Why Zack and Kelly Should Never Have Broken Up

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That's right, I still watch Saved By the Bell. And this morning was no exception.

TBS makes its way through the entire series' run from time to time. They begin with the early shows starring Hayley Mills as Miss Bliss and work their way through the alternate universe episodes featuring Tori, the biker chick. Today I was treated to the very first episode of the proper Saved By the Bell series.

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In it, Zack Morris wakes up excited about the first day of school. His reasoning? Kelly Kapowski. And what 9th grade boy wouldn't be excited about that? Zack is a kid who carries a certain amount of arrogance with him, but still becomes weak in the knees when it comes to the girl of his dreams. He wants to ask her out, but finds himself too nervous to do so.

But it's easy to see that Kelly would say yes, whether she had a thing for Zack or not. Sure she's the hottest girl in school and, for some reason, is captain of the cheerleaders as a freshman in high school. Beyond that, she's probably one of the nicest people you would ever run into. You can see that in her character's personality. Screech could have walked up to her and asked her out and you get the impression that she would at least give him a shot.

Fast forward a couple years. Zack and Kelly are Bayside's dream couple. You just know that these two are gonna be together forever. And then Kelly dumps him. And this is where I have a problem. For Kelly, that's just completely out of character.

No matter how they grew up, Zack always kind of stayed the same. Kelly pretty much stayed the same hot, popular, incredibly sweet person. Except for that one little act of betrayal that completely went against her nature.

I get it. The writers wanted Zack to be single in preparation for his senior year. He had to be single for their TV movie in Hawaii. He had to be single while he worked at Malibu Sands so he could "fall in love" with Leah Remini. But knowing their characterization, Zack would have been much more likely to cheat on Kelly. But he never would have because you just couldn't have done better than Kelly Kapowski.

So they gave Kelly a job. And they brought in some douchebag assistant manager at the Max that would inappropriately hit on a high school kid because he obviously couldn't get a girl his own age. And then for some reason, in the span of a 22 minute episode, Kelly lost her grip on the reality of life at Bayside High and forgot that she was dating the star of the show.

And that's why Zack and Kelly should have never broken up. Because Kelly would never have cheated on Zack. Zack would never have cheated on Kelly. Never would have happened. Never. Ever!

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Sensation

The morning of September 11, 2001 began as most of my mornings did. At that point in time, I was living with three roommates in one dorm room. Generally, there was no need for me to set an alarm. I could usually count on one of the other roommates waking me up. They didn't do this on purpose, it was simply the noise of one of them getting ready for their day that brought me back to consciousness.

And that was how I woke that fateful Tuesday. Mark was moving between the bathroom and the living room, getting ready for class, TV on. I laid in my bed, desperately clinging to my last remaining moments between sleep and awake. Through the door I heard a reporter say that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

My eyes snapped open. That kind of news has a quickly sobering effect. We kept a small TV in the room, so I jumped up and turned on the news, hoping to get a few more details than I was hearing from the radio. I woke Dereck and told him what was going on. We watched as events unfolded and had a hard time believing that an accident like this could ever happen. How could a passenger plane seemingly get that far off course and fly so low into Manhattan that it could collide with the World Trade Center?

And then the second plan came into the picture. Flight 175 hit the second tower. That's when speculation about all of this being an accident went out the window.

By this point, everyone's day was beginning. Classes on the campus of Bluefield College were in full swing. At that moment, I should have been getting ready to attend my own 9:30 class. Another friend, Dave, showed up at our room just as I was about to walk to the classroom. We headed across campus and talked about what was going on. The closer we got to class, the more we realized that we both just wanted to go back to the dorm and watch as history unfolded before our eyes.

So we skipped our morning class. We watched as the morning news anchors reported another plane hitting the Pentagon while another crashed in a Pennsylvania field. We watched as the talking heads went over and over the timeline of the tragic events of September 11th. We watched as it became clear who was responsible for these terror attacks on our own soil. We watched as first responders arrived on the scene, risking and even losing their lives to try and help the victims at Ground Zero.

We were shaken. More than 500 miles away from New York City, the students at Bluefield College felt a great deal of confusion, anger, sadness... we couldn't help but wonder what to do next.

Though I didn't have much of an appetite when lunchtime rolled around, I still made my way to the cafeteria. What I felt was really a lack of sensation. I felt a certain numbness, uncertain of how I should really feel. With everything going on, should I really be concerned with going to class that afternoon? Dr. Lyle, our campus minister who was eating lunch with us, told us that we absolutely should go to class.

His point was that we should carry on with our lives. Because if we were to stop, we would be giving the terrorists exactly what they wanted. Their intention was to grind our nation to a halt. But that didn't happen.

On 9/11, the United States may have been driven to its knees, but we shook the dust off and began to rise again. In a lot of ways, we're still picking ourselves up in the wake of that tragic day. But our spirit wasn't broken that Tuesday morning. We've learned to carry on, banding together to do our best to raise each other up in our times of greatest need.

God bless America, and may He help us to face the next ten years.

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Question of the Week: Liking Life

What do you like best about your life? least?

I don't think I have a correct answer for this question... or these questions. My life is just that. It's my life. There are ups and there are downs. I like being back in Virginia. I wasn't sure that I would, but so far it's been all right. It's led me to a lot of good things since I've been back... new friends, new career... it's all pretty exciting. At the same time, I still don't like that I had to leave North Carolina. I may not have been incredibly happy there, but it was comfortable. I had settled into a groove and things were okay. But some would say that groove was really just a rut. You say tomato, I say zucchini.

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.

Tangled

Have I shared my new found love for the latest animated feature from Disney? I don't think I have. And I know I'm really late on a decent review of this movie since it came out at the end of 2010. Bear with me.

My whole life, I've generally considered myself a fan of Disney's animated movies. I like the stories. I like the music. They're just fun to watch. Now, I can't sit here and say I enjoyed all of them. I didn't care for Lilo & Stitch. I wasn't a huge fan of Pocahontas, mostly for the creative liberties they took with the history I learned in 4th grade. And I never even bothered to see Treasure Planet or Home on the Range.

But the studio's 50th animated film, Tangled, has taken the place of Beauty and the Beast as my favorite Disney movie. I'll admit, the music isn't as catchy or as classic as what you find in Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King, but it's not bad. And it's hilarious. Seriously, watch the movie and try not to laugh.

If you aren't aware, it's a somewhat updated take on the story of Rapunzel. She's the girl who had the really, really long hair. Of course, it's given the Disney spin, so it's not quite as grim as the Grimm version. But it's a good spin.

And something else I like about it is that it's not your typical damsel-in-distress-handsome-guy-saves-the-day kind of story. Sure, you have a damsel in distress. But we're entertaining people in a post-Buffy world. So Rapunzel isn't your typical damsel. She's combative. She's strong-willed. She knows what she wants and she kinda goes for it. And you have the handsome guy who saves the day in Flynn (Eugene) Ryder. But he doesn't really just save her, she kind of saves him as well.

So I'm watching this movie and I get to thinking about the way we meet people. Specifically, the way we meet members of the opposite sex. You hear all the time about how women grew up dreaming that Prince Charming would show up and sweep them off their feet. Do guys ever think about hoping to find a lost princess locked in a tower? I can't say I grew up with any kind of heroic ambitions. I never thought about trying to save a damsel in distress. But now that I think about it, I really wouldn't mind finding a Rapunzel. Not that I'm literally looking for a woman in a tower with hair that's 75 feet long. That just seems kind of complicated.

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No, I just think it would be nice to find someone that compliments me. And I don't mean that in the sense that she tells me nice things that are nice to hear. I mean that she and I would compliment each other. What I lack, she would have. And vice versa. But we don't meet women locked in towers guarded by dragons. And the ladies don't get the handsome prince who shows up on a white horse. Instead we meet each other in random places and on the internet. Kind of takes some of the romance out of it.

Wow... that went to a different place. I was just gonna talk about an animated movie that's mostly aimed at kids. Why do I have to think so much? Anyway, it's an awesome movie.

And it's just been brought to my attention that Tangled was not the latest Disney animated movie. That would be the new Winnie the Pooh movie. Didn't see that one either. I'm sure I'll check out the DVD. I never had anything against Pooh. Though I do think it's kind of funny to say Pooh. Ha... Pooh.

The Long and Winding Road

I began my new job yesterday and so far it's going well. It's a little overwhelming, but that's how new jobs tend to be. Even dream jobs.

This new career takes me pretty far from my new home. It's roughly a half hour drive from Roanoke to Rocky Mount and a lot of people have asked me if I'd be okay with that drive. Even in my initial interview with my new boss, he asked me that very question. My answer? Of course I'm okay with that drive.

Here's my thinking: I sat in my car for 45 minutes when making the drive from Wake Forest to my bank in downtown Raleigh. This drive only keeps me in the car for 30 minutes. But let's also consider how very different those two drives are.

45 minutes between Wake Forest and Raleigh meant sluggishly moving through stop-and-go traffic. 30 minutes between Roanoke and Rocky Mount means driving at a fairly constant 60 mph on route 220. When it's that kind of drive, I love it.

I really do love being behind the wheel of my car. I'm not the kind of guy who loves cars. But I do enjoy driving. I like going on road trips. I like listening to music and singing to the tops of my lungs. And when I'm able to do these things at continuously high speeds without dealing with people that draw out my road rage, I think it's kind of fun.

So I absolutely don't mind the daily drive to and from work. And for the record, I'm still excited about this whole thing.

AFI 100 - Ben-Hur

Ben-Hur

1959

Directed by William Wyler

Netflix sleeve: Charlton Heston plays Judah Ben-Hur, a proud Jew who runs afoul of ambitious boyhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd) in this 1959 epic that boasts an unforgettable chariot race and earned 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Heston) and Best Director (William Wyler). Condemned to life as a slave, Judah swears vengeance against Messala and escapes, later crossing paths with a gentle prophet named Jesus.

Finally! Finally Netflix makes this movie available to me, only nine months after I started this whole "I wanna watch all the AFI top 100 movies" thing. I kind of can't believe I've never watched this thing all the way through. To be fair, it's really long. So, as a kid, I may not have had the patience to watch something like this. I know we owned it on VHS, but the fact that it was on two tapes was a little daunting. You know, something that I don't think movies have enough of anymore is the Overture. And the Entr'acte. It was a pretty good movie. And that chariot race on disc 2 was pretty epic. Check it out.

Legends of the Bank Teller: The Final Legend

I'm not too sure how to put this. So I'll just come right out with it. I won't be working for the bank anymore. Ever.

No, I wasn't fired for finally snapping and going off on a customer. I'm sure we've all, at one time or another, assumed that if I was ever going to lose that job, it would be for that very reason. As a matter of fact, I wasn't fired at all. I quit.

But fear not. I have something lined up to replace it. It's the kind of thing that just fell into my lap. Recently, I was discussing my career with Tree and, after a particularly bad day at work, I asked her if her family's company was hiring. She said they were. So I figured it couldn't hurt to give her my resume, though I wasn't sure anything would come of it.

I met with her father and we discussed a lot of things. Again, I wasn't sure that anything would come of it. But I prayed. Soon after, I received an e-mail offering me a job with the company. In this new position I'll be responsible for making up brochures, creating YouTube videos, writing blogs, contacting Craigslist customers, and more along those lines. As I read the job responsibilities, it felt like I was being offered a dream job. I couldn't possibly turn it down.

It was never my intention to burn a bridge with the bank that has employed me for the last three and a half years. And if, by leaving, I've done just that, so be it. I may have liked the people I worked for and worked with, but the job itself was nothing I ever found contentment in. Go back and read any number of my Legends of the Bank Teller to know that.

I begin a new career tomorrow. And it kind of feels like I begin a new life tomorrow as well. To say I'm excited would be a gross understatement. Wish me luck!

Netflix Returns

Not long after I moved back to Roanoke, I made the decision to drop my Netflix subscription. In truth, I didn't cancel the subscription, I merely put my account on hold for a while. The reason? Well, I was having a lot of roommate issues and internet issues, and those issues seemed to intertwine at every turn.

My biggest use for Netflix, like so many others out there, was the ability to instantly view movies via the interweb. And when I say the interweb, I really mean through my handy Playstation 3. Not that it was a bad thing to try and watch things on my laptop, but if I have the option to see it on a larger screen in high def, I'm gonna take it.

But then I ran into that little problem of not having continuous access to the wireless network. And I really wasn't sure how long that was going to last. So I put Netflix on hold until further notice. Really, they would only allow me to suspend things until October, at which point I would have had to decide if I wanted to cancel the service altogether.

Thankfully, the network is working great now. I'm on the internet whenever I feel like it and there have been no hiccups. Yet. Now that I've said that, I'm sure something will happen to upset the status quo. But for now, things are working great.

So I've returned to the Netflix I had come to know and love. I'm back to watching movies and TV shows through the Playstation and have begun receiving DVDs in the mail again. This is good because I can get back to my New Year's resolution of watching all 100 of the AFI's top films of all time. I know how excited two or three of you must be at reading that bit of news.

I'm excited about it anyway. And here's a surprise: Remember how I should have watched the classic Ben-Hur first since it was listed at number 100? Remember how I couldn't because Netflix didn't seem to have that DVD available? Well it's available now. And I'm watching it as I type this. So expect my thoughts on that sooner than later. Isn't that exciting to those two or three of you who care what I think about classic movies? Yeah. Something to look forward to.

Question of the Week: Best Friend

For $1,000,000 would you be willing to never again see or talk to your best friend?

No. For me, a million dollars just wouldn't be enough to give up any of my friends.

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.

Legends of the Bank Teller: Pen Depot

Losing pens is something that every bank teller should be used to. If you're a bank teller and you aren't used to customers walking off with your precious writing utensils, you've probably only been on the job for a few days. It's gonna happen. Just get used to it.

I was used to it at the drive-thru. In fact, I was so used to it that I had pens that were set aside for the sole purpose of handing them out to people in their cars. These were the pens I didn't like. Either they were awkward or didn't write well or just didn't feel right in my hand. If I didn't care about the pen, I didn't care if the customer stole it. That's a lie, I still cared. I think it's kind of annoying. I think it's really annoying, actually.

But that's not the point. The point is, it's a different world inside the grocery store branch. It's not different in the sense that people don't steal pens like they do at the drive-thru. It's different in that it happens a lot more often. But it happens in a different kind of way.

Sure, there are the typical, thoughtless customers who pick up the pen, endorse their checks, then put the pen in their pocket. They just aren't thinking, which I find to be a pretty standard routine for the general public. But what I've noticed in the in-store banking world is that there are a lot more instances where people just blatantly take the pens. They're bold about it. They even announce what they're doing.

In the two months since I moved to Virginia, I've had three people walk up to my station, use the pen and then just tell me they're stealing it. How many of you out there would just walk into a bank and announce that you're going to steal something? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Also, I've had more than a few people come up and ask if they can "borrow" the pen while they're shopping. I guess they want to cross things off their list as they add to the shopping cart. Of course I say yes. It's good customer service to bend over backwards and give these people whatever they want, right? Besides, they promised to bring it back, and no one in the world ever goes back on their word. Funny how I never see them or the pen again.

I've wanted so badly to say no to these people who want to "borrow" my pen. I want to point out the fact that we're in a grocery store. There's about half an aisle that's dedicated to school supplies. You know what you can find among those items? Pens! A whole package of 'em! 10 for a buck! They might not be as snazzy as the click pen I've got sitting on my counter with the comfort grip, but you know what? It gets the job done!

There... I feel better.