50/50 was almost a disaster

Spoiler alert.  If you plan to see 50-50, don't read this until you do.


So Saturday was distraction duty day for my dear friend T.  I sent her an email with three options earlier in the week.


1.       Ambitious, exciting, cultural – very distracting
2.       Fun, girlie, entertaining – distracting, but lower key
3.       Soft, easy, couch-potato-esque – distracting, but VERY chill


We decided, the middle one was juuuuust right.  So I took her off for lunch, a movie, and some shopping.  We hit the movie theater first to figure out showings and times.  Neither of us were up on current movie titles so we actually had to go old school and check out the binder with movie synopses to make a choice.  We narrowed it to three and then T abdicated.  I did a little eeny-meeny-minie-mo-ing at the ticket machine, and we were on for 50/50.  


Then we hit my favorite mall restaurant - Stir Crazy - cause it has fresh yummy Thai fusion food and is right next to the movie theatre.  And it is the perfect accompaniment to drama discussions.  And drama was the discussion of the day, hers, and to mix it up, we added some about others too.  Quite literally there was discussion of attempted suicides, murders, and other very serious mayhem.


Sometimes I'm really happy I lead a fairly boring life.


We hit the candy counter after all that yummy fresh Thai food so T could get something sticky for the movie.  Normally I'm on board with that, but I was pretty full of Thai, so I opted for a small (which equates to half six-pack size) soda.  Praying I wouldn't have to leave the movie 3 times to pee, we snuggled in for 25 minutes of previews....which all looked good, but also suspiciously looked like real Christmas tear jerkers.  


Hmmmmm.  Usually the previews are thematically linked to the movie you are seeing to catch the right demographic and movie tastes....


As the movie progressed, I thought - it's Seth Rogan, it can't be anything but cute funny right?  Ummmm.  Diagnosis.  Broken hearts.  Dysfunctional mother relationships.  Alzheimer father.  Shit. Shit. Shit.  Have I actually brought my highly stressed out friend to view a family horror show with possible death of the main cute character at the ripe old age of 28?  Shit. Shit. Shit.  Are we both gonna walk out of here even more distraught and depressed?  


I kept tearing up throughout the movie and watching my friend out of the corner of my eye.  Wipe the eyes, drink soda, wipe the nose, drink soda, wipe the eyes again, drink soda.  


Then the Doctor announces.  The chemo, which has killed one of your cancer buddies and is killing another, has done nothing to help you.  So we have to go take this ENORMOUS tumor from your spine now and you might not survive the surgery.  Alzheimer dad stares off into space.  Cheating girlfriend is gone.  Crazy therapist he yelled at is out of picture.  Nutty mom is smothering him.  Shit. Shit. Shit.


It gets even more dramatic and I don't know if I'm more worried about the main character or my friend slowly munching her candy next to me.  


Finally...agonizingly....it resolves.  He lives.  He thrives.  He finds love with crazy therapist.


As the lights come up.  I turn to my friend and before I can speak she says, "Thank God he lived.  If he had died I might have totally lost it."  And we look at each other and start laughing hysterically as I proclaim, "My God...I was thinking the exact same thought.  We sit through most of the credits laughing. 


And as we continued on with our day I thought: That was good.  That one moment of connection and laughing was the perfect thing we BOTH needed.  


Oh.  That and the shoes.  Cuz nothing says girl day of fun like new shoes.