getting it out of my system

I’m not much of a movie* person. Much less a TV person. When I have things to do, as I always do as a student (in this lifestyle, there’s no such thing as ever being free), I have very little patience to sit through a movie, and even if I did have time, TV is no temptation. On average I watch maybe one movie every three months. And although I have a big cable TV set sitting right in my living room (my roommate’s), I rarely even so much consider the notion of turning it on. However, three weeks ago, on a Saturday night, following a long week of all work and no play, I decided I just needed to watch a movie. Since October, I’ve been meaning to watch both Capote and The Squid and the Whale, but the first time I set out to watch them, they were not released in the Boston area yet, so I watched Big Fish instead, and the second time, I went to the movies with a friend who had already seen both of them, and I ended up watching Match Point. So hence, on that Saturday night in March, tired of inferior replacements, I embarked on a mission to Blockboster to rent either Capote, The Squid and the Whale, or nothing. And so, I ended up returning to my apartment with nothing (after going to a Hollywood Video store too). And since then, my craving to watch those movies having gone unfulfilled, I’ve been paying the consequences. And thus today, with no imminent deadlines ahead, but LOTS of things to do within the next two days, I decided that it’s essential that I tend to this basic need now, rather than at a worse time (like the week before my thesis is due), and alas, I will spend the next 81 minutes finally watching The Squid and the Whale.

*I use the word "movie" in the broad sense of the definition, referring to movies in the theater as well as videos and DVDs.