Tuesday night I worked through till 3:30 the next morning, drove home, and stayed up another half hour updating stories and adding speech photos.
A few hours later I was back at work, numb, typing away in a subdued office. When I got out Teres was already out with friends so I met Dave for dinner: pizza at Angelina’s. Comfort food. And then, I left, because I had a date with a princess.
Epic Theaters has a Flashback Cinema program where they bring in old movies on Sundays and Wednesdays. Tonight was “The Princess Bride.”
“The Princess Bride” has been one of my favorite movies since it came out in 1987. It’s based on one of my favorite books, something I had to hunt down decades ago through musty old bookstores across the central Florida area before the movie came out a few years later and flooded the stores with tie-in copies. (Love the movie. The book is better.)
I’ve seen it a zillion times. I could probably recite it. I have a copy at home, with special features and a nearby fridge and a comfy bed, but there is something special about seeing it on a big screen with other people around.
Not a lot of other people, mind you. There was a couple behind me, and a group of five young women on the other side of the theater. But everyone laughed at the right times and for a couple of hours, I was happy and at peace. I can’t tell you how much I needed that, tonight.
The gentleman of the couple behind me was still laughing, later in the bathroom as we washed our hands. “No, I’ve never seen it!” he said. His daughter had brought him. “Never got around to it. Oh, that was fun!”
The feeling didn’t last all the way to the car, but it didn’t quite go away, either.
Thank you for that, Messrs Goldman and Reiner, Miss Wright, Messrs Elwes and Patinkin and Shawn and Roussimoff, Sarandon and Guest, Mr. Crystal and Ms. Kane, Messrs Savage, Falk, Smith and Cook. Thank you.