Whenever I have a sick day and have some time to lounge around, I throw on a movie I’ve seen enough times to have it practically memorized. It’s a kind of comfort to me, similar to eating a favorite food or reading a book over again. The familiar is comfortable. Comfort movies are great for a few reasons. With most of mine, I have good memories of watching the movie before and I know it by heart.
Today I had the chance to stay home and watch one of my absolute favorite comfort movies, 10 Things I Hate About You. You see, yesterday morning I felt like I might be coming down with the flu and by the end of the day I was positive. My whole body ached, I was hot and cold, my throat hurt, my head hurt, my ears and nose hurt. Although I don’t own a thermometer, I’m also pretty certain I had a fever. My mom and sister can vouch for me on that. I was talking nonsense and feeling warm when I got home. So, for all those reasons I decided to call in sick and take a day of rest. In fact, now it’s 11 at night and I should be in bed getting more rest. Eek!
This morning I thought as long as I’m home sick, I should put on a comfort movie. That’s what I think of certain movies as. Is that just me?
Well, 10 Things I Hate About You is one of those movies for me, so I popped it in the DVD player. I love every bit of it. My sister Mary and I used to watch it a lot when we were younger. I am trying to remember when we first got into it. The movie came out in 1999. At that time I must have been about 8 years old. I’m sure I didn’t see it that young. I do remember one time when my sister and I were watching it and she kicked me out of the room for a scene in which the Stratford sisters talk about sex (shown above), which is odd really because a lot of the movie does. I might have been in junior high at that time.
Some of my other favorite comfort movies, especially for sick days, include Beauty and The Beast The Lion King, Newsies and The Holiday. What can I say? I’m still a kid at heart. My mom says that when I was about 2 years old I would watch Beauty and The Beast just about every day. When I was about 5 years old, that same scenario went for The Lion King. The day after I got in a bad car accident in which I totaled my car on the freeway (another story for another time) I watched The Lion King. That felt like a warm hug in a scary time.
Of course, then there’s comfort television too. That’s a whole other thing. Friends, Gilmore Girls and MASH are definitely on that list for me. My family has all of Friends and MASH on DVD.
It’s nice to revisit favorite characters, hear familiar quotes, see great scenes play out and– as lame as this sounds — know what is going to happen, but still love every minute.
Image via IMDB.
Modern Notebook 
Touche – That was such a great movie, I was in Middle School at the time. :D Golden Girls is my go-to show. I still watch it just about every night; it makes me so happy. Familiarity can be so comforting, love it! Hope you feel better I’m sick too and it blows! Have a great one Erin! -Iva
10 Things I Hate About You is such a great movie… Shakespeare AND a young Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt? My teenage self loved this to pieces. I was in my last year of college by the time Heath died, and my roommate and I put this movie on repeat for days afterwards. As silly as it may seem to be that upset over a celebrity death to some people – it helped us mourn our favorite teenage heartthrob.
Hope you’re feeling better!
That’s funny, but I get it! I still can’t believe he died! I mean I can, but it’s just so weird. He was my teen heartthrob too, or pre-teen actually.
I feel much better, thank you. I hope you are well too.