Notes from the Red Bird House

I watched a re-run of the movie 'Cocktail' last night on some movie channel. It might have been Showtime or Encore. Who knows really, there are so many these days. I know for a fact that I hadn't seen the movie in decades, a fact that makes me feel pretty old. I've been alive enough decades to not watch a movie for decades. Yipes. Well, 'Cocktail', classic that it is, came out in the summer of 1988 (thank you, Wikipedia for the information). I knew it came out when I was in college because one of my college friends and I used to play the soundtrack over and over, along with the soundtracks for 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Top Gun'. She had them on CD, I was still buying mostly cassette tapes. Yes, it was assuredly the 80s. I gotta tell you, 'Cocktail' didn't get any better since my last viewing. It was never a great movie, ever. It had Tom Cruise (and Elisabeth Shue...more on that in a moment) and that was apparently plenty back in the day....

Some day I hope to maybe need my 'Exceptions List'. You see, at this point they aren't 'exceptions'. I'm single and therefore I can (feasibly) sleep with anyone I want without fear of reprisal. The Exceptions List, in its purest form, is intended to be a 'get out of jail free' card for those who are married, partnered, or at the very least committed. When the expectation is monogamy, an Exceptions List is crucial. Sure, the chances of ever meeting anyone on that list are slim but what if? Seriously, what if? You're in LA at a boring conference for work and you and a couple of your more fun co-workers decide to hit a few bars. While waiting at the bar for the bartender to get your drinks, ___________________ (fill in the blank) slides up next to you. You begin to chat, laugh, and find yourselves otherwise attracted. You ask him/her to join you and your co-workers but you find that they have left. Now it's just the two of you (his or her friends ...