I love movies. Old movies, new movies, horror, action, comedy. I’m not really a chick flick kinda girl, but I can be swayed under the right conditions. Oddly enough, my favorite movie may actually be a chick flick… I think. I’ve always been a little hazy on what makes a movie a chick flick.

My favorite movie is very old, and wouldn’t you know it, Jimmy Stewart is in it. The Philadelphia Story [1940, not to be confused with Tom Hanks’ 1993 Philadelphia] is actually a good story, but more importantly, has characters I love. Funny thing, I rarely like movies for the storyline/plot. I love characters. I’m a character whore. When I tell someone about this movie, I skim the storyline and go right to the characters and how they interact. The little sister, Dinah, is probably my favorite, and with lines like “Nothing ever possibly in the least ever happens here. Mother, how do you get smallpox?” how can you not love her? But I’m more than a character whore. I’m a secondary character whore. After all, I watched Will and Grace for Karen and Jack.

I was thinking about that, watching an old movie with a great quirky cast, and realized my friends and family and life in general is all about the characters. I don’t adore someone because of the setting or the atmosphere or the storyline of their life. I love the people around me because of their complexity, their quirks and their overall characters. I love how they interact—with each other, with me, with strangers. I commented on this “attraction to quirky” when a friend and I were discussing something I debated writing into a character. We agreed that it was a side character trait, but it was something from my actual life. I laughed and said I was a living, breathing, quirky secondary character.

And promptly got yelled at.

Quoting a chick flick, she admonished me with, “You’re supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, not the best friend.”

Ok, so it wasn’t a direct quote, but you get the idea. And more importantly, I got the idea. I’ve been the quirky best friend and the asexual friend and the tomboy and the token chick and on and on and on. It’s about time I stopped taking roles that highlight those around me and start getting the good lines. But even back in school I didn’t audition for Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, or Josephine in HMS Pinafore. Nope, I was happy as Glenda and Buttercup. I’ve never taken center stage, I’ve never known how. After school there were boyfriends and a husband I could stand behind, and then children I could put up front as a handy shield. I’ve done what so many women have done through the ages. Taken a backseat in my own life.

It’s my life. It’s time to start living it. I’m taking charge and doing what I want, when I want.

If you follow my twitter, you may have noticed the word of the day on Friday: indecorous. I decided to go against the norm, or the oddly accepted/wrongly perceived norm, that says you can’t go out and do things by yourself. Bah! I went to a movie that night all by myself, “one ticket for whatever is playing at 7:00.” Me and my red licorice laughed and giggled and had fun. I followed it up with a little Mexican food at the new restaurant. It was delicious. I laughed, I ate, and I stood alone. A leading lady with no support cast whatsoever. And it wasn’t as scary as I thought… I went to Country Kitchen by myself Saturday morning and brought the laptop. I chain-smoked and sucked coffee, and had a lovely egg & bacon wrap and edited my novella.

Indecorous and productive, I like that. I’ll probably do it again. No… I will do it again. Viva la leading ladies. [Ok, I don’t know Spanish and made that up, so forgive me if the syntax is all wrong.]

“Make up!”