It’s a first!

Earlier into the year, I had written about the desire for lone travelling and mentioned that the solitude, in some cases was one of my biggest fears.

Although I enjoy my alone time immensely and quite often crave for more, watching a movie in a theatre alone has been something I was yet to tread on. I have always dreaded it thinking that it was the sort of thing loners took to. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Over the past two weeks, my backlog of movies had increased exponentially – too many movies released and I hadn’t been able to watch them due to work, being out-of-station and more recently rain checks from people I was depending on to watch them with. This got me thinking about whether it was about time that I took the step and do this on my own. Opportunity presented itself in the form of the cinematic representation of the fourth installment of the Twilight saga.

Through the years, I have made quips and lifted eyebrows towards those who thought of the series to be absolute bullshit and the lead actor to be ‘gay’. In my complete understanding of the fact that vampire-human love stories were the pinnacle of fiction that anyone with good sense and a sound mind would happily avoid. However, there is this connection I had with the first book Stephenie Meyer wrote and it was never about the powdered white faces or Edward’s beautiful bronze mop of hair. The spirit of the novel seemed quaint and Victorian. It might have had to do with Forks, the town which saw a perpetual cloud cover, the tall-majestic pines or the fact that the Edward played the piano and listened to Debussy.

The obsession drastically shot down after the third book evident in the fact that I had not even finished reading ‘Breaking Dawn’. In my opinion, the nuptials, pregnancy and childbirth stole away from the actual romance and that was the string that should have never been stirred. My loss in interest even more clear by the fact that I was not in a hurry to watch the movie. However, it was essential that it be watched and I was simply not in the frame of mind to convince one other person to accompany me.

Taking the thought further, I booked my debut ‘single-seat’ for the 6:30 pm show and strutted away from work a whole half hour early. Bought myself nachos, diet coke, gummy bears and stood outside the screen gate ten minutes before the scheduled time of the show – a situation that I always desire 🙂

Regardless of the plot, acting and score I felt in a happy place throughout the two hours. I grinned widely, shed silent tears, didn’t share my food with anyone, absorbed the silence around me and knew that this is an activity that I would soon frequent.

A dedication, as a reward for my little act of bravery and those who inspired it – Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine.