Happy birthday to us!

Happy birthday to us

Happy birthday to us
Happy birthday dear Out @ the Movies
Happy birthday to us!

That's right, today is the anniversary of Out @ The Movies! On April 29, 2009 I wrote up the first blog post, created the facebook group and first tweet. And on Tuesday, May 18th, we'll celebrate the anniversary of our first movie outing. True, it's a day early (the actual anniversary is Wednesday, May 19th) but what can ya do? The Poll for that night will be released next week.

It's been an exciting year full of watching movies, drinking coffee, eating ice cream and making friends. I thought I'd share some of the highlights:

• Angels & Demons - our first outing. I was incredibly nervous that no one would show up, even though I had several friends coming. I've always said that I'd be happy with a dozen but the first night? The first night ever we had almost 20 people. Also a lesson learned: make sure your post-movie venue is actually open late enough for people to enjoy.
• The Taking of Pelham 123 - our second outing. The numbers went up to 25 and more importantly, everyone had a great time! Afterwards, we headed down to Second Cup (which soon became our usual post-movie place) and friends and connections were made.
• Brüno - Hilarious! This over-the-top movie inspired more feedback than most.
• Mamma Mia - the Pride outing that never happened due to rain at alFresco Film Festo.
• GI Joe - the first outing I missed (I was away for work in Montreal).
• MacBeth - We tried something a little bit different at the end of August and went to see Shakespeare By The Sea's production of MacBeth. Not a great turnout but those who came had a good time.
• Gremlins - notable for two reasons; 1) Bad weather kept most away; 2) it started a mini-horror streak in our films that continued until March.

And most importantly...

Friendships and fun - I've seen several connections and friendships made through our movie nights. And heard a lot of laughs and seen a lot of smiles.

If you'd like to share some of your memories, post them in the comments section below!

So thanks to everyone who's come out to one of our movie nights, whether it's once or a dozen times. We've got another year of movies (both good and bad) ahead of us!

Kirk Furlotte