Thinking that I saw Titanic for the first time FOURTEEN years ago makes me feel incredibly old. However, remembering so many details surrounding it at the very least encourages me that I may have a good memory in my old age. Fingers crossed.
I went with a couple of my girlfriends to go see Titanic in 3D tonight. On the drive to dinner to meet them I was reminiscing about how my girlfriend Erin and I loved the movie when it was first released. While I was never as insane as most 15 year-olds (I only saw it in the theaters twice and never had a poster of Leonardo DiCaprio in my room – although I may get one now) I was caught up in the romance of Jack and Rose and was really excited to go see it… especially since I went on my first date [ever] with a brand new boyfriend.
After all the hype of figuring out what to wear I remember sitting with Erin on my bed in the room I shared with my sister waiting for him to pick me up (I think, my parents may have dropped me off, but regardless I was sitting and waiting). I was nervously trying to figure out how this was all going to play out with holding hands for the first time: make sure to keep my hand available on my knee just in case his hand was on his knee and our pinkies would brush *gasp* …when someone brought up the boobie scene. I’d forgotten all about it. 14 years ago it was a big deal for an entire breast to be shown on a movie screen, especially for it to only be rated PG13, and I’d certainly never seen it before. I was such a prude I quickly became completely panicked about looking at a boob with a boy next to me. After all, how incredibly inappropriate and awkward!
True story: together, Erin, Andrea and I devised a plan of attack so I wouldn’t have to look at the screen when Rose disrobed. Leaving to go to the bathroom, while understandable in a three-hour movie, would be too obvious so we settled on a drink. I would buy a drink at concessions and leave it be until that scene where I would casually become incredibly preoccupied with how thirsty I was and drink my pop for the next three minutes. Disaster averted.
Or my plan had the same destiny as the ship itself because at the movies you buy a drink in a cup with a straw and not a can where you have the object in front of your face when you’re drinking so not only did I see everything, but I must have looked even more nervous and uncomfortable than I actually was when I frantically realized it wasn’t going to work. I don’t remember anything after that - I’m not sure if we held hands, I don’t know if he drove me home, I don’t even remember if we had our first kiss, I just remember feeling super awkward and slurping my Sprite incredibly quickly and having to pee the remainder of the ridiculously long movie. This was the stuff dreams are made of.
The second time I saw it in the theaters was actually a lot better because I went with my church youth group (stay with me… it wasn’t scandalous). The leaders were trying to teach the guys the importance of creative dating so they decked out a school bus to look like a boat, complete with life preservers hanging in some of the windows, rented out a screen at the $2 theater and served us McDonalds hamburgers while we watched the movie and the youth pastor threw a hand up over the projector during all the questionable parts. My kind of movie. HA! It was though one of my favorite events with that youth group, I felt so special and it wasn’t lost on me that a different boy was going out of his way to make sure I knew I was thought of, but that’s another story for another day. but maybe not.
Anyway, in neither of those trips to the movies do I remember leaving feeling so depressed! Sweet Moses that’s a sad movie! Apparently in my old age the image of Jack turning around at the staircase and taking Rose’s hand was no longer enough to carry me through the final 90 minutes of the movie with all the death and destruction and drowning. and death. with drowning.
When the credits were rolling at the end of the movie and Celine Dion was bringing more tears to the lady behind us with her ballad, my friends and I looked at each other and felt like we finally exhaled from holding our breath through the sadness! The old people in their bed, the mom putting her kids to sleep, the floating girl, and I literally threw up in my mouth a little when they showed a mother bobbing in the ocean with her baby clutched tightly in her arms. It was too much! Geez James Cameron you laid it on thick! Well played, great story-telling, but Sweet Moses.
As oddly awake as I am right now from being so sad for so long, I am at the very least really happy to remember the ridiculousness of my friendship with Erin and how she was, and still is, a kindred spirit and as much of a soul-mate as I think you can have with a friend. We spent every waking moment together that year, and I absolutely wouldn’t have survived 15 without her. To this day I can call her to share a struggle or a celebration and I know that she’s going to not only relate to what I’m talking about, but laugh with me through it and provide an amazing support that I’ve come to depend on. So, to you, Mrs. Green, I will never let go.
