For the love of movies

My mom asked me the other day if she could bring J to see Winnie the Pooh and at first I was little unsure about it - she's not even 2 1/2 and it could go very, very wrong.  But I looked it up and it was only 69 minutes long and the theater it was playing at is known to be generous with refunds or free passes if things don't go well.

So this past Tuesday, after J's nap, we ventured to the movies.  When we got into the theater, she made friends with the girl in front of us and they spent the 10 minutes before showtime running around the theater.  I thought this was perfect since she had to stay in her seat for over an hour.

She went to sit in her seat and it pretty much closed in on her, so she sat on my lap for the movie.  (Side note: My kid DOES NOT sit on my lap EVER!)  And she loved it.  I know this because she laughed when it was funny, said "oh no!" at the appropriate times, and the kicker...she cried (real tears) when it was over. Seriously. Cried for Pooh. "I want more pooh, mommy!"

And of course, since we were with grandma, more pooh she got! No, not a double feature, but a brand new 'play a sound' book.  We went immediately from the theater to Barnes and Noble so my mom could run in and keep our little girl happy with "more Pooh!"

I know it sounds silly, but I was so proud of her (and secretly so happy that maybe we can rely on movies for those rainy days now!)

I probably should not have been dirty dancing

Here's the scene in my house from the first time I saw Dirty Dancing...

The movie came out in 1987 which means I was nine years old.  My family was watching it on our VCR (alright, so maybe I was ten).  Looking back, this PG13 movie was probably a bit inappropriate for my age {Mom, what were you thinking?!}.  But the music was great, the dancing was awesome, and what I understood of the plot was pretty good too. 

Cue sex scene...Baby professes her love to Johnny, "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."


Cue sexy music...
When you're waiting for a voice to come

In the night and there is no one
Ah don't you feel like crying? (cry to me)
Don't you feel like crying? (cry to me)

And now cue 10 year old me watching an inappropriate movie asking my parents, "Why do I have a tingling feeling in my vagina?" during said sex scene. 
After a little awkward silence (and some giggling from my older brother), my mother, always the tell-it-like-it-is matter-of-factly kind of mom, "Honey, that's normal."

Thus began my love affair with this movie.  I've watched it hundreds of times and probably only really got what was going on much later...
But it was and still is my favorite movie of all time.

This was written as part of Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop