I’m on a jet plane, headed to Amsterdam. We’re running late. I only have an hour layover and I don’t know if inhale to clear EU immigration before my flight to Stockholm or if I can do it when I land in Sweden. If the former, there’s little to no chance I’ll make my connection.
Like the home invasion/burglary, there’s nothing I can do. So I’m doing this:
A plastic cup of red wine and a weirdly specific 124 calorie package of almonds. I’m a creature of base-5ness. For some reason I’m more comfortable with with numbers that end in 5 or 0. It’s why turning 35 or most recently 40 seemed tougher than 34 or 39 or hopefully 41 in the coming months. It also explains a weird unease as I stuff my face with 124 calories. Would I feel better if it was 125? Honestly… yeah. And that’s weird.
I watched a movie I’ve had on my iPad for literally years – Akeelah and the Bee (2006). It’s right in my wheelhouse – underdog non-traditional “sports” movie, this time about the national spelling bee. It’s an uplifting story marred by a few overly schmaltzy moments; still it’s quite good and the cast is great. The lead actress as Akeelah is terrific and Laurence Fishburne, Angela Basset, Curtis “Moonlighting’s Bert Viola” Armstrong are all fantastic… as is Wallace from Veronica Mars as Akeelah’s older brother. Love that guy – I was thrilled to see him working. The ending is somewhat marred by heavily influencing the finale of Jason Bateman’s Bad Words years later (which inexplicably is a far less good movie that I saw when it came out). Still, it’s a nice positive movie with a solid empowerment message that encourages people to be smart.
Having seen the end title card, and given my lack of sleep last night with the whole break in-ness, and coupled with the need to hit the Swedish ground running, I kinda need to *try* and grab some shut eye before we land. That means I’ve opted not to watch one of the world cinema pics on the seat back vid screens. I’m bummed because just LOOK at these synopses.
As long as I’m looking at the inflight movie options, I think we all can agree Delta uses a pretty loose definition of the word “classic.”
And as much as I love Parenthood, it’s the ONLY 1980s movie deemed a classic by Delta?!
***
Another note on inflightiness as I can’t seem to fall asleep:
I went with the lightest dinner option – a shrimp salad – in the hopes of staving off caloric overloads. That might be a mistake… who knows if they even have ReddiWip in Sweden for my Apollo 9 test? I need to carbo load at some stage, albeit the Stockholm Marathon has promised a pasta feed… assuming I get there.
A shrimp salad, with a side of salad… and another side of salad:
With my third plastic glass of wine (hey, my house got broken in to… if ever there was a day to knock back some alcohol…), I asked the flight attendant about immigration. It looks like I apparently need to clear that in Amsterdam. It’s early enough when we arrive though that she reassured me the airport is mostly deserted and therefore I should be ok. We will see.
To compensate, more of this:
***
In fact as I ponder this weekend’s agenda, I may try and just be sauced the entire time I’m in Europe. I’m gonna Hunter S. Thompson it… or Richard Burton it… or Dudley Moore as Arthur it… or… here’s a deep cut… Foster Brooks it.