Today is my favorite day of the year. It is my Christmas and birthday all wrapped up in one. It is my annual movie day. Perhaps it would help to give a little background on what movie day is and why I love it so much.
It all starts with the fact that I love going to the movies. I enjoy watching them at home on DVD, but honestly it’s like eating McDonald’s when you could have Ruth’s Chris (http://brandonbritton.blogspot.com/2011/12/36-day-13-written-friday-december-23.html). I love everything about movie theaters: the people, the popcorn, the candy, the seats, the size of the screen, the sound system, the previews, I just love it. In 2007 I was feeling the pressures and stresses of being a dad, a preacher, a husband, just everything and it was starting to take it’s toll on me. I needed to get away, but a vacation was expensive and not an option at the time. In talking with Jade I mentioned that I needed to do some Christmas shopping for her and that there were several movies I wanted to see that I knew she had no interest in. Through this conversation sprouted the idea of me taking a day, around my birthday, to just get away by myself and do something I really enjoyed, going to the movies. I saw three movies that day at two different theaters and I had a blast! I loved it. I had no idea at the time how therapeutic it was for me. Since then I have been able to watch four movies in one day each year. One of my favorite parts is walking up to the ticket seller around 10:45 am and saying I would like one adult ticket for ...... at 11:00, one for ...... at 12:45, one for ...... at 3:00 and one for ...... at 6:00. They always look at me and say, are you serious? I spend weeks studying movie release dates, theater locations, starting times and chart a course for which day is the optimal day to do movie day. I will literally walk out of one movie, use the restroom and walk into the next movie as it begins....four times in one day. I know it may sound insane, but I love it. I highly recommend you go to a movie by yourself sometime, but beware, it can be addictive.
Now this next part I hesitate to tell you, but since I promised in my blog description that I would always say what I was feeling and dealing with, even if it wasn’t popular or too honest, so here it goes. My movie day is all about selfish indulgence. I honestly try to not be selfish in my day to day life. My most frequent quote is, “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll do what everybody else wants.” And I mean it. But on movie day, I don’t consider anyone else, except myself. I leave when I want, I go where I want, I eat what I want, I see what I want and I spend the day all by myself doing only what I want to do without consulting or considering what others want. I know that sounds terrible on paper, but my family actually encourages it and have become big fans themselves. They buy me boxes of my favorite movie candy (Reese’s Pieces) and gift certificates for movie theaters. It is one day a year where I am not daddy, husband, son or preacher, I am just Brandon. When the day is over I come home happy, smiling, refreshed, full (eating at Carrabba’s has become a part of how movie day comes to a close), entertained and excited to get home and back to being daddy and husband and son.
I have gone to Thoroughbred 20 in Franklin, TN, Regal Green Hills (my favorite megaplex), Regal Hollywood Stadium (least favorite) and Opry Mills in Nashville. I have also gone to Belcourt Theater in Hillsborough Village, my favorite. It is an old movie theater that only shows one or two movies (usually art house, film festival, old reruns or independent films that will not be coming to a theater near you, but it has more character than any of the cookie cutter megaplexes ever will. This year I went to Opry Mills and had a great time, even though it was kind of weird seeing that giant mall empty (reopens from the flooding in March 2012), it smelled brand new which was a cool and new experience. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll “see you, at the movies.”
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