Last night, on a flight from JFK to San Diego, I discovered something amazing. Mrs. Doubtfire is one hell of a movie, and it's even better with the volume off. I left my earphones at home, and while I could have shelled out $2 for Jet Blue's inflight option or asked for a pair, I decided to see what I could see by just... seeing.
For starters, there's a lot more to the whole cross-dressing/gender play than what I thought back in 1993, aka middle school, but I'll leave the analyses to the film scholars and move on.
The actors enunciated and their faces were expressive, so it was easy to figure out 80% of what they were saying. It's a kids' movie, i.e. not exactly shooting for subtlety.
And I was forced to watch a lot more closely. I can now affirm that Robin Williams is wearing a black and white swirly pattern dress in the dinner party scene, a fact that had previously eluded me and which will probably never come in handy but still doesn't hurt to have tucked away, for a moment such as... this.
Which is to say: I'm back in San Diego, after two amazing months of travel. (It started as a two-week trip: I was going to tag along to Mr. A's conference in Madrid, and then we'd take a week together, in Andalucia. Then Mr. A found ways to stretch his vacation time around Labor Day and insert some work days in the middle so he could be gone longer. From Spain we hopped to Romania for a few days, to visit his adorable grandma. When Mr. A headed back to the states, I added the Italy segment. Finally, I pushed my return ticked back by a week, since there were some people I still wanted to see, and who knows when I'll be in Italy again, and one can never spend enough time in Rome.)
I totally milked it, in part because I realize this trip marks an ending. Done with grad school. Done with the days of summer internships in distant lands. Done with study abroad in Europe and choosing cheap, fabulous cities like Buenos Aires or Bucharest for chapter writing. Done with being a single girl in Rome -- not that I mind. Done with finding discounted student tickets and jumping over the Atlantic for a last minute romp. Done with travel without fuel surcharges.
It's also a beginning. The first time in a long time I left Europe without a hint of regret, giddy to come home. Because my beloved was waiting for me at the airport, and there's so much to look forward to here.
More soon!
