Big Screen Time
Taking my breath away...again.
I am wanting to go to the movies. Not in my movie room, but in an actual theater. I do not think I have been to the movies since I went with my daughter and saw the movie Just Go With It. That would have been 11 years ago. No, there is no love lost for people in a crowded theater and sticky floors. But, Top Gun: Maverick has both Hub and I longing for a date to see this one. I hope it stays in theaters long enough so we can have the whole IMAX experience and see it together after gets home from work in July. I am not going without him.
I will fill you in on the pivotal part Top Gun has played in my life. Hub and I first saw Top Gun in May of 1986 at the theater in Saramento, CA. (Shhh, don’t tell). We were just dating and it was movie season. The first movie we had been to see was Commando, with Arnold. I preferred action movies. Forget the stinky romance.
Hub had been in the Navy for almost 8 years and was now working in the defense industry. A few of those tours had been spent on the USS Enterprise. It really meant nothing to me, as it was NOT my world and as such, my interest ended where I ended. Really, I was no prize. No prize at all.
I was a little on the fence about this guy. He was modest and reticent about himself. I had to drag every little detail about him out with pliers. I had never met a man such as this. I thought him a “little nerdy.” (Sorry babe) He didn’t brag at all, had the greatest smile and made me feel like a queen. He was the antithesis of every male in my life. He rode a bike, not a Harley. He climbed mountains because they were there and he could. (Think Mt. Whitney) He liked to read books. He knew about guns and hunted, yet he was unassuming and a great conversationalist. He had traveled the world, and to him it was not just a job, it was an adventure. We visited wineries and went to the city for long weekends and it was with Hub that I first saw Yosemite, even though I was born and raised just hours from it. In his company a whole new world opened to me. One in which the world did not revolve around me.
Being the shallow girl I was, when we went to see Top Gun, I may or may not have been, ahem, yet undecided on my choice to keep seeing him or bolt.
So, he shows up at my house to pick me up and wasn’t wearing contact lenses. He was wearing navy issued wire rimmed glasses. What??!! Ugh. Shallow me could almost not recover from this spectacle.
I slunk into the theater, praying I would not be seen by an equally shallow “friend”. As we sat through the 110 minute movie, my life changed forever. Knowing nothing about pilots, the navy, an aircraft carrier OR the man I was sitting next to, the next two hours proceeded to be not only an eye opening education but a heart changing experience.
A whole new world played out on the screen in front of us. And, I had a man next to me that had lived that life. He whispered about the scenes in front of me and gave me the inside scoop on that big ship as the movie proceeded. I looked at his smiling face in wonder. There was definitely more to this unassuming guy than met my jaundiced eye. My brain connected with my heart and I became smitten with the man whispering sweet somethings regarding The USS Enterprise in my ear. Holy crap. This guy was a stud. And he wasn’t a braggart, a know it all or thought he was God’s gift to womankind. He was getting awesomer in my eyes every second.
The journey of my heart began that day and I have never looked back. I am thankful for the catalyst of a silly movie called Top Gun, even though it was not a conscious fence I climbed up and over at the moment. I look back and see it clearly now. I see that moment with clarity, gratefulness, a degree of shame at who I was and the thankfulness for a real man who could look past who I thought I was and see the woman I was meant to become with him by my side.
Hub and I are hoping to get to a theater when he gets home from work and feel the circle of life in all its glory. My date can wear any eyewear he chooses because I know his eyes are just for me.
