In the spring of 1999 I was on the verge of a relationship ending. As if this wasn't enough, we were living together and since he owned the place I would need to be the one to move out. Even worse than this though was that practically half his family was staying with us. His parents, his sister, his brother-in-law and his brother. His mother hated me, and it wasn't long before the sister and the brother-in-law did too, since the mother continually bad-mouthed me to them. I suppose I didn't help by closing off and retreating into myself.
It felt like my world was crumbling. I was very young and living in a country where I had no family, and I was a student and not very financially well off. I had basically no friends, apart from one guy friend with whom I had a rather strange, oddly comforting and sometimes screwed up friendship. These were there not ideal circumstances to be in. Living in a house with a boyfriend who had fallen out of love with me, and with his family who intensely disliked me and had stopped talking to me. Ever since I moved to Canada, my boyfriend had been my family, and now all of that had changed.
I had begun to comfort drink. A visiting friend had left a bottle of Gordon's gin in the refrigerator and I tried some, and had found that the first effects of the alcohol had a calming, sooting effect on my weary, stressed mind. It didn't take much to affect me since I was pretty much a novice when it came to drinking. Not the best solution to problems but at least it had a temporary effect.
The movie Urban Legend, which had come out in theatres the previous year, was constantly playing on Pay Per View, and I begun watching it over and over again. It became my escape, well that and Gordon's gin.
While the family was out, I was able to use the living room, and I watched Urban Legend.
Now, I'm watching it again, and it brings back so many memories. Fortunately, 99 was a long time ago and wounds have pretty much healed. There will always be a scar, an unpleasant memory, but I can finally look back at those past events and not feel rage.
That movie reminds me of college. I was a college student. My campus was nothing like the university featured in the movie, but still, I could relate. Seeing that movie again, the dress styles of that period, it just brings back so many memories of my college days. It was a rather horrible time for me, that first year of college, but still, in retrospect I can sort of appreciate certain things about it.
Urban Legend is just another slasher. It's not really original, by any means, but for some reason it still captivates me. When I watch it, I picture that couch in that living room of the townhouse I lived in for a year. When I hear that theme song, that sort of ethereal, mysterious melody that plays when the title comes on, I am transported back to the past.
It's driving Nick crazy, the fact that I have watched Urban Legend twice this week, and I haven't told him yet but I also watched it today while he was at work.
My fascination is in part due to my interest in urban legends.
It's typical of me to watch something over and over again when I like something. It's not enough just to see it once. I have to over-do it. Go to extremes. Do it again and again. I'm a serial watcher.
Whatever works. The way I see it, if something interests you, you should do it.
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