I was conversing with Minneapolis’s own The Grey Boy last night, who called while I was in the middle of watching The January Man, the other classic late 80’s/early 90’s film starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Alan Rickman. (I only rented it because I put every Alan Rickman movie in my Netflix queue last July in a flurry of Harry Potter excitement. I kept bumping this one down until I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I should have kept ignoring it.)
But my point here is that The Grey Boy and I were chatting away, talking about relationships, as we do. Specifically, we talked about how there’s nothing worse in either a regular friendship or a romantic relationship than talking about the relationship. No “status of us” talk is as good as a “just talk about stuff” talk. And the when the ratio of “status of us” talks is higher than “just talk about stuff” talks, that spells doom for the relationship.
Which of course led us to talking about the status of our relationship.
We first became close at the end of our freshman year of college, when we were assigned to be Stage Left stagehands on a production of “The Heidi Chronicles.” We became closer with each subsequent production, even if sometimes we had to be on Stage Right. (Or in the stage manager’s booth, or designing lights, or, on rare occasions, on the stage.) But then we graduated, and we all cried because we all went our separate ways, moving to parts of the country that would have us.
I told him that his living in the Midwest was an issue for me, not because of the distance, but because of the time change. While we were chatting, it was 9:00 in Hudson Valley Time, but Minnesota had to wait a whole hour until they’d have 9:00.
“That’s the problem man, you’re living in the past. I’ve dealt with 8:00, and I’ve moved on.”
But then he turned it around and told me I need to stop living in the future, and start dealing with The Present.
Having reached the nadir of our friendship, this insurmountable obstacle of time, we mutually agreed to stop talking about our relationship. We changed the subject to sex and gossip, the glue that holds us together over the vast expanses of space and time.
After we hung up, I transported myself to 1989 and watched the rest of The January Man, a movie that should stay in the past.
Aaron said,
May 20, 2008 at 10:16 am
I remain convinced that people living outside Eastern Standard Time are in a messed up time warp, a la Lost island. It’s a fact, 90% of the world; deal with it.
Maybe that’s the big secret of the show. They’re just in another time zone!
3carnations said,
May 20, 2008 at 11:06 am
I lived in Indianapolis for the better part of a year. Back then (maybe still?) they were on that goofy non recognizing daylight savings time thing. It confused my dad in NY to no end that sometimes it was the same time for me, and sometimes I was an hour earlier. I lived in Michigan (Eastern time zone) for about 3 years before he finally stopped asking every time I talked to him “What time is it there?” Always the same time as you, Dad.
Indiana needs to get it’s act together, time-wise, or just go on the half-hour.
alexa said,
May 20, 2008 at 11:21 am
ooooo clever how he turned it around on you. that was a funny conversation interchange.
sex and gossip is always more fun to talk about anyways.
Always.
cadiz12 said,
May 20, 2008 at 11:29 am
somehow the +/- of two hours from central to west-coast time boggled me for two and a half years while H and I dated longdistance. now that he’s here, i am so glad i don’t have to worry if it’s too early to call. i have no idea why that was so hard for me.
Yeah, I can never figure out when I’m supposed to call people who are abroad. Good thing I don’t know any of them.
kir said,
May 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm
i’m not well versed with the harry potter (never seen it, never read it), but i am a huge Alan Rickman fan (love actually, HGTG)… he reminds me of my late grandfather.
I just want him to speak to me, even when he’s evil.
apollocreed said,
May 20, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I’ve never heard of The January Man, but now I’m intrigued.
Kevin Kline, Harvey Kietel, Susan Sarandon, murder, mystery and comedy!
Laurel said,
May 20, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I feel completely opposite of Aaron, so much so that I wrote a whole blog post about the superiority of Central Time Zone, specifically the 7-10 pm Central “prime time” versus stupid, way-too-late 8-11 pm Eastern “prime time.”
I am so ready for Chicago.
As long as one person likes it!
Allie said,
May 20, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Eastern is the only time zone worth um . . . timing . . . in. Sorry. I am really tired. I don’t have much of anything intelligent to say (of course, it doesn’t stop me from saying stuff).
But I loved the dynamics of your time conversation.
You don’t even need to say it. Eastern rules!
3carnations said,
May 20, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Laurel – 7:00 start to prime time is awful. My son goes to bed at 8:00; that’s when my TV watching starts. I would never see The Office when it’s on at 8:30 (7:30)!
I’ve never seen The Office live either. I stream it all on the internet.
The Modern Gal said,
May 20, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I’ve never in the six years I’ve lived in EST (the other 20 years being CST) managed to get past everything starting an hour late.
Does that mean you show up at everything an hour early?
stefanie said,
May 20, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I’m with Laurel: prime time ending at 11:00 is just too dang late. You people have to stay up until 11:30 if you want to watch the Daily Show?? OK, fine, I’m often up until 11:30 on week nights anyway, but I *shouldn’t* be, and if I stayed up until 11:30 deliberately, I wouldn’t get to bed until after midnight. I’m telling you, Central is the zone for me.
Also, am I supposed to know what the FIRST classic late 80’s/early 90’s film starring Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Alan Rickman was, or do only people who put every Alan Rickman movie in their Netflix queue know that?
Well, the most famous, or at least my favorite would be Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
freeandflawed said,
May 20, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Ugh. I hate time differences. It messes me up every time.
Imagine a world without time zones, where we’d all be on Greenwich Mean Time, and the middle of the afternoon would be 7PM?
Kristabella said,
May 20, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I’ve lived in the central time zone and pacific. I prefer the central because the news starts at 10. And I’m an old lady that can’t stay up until 11 to watch the news. And by news, I mean Lost would start at 10 PM instead of 9.
I watched the news at 11 once, but I realized I knew all the news because I had been reading the internet all day. But I would much prefer Lost to start early.
3carnations said,
May 20, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I get the feeling this is going to be another awkward “Welcome Back Kotter” moment…But the title wasn’t meant to be a spoof on “Harper Valley PTA”, was it? Probably not.
Oh, and Krista – We have 10PM news on two local stations.
No, just a more specific version of Eastern Daylight Saving Time.
nancypearlwannabe said,
May 20, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Having a long distance relationship is hard, but doing it in another time zone would spell doom for me. Even one hour would mess me all up. Then again, it would be a handy excuse for any relationship issues- well that was a WHOLE HOUR AGO.
Yeah, thank goodness The Grey Boy does not want to date me.
courtney said,
May 20, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I lived in the CTZ for a year and a half, and I kind of loved it. Youdon’t have to stay up late to watch good stuff on TV.
That seems to be the #1 thing going for the zone so far.
mike golch said,
May 20, 2008 at 10:40 pm
let’s see I’m born and raised in EST,in the 70’s lived in different time zones for a while in Texas(air force basic training) in Ill.(tech school)Calif.Base weher I was assigned to and lived there after I got out of the service unitll my divorce.that Back to Ohio.in “78 back to good old EST.
You should get some kind of merit badge for having lived in each zone.