stand out above the crowd, even if I gotta shout out loud

I mean, I'm not, but you can't really go wrong with Home Alone, so like... Might have to come see it.

It really is a classic, also a plus that when we do throwbacks like that are it's only $5 for tickets.

Oh, I definitely pick books that I want to read, but I will also listen to a book if one of my favorite narrators is reading it, even if I don't immediately find interest in it. I've also DNF'd books where the narrator(s) give it a weird vibe. Ones with multiple narrators can be more interesting, honestly.

Oh okay, yeah that makes more sense then. I guess for me that'd be comparable to going to see a movie I want to see, but then also going to see a movie that doesn't necessarily interest me but there's an actor in it that I really usually enjoy their work, so I'll check the movie out just because of them being in it.

Honestly, finding a narrator that you vibe with will lead you to listening to books you never figured you would. World War Z has a number of various narrators and is honestly super interesting.

That's actually kind of wild to think about. I always just figured people picked audiobooks for when there was a book they wanted to read, but couldn't find the time to sit down and read it. But it sounds like half the battle is finding a narrator you actually enjoy listening to. I still don't know if audiobooks are for me, but I can definitely see the appeal a little more now than I did at the start of this conversation.

Coffee beans and citrus, which seems counterintuitive to me, but I keep lemons at the bar for more than just garnish, just in case. I'm pretty much the same way, honestly, so we get along just fine -- my favorite shifts are when it's not too busy and I actually have time to chat with the customers, although I don't get out on bar as much as I'd like these days.

Honestly, the lemon really does make sense when I think about it, it's just a zesty refresh to reset your taste buds when you're in the middle of trying different drinks and such. And yeah, I get what you mean with that, I can imagine once things really started taking off for you and you had more management business to tend to, it would make you more nostalgic for the socialization that comes with being at the bar, compared to being in an office and going over paperwork. I guess it's kind of like a catch-22, but hey, at least it sounds like when you do get those slower shifts, you’re still able to enjoy that part of it.

She's doing great, it's a joy to watch her interacting with customers and how they respond to her. I know it's kind of a steep learning curve, but the tastings especially are a lot of fun, once you get comfortable with the whole process. But the same theory works with scent, too -- there are certain things you can smell to sort of 'reset' your olfactory sense and clear them out, just like with taste. The two senses are so closely linked that it helps with tastings to have neutral scents on hand too; coffee beans are actually one of them, and my personal favorite.

Huh. I knew about a trick for the sense of smell where you sniff your sleeve after smelling a candle to kind of reset your senses, but I had no clue coffee beans worked too. That's kind of interesting, honestly. But yeah, it makes sense now that you mention it about smell and taste being connected. And that's good to hear about Charlie. She always seems to do best when she's around people, so working somewhere she gets to interact with customers all day feels like a pretty natural fit for her.

2x speed is the only way I can listen to most things. It tickles my brain in just the right way. Though, there are definitely some audiobooks that I can only do about 1.25x times speed on and others I won't speed up at all, but that's more about the voice actor than the book itself. Some narrators just have voices meant to be listened at regular speed because they're just so nice. One of my favorites is A Lonely Broadcast by Kel Byron, which is one of the few horror books I truly love and cannot wait for the second one to come out.

Huh, yeah that actually makes sense now that I think of it. How the narrator of the audiobook could make a difference in how it draws you in. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten that different books are even narrated by different people. Though now that I think about it, I vaguely remember hearing about how some big name actors have even done narration for them, and who knows maybe I'd actually be able to listen to one with Morgan Freeman telling the story.

I'm a 2x speed gremlin and get through books so fast now. Like, far more than I ever did as a kid and did a lot of reading back then. I've definitely had to go back and re-listen to some things, but it's not as bad.

See, the fact that you casually said 2x speed already tells me we'd have very different experiences with audiobooks. I think if I tried that, my brain would just immediately check out and I'd realize ten minutes later that I hadn't absorbed a single thing that was said. Though it is kind of impressive that you're getting through more books now than when you were a kid. I feel like most people end up reading less as they get older because life gets busy, so finding a way that actually works for you is pretty nice.

Not really. I will, however, binge entire book series via audiobook, though. Like, the movies I do watch are animated or musicals, and then TV tends to be similar. There's a reason Sam got me to re-watch Avatar: The Last Airbender before he got me to sit through even one of the blue people Avatar movies.

Honestly, audiobooks kind of feel like their own category at this point, because I know a lot of people who can fly through those way faster than they would ever sit down and physically read a book. Though I guess it makes sense when you can listen while driving, cleaning, working, all that kind of stuff. Not something I could personally do because I'd get distracted and have to re-listen to a section, but I get why those who can pay better attention while multi-tasking can get so into them.

Okay, maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I am begging people to stop treating every new superhero casting like it’s a blood feud between generations. I saw a post comparing the Man of Steel cast to James Gunn’s Superman cast, and the comments were acting like only one version is allowed to exist at a time. Like…that’s the whole point of these stories being retold? Every generation gets their Superman. Their Batman. Their Lois Lane. Their version of hope, heroism, humanity, whatever. It’s not some betrayal of the older films for a new cast to step into those roles. It’s the passing of the torch. That’s how storytelling works. And honestly? Most of the actors people pit against each other did phenomenal in their own right. Different interpretations do not automatically equal bad interpretations. Now, with that being said — Christopher Reeve is obviously in his own category entirely. That man is Superman. I don’t make the rules. That's just how it is.

As someone who works in a movie theater, I can definitely agree that a lot of people do seem to spend a good amount of time arguing about the portrayals of various superheroes. I can't really give too much of my own input as I only watch them in passing while working, they've never really been my forte. Especially when it comes to the DC universe since it seems they're constantly changing things up I think to compete with the Marvel movies and shows? Either way, I will say I did actually enjoy the most recent Superman movie and from what little I know if any of it, I found David Corenswet's performance to be up to par. It even has me interested in checking out the Supergirl movie coming out this summer.

Oh, we really don’t have to go opening weekend at all if it’s going to be crazy busy for you! I know how hectic it gets at the theater once the kids are out of school. We can totally wait until the following weekend or whenever things calm down a bit. I just want us to have a nice, relaxed time together, not add any extra stress to your plate. Allentown is perfect — but I’m definitely holding you to that future Philly movie date. We’ll make a whole little day of it whenever you’re free.

Trust me, a packed opening weekend at the theater is nothing new to me at this point, so I’d still be happy to make it work if that’s what we wanted to do. But I also won’t complain about waiting a week and avoiding a crowd of kids running around all hyped up on popcorn and slushies either. And hey, you know I’m always down for making a whole day out of things with you. Movie, food, wandering around shops for a bit, maybe finding somewhere for dessert after. Honestly, that already sounds like a pretty perfect day to me.

Like I'm not a huge movie person to begin with, but if you put every interesting part of your movie into the trailer I'm going to be very mad if I watch that movie. Which might be why I take forever to watch movies...

That's totally understandable. Are you into any TV Shows? Only asking because something I've noticed, just within family and friends really, is there seems to be people who can get into a lot of series and binge the episodes on streaming services, but don't watch many movies. Then on the opposite side, there's those that will watch movie after movie, even going to the theaters more than once in a day, but struggle to get motivated to start a TV series.

Charlie's been a breath of fresh air, I'm not even kidding. I got so used to always trying to inject positivity into things around the bar that it's genuinely refreshing when someone else can match that energy, ha. Small tasting batches is the key -- and oyster crackers as palate cleansers helps too.

Yeah, that sounds like Charlie. Once she gets comfortable somewhere, she tends to fit right in pretty quickly. Glad to hear she’s been doing well there, though. I know she was really excited when she got hired. And honestly, oyster crackers make sense now that you say it. Though for me, l feel like after a certain point all the flavors would probably start blending together anyway. Kind of like when you're smelling candles and then eventually you can't tell the difference in the scents.

That’s why I trust your vibe checks more than a professional review. You’re actually seeing how regular people react in the moment—if they’re laughing or if they’re actually engaged—rather than just picking apart the technical stuff. It’s way more helpful to know if the target audience actually liked it than to read a super nitpicky critique about how the lighting was slightly off in the second act. Speaking of work though, are you planning on taking a day off for the Toy Story 5 premiere? I know it's still a ways off, about a month I think? But I thought it'd be fun to make a day of it, maybe go to Allentown or Philly and see it in one of those theaters?

Exactly, plus I feel like my own opinion would be pretty similar to yours as well, though even if I saw something I completely disliked that you wanted to see, I'd still encourage you to see it for yourself. Though, I assume we'd likely be going to movies that we both want to see together for the first watch either way. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the busier weekends, since it comes out once the kids are out of school, but I'm sure I could take one of the days off or at least a night and we could make a date night of it. Probably best to aim for Allentown, a 20 minute drive would be much more feasible than the hour it takes to get to Philly. Though if you'd want to see another movie in Philly sometime, we can definitely arrange that!

Honestly, I'd rather have movies that don't reveal everything in the trailer than these movies where every good piece of the film is in the trailer and everything else genuinely sucks.

Yeah, it does seem like a lot of movie trailers do that these days. It probably doesn't entirely help when they do multiple trailer releases, I think for some it hypes them up more for the movie when it's something they really want to see. Like a book to movie adaptation or I've noticed it with the super hero movie fans, but when it's a horror movie especially it's usually upsetting to most.

Correct! I've already got most of the recipes pinned down, I just need to finalize the names for each of them. And not all of them are alcoholic, I have a short list of mocktails that need naming as well, so the possibilities really are endless. I can't take credit for all the drink recipes though, a lot of that is my bar team coming in clutch -- I'm enough of a lightweight that taste-testing recipes to perfect them is probably a bad idea, 😂

That's a relief, less pressure when I only have to think about submitting titles for something and not the description. I know my sister was telling me she's learned quite a bit since starting there, I'm sure she was a big help. Sometimes I think she's more creative than me. And I don't blame you on the whole taste-testing, I can only imagine how chaotic that would get if it was one person doing it alone. I imagine you all had plenty bottles of water on hand to help cleanse your palates as well.

On the ones you were surprised by, was it like you screened something and thought it was going to be a total disaster, only for people to walk out absolutely raving about it? Or was it the opposite, where you thought a movie was a masterpiece but the weekend crowd just didn't get it? I feel like there’s always that one weird outlier that defies all the logic, so it honestly doesn't shock me that sometimes the reaction isn't what you thought it'd be. Even critics seem to get it wrong sometimes. There have been so many movies where I've seen terrible reviews from them, but the general audience loved it.

Honestly, probably more the second one. There’s definitely been a few movies where I thought people were going to love it, and then the actual audience reaction ended up being way more mixed than I expected. I think part of it is that every genre has its own audience, so sometimes a movie really clicks with the exact people it was made for and then other times, even the audience that was excited for it ends up disappointed by how it turned out or expected something completely different going in. I do think that if someone wants to see a movie bad enough and the critics are trashing it, they should still just go see it and judge it for themselves. There are plenty of movies I’ve seen get rough reviews at first that ended up doing really well once regular people actually got to see them.