Going to the movies used to be my favorite activity. It is perfect for dates, friends hangs, alone. It’s always a good day for a cold dark room and an enormous screen.

Need something to do on a weekend? Movie.

Had a bad day at work? Movie.

Wanna enjoy snacks in a dark room? Movie.

Some of my fondest memories are going to see movies.

My first outing as a pre-teen was to the movies.

In college, I all went to marvel at the first Black Disney princes.

My step-dad took our whole family to see every MCU movie opening weekend.

I saw ATL in South Carolina with my aunt while I was visiting her during my spring break in high school. We are huge fans of T.I. and I wanted to be New New aka Erin (Lauren London) during that pool scene. That’s a different conversation for a different day.

One summer, I went to a matinee every Sunday. I saw Columbiana, Friends with Benefits (2xs), Horrible Bosses, Madagascar 3, and Crazy Stupid Love.

The movies was a near perfect temporary escape. Not as good as a book, mind you, but a great second because you can more easily share a movie experience with loved ones. Then The Thing happened and gathering in cold, dark, rooms with strangers become verboten. I so deeply missed the opportunity to submerge myself in a totally different world for two hours and to experience it with my humans.

I went to see The Little Mermaid with my Best Friend and her daughter. We enjoyed it and it reminded me how much I missed the splendor of the movies during the pandemic. It was so cool to go through the whole routine of popcorn, Icees, and previews. There were so many tiny humans dressed up like the characters from the movie. It reminded me of myself when the Harry Potter movies were coming out. We still kept our distance and the theatre was not crowded at all the way I remembered from the before times, but it was nice. I missed it a lot.