Ha...ha Ha...ha ha Ha...

Yesterday I took myself to the movies, just me and my big bag of popcorn. And in typical Jen fashion, I paid for my popcorn, took one step and dumped the whole thing all over the floor and counter. Movie theater butter does not wipe up well with a dry napkin, let me tell you. Fortunately, the popcorn filler-upper guy was still right there and saw all this happen, so he filled it up a second time and cleaned up all the mess. Thank you Popcorn guy. I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence.

Some people think it's the weirdest thing to go to the movies on your own. In reality, besides shopping, it's probably one of the more socially acceptable activities to do alone. Think about it, it's dark and people are focused on the movie, so no one is sitting there saying, poor girl all alone. Got stood up. And it's not like you really talk to people during movies. Well, I do, which drives people nuts, but most people just sit silently. It's not a big conversation sport. Yesterday I went to a 2 o'clock showing, which was still the matinee price....$9. For the cheap ticket! I know I don't go to movies a lot, but isn't the matinee supposed to be a good bargain? I recall it being like $6. In preparation for my movie date, I looked up 10 local movie theaters. In all honesty, I was just really bored so I did some research, I wasn't entirely hunting for a good ticket price....and highly reviewed theater....with comfy seats...and good popcorn. Okay, maybe I was. A little. Anyways, the cheapest matinee price around was $8. Crazy.

So the 2pm showing had maybe 15 people at it. By the time the movie began, there were maybe 8, tops. But a big group on a special needs field trip came in right as the movie started. Of those first 8, myself included, 6 were all alone. 6 were women, each with their big bag of popcorn. We were all in different rows. Enjoying our two armrests. No need to share. In my opinion, that makes going to a movie alone well worth it. So the movie starts, I'm munching away with my feet on top of the seat infront of me and this guy walks in and goes for the row in front of me. The entire row is empty, all 25-ish seats. Most of the 200 person theater is empty. I moved my feet to be polite, so he could walk by and not have to look at my shoes. And he sits DIRECTLY in front of me. Are you serious?! A whole entire empty row and he picks the one my feet were on. I wasn't even in the middle of the row. No reason for that. In all fairness, I don't know if he was with the special needs group, so I can't really hold it against him, but the rest of that group sat on the other side of the theater. I'm going to take it as a compliment. Clearly I chose a very good seat. Imitation is the best form of flattery, right?

I remember in Communications class we learned that our reaction to movies/tv shows is based a lot on how others around us are reacting. (K and I were just talking about this the other day - gotta give her some credit.) We get social clues on what to do in a particular situation based on people we are with. Take laugh tracks on TV shows for an example. It cues us to laugh. Shows like The Office don't have a laugh track and the first time you watch it sets up that awkward "I don't know if I should be laughing or feel bad for these guys". Similarly, if you watched Superbad with a group that laughed like crazy, you're more likely to laugh than if you watched it alone. (Little education moment for all you readers). The group in the theater yesterday were definitely the laughing sort. Lots of laughing. Lots of talking back to the screen. Lots of repeating lines. Whooping, hollering, and "OH NO YOU DID-N'T"s. What a group. "Yeah boy!" "Kiss her!" "Oh yeahhhh, they're going up to the bedroom". What a riot. No, I did not talk, shout, or whoop. Under normal circumstances, the excessive talking may have driven me crazy, but I liked the community feeling of the theater. I felt like I should say goodbye to them each personally.

In the end, Life as We Know It was a good movie. And it was fun to go to the movies alone. I stayed awake (a rarity in my life if you ask my friends and family) and I'll probably go alone again. Way less stressful than going to dinner alone, which isn't quite as stressful anymore. On a scale of 10, I was previously at a 10, now I'm a solid 6.5 on the awkward scale. Totally do-able.

Enjoy. And go watch some shows with laugh tracks :)
Laughter is contagious.