Tag Archives: movies

The End Of A Pandemic Social Group (or No More Regular Movie Nights)

Posted on March 30, 2023 | 1 comment

Just over 3 years ago, at the start of the pandemic, I posted something in a dating Facebook group that I’m in about ideas for virtual dates. One of those ideas was virtual movie nights through a service called Netflix Party (which has since been renamed Teleparty). Someone in the group suggested that we organize movie nights within the Facebook group, and Movie Club was born out of that. And about 3 years ago, we had our first movie night together.

Movie Club started as just a part of that Facebook group and eventually, we became our own group. We also started with just one movie a week, then we went up to 2 movies a week, and then we switched to movies on weekends and tv shows on Wednesdays. We’ve watched hundreds of movies virtually together and we are about to finish our 4th tv series. We’ve watched one-off movies and we’ve gone through movie series (like watching all the MCU and Star Wars movies).

I know I’ve written this before, but I feel like Movie Club really helped me survive the pandemic. When I was experiencing the most severe isolation, I knew every week I’d have somewhat regular interaction with others. Our chats in Movie Club were different from texting because we were all experiencing the same thing at the same time. And it helped me not feel like I was on my own little planet. When I was not working, having these on my calendar gave me something to look forward to and helped me have things to do other than just sit and be alone.

And for a while, we had a lot of people joining in every week. We could have 8 or 9 people in a movie or tv show and the chat was so lively and fun! And while I didn’t know any of the other people in Movie Club in real life, we all got to know about each other’s lives and would always be checking in with each other. There are people from that group that I do honestly consider friends now and I know we wouldn’t have come together without these movie nights.

But recently, Movie Club hasn’t been as active. We used to do movies every single Friday or Saturday, and for the last few months, I have been doing polls just to see what days people would be interested in watching something. We could go a few weeks without a movie due to everyone’s schedules and also possibly a lack of interest. And with the recent tv series we’ve been watching, most weeks it’s just me and one other person. I’ve still been enjoying watching a show with someone else, but it’s not what it used to be. We are almost done with the current series, so I put out a poll to see what the interest would be in starting a 5th series. And the poll was clear, there wasn’t really any interest in having regular tv or movie nights.

I knew this was coming. When Movie Club started, most of us had nothing to do. We weren’t going out with friends for dinners and many of us were either working from home or not working at all, so our evenings were pretty free. And things have been opening up more and more, so everyone is starting to get busy again. I have always made sure I kept the evenings we watched things free just in case we’d be watching something, but lately I’ve had to work around other things that could have been on those evenings. One of the issues I’ve had with finding an acting class is finding one that works around the Movie Club schedule.

So I posted this week in our Facebook group that once we finished the tv series we were currently watching in a few weeks, we wouldn’t have any more regular Movie Club nights. I am not going to get rid of the group and I said I’d be happy to run a random movie night if there is a movie people want to watch, but I think if those happen they will be only a few times a year.

I remember when I started Movie Club I thought I’d be sad when one day the group would be ending. I knew it wouldn’t be forever, and when it started it really was a big part of my life. So thinking about the end was depressing. But now that I’ve announced that things will be ending, I’m not as sad as I thought I’d be. The reason this group was created was to help us not feel alone when the world seemed to be shut down. I know that not everything is normal and open again, but it’s getting closer and closer to that. And it’s a good thing that we all have been able to resume the social lives that we had before the pandemic. I think that’s a positive thing. And I’m happy for all of us in the group.

I’m sure that I’ll miss the group from time to time or I’ll hope that someone wants to watch a movie, but I also know that I’m working on being more social in real life so I might not miss it as much as I think. I might be busy with other things and not realize that it’s Wednesday and I’m not watching a tv show with the group. But I’m choosing to look at the end of this era as the start of something else that is good and I’m looking forward to seeing what adventures my life will have for me coming up.

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Actually Going To A Movie (or Enjoying A Summer Blockbuster)

Posted on June 7, 2022 | Comments Off on Actually Going To A Movie (or Enjoying A Summer Blockbuster)

Before the pandemic, I went out to see movies pretty frequently. I didn’t go to regular movie theaters that often, but I would go to screenings through my union or the SAG-AFTRA Film Society on a regular basis. I saw more movies than I think I ever had in my lifetime. I still got plenty of screeners for the SAG Awards that I watched at home, but I loved going out to a movie and seeing something on the big screen.

Of course, when the pandemic hit, that all changed. I don’t know exactly how long movie theaters were closed, but it was quite a while. And more movies were being released through streaming services so I didn’t have to go out to see movies. There were a lot of movies that also delayed their release so they wouldn’t be coming out while things were still really bad. I know things still aren’t great, but when comparing now to how things were in June 2020 it is better.

So I just haven’t been going out to see movies. There have been a few released in theaters that I would have liked to have seen, but most of them I was able to watch at home. And I didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much by not seeing them at a theater. But as this summer has been starting, there are more and more movies that I feel should be seen in a theater and I knew it was time to finally go to a movie again.

I’ve done a few things that are indoors with quite a few people, like going to the musicals, so I knew that since I had felt comfortable enough there that I would be fine going to a movie. So once I kept hearing from everyone that “Top Gun Maverick” was so good and needed to be seen on the big screen, I knew that would be the perfect movie to be my return to theaters.

I was talking to some friends about going to see it, and 2 of my workout friends said they’d like to go so the three of us made a plan to go this past weekend. I wasn’t too picky about what theater we went to, especially since I don’t go to regular theaters that often. So when one friend said they wanted to go to the AMC in the Marina, I was ok with that. It turned out that it was a dine-in theater that had nice recliner seats.

An added bonus of this theater was that since it had these recliner seats, there weren’t as many seats in the theater and they were spread out quite a bit. I was not close to other people seated near me. Except for my friends, the closest people were a few feet away from me. That helped me feel more comfortable, especially since masks weren’t required in the movie theater as they are when I go to the musicals. Also, recliner seats are obviously more comfortable than regular seats, so it was nice to be relaxed and able to stretch out since I’ve gotten used to watching movies on my couch.

And this was really the perfect movie to see on the big screen! I had seen the original “Top Gun” a ton of times, but it had been a while since I had watched it. So I decided to watch it the day before we went to see the movie. I would recommend doing that because there are so many callbacks to the original movie that I know I would have missed if I hadn’t seen it so recently. But even my friends who weren’t that familiar with the original enjoyed this movie. It was really a classic summer blockbuster movie and that’s something that hasn’t been happening recently.

I’ve said this a lot in the past 2 years, but the pandemic has made me look at the things I have been enjoying in my life and there are a lot of things that I have gained a new appreciation for. And going to the movies is something that I know I didn’t appreciate as much as I should have. It was such a routine and regular part of my life and didn’t feel special. But now I know much much I missed being able to see a movie on a big screen with other people around me. There’s no comparison.

This was also the first movie back for my friends as well, and I think we all felt so happy after the movie was done and we agreed that we need to plan another movie outing to see something else soon. I can’t wait to see what else we end up seeing and how much fun I’ll have back at the movies again. And I know that I will continue to appreciate the fact that going to the movies is something I can do again and I won’t see it as routine anymore.

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2 Years Of Movie Club (or Another Pandemic-Related Anniversary)

Posted on March 18, 2022 | Comments Off on 2 Years Of Movie Club (or Another Pandemic-Related Anniversary)

As I said before, there are a few different dates that can be anniversaries for the start of the pandemic. For me, the last “normal” day is a big one. Also, the last date I worked out at Orangetheory before the studios shut down for over a year is something a remember a lot. But I also have a positive anniversary connected to the pandemic. Today marks exactly 2 years since the first movie I watched with online friends through Teleparty which was the start of what we now call Movie Club.

I love that I have a screenshot of the first post that I posted in the Facebook group announcing our first movie together. Things have changed quite a bit since that first movie. Now, we have a separate Facebook group just for Movie Club although everyone in it is still a member of the group it originated from. We do movies on Saturdays and a tv show on Wednesdays. And most of the women who are in Movie Club have become some of my closest friends even though I have never met any of them in real life.

I wish I had been able to meet them this past weekend when the others were able to get together, but I know there will be another opportunity to meet up with everyone. But to think that about 2 years ago I didn’t really know anyone that well and now we are always talking and texting is pretty incredible. Most of us knew each other a bit through the other Facebook group we were in, but we didn’t become close until we were meeting each week in Movie Club.

I think everyone has a lot of negative thoughts about what happened during the pandemic, but many also have a few bright spots of what the past 2 years brought. Some people had the opportunity to spend more time with their families. Some lost their jobs but ended up finding their dream job or even creating their dream job. I think almost everyone can say they were able to find things they valued in their life and tried to focus more on that and less on the things that didn’t matter. Everyone had to reevaluate a lot about their lives since 2020, and I’m glad that a lot of people got positive things out of that. And I was lucky enough to not only have that chance but also have all the wonderful things that Movie Club has brought into my life.

I have said many times that making friends as an adult is tough, but this was the perfect way to form friendships. I don’t know if we would have been able to do this if we created Movie Club during normal times when we weren’t all isolated from others. There was something special that came together and allowed us to find a way to come together. We have all talked about how lucky we are and how this might not be able to have been done if we had tried any other time. Everything had to be aligned for it to work out the way it did and I’m so grateful for that.

I have a feeling that Movie Club will continue to have our movie and tv nights for a while. We may eventually have them less frequently (we have been skipping a few Saturdays and might go from every week to every other week one day), but I think they will still be a regular part of my life for a long time. And even if the official group eventually ends, there is no doubt in my mind that I have made lifelong friends from Movie Club that will always be a part of my life.

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Getting Ready For A Fun Rewatch (or More Netflix Parties)

Posted on August 27, 2020 | Comments Off on Getting Ready For A Fun Rewatch (or More Netflix Parties)

I’ve been running a Netflix Party for one of the Facebook groups for a while now. Like I’ve said, having these twice a week have been a great thing for me. They are helping me feel like I’m being social and doing a communal thing with others. It’s helping me keep a regular schedule and have things to look forward to. And I also have gotten to know the women from this Facebook group even better now that we have this mini-group and we are texting with each other for a few hours a week.

It’s pretty simple to run the group. The only thing that can be tough is to make sure we have enough movies to vote on for our Saturday movies. But I just take a little bit of time each week to do a search on Netflix for any new movies that might be available and then another member from the group checks to make sure they are also available in Canada (since we have a few Canadian members). Picking movies is easy once we have the list since we have learned how to do polls directly in our message group. And just like having these Netflix Party nights is adding a routine to my life, so is working on the movie list and selecting the next movie.

On Wednesdays, we watch a tv show. It started as movies on Wednesdays, but we quickly switched to working through a tv show as it seemed like a lot of people wanted to do that. We decided to watch “Schitt’s Creek” as our first tv show and we finished the first 5 seasons last week. The 6th and final season isn’t going to be on Netflix for another month or so, but we will be watching that season when it is available.

Since we finished a tv series (or as much of the series that we can watch now), we had to do a vote for a new show. So I spent a few days collecting nominations for shows that the group wanted to watch, we did our Canada check, and we put it up for a vote. And while there were a lot of shows that people seemed to be excited about, the clear winner was “The Good Place”.

I love “The Good Place”. It was a show that I watched every week while it was on tv. I thought it was one of the best shows that I’ve seen and it was written so beautifully. There are twists in the show and those twists made things even more amazing. Nothing in the show seemed to be done to get ratings or attention. Every episode was deliberate and thought out, and that’s why I think they ended after only 4 seasons. That was the story that the creator of the show wanted to tell and they didn’t add more just to make more episodes (and make more money). I respect that idea a lot and it just added to what I loved about the show.

I know the show pretty well and there won’t be any surprises for me, but that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy it less. I think knowing how the show ends will make me watch all the episodes in a new light. And there are members of the group who will be watching that have not seen the show and I’m so excited to see their reactions to things that shocked me.

This Netflix Party group has become a big part of my quarantined life. I know that even if the pandemic ended by some miracle tomorrow that we would still figure out how to watch movies or a tv show together. We might not do it as often as we do now, but I have a feeling that this routine will be a part of our lives for a while. And maybe one day in the future, we will find a way to all meet up somewhere and we can do a movie night together in person.

I never thought a virtual movie/tv viewing group would be so important to me. But I guess that’s one of the things that this pandemic is making us realize. We are seeing what we don’t miss from our old lives, what we miss a lot, and what new things can bring a lot of happiness and joy to our lives.

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So Many Virtual Movie Nights (or Thank Goodness For Technology)

Posted on July 9, 2020 | Comments Off on So Many Virtual Movie Nights (or Thank Goodness For Technology)

I’ve been doing movie nights with Netflix Party with friends for a while now. Honestly, this is what is keeping me sane a lot of the time. I have scheduled NP nights with a FB group every Wednesday and Saturday. Knowing I have those in my schedule gives me something to look forward to.

There are so many things I miss while in quarantine. But one big one is having a communal experience with others. There is something about seeing a movie or a play in a theater and knowing everyone else in that room is seeing the same thing that you are. Watching movies alone at home isn’t the same. So when quarantine started and I was watching a lot of movies on streaming programs, that communal experience feeling was what I was lacking. Thank goodness for NP because it has allowed me to feel like I’m experiencing that just a little bit.

Some of the other streaming services have been setting up their versions of Netflix Party, but so far I haven’t been able to use them. Some of them are only available to subscribers at a specific level and some of them are dealing with too many glitches. We had issues with the glitch problem this past Friday. My regular NP group decided to do a bonus night and watch “Hamilton” together. We wanted to test out the Disney+ Party app, but it was down because so many people were watching at the same time.

So what we decided to do was all get our TVs set and ready to go, and I did a group FB call to everyone to count down when we would start. And we had a specific FB chat group to talk to each other while watching. In some ways, it was nicer because I could watch on my TV instead of my computer. But it’s also nice watching on my computer with NP because the chat is right next to the movie and I don’t have to keep looking down at my phone. But I’m so glad that we decided to watch it together because it made the night so much more fun!

The group was almost equally split between those of us who had seen the show in person and those who had not. I should have seen it a second time by now, but then again if quarantine hadn’t happened I doubt the movie would have been available since it was supposed to come out in theaters next year. But I think I would have enjoyed it just as much if not more if I hadn’t seen it.

It’s rare to see a good movie version of a stage musical. But this does it almost perfectly. I loved seeing the closeups that I never could experience seeing the show live. I love how they do show the full stage and it doesn’t feel like they turned the show into a movie. It just feels like a wonderful and special experience of seeing the stage show.

This was something special to get to watch with friends virtually and I’m glad we could set it up. We probably won’t be doing movie nights with streaming services besides Netflix for now because of the simplicity of the app, but I do hope the other apps fix their glitches and open up to all subscribers so we can expand what we watch.

And besides expanding what we what, I have been expanding who I have been watching movies with. For the most part, it has been the same group that I watch together on Wednesday and Saturday (I call the group the Movie Club). And I do love watching movies with them. Occasionally, I have set up a Netflix Party night with other groups of friends for a one-off movie night. Nothing that is a regular schedule like the Movie Club, but it is nice to get to watch with others.

But this week, I also had my first virtual date using Netflix Party. It was with a guy that I matched with almost a month ago. We have been texting every day and having phone calls a few times a week. We haven’t been able to meet yet (which is so weird to me), but hopefully, we can find a way to safely do it soon. But we wanted to do something different than just talking on the phone so I suggested a movie night on NP. We ended up watching 2 movies (we each picked one) and it was really fun. It was very different from when I have a big group watching, but it was nice and again made it feel like we were having a communal experience. I have a feeling I will have another virtual movie night with him soon.

So many people have said how much harder being isolated would be without technology. And I completely agree. And it’s not just the normal technology like social media and texting keeping me ok. It’s all the new technology things like Netflix Party that helps to bring a sense of normalcy to this very abnormal life. I bet that there will be more apps like this that will help bring people together coming since there is a huge demand for them right now. But I hope they continue because I have enjoyed finding ways to stay connected with friends and family that don’t live near me. I’ve been able to get closer to people while staying away from so many. It’s such a wonderfully weird time we live in.

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Finding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts)

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Comments Off on Finding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts)

I can write so many posts about how isolated I feel right now. I know that technically we are all isolating, but most people I know are isolating with others inside their home. They might be with family, roommates, a significant other, or a pet. But I am just alone. I know I’m not the only person living alone right now, but I think it just adds another layer to things right now that makes it tough.

I’ve been trying my best to not feel as isolated as I really am. But there are only so many things I can do. I’ve had a lot more phone calls with friends than I can ever remember. I’ve done video chats with friends that I never normally would do that with because they live so close. I’ve really tried to find ways to feel like I’m still connected to others out there, but my options are limited.

But I feel like there have been 2 things that make me feel so much more connected than anything else. The first is something that hasn’t happened that often. In fact, I think I’ve only had this happen a few times since isolation started. And that is having a friend come by for a social distance visit. Once this happened when a friend came by to borrow something from me and she was in her car and I was in my driveway. Another time was when a friend did some grocery shopping for me and I was in my car and she was in her driveway (yes, there is a bit of a theme here). And this week, my workout buddy Erin came by!

She was dropping off some stuff for me like hair dye to do my roots (which I know I don’t need to do but I appreciate the chance to not see my gray hairs!). We made sure we stood pretty far away from each other. I know the guidelines say to be 6 feet apart, but we were probably more like 12 or 15 feet apart. But it didn’t matter because it was so nice to see a friend! This was the most face to face time I’ve had with a friend in a while and I needed it. Just talking to a friend in person for a few minutes made my day (and my week) so much better! I know that right now it’s not necessarily safe to do hangouts like this often, but if I can do one once a month until it’s safer to have them more often, I think that will be so good for my mental health.

And the other thing that has been giving me a social life right now is my Netflix Party group that I have. The group has been going strong since we started it and I love knowing that on Wednesdays and Saturdays I will have a virtual hangout with the women in the group. We’ve changed things a little in the group since we started. Now, we are usually doing double features on Saturdays and we are trying to have a theme each week. And on Wednesdays, we are watching a tv series together. We did a vote and we are watching “Schitt’s Creek”, which is a show that I had been meaning to watch. We watch a few episodes each week and it’s been so fun.

And the group that does the parties has really bonded. We have a group text going which was originally set up to share the links for the movies we watch. But that group text has turned into an amazing support group. If someone is feeling lonely, they can write something and we all rally around them with support. When someone posted that they lost their job, some people replied with help with filing for unemployment, and others replied with other things they might need to do. And when it was a Friday and someone wrote that they were sad it wasn’t Saturday because they didn’t want to be alone, we scheduled an impromptu bonus movie night and were all watching a movie together within an hour. It’s been an amazing support system that I am so grateful for.

Right now, it’s not easy to feel connected to others (or others who don’t live in your home). We are all trying to figure out how to not feel alone, and there is no right answer. For right now, these things are what work for me and what feels right. If this continues for several more months, I might have a different plan. I just have to stay flexible with what I do to feel social and keep trying new things to see what will work for me.

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“A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” (or Doing A Rare Movie Review)

Posted on November 21, 2019 | Comments Off on “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” (or Doing A Rare Movie Review)

I am so lucky that I get the opportunity to attend so many different movie screenings. Some of them I do pay for on top of my union dues, but that cost is still much lower than what movies in the theaters cost. I know lots of people have different movie subscriptions through theaters now so they can see things as cheaply as I can. But there is one rare bonus that I get sometimes through my union.

It’s not often that this happens, but sometimes the screening I go to is before the movie is released in theaters. I’ve only had a few of these screenings and it’s always been so much fun to get to see something early. They sometimes make a big deal over it being a pre-release screening and there are extra rules, but this time they didn’t say much so I didn’t realize it was a pre-release until I got there.

And the movie I got to see early was “A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood” starring Tom Hanks.

I was already excited to see this movie because I knew it was going to be good. I can’t remember a movie with Tom Hanks that I didn’t enjoy. And I loved the documentary about Mr. Rogers that came out recently so I was looking forward to seeing what this movie would show about his life. I knew it was based on a magazine article, but I didn’t research the article too much so the movie would still be a bit of a surprise for me. I did do a bit of research and read the article after watching the movie, and they did change a bit. But I don’t think they took anything away from the real story, they only added to it. I do encourage people to check out the article, but I would recommend seeing the movie first.

I don’t want to spoil things, so I’m not going to discuss the plot too much. But in my opinion, Mr. Rogers isn’t the main character. The writer of the article is really the lead and what he is able to show in his journey is so beautiful and makes the movie. I loved what they showed, and even though I know they embellished what the true story was, it added to the experience knowing it was based on something that really happened.

I went into the movie prepared to cry, and I did cry. A lot. I had tears in my eyes as soon as it started. Tom Hanks just does such an incredible job playing Mr. Rogers and you forget that you are watching someone playing someone else. It just seems so real. And I cried plenty during the movie. Sometimes it was happy tears and sometimes it was sad tears. And the closing scene made me cry too. I honestly don’t remember crying this much in other movies, but I also know I was a bit more emotional than I normally am so that might have been a factor in it. But all the tears were worth it because I really loved this movie.

There is so much sadness and negativity in the world and this movie was a great example of how you can work through that. The idea is not to ignore the negativity or to not experience it in your life. Life isn’t always perfect and we can’t expect it to be that way. But we can learn how to work with what may come our way and how to not let it bring us down or take away from good things in the world. I know I needed to be reminded of this and it was really the perfect thing for me to watch. I was able to be entertained by the movie but also take away a great life lesson. I think that makes a movie that much better.

I think that most of my friends are excited to see this movie too. And I’m sure that it will be nominated for various awards so maybe I’ll have the chance to see another screening of it or maybe I’ll be lucky and get a screener at my house for it. I know I want to watch it at least one more time because I think I’ll get something different out of it from another viewing. But even if I don’t get another chance to see it, I’m so glad I was able to see it this time.

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Enjoying A Mini-Splurge (or Sometimes The Best Plans Are The Simplest Plans)

Posted on March 27, 2019 | Comments Off on Enjoying A Mini-Splurge (or Sometimes The Best Plans Are The Simplest Plans)

I’ve struggled with the balance of scheduling enough fun for myself and making sure I don’t get over-scheduled and overwhelmed. It’s a hard balance to find and I know that it will be something that I have to probably work on for my entire life. I usually have a run of going way too much and need to take time to be home alone for a while. Then after I’ve been avoiding plans I feel like my life is too boring and need to go out and do things. I go back and forth all the time and wish it was easy to find the perfect middle ground.

One way that I know I can find a middle ground and balance is to have really simple and easy plans with friends. When I see my friends it doesn’t always have to be an elaborate event or something that requires a lot of planning. Just going and getting a quick dinner or something with a friend can do so much good for my mental health.

This week, I had one of those simple but fun plans with a friend. Mondays are my day off of work and I don’t always plan something fun. Sometimes it ends up being my day to catch up on things I need to do to be ready for my week. But a friend and I decided that we should go to a movie when she was done with work, so I had plenty of time to do what I needed to do and go to a movie. We really didn’t end up making the plans until about an hour before the movie started, but it was so easy to figure out when we could go and just do it.

I rarely pay to see movies because of the screenings I have access to, but I hadn’t gotten a screening invite to see “Captain Marvel” and I really wanted to see it. I was more than willing to pay to see it, plus I like to support with my money when I can and I want to support female led films. My friend has the AMC annual pass for movies, so we went to the AMC theater that was closest to us. I let her organize the tickets since I don’t know how the movie pass things work. So I just paid her cash for my ticket after she ordered it.

The tickets were more expensive than I thought, but I figured it was because I rarely pay for tickets and I probably forgot how much it was to go to a movie. We got some popcorn (another treat since the screenings I go to don’t allow you to have food) and went to the theater.

Turns out, the reason the tickets were expensive was because we were in the fancy theater at that AMC. The seats were larger than normal and had a few different reclining options. And there were fewer seats than a normal theater so there was extra leg room in each row. It felt much more like a nice screening room than a regular movie theater. Yes, we could have gone to a cheaper movie if we had realized we were going to a time in one of the nicer theaters, but it didn’t matter too much. Since I don’t go to movies at AMC often, it’s nice to do something special when I do.

Before the movie started, my friend and I both kept saying how this felt so luxurious. It wasn’t a huge splurge, but it really felt like it. We were already excited to see the movie, but getting to see it in a nice reclined chair with large armrests was going to make it that much better!

And “Captain Marvel” didn’t disappoint! I loved the movie and the message that it had. It was a very empowering movie and I’m so glad that we had another female superhero movie out there. It’s not that common to see that and I think they need to make more of them. And not only was the message good, I think it was one of the best soundtracks for a superhero film I’ve seen! The music was from when I was in middle school, so I knew all of the songs. I’m not a big music person, so for me to know the songs is pretty rare.

My friend and I didn’t do anything after the movie. We talked about maybe getting dinner, but we ended up not doing it. But that didn’t matter. Just going out to a movie felt so out of my normal routine and special and it was exactly the type of casual friend hang out that I need to do more of. It required almost no planning or organizing, but it was just as fun as some of the more elaborate things I organize. Plus, I got to see an amazing movie that I’ve been wanting to see!

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Default ThumbnailHaving A Season Of Musicals (or Finally Enjoying Something I Haven’t Done Since I Moved To LA) Default ThumbnailRemembering To Have Some Fun (or Hangouts Don’t Always Have To Be Events) Default ThumbnailGospel According To First Squad (or Enjoying A Play Reading) Default ThumbnailA Mini Photo Shoot (or Enjoying A Voter Freebie) Default ThumbnailEnjoying More Food and Wine Festival (or Enjoying A Hot Day At Disneyland) Default ThumbnailCheating With Pie (or Trying To Splurge The Right Way)

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Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)

Posted on October 9, 2018 | Comments Off on Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)

I usually write about the SAG-AFTRA Film Society at the beginning of the summer because that’s when the season usually starts each year. But this year, there were some delays with the theater and the season had to start late. But since we are going to have a shortened season, we also had reduced pricing so I’m not too mad about it! And finally this past weekend we had the first screening season!

The first weekend had 2 screenings but I was only able to make it to the first screening. And the first screening was “A Star Is Born” and I was so excited to see it! I had heard so many great things about it and the screening was going to be on opening weekend which is a rare treat!

More often than not, I go to screenings alone and that’s fine with me. But I always ask around to see if anyone wants to go with me because it’s always fun to see a movie with a friend. Plus, since I pay for the season, I like to invite friends so they can get a free movie! It’s one of the fun things I get to do and share with others and it always makes me happy when someone can come with me.

This time, my friend Dani wanted to come along. She has never been to one of these screenings before (although she has been to screenings through other ones) so I think she was excited to see what the Film Society is all about. We got there pretty early since the first screening weekend is usually crowded. The way they had us line up was different from the other years I’ve done it so it looked like there were so many people in line, but I reassured Dani that it always looks like that but then when you get inside the theater I can almost always find seats in the center.

While I still have moments of realizing that I’m talking to someone I recognize from tv or movies, it’s seeming more normal to me. But when Dani and I lined up for the movie, she had a look on her face like she was trying to place someone she thought she knew. She told me a bit later that a woman behind us in line was in one episode of “Friends” and she remembered her from that one episode. I love when friends get excited about stuff like that because it’s one of those “only in LA moments”.

When we got inside the theater, I was right and we were able to be seated almost exactly in the center of the theater. We had some time to kill before the movie started, but we used that time to catch up and discuss lots of random things.

My quick review of “A Star Is Born” is that is was amazing! The story is pretty similar to the past versions of it so nothing was super shocking or surprising. But it still seemed to feel new and fresh. And when it was one of the dramatic scenes toward the end (if you know the story you know what I’m talking about), I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And Bradley Cooper did a wonderful job directing it and making the film look beautiful. For his first time directing, he did an incredible job and I have a feeling there will be a lot of award nominations for the movie.

After the movie, Dani and I decided to get some dinner. We were looking at different restaurants near the theater and nothing seemed to be what we wanted. But then Dani asked if we could go to Pink’s Hot Dogs since it wasn’t too far away. She had never been there before and wanted to check it out. I really enjoy Pink’s and don’t go that often so that sounded perfect to me! I prepared her that there may be a huge line, but when we got there the line only had about 10 people in it! It was fate that we went there!

We both enjoyed our hot dogs and just hanging out and chatting. It was also such a nice night outside so it felt good to be sitting outside and not feeling too hot or like the humidity was stifling. Even though we just had hot dogs, Dani and I decided to continue our night out and get some dessert. We were trying to think of a very LA type of dessert and decided to go Milk which is an ice cream shop and a bakery. I had never been there before but had heard amazing things about it so we got in the car and headed over there.

So many of the things on the menu sounded great and neither Dani nor I could decide on what we wanted. So we decided to get 2 different ice cream sundaes so we could try a few types of ice cream plus the brownie and blondie.

Those desserts were so good, but they were so giant! We each tried both sundaes and I think we both agreed that the blondie was the better of the two. But even with us both eating that sundae it seemed like we didn’t even make a dent in it! But we were both so stuffed and the store was closing so we only finished a portion of each before heading back to my car to head back.

We joked that this night was such an LA/Hollywood night. We went to a screening, we went to Pink’s, and we went to an ice cream shop that is known for Instagramable foods. It was so silly but so awesome at the same time! Whenever I have these low-key hangouts with friends I always say how much fun they are, and this one was no different. And hopefully I’ll be able to have more nights out like this with some more of the screenings this season!

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Default ThumbnailFYC (or A Drive-In TV Screening Night) Default ThumbnailMore Friends More Fun (or Still Building My Social Circle) Default ThumbnailA Night At A Screening (or Forgetting What Non-Screenings Are Like) Default ThumbnailAnother Grove Adventure (or Dinner And Not A Screening) Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out) Default ThumbnailMagic Castle Fun (or Girls Night Out)

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Remembering To Have Some Fun (or Hangouts Don’t Always Have To Be Events)

Posted on July 25, 2018 | 1 comment

For a while I’ve been working on making more of an effort to see my friends. Sometimes I get too wrapped up in work, or I get sick, or life just takes over and I neglect some of my friendships. I know that I’m not the only person guilty of doing this, but I also know that I can be better about making plans and not letting too much time go by between hanging out with friends.

But at the same time, I feel like I see some of my friends a lot because of things that I have scheduled to do with them. When I have parties to go to, musicals that I have tickets for, or Disney days in the calendar those are events and I make the time to go to them. Those events are usually in my calendar for a while so I don’t really feel like I’ve been making plans. I just am going to something I knew about and they are really fun things I get to do.

But not all of my friend hangouts need to be events like that and big awesome days. I have forgotten about just going to hang out with my friends or doing something easy and casual with them. This may be because I do try to save time for dates and am trying to keep myself available and open, but that is no excuse. My friends should always be a priority to me whether or not I’m dating someone.

So after the last musical I went to, my friends and I were saying that we needed to do a fun dinner or something soon. Normally our dinners out are before the show or at Disneyland and they are a part of a bigger day. It’s so easy to forget that we can just go out and have a dinner and maybe go see a movie or something. I always think that hangouts have to be something amazing and awesome and forget that what makes them amazing and awesome is usually the company that I’m with. So this week we decided to do a dinner and movie hangout.

We had a bit of a snafu with our original dinner idea. We picked a restaurant that normally would be easy to park at with street and neighborhood parking. But the neighborhood parking ended at 6pm and the street parking was a rush-hour tow zone until 7pm. And of course we were trying to eat at 6. So we made a quick decision to switch restaurants and picked one in the same shopping center as the movie we were going to. This worked out fine and I really love the food at the restaurant we went to. I was planning on having a cheeseburger at the original restaurant and got one at the one we ate at.

Dinner was a little rushed so we could make it to the movie, but we still had time to catch up on life. I’ve been struggling with some things lately (more on that later this week) and I really did need to talk some things out. It’s so nice to have friends who relate to what I’m going through and have advice to give. And they aren’t afraid to ask the hard questions or bring up things that I might not want to hear but need to. And I try to do the same for them when they are struggling.

After dinner we went to the movie which was something we were all looking forward to seeing. I’m not going to share what movie it was because I didn’t really love it, but it was fun to go to a movie with friends. I’m so used to going to screenings alone that it is a rare treat to go to a movie with someone else. And it’s pretty rare for me to see a movie that is in a regular theater and it is a different feeling compared to a screening venue. I think that because I go to so many screenings I forget about going to movies with friends. My friends both have MoviePass which I have debated getting. I’m still not totally sold on getting it because I don’t know if I’d use it enough, but it’s something I know I could get one day if I do end up going to more movies that aren’t screenings.

Seeing a movie with friends was so fun. We were chatting about what we liked and didn’t like after it was done and we all had pretty different opinions. One friend loved it, one friend didn’t, and I was mixed (as I put it to my friends, “I have thoughts about it.”). But it didn’t matter that I didn’t love the movie, it was nice just talking to them about it after the movie was done. When I go alone, I don’t get that experience.

I’ve said this a million times (and will probably say it a million more), but I am working on being better at seeing my friends. But this dinner and a movie out was a good reminder that I can do things that don’t take much planning or effort to see my friends and still have a great time.

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