The X Factor

Song Lyric of the Day:

I used to be a superhero / No one could touch me / Not even myself / You are like a phone booth / I somehow stumbled into / And now look at me / I am just like everybody else

Ani DiFranco / “Superhero”

10:21PM.
I finally ordered my bridesmaid’s dress last night. So now Samantha the bridezilla is a bit calmer. The bad news? I am now $165 lighter. The good news? I fit in a size 4. The best news? I finally got to hang with Sam a bit, including hitting Roman’s Pizza for dinner, where we scored two free desserts. It pays to be a repeat customer.

Once I got home, I did what I’ve been doing every night since Monday: running to the TV to watch the X Men Collection DVD box set my friend, Don, lent me at the beginning of the week. It’s no secret I’m a fan of the X-Men movies and it’s definitely no secret that I’m a fan of DVD special features. Add them together, and I am one seriously happy couch potato. This set has special features out the wazoo–it’s awesome; the extended branching version of X-Men alone has 17 featurettes and six deleted scenes.

Of course, a couple of nights ago I was watching “The Uncanny Suspects” featurette on the second discs (it’s a four-disc set), and Rich happened to pass through the living room right as Ray Park popped up to talk about playing Toad. I immediately hit pause.

“Hmmm, who’s that on the TV? I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“It’s just weird timing. You know, it was his turn.”

“Go on, honey.” His eyes narrow and he stops in the middle of the staircase. “Unpause.”

“Oh, I’ll wait until you’re downstairs. No biggie.” Nervous laugh.

He takes on a bratty air. “I see–the actual husband’s getting in the way of the fantasy husband!”

Sigh.

“Go on. Unpause.” He resumes descending the staircase.

I unpause the DVD player.

As soon as that British accent resumes, Rich hollers from downstairs.

“LALALALALALALALALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

I pause again and laugh at this wonderfully silly man I married.

***
Almost two hours later, after doing my exercises and working on and failing to resurrect my laptop, I resume watching special features. This time around, Rich is upstairs in the office. I finish watching the Storm costume test and start the next one, which happens to be the Toad costume test.

Rich starts down the stairs and I instantly hit pause.

He stops, looks at the TV screen, and stares at me.

“Good God, you would’ve thought I’d caught you watching porn.”

“Um, honey, this is my porn.”