Movie Date for One Doubles in Size

There's magic at the movies, if you can just believe...

Saw "Romance and Cigarettes" last night at Cinema 21. I hadn't seen anything written on it, so went in blind. Then I had to adjust myself to what I was seeing. Now I need to know if that's really Susan Sarandon singing the Janis Joplin cover, and I'm reminded that going on a date with Eddie Izzard is on my "To Do" list.

Anna was behind the ticket window last night.











After I succumbed to her sales pitch and was buying the requisite large buttered popcorn for one, Anna told me a story.

Seems there's a man who also frequents the Cinema alone, of that New York type. Anna radiates a gentle kindness and humor, so when she was imitating him it was like watching a ballerina with a jackhammer.

The guy likes to ask (demand?) of her if he's going to meet any women there, to which she replies that you never know. So when he actually made his love connection, it played out right in front of her. He was doing his schtick, bantering with another woman "who was just as loud and obnoxious as him," and it ended with the two going out the door for coffee. Or began, depending on how you look for it.

I asked if they'd been back in as a couple, and Anna said not yet that she'd seen. We can only hope.

I like this story. Something similiar once happened to me.

I ran down the aisle of my hometown movie theatre literally as the lights were dimming on a packed house for the premiere of "ET." A miracle seat on the aisle was open next to a handsome young guy who was there, as it turned out, alone. The movie was enchanting. The handsome guy's murmured asides were witty and made me laugh. By the time the movie ended, I felt like we were already friends.

He was an EMT in the Coast Guard, one of those guys that goes out in the chopper on those hairy Search and Rescues, when people on fishing boats are injured and the ship's in trouble. Adrenaline junky. He took me for a ride on his motorcycle and we started one of those "Mr/Ms Right" romances. It ended when we both left, I to start college and him to become a heart specialist and marry a nice Jewish girl but the point is just like Anna says, you never know.
That's why I buy the large popcorn.