Movie Monday

I don’t know the last time I watched a movie in an actual movie theater. I really don’t. I remember liking the big sound and the big screen and being thoroughly annoyed by the noise and chit chat all around me. I also remember thinking how much I don’t like seeing movies outside the solitude and comfort of my own living room.

Today it rained and rained and blew, and then it rained some more. So much for the day off I had planned–one that included running past ocean-front estates followed by heading to my beautiful “neighborhood” beach that is actually part of an exclusive resort, but one to which I supposedly have access because I live in the ‘hood.

Instead, I woke up on time to get to work on time on my day off. That would be 6:00 a.m. Instead of running, I tossed the dogs down the back steps of my house and willed them to ignore the downpour and do the business. Instead of reading the final pages of my customer’s book at the beach, I opted for a dog-hair encrusted sofa and On-Demand movies. As a nod to getting dressed, I pulled on the jeans I’d worn to work the day before and didn’t bother to change the XXL T-shirt I’d slept in that screams the name of a local restaurant. Why comb my hair when I could braid it? Why wash my face when last-night’s make-up could be covered up with cover up? Yes, I was a vision.

My great guy had to work a weird afternoon/night shift. I am confident, however, that he had no problem leaving this vision behind, plunked as I was between two soaking wet dogs and sporting the aforementioned braid and yesterday’s smudged makeup.

I could have snuck in a run in between raindrops, but I didn’t. I didn’t even pretend to try. Instead, I spent an hour on the phone three different times with Comcast to get the On-Demand working, and then I didn’t budge when it finally did.

Did anyone out there actually pay to see “2012”? I did–$4.99 to be exact–and I was actually glued to the TV as it played on and on for two-plus hours, periodically wondering how earthquakes and tsunami waves would take out my tiny rock while I marveled at using the “pause” button to sneak a smoke on my wet deck.

How about “Up in the Air”? I expected a dumb, over-rated movie, and instead found myself remembering the heyday of frequent-flier miles and perks and being a pro in the security lines and all of the rest that really isn’t airline travel today. I liked the not-quite predictable twists in the plot. I liked the unsatisfying ending. Hell, I just liked languishing on my sofa and gorging out on movies and doing absolutely nothing productive all day.

Because work is suddenly a bizarre mix of unexpected everything, and all is not quite as it seemed yesterday, as much as I love my curious world of curiously great customers. Because one of my kids has just bought his first property in a real ‘hood that sort of scares me, and the other is moving to her own city ‘hood that worries me, even though it shouldn’t.

Because life and death and all the rest in between is happening at lightening speed these days, and I can’t seem to catch my breath to absorb it all. Because I often go 24 hours and more without seeing my great guy, given our work schedules. Because I live in a vacation paradise and really just want to go on a vacation to a city and wear real clothes and pretty shoes and eat food prepared by a chef, not a cook.

Meanwhile, why get dressed on my day off? After all, I survived the end of the world; I didn’t have to be a part of one handsome man’s meaningless life. And for five straight hours, I didn’t have to think about a thing except how to make the remote work to escape all the rest.