Sex and the City-The Movie 2

OK....
Its 2:20am . Just got in from seeing the movie with my sister....
I just updated the status on my Facebook page to:
"feeling REJUVENATED, EMPOWERED, UNSTOPPABLE, LIBERATED, and GLAMOROUS!!!!"
And, Boy, do I!

Isn't it funny how the seemingly least consequential things can really alter your mood, change your perspective, and impact your life?!?! I went to the movie on opening weekend out of professional obligation. Yes, I wanted to see it, but anyone who knows me knows that I don't rush to the theater for anything. I get around to it when I get around to it. But everyone was telling me I HAD to see, I felt the expectation, and I wanted to see it with my sister because thats what WE do and I knew she wouldn't wait long. I even left a very fun party to go see it...and I'm glad I did!

I personally haven't read any reviews, but according to my sister, the reviews were less than glowing. Well, I think they are wrong. The movie was superb! While it was NOT the first movie by any stretch, it WAS INDEED EVERYTHING that the SHOW was!! It was light and witty and urbane and glamorous....it was simultaneously real (the emotion, conflict, and dialogue) and surreal (the costumes and settings)....everything we LOVE about SATC!
I guess because I didn't go in with any expectation, I wasn't bound to be disappointed. The goal of the first movie was to tie up loose ends from the show and give a proper send off. In order to do that, there had to be a lot of....well a lot of everything. A lot of drama, suspense, fashion, humor, everything. And honestly, I left the first movie feeling very SPENT- the total opposite of tonight. I understand they had to pack it all in, but it was a lot to digest in just under 2 hours. By contrast, the goal of the current 2nd film, I felt, was to entertain and to let us look into the characters lives 2 years later. There were no dramatic shift in character motivation and trajectory of their lives. That would have been very contrived and dissatisfying. Its purpose was to update and, always, to ENTERTAIN. And that it did!

I won't wax on about the fabulousness of the lines, and gags, and fashions, and set design. Everyone with eyes and ears and any sense of that which is indeed fabulous can clearly comprehend that message. What stuck with me was how simply GOOD i felt leaving the movie. At 1:30am, after being up 15+ hours straight and running non-stop in the heat all day, there was a Carrie Bradshaw-Preston bounce in my step! You know the "bounce"...that souicant little jaunt that she has as she lives her life that simply says "I'm fabulous and I know it and I love it!" And I had it. I can't say I had it everyday this week...even though I looked good everyday. But tonight, it was there and I could feel it....

Then I got in the car, and I thought about my sister's comments about the movie and how great I felt and I realized- or re-realized- that I AM CARRIE!
I have a fierce sense of style...
I have the same inner monologue....
I have the same insecurities...
I make the same kinds of stupid mistakes...
I try hard to fix them when I do...
I'm introspective...
I have marvelous friends I would do anything for and whose opinion and support I treasure...
I, despite ALL (and I mean ALL) the crap I am dealt and the lack of certain resources and the yet unfulfilled dreams, I live a very glamorous life that I constructed just for me that NOTHING can destroy...
I am utterly and simply fabulous and, as Aidan and John/Big told her in the movie, there is no other man like me...And I LOVE IT!!!!

I hadn't forgotten these things totally, but I had forgotten HOW MUCH they mean to me and how much they make me who I am. In that instant, as I entered onto the interstate, I felt this surge of power and self-possession...that "I AM Erica Kane!...I can conquer the world" confidence that defies ALL that attempts to contradict and say otherwise.

Just then, the 12"remix of "Save The Overtime For Me" by Gladys Knight and the Pips (1983, represent all the way baby!) came on... the windows were down and i was floating down the trafficless 440 bypass...the wind in my non-existent hair... looking and feeling every bit of SATC chic: eclectic, quirky, polished, precise,individual... glamorous as a 70's Vogue covergirl just beaming joi de vivre and exuberance of mind and spirit!

The feelings of despair and vagueness evaporated. The negative refrain of not being worthy of or able to find real love and understanding stopped repeating in my mind. The doubts about my career and financial success dissipated.
All that was present was PRIDE in ALL that I am...
a renewed sense of purpose in life...
a regained faith in myself to be more than able to make my dreams come true...
a determination to stay true to myself and not be dismayed nor persuaded to alter who and what i am...

And as the song played and ended, and moved onto "Adventures in the Land of Music" by Dynasty (1980), followed by Chaka Khan's "I Know You, I Live You" (1981), a DELUGE of creativity fell, and in a rapid-fire stream-of-thought, idea after idea flowed regarding how I in my own, creative, glamorously unique way could actualize my dreams and goals, but in a emphatic and altruistic way, so that not only I, but many prosper.
And all of this sprang forth from the deep, incessant well of immoderate and innate style, artistry, and soul that GOD placed within me at creation.

I got home and knew I had to write...to share this incredible experience with you, my friends and supporters...
To, unapologetically and without repentance, affirm who and what I am, to myself and to the world...
To proclaim and establish this personal RENAISSANCE.
And while this is an occasion worthy of note, I trust and hope, for you and I, that such a renaissance will occur daily...that our spirits, individual and collective, and GOD's grace may be renewed in us, every dawn and dusk.

And to think, all this from a trip to the "moving picture show"!

Semper Chic and Love!

Save the Overtime for Me (Remix) by Gladys Knight and the Pips




Adventures in the Land of Music by Dynasty




I Know You, I Live You by Chaka Khan