Remember the good ol’ days of expendable income and movie tickets that cost less than $5? Remember when midnight movies were only $1? Those were good times. We paid to see a lot of movies in the theater, even movies that we would consider “renters” these days. I remember keeping up with the movie seasons and waiting for opening nights. Somehow, it was easier to keep up with new movies. Was it because there were fewer tv channels? Was it because we couldn’t dvr our shows and fast-forward through all the commercials, including movie trailers? I’m not certain of all the reasons why, but I know that I do not keep up with Hollywood and the latest movie news like I used to. Every now and then, a friend will post a movie trailer or production update for The Hobbit on his/her facebook, but, other than that, I don’t really know what’s going to be COMING SOON to a theater near me.

This is all well-and-good until I find out about a film that I would have wanted to follow from the moment the studio said, “Action!”

A couple of weeks ago, Karl sat me down and said, “I need to show you something.” He used his serious voice, so I thought he was going to show me something bad from the news. I had no idea what to expect.

“It’s not a video of someone hurting himself, is it? Because you know I don’t want to see that.”

“No.”

“Cat video? I love those.”

“No. Just sit down and watch.”

I sat, a little tense because I didn’t feel prepared. I like to mentally/emotionally/whathaveyou prepare for whatever I’m about to see. It’s strange. I think it’s because I don’t like surprises. Even more strange is the reason I don’t like surprises: I don’t want my reaction to disappoint whomever has planned the surprise. Because if there’s one thing I am terrible at faking, it is emotion.

But I detected a slight smirk on Karl’s face. This particular smirk can mean a few things, but, after 19 years of studying his face, I deduced that it meant he knew about something that I didn’t. Now, you need to understand something: we poke fun at one another over the things we don’t know. “Oh, I’m surprised you didn’t know that,” is one thing we jokingly say to one another when we find something the other one didn’t know (thank you, Tommy Boy). Yes, we are terrible people with twisted senses of humor.

So, prideful person I am, I determined that I would recognize whatever I was about to see and declare, “Oh, I knew about that a long time ago.”

Ahem.

I plopped down next to Karl. He clicked “play” and stared at me. I can’t be certain, but I think he was watching for my reaction. Talk about unnerving! I felt like one of those ridiculous young girls who video themselves watching Twilight movie trailers and post them to youtube so that everyone can see the response to their first viewing of a Twilight movie trailer. Roll my eyes.

So, anyway. It was a movie trailer, and I recognized it immediately. I knew exactly what it was, but I was clueless.  I heard a woman’s voice sing, “I dreamed a dream in time gone by,” and gasped. I had no idea that a Les Misérables movie/musical was in-the-making and I could not hide my surprise and delight, which, I am sure, is why Karl wanted to watch me watch the trailer. I knows me well and, I think, he likes me a lot.

After replaying it two or four times and pointing out everything the new trailer has that the Liam Neeson/Claire Daines movie doesn’t, I’ve decided that this movie is going to be the best thing ever. I’m more excited about it than pretty much anything else.

The movie premieres on Christmas Day which means that I have about two months left to cram in one more reading of the book. My copy has 1463 pages, which means that I must read at least 25 pages per day if I am to finish it before the movie opens. (As if I’ll actually get to see it the day it opens: Christmas Day is a busy day for a mom!)

I’m so excited!