As a kid, I dreaded the month of August. As soon as the calendar went from July to August, I would feel a knot in my stomach because it only meant one thing - another school year was right around the corner. Nine months of waking up early, stressing about tests, social interactions, and sports were right around the corner. So, you look for anything that can provide a respite. Obviously, seeing your friends more often is a big bonus, and the beginning of both the NFL and NCAA football seasons gave you motivation to get through each day until you got your routine down. However, there was one other thing that helped get me through that adjustment period of getting back to school. Those were the movie marathons on Saturday nights with my mom.
August and September in southwest Florida brought torrential downpours of rain especially on the weekends for some reason. When school is back in session, there is a certain urgency to make your weekends count because before you know it, you're back in the classroom on Monday morning. High school football games on Friday's have great turnouts because students want to capitalize on their weekend just four hours after that last bell of the week rings.
After my brother left the house and started living on his own, it was just my mom and I every other week since my parents were divorced. Saturday's usually consisted of some combination of running errands and grabbing lunch while one of us would play DJ in the car. Since August and September were dumping grounds for theatrically released films, we would stay home for the evening normally. Due to the storms in the area, the TV signal would get knocked out and the plan would be set in motion. We'd turn on the DVD player and decide which two or three movies we would watch for the night and put in an order for pizza.
We were not a Domino's or Papa John's family. It was normally Jet's, Leoni's, or Little Caesar's. We would run out in the rain, grab our pizza, run back as fast as we could while trying not ruin the food. We'd get home, shower and change into pajamas, and turn on the first movie for our marathon. Rarely did we ever watch something we both hadn't seen. Normally, we turn a comedy or action/adventure movie both of us love. The usual suspects were the Austin Powers series, Rush Hour series, It's Complicated, Tropic Thunder, Friday, All About the Benjamins, the Ocean's series, etc. The familiarity that we had with the movies allowed us to still talk about how work/school was going for both us or how the Bengals were going to suck again that year. Then, there's the occasional pause in conversation because we want to catch one of our favorite moments of the film.
To this day, we still have movie marathons now and then. Life can really try your patience, but those six to seven hours can give you the respite you need to keep going. I know when I was drowning in stress and anxiety about upcoming tests, I cherished those moments because it kept me sane, but more importantly, I got to make memories with my mom. And to be honest, I love those marathons more than any expensive vacation that we went on because there was no to-do list where we had to visit certain places or any schedule to follow. It was just pure relaxation and fun. Nobody, including myself, was demanding anything from me, and I just got to enjoy the moment.
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