The Ocean Sucked Up Another Frisbee

Have you ever wondered how many frisbees there are in the ocean?  I can tell you there are at least four because that is how many I've seen lost ocean in the past year.  Not just regular frisbees, but the kind that look like a donut - like the one in the picture below.

If you've ever played with a frisbee like this, you'll know that there is a metal ring inside it that makes it fly like a dream.  And if you are like me, you need all the help you can get with your frisbee tossing skills.  I can't throw a regular frisbee to save my life!  I've had lessons from all sorts of great people, but not one of them has been able to teach me how to throw it properly.  That metal ring not only helps the disc fly extremely far, but it also makes the frisbee sink.  And you wouldn't believe how fast that sucker will sink.

The first time it happened quite unexpectedly.  My son and I were tossing the frisbee and congratulating ourselves on how far we could toss it and how much fun we were having.  And then, plop, into the waves it went.  And disappeared in under 2 seconds.  How can that be?  It was neon yellow and it should be easy to find, right?  I saw it...right there...it must be here...why can't I find it?  And then some tears (mine) and some anger (son's) and then oh well it is gone.  Bummer.

So we bought another one.  And the same darn thing happened.  Despite our promises to be more careful and not to play with it too close to the water. 

Last November we were walking along the beach and we saw a father and son playing with the same kind of disc.  And wouldn't you know it...after a few tosses...plop.  Into the waves.  We watched them searching for it in just the spot it went down.  No luck.  A shrug of the shoulders from the dad and a panicked look and some words from the son.  (Apparently it was his brother's disc and they had promised to be careful with it.  What do you want to bet it wasn't the first time they'd lost just such a disc in the waves?)  I empathized and told the dad a short summary of our same experience.  We laughed together.

And then Christmas came.  What luck!  My son got not one of these frisbees but THREE from his wonderful Auntie S.  Two large sized ones and one mini.  Hooray!  We can play frisbee again!!  But not at the beach said my son.  We won't make that mistake again.

So guess what we brought with us to the beach last weekend.  Yup, one of those frisbees.  And guess what happened.  Yup, the same thing AGAIN.  Would you believe it - after ONE toss.  I tossed it to my son and the wind was blowing pretty hard and it whipped that pink disc right into the ocean.  It went under the waves and got buried in the sand and boom.  Gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.

Good thing we have two more of them at home so we can try again. 

The Breakfast Club

One of my facebook friends - a good friend from years ago - updated her status recently saying that Ferris Bueller's Day Off holds up to the test of time whereas Flashdance does not.  She's right.  That got me to thinking...what other movies stand the test of time?

My daughter is weeks away from 15 and loves movies like Easy A and Pitch Perfect.  One thing that a lot of the movies she likes have in common is references to The Breakfast Club.  "We should watch that movie," I kept telling her, "so that you can understand what they are talking about."  Then I started worrying.  Would The Breakfast Club live up to the hype?  Would it be a movie that my daughter would "get" just like I did when I was 15?  Would I get it still at 42?

So I did it.  I rented The Breakfast Club (and asked myself, why don't I OWN a copy?) and invited my daughter to watch it with me.  I warned her ahead of time - they smoke pot in this movie and they say the f-word a lot.  "Mom," she said, "I go to public school.  I know about that stuff."  "Well just don't do that stuff, ok?" I said.  She rolled her eyes just a little bit and agreed not to.

I should tell you that when I rented it I rented some other movies, too.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower (my daughter just read the book and wrote an essay for her lit class), Skyfall (my 11 year old son stayed up with me to watch that one...everyone else fell asleep), and End of Watch (still sitting on the kitchen counter...haven't had time to watch it yet).  When the guy behind the counter handed the movies to me he said, "The first three are due back tomorrow by 5pm.  The Breakfast Club is due back..."  "Never?"  I asked.  He laughed and said, "by Friday."  I half expected him to agree with me and say, yeah, just keep it.

So my daughter and I watched The Breakfast Club.  Many of the classics stand up.  Mess with the bull, get the horns.  Pixie Stick and Captain Crunch sandwich with mayo for lunch.  Lipstick application talent.  No Dad, what about YOU?  But what struck me the most was how UNREAL the characters seemed.  When I was 15 these kids were REAL.  But now they just seemed so fake.  Who brings sushi for lunch in Saturday school?  Who has a two story library with a DJ booth in their high school?  LOCKERS?  Forget about it!!!  And Judd Nelson...remember how hard core he seemed?  Now he looks like a 25 year old guy trying to look 17 and dressed like half the kids in my daughter's class.  Weird.

And speaking of lunch (see sushi reference above), why is it called The Breakfast Club anyway?  They eat lunch in the movie, not breakfast.  What the heck is that about?

The other thing that struck me is how every character talks about how much he or she HATES his or her parents.  Did I feel like that when I was a teenager?  I remember feeling misunderstood by them and being angry that they didn't let me stay out until 1:30am like my best friend, but hate them?  I don't think so.

My daughter and I talked about that afterward.  We're a pretty close family and we talk about a lot of things.  I never told my parents much of anything when I was a kid.  But anyway, I told her I was concerned that she might think that hating your parents is normal.  Do kids hate their parents?  I guess some kids do, but I don't want my kids to be in that group of some.  She laughed and said she doesn't feel that way and she knows it is just a movie.  She liked the music (see Pitch Perfect) and she loves that she now understands Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" and the fist in the air (see the end of Easy A).

And she doesn't hate her parents.  At least not today.