I saw the trailer that would change my life. Longer story shorter, Dirty Dancing came back into the theaters. Me being Danie, I organized an outing. Six of us went to see it but once the lights went down, there was just me and Baby and Johnny and Penny and Robbie the Creep.

It was better than watching it on TV all those times and even better than watching the digitally remastered DVD. There's such a feeling that comes from seeing your favorite movie on a big screen. The movie was exactly the same. But the enthusiasm was palpable. I could not stop smiling that night, or the next day. I had the time of my life, and I owe it all to a bunch of unknown actors 20 years ago.

My Company Picnic

My company picnic was this past weekend. Jesse, Joel, & I went together. We brought beer, booze, juice, and sunflower seeds. I even brought my own cup. I did not bring the camera. This is a picture of me at the picnic. As you can see, I still spill whatever I eat or drink.

The picnic was fun. The food was Mexican, the sun was hot, but the margaritas cool. There's not much of a story without pictures. We went, we ate, we socialized, and we relaxed.

Afterwards we felt like a good summer had started. It's been a while since we had one. I consider a good summer to be one with lots of friends hanging around, nice weather, long drives in the sunshine, and new music. In Fargo, we drove out to the rope swing. There's Chris jumping off in the summer of 2003. Jesse took the picture before jumping himself. Even though I'm out of school, I still like to take a certain relaxed demeanor during the summer. And last Sunday I felt a little bit of that come back.

Joel stayed over for a while. We listened to music, played cards, and ate sunflower seeds. And I was still in bed by 9:30... because it was a school night.