It takes a lot to get me out of the house on the weekend. The stars have to be aligned, I suppose, and the movie has to start late enough that I can sleep in, but not so late that I can’t get back before dark. Oh, and it has to be somebody else’s idea. Left to my own devices, I’ll vegetate. As proof, I offer nearly every Saturday journal entry for the last five years.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen a movie in a theater that I was foolishly nervous when I set out to pick up Mom for our trip to the Rialto this afternoon. As always, my biggest fear was looking ridiculous. What if we got there late? What if the parking lot was full? What if we couldn’t find good seats?

I’m always a mess of emotional doubts when confronted with an unanticipated situation, and I remembered having to drive away from the theater a year ago, simply because of factors of time and space. By the time I’d driven around the parking lot a couple of times, it would have been too late to make the start of the picture even if we had found a spot. Is it any wonder I stay home most of the time?

But today we had better luck. I had to squeeze into the last free spot in the lot, a little too close for comfort to the Camaro in the next stall. There would have been more spaces available if so many people hadn’t decided to take up more than one spot.

It worked out, but I got a little tense walking through the lot to the lobby entrance, because so many drivers were circling, looking at cars and not people. If I’d had a baseball bat or a steel pipe with me, I don’t know if I could have resisted doing some damage. That’s what I get for staying home all the time. I’m ill equipped to deal with traffic, human or vehicular.

For someone who stays home all the time, it was odd to have someone I know sit behind me, since neither of us knew the other would be there. It was actually Mom’s friend Lottie, but since I know her, too, I’ll count it as a real event. It was good to see a movie made for grown-ups. The silence in the theater was respectful to the film, and the laughter was genuine and knowing. I’ve been at too many showings where the audience forgot they weren’t alone in their living rooms. That’s probably why I so rarely leave home. But today was a real treat, including a wonderful movie I’ve been wanting to see for a long time.