My First Solo Day Out

As many of you know I have been making a real effort to start becoming even more independent. I have been thinking for sometime of things I can do on my own instead of staying home all day. Since we live close to a movie theater I thought it would be a good first step to see if I could spend the day there on my own. One of the things I hoped to accomplish by doing this is to establish the idea that even though I don't have a car during the day that I might not always be home all the time. I've called this the "God Will Hunting" philosophy that one day someone is going to come home and I'm going to be gone and on to doing better things.

My plan was not very well thought out and kind of spur of the moment. I knew I had to leave at the same time my sister Jill left for work which turned out to be 11:30. My transportation for the day was Red Cab which has a couple of cabs with wheelchair lifts in the back. If I had planned this out a day in advance I could have taken the WRTA van for $2.25 but I would have loss the element of surprise that I was going for since they call the night before to confirm. The five minute ride cost me a whopping $15 and of course the driver didn't have change for my $50 bill. I settled for what he had in his pocket and loss $10 in the exchange. I got to the front door at 11:45 only to find the doors locked, apparently they don't open until noon during the week. I stood outside and waited for the manager to come open the door which they did ten minutes later. My journey was not off to good start and was complicated by the fact nothing good started until 1:00pm. I had brought a book to kill time, but quickly lost interested and caved to buying a ticket to the first movie of the day "Man on a Ledge" at 12:30.

I had countered on all the doors being closed to the actual screening rooms and found an usher to rectify the situation. I alerted him to what I was doing for the day and he said they would be around often to help me get in and out. I stupidly forgot to having just leave the door open and was stuck in that theater for the duration of the movie. It was a private showing as no one else ever entered which made me uncomfortable. I sat through seventeen minutes of previews and very by the numbers heist film. I was pissed that my crappy phone didn't have service inside preventing me from sending amusing texts to my friends during the film. The movie ended at 2:39 and I sprinted outside to inform people I was still alive.

I had left a note for my Mom on the table in my worst possible handwriting that I was out and would call her later. With no one getting home to let me until 4:15 I had to see another movie. The problem was since I had no service inside I had to make sure I was around to call home before 5pm or would risk her having a full blown panic attack. This meant I had to see the next movie showing a 3:05 "One for the Money". I was not looking forward to being the only person in a Katherine Heigl movie and luckily their was a lone older gentlemen in the back saving me from total embarrassment. I don't hate Katherine Heigl but her jersey accent in this movie was unbearable. It was a truly terrible movie that couldn't end quickly enough. I rushed out at 5:05 and called my mother for a ride home. She figured out where I was and had been awaiting my call.

She had arrived home to my brother Matt calling and despite my note the two of them failed to figure out what was going on. She frantically called Jill three times at work until she got a hold of her to find out where I was. It was not my intent to scare her but simply to establish that I am capable of being anywhere at anytime. I hope to expand on this idea and head out to different places around the city before working my way up to longer trips. The ultimate goal of all of this is to be able to get to the point where I can show up at anyone's door at anytime. I used to call this idea "going off the grid" but really means is that I can get to the point where I can be as impulsive as anyone else.

The day itself was not all that entertaining, seeing two bad movies in empty theaters is not a great time. It was however something I was proud of myself for doing and hopefully shows how committed I am to shaking things up. I was able to establish that I can do something completely on my own and it will give me confidence to do more in the future. As long I can avoid total disasters, I will continue to push the line of what I can and can't do on my own until I am satisfied with all the outcomes. The day is coming soon where I just might be knocking on all your doors when you least expect it.