Movie in My Mind

by Patti 

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to escape reality and travel up north to New Buffalo for a girls’ weekend. The weather was in the best mood: Cloudless blue skies, mid-70’s, soft breezes…. The trees were dappled with reds and golds, and the sunlight was all autumnal angles and tender warmth. Truly, it was one of the best weekends in recent memory, both weather-wise, and company-wise.

One of the days took us to the vineyards of Michigan, where we sampled wines and laughed about everything and nothing to the point of Ugly Laugh. You know that laugh: the one where your face becomes distorted from laughing so hard, and your mouth is forced into a freakin’ polygon? Yeah! That one! Anyway, on our drive home, we all got a little quiet, probably exhausted from laughing so much. The windows were down to let in the amazing Indian summer air, and the music floating from the car stereo was the perfect accompaniment. I watched soft green fields blur by, and as my hair was lifted gently by the breeze, I imagined we were all in a vintage red pick-up truck, winding down curvy country roads, the music a soundtrack to the movie in my mind. I felt pretty, young, free, and then… CRICKETY CRACKITY CRICKETY CRACKITY CRICKETY CRACKITY… What the…???

I turned my head, and right there behind me and totally stealing the show was a HUGE Bed Bath and Beyond bag hovering over my head, dancing and swaying and twisting and CRICKETY-CRACKETING itself right out of the cargo space and into MY starring role. The soundtrack did that record-scratching sound that you hear in the movies when the heroine is abruptly jolted out of her fantasy, and suddenly, I was in a Jeep, and the fields were just fields and my hair was stuck in my lip gloss.

I was in the backseat with Cathy, and apparently, she, too, had had her own movie going in her mind, and we both laughed to the point of Ugly Laugh again at the absurdity of it all. Couldn’t we just have that one momentous movie moment without it being ruined by something as boring as a Bed Bath and Beyond bag?

It made me think: We all have those moments where we, in our minds, are in a movie. We are gorgeous and free and headed for greatness. And then it never fails that we are somehow, some way brought back to earth. It might be a kid’s stomach flu, or a husband’s bad mood, or a glance in the mirror that reveals bags and wrinkles, or a forgotten bill that has now doubled, or a job that feels less-than-glamorous, or homework that needs checking…. Something always exists to remind us: Life is not a movie. It’s real.

 And though real life is punctuated by the mundane and the absurd and the frustrating and sometimes the down-right-awful, it is also full of moments like this weekend:  the peeing-in-my pants laughing, and the ripe grapes on my tongue, and the late-night talking, and the red leaves that fluttered before us as we sat on the back porch, and the friendships that deepened… all of that was real, too. And because of this, when the movie in my mind starts to play, I will enjoy it for what it is: a fantasy; a moment. Then I will gladly yell “CUT!”