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 kind of 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 that 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 [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 watch Will and Grace for Karen and Jack.

I was thinking about that, watching an old movie with a great quirky cast, and realized that 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. I was Glenda and Buttercup. I’ve never taken center stage, I’ve never known how. After school there were boyfriends and a husband that I could stand behind, and then children that 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 that 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 dinner 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!”