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November 15, 2006

Day Fifteen - Schlemiel-Schlamazel

It's a crap day around here. From the hours of 3 AM until 7:15ish AM, my eyes remained open. The wee bit of sleep I eeked out afterwards barely counts for anything. I've got a massive knot in the middle of my back from three nights of trying to sleep on the couch, since conditions in my bed have been less than optimal for sleeping of late. To top it off, once again it rained all day. Normally I love chilly, rainy fall days, but we've had several in a row. Quite frankly, it's making my dogs stir-crazy, which in turn is making me a little nuts. Trust me, there are few things as pitisome as a Basset hound with cabin fever. But we've got one. At one point, she was so bored that she crammed her head under the couch cushions to do a little crumb-surfing. She and Murphy both sat at rapt attention, listening intently while I read Biscuit books to Clara Jane. When dogs take an interest in literature, you know they're mere inches away from the dreaded Death by Boredom.

I totally phoned it in today. Clara Jane and I stayed in our jammies. We ordered pizza for lunch and ate in on the couch while watching "Sesame Street". Since her sleep patterns are a bit wonky right now, too, there was no napping. We read and played, watched way too much TV, and snuggled. No new things were learned. No new experiences were had. We ate bad food and watched bad TV, but we'll get to that in a bit.

I don't know if this happens to everyone, but if I see parts of day which I normally sleep through, it really screws with my perception of time through the rest of the day. Luckily, most of the time, it makes the day fly by. That's what happened today. If feels like it should be about 3:00 and it's nearly 6:00, which means sweet, sweet sleep in the spare bedroom is just around the corner.

We watched a lot of "Laverne & Shirley" today. I know I've mentioned my lifelong adoration of Laverne & Shirley. It was my favorite show when I was a kid, and in the past few months I've rediscovered it via digital cable upper-tier reruns. You know, on the cable channels no one ever watches. As far as I can tell, this particular channel, a spin-off of Lifetime, shows nothing but reruns of decade-old made-for-Lifetime shows and Laverne & Shirley. Every afternoon from 2-4 (which is Clara Jane's naptime), it's time to go to Milwaukee and hang out with those girls.

I'm always amazed that when I'm having a bad day, this channel has a knack for showing episodes I absolutely adored back in the day that still crack me up. Maybe that's because I adored just about every episode. Today was no exception. There was a talent show episode, and let me tell you, if I was allowed only one sub-sub-sub-sub-sub genre of TV for the rest of my life, I would chose the Laverne & Shirley talent show episode sub-sub-sub-sub-sub genre, as that's just about the best TV ever made. There was also the hilarious episode where Laverne breaks a tooth and Shirley's dental student cousin offers to fix it for free. There's a scene where the girls are in the exam room, stoned on laughing gas, that I find just as funny now as I did when I was ten. "Reach for the sky!" "You wouldn't dare!"

Which means I really haven't matured much over the past 24 years.

As an adult, one who happened to be bored and exhausted while entertaining these thoughts, I've noticed that a lot of decisions in my adult life led to Laverne & Shirleyesque situations and scenarios. To whit:

  • I fully believe that my obsession with all things 1950s and 1960s stems from this show. To this day I can't watch an episode without coveting an item of clothing, accessory, hairdo, or decorative object. Those chenille bathrobes? To die for, still.
  • The first five years I lived away from home, I lived in basement apartments.
  • My horrible taste in really stupid comedy, from "Beavis & Butthead" to "Jackass" is little more than a lifelong search for a surrogate Lenny & Squiggy.
  • In my roommate days, I always longed for that L&S-style friendship, and I sort of had it with one roomie. In fact, the day we moved into our basement bedrooms in a house we shared with two others, she declared, "We're best friends in a basement! We're 'Laverne & Shirley'!" At that moment, I sort of felt like I had made all of my dreams come true. For me and you.
  • Independence. Are there any women on TV right now who exhibit that kind of independence? Of two single, working-class women getting by with what they have at a time in history when most women were expected to marry young and stay home? When I was young, my dreams didn't really involve falling in love, getting married, and having babies. They involved living in a city, working, supporting myself, having friends, and perhaps keeping a convenience-boyfriend a la The Big Ragoo.

In this time-wonky "Laverne & Shirley"-filled afternoon, I caught myself thinking back to being ten years old, and how that seems to be the year that formed my personality. The things I liked when I was ten are pretty much the things I love now: "Laverne & Shirley" reruns in the afternoon, books (I read the better part of an encyclopedia set that year), writing (thanks to an encouraging third-grade teacher), music (I got my first radio that year), cooking (I learned about clipping and organizing recipes that summer. It was a decade before I set foot in a kitchen, but it was ingrained.). It was all there when I was 10.

I was obsessed with baseball when I was ten, something that's fallen by the wayside. And yet, when our power and cable were knocked out the night of the final game of the World Series, you know what I did as soon as the lights were back on? I sprinted to the nearest radio to see if the Cardinals were winning. And when they did, you better believe I cried like a little kid. The baseball thing might not be front and center anymore, but damn if it's not still lurking.

Immature sense of humor aside, maybe this is the sign of adulthood: getting past the trial and error of youth and realizing that what you liked when you were a kid, before your brain was bombarded with choices and options, is the core of who you really are.

If that's the case, pass the milk & Pepsi and smack an oversized L on my left boob.

Posted by Robin at November 15, 2006 05:49 PM

Comments

Delivered pizza, jammies and Laverne and Shirley? Sounds like fun to me!

*bites fist*

Posted by: Exena at November 15, 2006 09:36 PM

Your day, minus the hurting back, sounds fabulous to me. Lazy, but fulfilling. Pizza, jammies and Laverne & Shirley. I loved that show too. I was in high school by the time it came on and I had secret dreams of being independent like they were. Plus I think Penny Marshall is brilliant.

Posted by: Dixie at November 16, 2006 07:34 AM

My sister & I used to play our "Laverne & Shirley" board game and LOVING it when the girls showed up on Happy Days. The glove on the beer bottle in the opening always cracked me up. I wish I still had that board game!

Posted by: carrster at November 16, 2006 08:30 AM