[1]

Image is from http://moviesmedia.ign.com

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Today, at the 1:45 screening of "500 Days of Summer" at the Cinema 4 of Festival Supermall, there were 18 buckets of buttered popcorn, 14 tubs of large fries, and 17 packs of Doritos. There were 27 pairs of heads, and there was one head which was not in a pair - Mine.

People don't understand it. Why I opt to do alone things that are best done with someone. Movies. Lunches. Dinners. Running. Sex. I don't owe anyone any explanation. Yes, I have had happy un-alone Saturdays. I have spent time un-alone in a room not mine, rendered ecstatic. But when I think about it, the best times of my life, my top moments of elation, I was alone. Utterly alone. The only company I'd keep is a pen and a receipt for some Danish pastry. I am happy alone. I just need to be reminded of this every so often.

My sister was wondering where I was between the hours of 11 am and 5 pm. She expected me to have some new clothes that I'd end up wearing twice, then lose somewhere in my chaotic closet. I only had a new mechanical pencil wedged in my wallet. I told her that I saw "500 Days." She said that I wasted my P129 for the tickets. She had the movie on her laptop. First point, it's perfectly fine for me to waste my own money. It was I who suffered minutes at work just for that ticket (and the bottled water that I bought with it, among others). Second point, I attempted to watch the movie at home, the laptop on a chair, while clipping my toenails. In 15 minutes, I was reading some random page off "The Life of Pi." In another 15 minutes, I had this conscious dream about a red car (yes, conscious dreams, where you are dreaming, and out-of-this-worldly enough, you are aware that it's just a dream.) I need to work on my attention span. It's no different from my kindergarten level.

So yes. The Narrator, who was, refreshingly, not James Earl Jones, disclaimed that it was "a story of boy meets girl, but don't be deceived, it is not a love story." Movie poster indicates that it was, yes, judging by the number of twosomes inside the theater, a romantic comedy. Anything that has an eccentric girl in it, plus a soundtrack that will be in everyone's mp3 player soon enough, IS a romantic comedy/love story. It's a love story, yes, but I think it won't have the effect of the "typical" love story. I can say with confidence that of the 27 couples who were in the room with me, at least 20 will be uncoupled before the year ends. I'm a good doom forecaster. I have foresaw that Dan and I won't be talking before the year ends, and unsurprisingly, he can't care less about me now, but that, again, is another story.

I love that Day 312 came before Day 44 in the movie. Relationships can't be analyzed in a linear fashion. Things make sense only if one shuttles to and fro amongst frames of time. On Day 402, Tom says that he hates Summer's knobby knees. On Day 59, he worships the same knees. A birthmark that was in the shape of a heart become the shape of something that one kills with slippers. Things said and done assume different meanings and significances.

(This was supposed to be a review, but I re-read everything I've typed, and I find that I haven't said anything smart so far.)

I was thinking of buying a fiery red lipstick, like that worn by Zooey Deschanel. But my sister Kat (She's the only person whose opinions matter to me. I don't even listen to our mother at times, but Kat's advice, I'd most likely heed.) suggested that I stick with the corals and the nudes. Over a Blizzard, she called me a Korean girl who went to Boracay. My skin and red lipstick, she implies, are not friends. Whitening products good for two years will cost me a month's salary. A tube or red lipstick, which will last at least two years, will cost 300-500 bucks. I think I'll choose red lipstick. Boo whitening products.

I'm still thinking about the truth of Kat's statement that my complexion and crimson lips are incompatible. She was right about one thing though - watching the movie will make me feel better. I'm 26. I may have commitment challenges, but I have not denied to my closer friends that I still subscribe to concepts like destiny, The One, romance. But this is something that makes more sense - there is no one pivotal moment that will set how the rest of our lives would be. Choices. Series of moments. Even with the best of intentions, things happen. And we all ask, like Tom did, "What happens?" As Summer replied, "Life. That's what happens."

Like some dear friend asked me to do, I will be kinder to myself.

(FatBoy, I never, ever, for a heartbeat, forgot you. )

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[1] is my favorite part of the movie. Where the [500] Days of Summer end, and Autumn begins. We can choose to wait for the leaves to fall, or we can ask those people out. Anyways, for messes, there's always a broom handy.

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I want someone

who will NOT

cover my mouth

when I shout the word

"Penis"

in the middle of a crowd.