Novelties.

Long ago, before mega-cinemas took over, we had to drive for fifteen to twenty minutes to get to the nearest cinema. Now we can hop in the car and be in line to buy tickets in five minutes (but nothing's perfect: we have to pay for parking). For Christmas, however, we received gift cards for the distant AMC cinemas, and so this afternoon we time-traveled back to high school and took the freeway to another part of town for a matinee of Youth in Revolt. On our way, we admired the color and kitsch.

The movie was especially enjoyable because only about ten other people saw the movie with us. Sometimes being at a full showing is thrilling and magnetic, but there's a certain charm in being the only person laughing aloud in an almost empty room. (And even in a crowded theatre, it's always interesting when you're the only one who laughs at a joke. At moments like that, can you not wonder why you're the only one laughing?)

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My maternal grandmother had a fondness for giant pendants on heavy chains in ambiguous metals. As a child, I kept one of her zodiac necklaces in a little plastic display box that was (inexplicably) filled with a mysterious ash-like substance. Something probably disintegrated in there long before I arrived on the scene, but -- and this is one of those wonders of childhood -- for some reason I never bothered to clean out the box. Even though the gray dust creeped me out just a little, it seemed like a part of the necklace and wasn't to be disturbed.

So when I stumbled upon a strange, heavy pendant a week ago, I was totally captivated by it. I didn't know if it was terrible or wonderful, but once I picked it up I didn't want to put it down. All the same, I thought it was too expensive and decided to wait on it. On a third scouting mission this afternoon, I was sorely disappointed to discover that the price hadn't been reduced. But my mother said that my grandmother would have wanted me to have it and sweetly insisted on buying it for me. I think I've decided that it's not terrible or wonderful alone, but instead wonderfully terrible or terribly wonderful. But either way, I'm wearing it. Happily!