Hey look at us – we totally made it to October. Go us! Just a quick story for you all today that I hope you enjoy. I don’t think I’ll be able to tell it without kinda spoiling the punchline, but that’s ok.

Nearly five years ago, my company was having a holiday party. Back when gathering crowds was still a thing, we tended to do parties on Fridays. This meant people would spend part of the work day talking about said party, what they were going to wear, what freeways they’d take to get there, etc.

On this particular Friday, the party was a little farther away so people were leaving early to go home and get ready first. I was in the kitchen, and a co-worker said he was taking off for that reason. I was about to say something normal like, “Ok, see you there” when I realized something and paused. A lot happened in that pause. The stars had just aligned perfectly and in a way I may never witness again.

You see, this gentleman’s last name was Richter, and there’s a line from “Total Recall” that my favorite brother and I quote in which Arnold says, “See you at the party, Richter!” Naturally, the line is accompanied by Arnold throwing Mr. Richter’s no-longer-attached arms at him. And here I was, actually going to see someone named Richter at “the party,” and I couldn’t believe my luck. But in the pause, I also realized that not everyone shares that reference, so if I just blurted that line out in an Austrian accent, the odds are it would be met with a metric shit ton of confusion. But at the same time, I owed it to the universe to use this opportunity. What, I told you a lot happened in the pause.

So I ended up saying something like, “This might not mean anything to you, but I’ll explain right after,” and then I said the Arnold line in my best Arnold impression. He didn’t get the reference but appreciated it once I’d explained. Or acted like he appreciated it. Either way is fine with me. It wasn’t the most obscure reference in the world, but still pretty rare to have the quote line up with my reality so perfectly. It would be like teaching a class on pool safety to someone named Rose and getting the chance to say, “I need you to swim for me, Rose.” Or making an 80s playlist and getting to say, “And Toto too.” Or opening a fridge and using Gabriel Byrnes line in “The Usual Suspects” to yell, “There’s no…fucking…coke!” Nah, those are too easy and have totally happened before – this required the name, a type of event, and for the event to be in the near future. I’m proud of my brain for realizing it in the moment, even if I didn’t handle it that gracefully.

That’s it, told you it was a brief story today. Have a great weekend, and stay healthy and safe. (And I’d love other versions of being able to put movie quotes into real-life scenarios if you’ve got ’em, so comment away!)