The cracking of tree branches echoed through the night. As each one fell, my heart pounded as I worried what destruction they would bring.
*SNAAAP* Would more power lines break?
*CRAAAACK* Would our house be damaged?
I tried to ignore the sounds to focus on staying warm, but each breaking branch just frightened me more. I thought about how as a kid, I felt like the weather man and I were co-conspirators and he kept reporting all of the horrible snow weather so I could stay out of school. As an adult with a job and responsibilities, I hated the weather man more than anything. He said that the ice wasn’t supposed to be too bad.
He was a liar.
I was living with my life-long childhood friend Jessica when I had to shut all of the doors to the bedrooms of her house to keep the living room warm. All of the other bedrooms were outside walls and their windows leaked in cold air. I was laying on the couch with two layers of clothes on and with a pile of blankets acting as a forcefield. The power had only been out for a couple of hours, but the cold was already creeping in.
The next day, I drove over to Sam’s apartment because she had power . . . that is, until I got there. Apparently, I brought bad luck with me because the power went out right as I showed up. A tree had fallen in her parking lot and blocked the stairs up to her apartment, so I had to walk through the building to the other set of stairs and brave their treacherous ice in order to get to her.
Being a couple of tech kids who played lots of video games, we were unsure of what to do without power. We read some comic books, and played round after round of the card game Speed, but we soon grew tired of it. Literally 90% of Springfield was without power, so there wasn’t any relief in sight. It was up to the two of us to sit and keep each other company.
This has never been a problem. Sam and I have this way of having the most inane conversations but finding them entertaining. Often times, we rank our favorite foods and then debate about the merits of the rankings. I once remember a twenty minute conversation about the different types of fries and which ones the two of us preferred.
To me, this is love. In the midst of bad weather, no power, and no money, the two of us can just talk about something as simple as fries and be perfectly content and happy.
Our conversation drifted to our mutual love for inspirational sports films. Sam absolutely hates watching sports because she finds them to be boring and honestly, I find them to be a bit boring too. What makes inspirational sports films worth watching, however, is that they have the one thing that regular sports doesn’t have: plot.
Sports are powerful because they are able to inspire people towards something greater. Everyone has a basic sense of need for belonging and sports is a sort of ultimate unifier in this regard. At its very core, there is something that should appeal to all people within sports, and if the NFL would just hire a writer or two to spice up some games with a plot with some real consequences, then I think they could appeal to the last small demographic that they haven’t captured.
Eh . . .the NFL probably doesn’t care. Nor should they.
Tired of being stranded in her apartment, we bundled up and walked around the neighborhood to see all of the sights. It’s amazing to consider how powerful ice can really be. Our beautiful city had become a disaster area. Seeing trees toppled over and other being held up by power lines had a profound effect on me. It was horrific and yet somehow beautiful.
After our trek through the icy streets of Springfield, we returned to her apartment where Sam said, “I can’t do this anymore. We need to find someplace warm.”
“How about a movie?” I suggested.
The only theater open was the Springfield 8 (not my choice in movie theaters, but it was the only one with power) and our only two movie choices were We Are Marshall and The Departed. Neither of us being a Scorsese fan, we chose We Are Marshall mostly because the running time was over two hours and we wanted to get the most for our money.
A friend of ours was working at the movie theater and he let us in for free. He even gave us a punch card with all of the punches knocked out so we could have a free popcorn and soda. When Sam and I were asked if we wanted to upsize to a large for just 18 cents more, we decided we could spare the change for it.
We Are Marshall wasn’t the best film in the entire world, but for 18 cents including a popcorn and drink during the worst ice storm anyone had ever seen with the most important person in the world by my side, I’d have to say it was the best movie experience I’ve ever had.
That is until I realized that I had been tricked into seeing a film by McG.
I guess what I’m really trying to say is that today is Valentine’s Day, so go tell someone you love how much they mean to you today.
once upon a time there was a boy named cody. and he said nice things to me…and I liked it.
thanks puddin’ pop.
^_^
you didn’t mention about how we passed the time playing hours of “marvel guess who” trying to make the game as difficult as possible.