Movies

When I was a little girl, we rarely went to the movies. In fact, I can only remember three instances from my childhood when I went to a theater at all. I remember my grandmother taking all of her granddaughters to see Snow White when it was re-released in theaters. She did this because it was new when she was a small girl and she actually got to see it in a theater then. It left a lasting impression on her and she wanted to share that with us. I was about nine. I vaguely remember going to the theater to see a Bugs Bunny movie with a group from the daycare where I stayed during one summer. But the first and only movie my parents ever took me to see in the theater was Driving Miss Daisy. I think I was about twelve.

Perhaps this is why I have an almost unhealthy fascination with movies now. I especially love to go see a movie in the theater. When I was in college, one of my favorite things to do was to haul a bunch of friends up to the $1.50 theater about an hour away from school and see an almost ready for video movie.

I love everything about it. I love that the floors are sticky. I love that the sound is almost too loud to stand it. I love the greasy popcorn and the uncomfortable seats. There's just no way around it, I love the movies.

I get wrapped up in the stories. I can quote lines from some of my favorites. If I really like a movie, I can watch it about a hundred times and never get tired of it. However, there are only about three films I've seen in the theater more than once. I ended up seeing Dumb and Dumber twice because I was with a group of friends the second time who had not seen it and they insisted. I went to see Twister twice--once with my boyfriend, and once with my brother. (I'll talk about seeing movies with my brother in a minute).

I love for Lewis to take me to the movies. We've argued about it a couple of times because he says that going to the movies is expensive. But he knows how much I love going and so we've never completely sworn off movies altogether.

One of my favorite people to go see a movie with is my brother. When the Star Wars original trilogy was re-released in theaters. We went to see them together. Because the films were familiar we kept a hilarious running commentary going while we were watching them. We might have annoyed the people around us, but we sure had a good time. He made me go see The Fifth Element with him instead of the Nicholas Cage movie I wanted to see. It was the right decision. Lewis gets annoyed because I end up watching that particular movie over and over when I find it on one of the movie channels. The only time he ever got on my nerves was when we went to see Tomb Raider and he did his impression of Billy Bob Thornton as Carl in Slingblade the whole way through the movie. That movie was bad enough on its own.

I have been to the movies alone on a couple of occasions. It's a little weird when you first go and sit down, but once the movie starts, you don't notice so much. I saw Good Will Hunting this way.

I don't get to go nearly as often as I'd like. Especially since the children came along. But a couple of months ago, Lewis and I took Marley to see Chicken Little in the theater. It was her first movie in a theater and the dawn of a new day for Lewis and myself. Soon we will be able to go see movies as a family.

Knowing me, I'll probably take my kids to the movies too often and they'll end up hating them. You never can tell. But last Saturday morning, I awoke to Laney and Marley standing at my bedside. The first words from Laney's mouth were, "Let's otch a moomee. Come on."