500 days of summer

I'm a movie freak. I always have been, even before I realized it. I am convinced that the reason I have to squint my eyes to look at my computer screen, whether I have my prescription eye-glasses on or not, is because I sat in front of the killer-high-tech televisions from the late 80s watching Peter Pan over and over and over again.  My mother always tell me that story, I'd say.. "Do it again, do it again!..." and I'd watch it all over again. It's really funny to think about how much that must have fooled my parents. I, literally, have not sat still for that long since the last time they popped that bad boy into the VHS player.  It's okay, though, because my mom tricked me into helping her clean by putting an "educational video" in and letting it do it's work on me. And by educational, I mean that it was a sing-along to "Whistle While You Work" and documented a day in the (custodial) life of Daisy, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey as they broomed and swept the entire grounds of Disney World. I guess it was better than how the kids have it these days, with a big purple dinosaur that sings 'clean up' songs with what sounds like one wretched sinus infection.

Anywho, I love movies. Just like songs, I apply them to my life. Here are a list of my favorites - and if you know anything about me, then you can probably see why all of them seem to "fit" in this movie lover's "favs" pile:

• Forrest Gump
• Almost Famous
• 500 Days of Summer
• Thelma and Louise
• When Harry Met Sally
• Steel Magnolias
• Sweet November
• Taking Woodstock
• Walk The Line
• Riding In Cars With Boys
• The Notebook
• Unfaithful

Lots of favs... I had to just stop there, could've kept going. Let me just tell you, with a pile of favorites that big, it is hard to explain how much you miss watching them when you realize life has left little time for things like sitting down for 2+ hours and watching a movie. Especially hard to explain to the guy you are dating, who happens to not give a rat's behind about what is playing in theaters.
This is a normal line I mutter almost everyday, "You need to watch movies. It's weird that you don't watch movies or that much television, even. Do you realize how disconnected from the world you are?"
Not that I would trade a single thing about him, but I do think a good movie, regardless of the drama, can help with the every day realities of life. I mean, think about it, why do we watch movies?  To escape, to be inspired, to see new places, things, and people that we might not otherwise get to see. We go back in history, we push forward with technology to enhance the fantastical imagery of what mankind's future endeavors entail. We enjoy it, that's why we pay the arm and a leg (and pretty soon they'll have us signing over the rights to our first child), to go to a movie and eat extra-buttered popcorn and drink a Coke that is watered-down before the previews are over. "Gee, thanks, thought I was getting a medium Coke, not a bucket of it."
Well, I finally convinced ol' cutie-pa-tootie to watch 500 Days of Summer with me.
After all, I don't know how many people called me from the theater to tell me that it was the story of Chace and I. The movie came out this past summer but I never caught it in theaters. I was so eager to see what they meant by that, because Chace and I weren't a couple then.  That goes without saying much, though. We met five years ago and that was the beginning, and we never really ended. I was a cynic who convinced myself that I was fine being alone. He has always been more un-jaded than me. Instead of dating every wrong Tom, Dick, and Harry like I did, he knew there was something special about one girl and one girl only so he patiently waited. Until about breakup #4 for me when he said he couldn't wait around being my friend and watching me let people walk all over me, when it was so obvious that we were never "just friends."  
At about the beginning of February, I finally watched this movie that everyone said I would love and that would make me think of Chace and I's relationship. My mom even called to tell me that, so that's when I couldn't handle it anymore and rented it.
The next day, I got an email from Chace. Sort of out of the blue, sort of not. That email changed everything and was a major gear shift in getting us back in sync with one another by the end of March, and a couple by April. The email was probably going to be sent on that day whether I watched 500 Days of Summer that night or not. But I think the movie did help me realize a few things.
I let my guard down, I let things happen, and I no longer trained myself to not buy into the whole love b.s.
So, we had a good time the other night watching it, and reliving some of my colder hearted days which we both have found humor rather than anger in.
Everybody needs to watch it. Don't be square.
I'm posting quotes from the movie that I not only love, but find very relevant to my cynic
side from back in the day. The way Tom, the main character, talks about Summer is very familiar to the way things were back then and are now for the two of us. Enjoy!

PeaceandLove

Baily