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Nov 06, 2004 17:46


Yesterday was a pretty cool day. I got let off work early, and then I went home and threw together some dinner. Lauren came over to tell me about the new guy she's dating, and it turned into one of those priceless girl conversations that guys would pay to overhear. Haha, good stuff.

Ken called me and invited me over to hang out, with whoever I wanted to bring, so Lauren and I headed over 9ish or 10ish. I was expecting some kind of a gathering, but when we got there Ken was just drinking beer on the porch, solo style. We decided to play pool, and then Ken offered us cookies and milk (hardcore Friday, for sure ;-p) so we took him up on it. Turns out his friend's parents have a cookie business or something in Vermont. So we popped a couple cookies into the toaster oven and chowed down.

We decided we wanted to watch a movie, so we headed over to Video Station and rented Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't exactly know what we were expecting, but I'm pretty sure "mind- fuck" wasn't a term we had in mind. All of us were worn out from the school week, and I think we were looking for something easy and straight forward. Don't know how many people have actually seen "Eternal Sunchine", here's a summary I found:

Joel  is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine  has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contracts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwaik to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew  chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that Joel just can't get her out of his head.

I am a notorious overthinker, so of course I began to think of the procedure conceptually, of if there were things (relationships...) I would want to erase from my memory, etc. Kind of a depressing line of thought. Interesting, but depressing. I sometimes wonder if my most recent love would rather forget me entirely, you know, stuff like that. So that was sad. And when I got past "personalizing" mode, I thought about it a bit differently. When you're deeply involved with someone, it's unavoidable that you're changed by the experience. You become part of them, and they become part of you. So... it made me wonder: if you were to erase every trace of someone from your memory, what would happen? Once erased, the factors which once molded you would essentially not exist anymore. So... would that mean that you would have difficulty explaining how you came to be certain ways? Watching the movie, I can see that that would cause a lot of trauma and confusion. Or more oddly still, when you awakened from the erasure procedure, would you regress to who you were prior to the relationship you surgically "forgot"? In the end, I decided that for better or for worse, I have a vivid memory for people and events of importance in my life, and I don't think I would erase anything even if I had the opportunity. I mean, it's like running away, being self- deceptive, and taking the easy, cowardly way out.

So... Yeah. I liked the movie, but it was probably a bit much for a Friday night. Lauren agreed, she gets worked up so easily and was pretty frustrated with the spastic plotline. And Ken... well, I'm pretty sure he was drunk the whole night, so I'm not really sure what he thought.

I love my friends. They're all such characters, but they're also all just genuinely kind, honest, good- intentioned people.
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