I Did the Midnight Showing and I Regret Nothing (Mostly)

Two hours and three minutes. That's how long 10,000 BC is. I know this because I kept track in the dark on my watch, not because I was bored, but because around the 90-minute mark I started doing survival math. Like, if it ends at 2:15, and I need to be up for a run by 7, that's technically enough sleep if I fall asleep the instant I get home and don't spend 45 minutes lying there replaying the movie. Reader, I spent 45 minutes lying there replaying the movie.

I've been quietly in a holding pattern these last few weeks, application submitted, savings ledger open and staring at me, the 'before I leave' list on my phone that currently has exactly one item on it. At some point last week I realized I hadn't just done something for no reason in a while. Everything has been purposeful. Everything is pointing at the trip. So when the midnight showing thing came up I thought: yes. This is a thing a person does in March on a Wednesday when they are 19 and technically free and the savings account will still be there in the morning.

credits rolling. barely conscious. 10/10 would do again.

The movie itself is exactly what you'd expect from a movie called 10,000 BC. Woolly mammoths. A lot of dramatic running. Someone says something deeply sincere about destiny at least four times. I loved it completely. I walked out of that theater at 12:59am with popcorn smell in my hair and that specific brand of happy that only comes from doing something slightly irresponsible on a school night.

3am in the parking lot. the look of someone who made excellent choices.

I'm writing this on Wednesday morning after three and a half hours of sleep and two cups of coffee and I feel like a very functional ghost. Running club tomorrow is going to be a spiritual experience. The ledger is still open on my phone. The departure window is still marked. But last night, just for a few hours, I was just a person at a movie. That felt really good.