343. Romantic Comedies

I was in a weird space on Friday night. I got off of work early on Friday and I decided to walk home. I love the peace and quiet of a nice walk home. It was much quieter than my usual walk home due to the incoming blizzard. As soon as I got home, I didn’t have any plans other than drinking some Grain Belt, eating pizza, and staying inside. After a couple beers and getting exhausted on the television shows I was trying to watch, I decided to take in the movie “Crazy Stupid Love.” A friend of my recommended it and I’d been meaning to check it out.

As I wrote a few days ago, there’s been a girl I’ve been fancying, so romance has been on the mind. The movie, while enjoyable, didn’t put me in a good headspace. I thought about all my relationship insecurities and everything that has gone wrong in that area of my life. (A lot of things have gone wrong in that area of my life.) That’s also never a good feeling after you have a couple beers. You begin to feel sorry for yourself. I didn’t want that to happen to me.

I’ve also been binge-watching the show “How I Met Your Mother.” The show’s protagonist, Ted Mosby, is an affable architect who tells the story to his future kids about how he met their mother. There’s a lot of talk about “destiny” and “the one.” Sometimes it’s great, but other times you’re just like, “C’mon.” When it’s good, it’s wonderful television. When it was bad, it was pretty hokey.

The show kept those lovelorn/hopeless romantic feelings bubbling on a weekend where I barely left my apartment due to sub-zero temperatures. That isn’t really a good thing. I didn’t want to turn into a bubbling, so I tried something different on Sunday. I got out of the house as much as possible. I ran errands and hung out with people. And when I got home, I made a decent meal for dinner, decorated my Christmas tree, addressed some Christmas Cards, and read the newspaper. I didn’t watch Netflix. I felt a lot better waking up this morning. I also got a decent night’s sleep.

My biggest issue with romantic comedies lately is time. Viewers forget that issues aren’t really solved in 22 minutes, or 120 minutes. Relationships take up a lot more time. You don’t see the days or weeks that go by without communication. They’re shown via a cut screen. Maybe our brains just don’t register them.

I’ve decided to be a little bit more patient this time around. My problems can’t and won’t be solved in 22 minutes. It was really nice to get out of that mushy headspace for a while and some constructive things. Knowing my red flags and warning signals has been a huge part of growth for this year. I know that too many stories about romance + alcohol + access to instant communication = some regrets. I don’t want to have those sorts of regrets anymore.