Stress Relief

Valentine's Day this year is just the girls and I. As I am sitting here typing, they are yet to awaken and see the cards and candy I make sure to give each year. They will be working tonight so I will just curl in with a good book or a movie. And that is OK. Sometimes peace and relaxation is just what we want for a holiday right? But last night we had a mom and daughter night and a lot of pent-up stress was released inadvertently.
My younger daughter was not able to go out with us so my older daughter and I decided on dinner and a movie but being the spontaneous and unorganized, indecisive Libra that I am, we didn't yet know where we were eating or what we were seeing when we left the house.
Dinner was nice, we ate way more than we should have and then waddled out to the parking lot.. chats like that, one-on-one, mom and daughter are the best. I still love moments like that with my mother and am glad that I can pass the same on to my children. Then we headed to the best of the movie theater's in our nearby towns. This particular theater has very comfortable, reclining seating. The next best thing to being at home. I don't often go out to the movies but when I do, I prefer this establishment. Because of our delay in getting out of the house, and the wait at dinner, we arrived at the shopping mall where the theater is housed at the time directly between the showings of any of the current films. We decided to do some window shopping and wander the stores of the mall while waiting. Which turned out to be quite fruitful as we found awesome clearance sales and bargains and ended up with quite a few essentials and barely made a dent in the savings. We are talking $50 for about 35 items!- But- I digress.
After some shopping and a bit of awesome people watching, we had decided on the new movie shop-o-holic we found it ironic that we were the only people in the theater with shopping bags below our seats. (as far as we know)
Even though the theater was filling up quickly when we arrived, the 'perfect' row in the middle of the theater was open sans two women at the far end. My daughter was ecstatic. Apparently it is best to have the very seats we were in, she took the time to count and ensure that she was in the exact center seat in the aisle. We chatted a little more before the movie began. My daughter was a bit wound up and rocking in her seat to show me how her seat was perfect.. haha
While she was settling in, she mentioned that her seat felt a little bit odd, a little tilted to one side. We joked about who or what might have caused the 'tilt' then the movie began. It was hilarious and we were laughing nearly to snorts.
As the movie progressed, she - and I- would lean back, or rock, settle in. At one point we were giggling at the movie and giggling at the fact that she was nearly leaning into me in her 'broken' chair when suddenly we heard a crunch. This sent us into a further fit of giggles, the kind that makes your entire body shake, and you cant catch your breath. We continued to watch the movie. The movie turned a bit less humorous and more somber for a few moments between laughs, my daughters chair chose that very moment to give out! I turned and saw her panic-stricken face as her body in the seat fell a good 3 inches lower, and sideways. The side of her seat closest to me had given way and she was hanging sideways into my seat.. which threw us into a fit of uncontrollable laughter reminiscent of slumber parties of my youth when we laughed until our Coke came out of our nostrils. We couldn't stop. Fortunately for us, there was more comedy on the screen as we could not get ourselves under control. Then she shifted in uncontrolled giggling and we heard the 'pin' or bolt or some part of her chair clank on to the floor below her chair... which set us off again. Giggling so hard it felt as though we had just completed sixty-one sit-ups, so hard that tears were forming in the corners of our eyes. All we had to do was look at each other and we would lose it again! As I type this now, it isn't nearly as funny as it seemed at the time.
She moved to the seat on the other side of me for the remainder of the movie, afraid that someone would see her move and 'turn her in' for breaking their chair. Worried that there were security cameras pointed on her the entire time. I assured her that she would not get in trouble because their chair broke while she was sitting in it. After the movie ended, we were still giggling out of the theater and out to the car, and even all the way home. Good thing we saw a comedy! We joked how awkward it could have been if we had seen our second choice of movies- Grand Torino. We might have been shot!
All-in-all the nights events made it one of the best nights with my daughter. Nothing beats an uncontrolled, crazy, make you light headed giggle fest with your daughter. My only regret was that my younger daughter didn't make it. I love being a mom.
It was a night of stress relief, and with the past weeks events, I needed it. I think it was good for my daughter too. As they say- laughter is the best medicine.
And the movie was pretty good too: Isla Fischer is a crack-up!