Fold My Laundry Please

Perfect movie moments.  We see them all the time.  You know, like at the end of Pretty in Pink where Andie goes to the prom stag, unafraid of those who might laugh at her, only to find that Duckie, her best friend and lovable outcast who’s been in love with her since elementary school, is there to be her last minute date.  But wait!  Blane, Andie’s ultra-rich true love suddenly mans up and ignores what the other rich kids say about Andie and tells her that he’ll always love her no matter what before turning around and heading out the door.  And Duckie, exhibiting his recently discovered maturity, steps aside, tells Andie to go after Blane, and accepts his fate…to get hit on by Kristy Swanson.  Andie catches Blane just as he gets to his BMW and the two make out in the parking lot.  Cue the music!  Soooo romantic!  Scenes like that are the stuff that teenagers live for.  But do they ever really happen?  And what happens after the credits roll? 

Well children, sometimes they do happen.  Case in point.  June.  1988.  It’s the night of the Estrella Jr. High 8th grade graduation dance.  I was there with a group of my friends.  I was sporting a cute little pink dress with a layered skirt, white mesh gloves with ruffles at the wrists, and matching pink pumps.  Not heels, pumps, because my mom said heels were too grown up.  Well, mom, I’ll have you know I was practically a high schooler already and by not letting me wear heels my night was ruined.  RUINED!  But I digress. 

The night was drawing near an end.  The slow dances had begun and boys had finally gotten up the nerve to approach the groups of girls dancing around piles of shoes and ask them to dance.  (The girls, not the shoes.)  One by one, our group was being picked off.  Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I turned around and found myself face to face with the hottest guy in school.  Daniel!  *sigh*  I’d only been drooling over him for the entire two years of junior high!  It was definitely love.  No doubt about it.  And there we were, standing in the middle of the darkened gym, staring at each other with looks on our faces reminisent of deer in headlights.  He stammered out a mumble in question form and I kind of grunted in reply.  Apparently, we had just made arrangements to dance together.  The Song of All Songs began, "Can’t Fight This Feeling" by REO Speedwagon, and the two of us began to sway to the music.  It was incredible!  It felt like we were all alone in the gym, just the two of us, with a mere two or three feet of space between us!  For nearly four whole minutes, we expertly avoided eye contact and punctuated the moment with occassional throat clearings. 

And then the song ended and the dance was over.  That’s right.  I had danced the final dance with the best looking guy at school.  It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Wanna know what happens after the credits roll?  Well.  First the lights come on.  Then the teachers start herding the kids towards the exits.  Daniel and I stood there for a minute, still avoiding eye contact, his hands in his pockets, my arms folded.  He mumbled a "Thank you" and I reciprocated.  Then I turned around and my friends and I all headed out into the night.  My best friend’s mom was there to drive us all back to her house for a slumber party and we giggled the whole way there about the cute (and not so cute) boys we had all danced with.  When they heard I had danced with Daniel, a brief, but awed, gasp emanated from the other girls.  Then we popped Def Leppard’s Hysteria into the tape deck and rocked out to "Pour Some Sugar On Me" the rest of the way home.  I don’t think I gave Daniel another thought until just now when I heard my husband play the video for "Can’t Fight This Feeling" on Youtube.  In fact, Daniel may not even be his name, but I’m pretty sure it started with a D.  Or maybe it was a B.

See what I mean?  It was definitely love.

Humor-Blogs.com is where perfect movie moments happen!  If that movie is a comedy, that is.