Crushing

Ever since 1998, I have been secretly in love with Matt Damon. I worked at a video store (yes, VHS, not DVD!) in college, and I instantly fell in love with Good Will Hunting. What's not to love - Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, and Boston accents!?! I had never heard of Matt or Ben before, but I was instantly hooked. I begged and begged and B-E-G-G-E-D my boss to let me have a copy of the movie and one of the movie posters from the store. Thankfully, he agreed before I had to go to more extreme measures and risk losing my job and my (not quite stellar anyway) reputation! I made my sorority roommates watch the movie over and over again, and I endlessly intertwined quotes into my everyday conversation. "Howdya like dem apples" fits in pretty easily, but "Great, or maybe we could go somewhere and just eat a bunch of caramels" wasn't quite as smooth... Regardless, I did my best to make it work and my dear friends did their best to humor me.

Since Good Will Hunting, I haven't found another Matt movie that I loved him as much in, but I will keep looking. I'm sure there will be one out there someday...

I think I also have a secret girl crush on Gwyneth Paltrow. Interestingly enough, it seemed to have started around the same time. I remember working at the video store when Gwyneth's remake of Great Expectations was big - yet another one I convinced my boss to give me, but at least I didn't want the poster, too... Shakespeare in Love was also released around that same time, and I remember dragging my (clearly very tolerant or at least easily persuaded by a promise of anything that got them out of studying or playing yet another round of "I never" with that annoying girl down the hall who didn't take "no" for an answer) roommates to the crappy movie theater in our East Bumblef@*$ town at least three times to watch it with me. The popcorn was awful, the soda flat, and the chairs almost all broken. The projector was noisy and the sound quality from the speakers was probably second only to my grandmother's 1987 hearing aides, but it didn't matter. I was hooked!

Ah, the good old days - when I had oodles of time to just sit around and watch (and rewatch) movies just because I liked to drool over the actors. The plots weren't too bad, but really, I was there for the visuals. How is it that college students think they have no time for anything, but now - twelve years later - I can't remember the last time I sat through a whole movie the first time, much less a repeat viewing! Even when my kids are asleep, I'm up and down to put laundry in, feed the cats, feed myself, etc. I'm usually also on Facebook, my email, reading a report for work, and organizing pictures on the computer. Kinda makes college seem like child's play...

Anyway, next time I come across a Matt or Gwyneth movie, I will try my hardest to put down my ice cream, turn the computer off (okay, well at least I'll try to turn off the "ping" it makes when I get a new email), and tell the cats to suck it up and catch a mouse or something. I owe it to myself (and them, because how can they live without my secret crushes on them???) to give my crushes my undivided attention!