Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Was that actually a comedy?

At the end of our last full day in San Antonio, we all thought it would be a good idea to wind down at the Alamo Draft House for a late movie that was fun and would put us to bed in a happy upbeat mood.

( For those who were not aware, there is a chain of movie theaters in Texas that go under the Alamo Draft House name. In each of them, patrons enter the theaters ($8 for adult/$5.50 for student) which look a lot like normal movie theaters, except that every other row has been removed and replaced with a small table accessible to the row immediately behind it. Menus with food and drinks are left on the tables along with white sheets of paper and a pencil. Orders can be made at any time before or during the movie by writing the order on the sheet and placing the sheet (usually folded for extra stability) in such a way that it sticks up from the table and thus beckons the server to pick it up. It's a fun setup for a movie theater. )

We decided to go see The Break-Up. I had heard bad reviews about it. I had heard that this movie would disappoint Vince Vaugn fans. However, I still wanted to see it, and I still was under the impression that it was a comedy. Everyone else wanted to see it too, so it seemed like it was a good idea.

There were about three funny parts of the movie. Those were the three parts that they showed during the previews... However, during the previews they were funny because they had no context. When the context was added, they were just AWKWARD because they usually were during a fight that no one would ever want to witness even as a fly on the wall.

That being said, I'm not sure it was a bad movie. I really felt like it communicated its message well. I really felt like I was right there experiencing the break up with the characters. In fact, I found myself frequently holding my head with my hand in some funny introspective way thinking back on past break ups that shared some common features. In fact, sometimes I think my last big breakup MAY have a lot more parallels to that movie than I want anyone to point out to me. Watching that movie scared up the worry that if there are a lot of parallels there, then maybe I haven't lived the end of the movie yet... maybe I'm somewhere in the middle. <?> Whenever this thought surfaces and freaks me out, I just try to remind myself that there's a good chance I'm not in that movie at all... and that calms me down a bit.

That brings me to some other thoughts I've been having lately. I really think I'd like to be friends with my most recent ex. We'll probably see each other at a wedding or two this summer, and it would be nice if we wouldn't have to avoid each other until eventually having a conversation that sounds scripted (from a boring script). Plus, you know how you share different things with different people? Heck, do you know how sometimes you share the same things with different people but in different ways? The information "lives" between the two people in a way that's unique to those two people. In fact, sometimes you can't just get something off your chest... you have to get something off your chest in a particular way that can only be done with a certain person. Well, I miss having her as one of those outlets. She's one of the only ones still left who actually KNOWS people who might come up in my stories (including me!), so those stories have the potential to be even more entertaining to her and she might have more useful input.

The trouble with forming a friendship with an ex, especially an ex like this, is that it's hard to convince the person that subjects that will inevitably come up in the conversation aren't being brought up as part of some other agenda that involves the ex. And for similar reasons, it's hard to believe that the ex is going to reciprocate such openness.

It just sucks to lose someone who knows so much. It's hard enough when people move away, but there's still visiting and long distance conversations that go on. It sucks even more when people don't move away and yet contact is even more sparse with them than the people who did move away. It's almost... worse?

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