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I remember being 13 years old…frankly, it sucked. I had braces, big glasses and hideous hair. I wasn’t the geekiest girl in my class, but I was close, which made it even more memorable. I tried to find a picture to display that would represent my tweeness in all its radiant glory but couldn’t find one. So, use your imagination. It was 1984 & 1985…yeah, it was bad.

So my uber-husband and I curled up with a couple of beers and 13 Going on 30 last night. I don’t use the word “adorable” to describe much in my life (except my dogs and on occasion, someone else’s dog) but this movie was just so darn cute…and adorable. There were the obvious comparisons to Tom Hanks in Big but I identified with this movie more because,well, I’m a girl. I remember wanting the “cool kids” to like me but thankfully, didn’t alienate any of my other friends in my ambition. And, I remember wanting to be older and to be able to do all of the hot and sexy things I thought came with adulthood…like parties and driving and mortgages and new air-conditioner compressors. Oh boy.

After a rather awkward 13th birthday party, our heroine Jenna Rink wishes to be 30, flirty and fabulous. She gets her wish but instead of being 30, flirty and fabulous she’s 30, crooked, self-absorbed and a raving beeyotch. She’s the kind of woman that when we’re 13, we don’t ever want to become because they’re just not a whole lot of fun. Through a series of age-inappropriate situations (her adult boyfriend stripping in front of her, needing to save the failing magazine of which she’s an editor, etc.) she comes to realize what a horrible person she became, but she can’t do anything about it at this point. The damage is done. Even her best friend prior to the Big Birthday, Mattie, doesn’t really care for her anymore. The only thing she can really do is go back to that fateful 13th birthday party and right a significant number of wrongs.

And hello…did the guy who had a crush on you in the eighth grade turn out to look like Mark Ruffalo? I know. He didn’t for me, either. Of course, now I’ll have a tough time going to see We Don’t Live Here Anymore because I can’t picture the guy as a cheating louse.

But I digress. I love Jennifer Garner and, you’d think I’d watch Alias but for some reason I don’t. Honestly, I don’t even know what night its on. Maybe I’d rather have my Jenny G. with a side of girly-girl substituted for the kung-fu.

Oh…editing note…when the PG-13 rating came up on the screen, it mentioned a “brief drug reference.” Want to know what the brief drug reference was? As an adult, Mattie says to Jenna, “Are you high?” Then he asks if she’s been smoking marijuana…or if she’s on X. That’s it. Flew by us so fast we didn’t realize that was it until we sat down and deconstructed the movie. We like that sort of thing.

Something else that has to be mentioned, doesn’t anyone check what the current music is for their subject year anymore? It was supposed to be 1987 when Jenna is 13 but they’re playing Thriller…and Rick Springfield…and…Pat Benatar. Come on, “Love is a Battlefield” came out in 1983…the year I was 13. No self-respecting teenage girl ever danced to a song that was four years old….not at a slumber party, not at a magazine promo party, not even by herself. Not cool at all. I had the same complaint about The Wedding Singer. There were plenty of songs from 1987 they could have used…Debbie Gibson’s “Shake Your Love” or “I Think We’re Alone Now” by Tiffany. Or, what about something off of Madonna’s True Blue album, since Jenna had the cover picture framed in her room? But again, I think we’re always talking about publishing rights with this sort of thing…still. I bet Robbie Nevill could have used some residual cash for “C’est La Vie.” Should have called him and gotten the hookup.

And…I blew right through the 30, flirty and fabulous stage and am now at almost-33, footloose and fancy-free? That sounds awful precious, now doesn’t it? {wink}