Nobody gonna hold me down. Oh no. I got to keep on movin’.

Welcome to my brain where every song turns into an ear worm.

My kids have been singing this ‘80s classic for the past week because it’s a TikTok sensation. I googled the song to find out who sang it and was shocked that it wasn’t a Rastafarian like I’d imagined my entire life, but someone named Matthew Wilder, a man who could pass as Gene Wilder’s brother 🤯

Anyhoo, the song has been very fitting for me lately because I’ve been in SUCH a good mood that even if all my haters (there’s a lot these days 😂) formed a line and told me all the things they hated about me, I’d just strut away like:

“Ain’t nobody gonna breaka my stride, nobody gonna hold me down. Oh no. I got to keep on movin’!” 🎶 🎶 🎶

I have proof of this because I had the most unbelievable conversation with my biffer and my doctor friend yesterday. Yes folks, little old me, dare I say it, is very good friends with a DOCTA! (said in my best yenta voice.)

I think Doc & Biff May have gotten together to secretly conspire about what it might take to breaka my stride, and this is what they came up with:

THEY TRIED TO TELL ME DIRTY DANCING ISN’T A GOOD MOVIE.

It almost broka my stride.

It started with Biff saying it. I thought she was just trying to get under my skin, so we took a poll. Everyone we asked said it was a thumbs up 👍 – one woman even said she visits North Carolina’s Lake Lure (where the movie was filmed) every year for a girls’ trip with her daughter!

We asked 5 more people and I felt like I was gaining traction in keeping my “always right” status, but then we asked Doc. I think it’s his hobby to watch me turn into the Incredible Hulk when someone tells me I’m wrong, so he gave it a thumbs down 👎

I tell them that even PJ loves this movie and they claim it’s because he’s just kissing my ass. Believe you me (I don’t even know what that saying means but it sounds apropos here), PJ doesn’t tell me he likes movies and then watches documentaries about them to kiss my ass. If I had that superpower I’d use it for much better things than movie watching.

Then I listed all the things that make Dirty Dancing one of the greatest movies of all time: The dancing (duh); The Hungry Eyes scene when Penny is teaching Baby how to dance and Johnny is sitting criss-cross applesauce and observing like a wise, dirty dancing Yogi; The Sylvia & Mickey scene (that PJ & I learned was ad-libbed by watching the documentary 💫); Um, every time Johnny takes his shirt off!

At that point Biff accused me of trying to sway them and I said, “No, I’m trying to SWAYze you.” (True story and ba dum bah.)

They never agreed with me but that’s ok because they’re wrong. And when they rewatch the movie and realize they’re 100% wrong, they’ll come to me like Jake Houseman went to Johnny Castle and his daughter Frances “Baby” Houseman at the end of this masterpiece and say:

“When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.”

And then they’ll tell me how I ‘looked wonderful out there’ after I strut away singing, “Ain’t nobody gonna breaka my stride…nobody gonna hold me down…oh no…I gotta keep on movin’…” 🎶🎶🎶