1) A Knight's Tale (2001). "You're about to see the bare ass of the guy who plays Vision in the Marvel movies." --a phrase I never thought I'd hear my mother say.

2) Titanic (1997). Is it a teenage romance? Yes. But I am a teenaged romantic, so it works out.

3) A League Of Their Own (1992). A tribute to my father, who also believed there was no crying in baseball.

4) Iron Man (2008). How lucky was I to have witnessed the beginning of a cinematic universe?

5) The Hunger Games (2012). There's a certain feeling that comes with watching the first Hunger Games movie, and only the first Hunger Games movie, that I'm not sure I can convey in words.

6) Knives Out (2019). I went to the movie theatre with the intention of seeing Little Women. Little Women was sold out, so we had to watch something else. I am forever grateful for that.

7) Little Women (2019). Well, I did watch it eventually. What can I say?

8) Jojo Rabbit (2019). 2019 was a good year for movies. I wished Scarlett Johansson was in more of this one, but hey, at least her shoes got a lot of screen time.

9) Miss Congeniality (2000). I will forever be astonished at the way Sandra Bullock manages to play the exact same character in every single one of her 289251839257 movies.

10) Kim Possible: So The Drama (2005). Once upon a time, I was sick with Covid-19 and couldn't sleep through the night due to coughing fits. Unfortunately, the TV remote was also missing -- don't worry, though! It just so happened that someone had left the Kim Possible DVD in the player, and thus, this movie repeated through the night 3 times. I have now memorized every word.

I miss my favorite blanket.

I miss the passenger seat of my best friend's car.

I miss the warm weather, even though our AC never really worked.

I miss my mom's homecooked meals.

I miss being comfortable.

I crave that comfort again. I live by myself now, but when will it stop feeling like an extended hotel visit? When will I stop feeling like an outsider in my own apartment?

And so, of all the countries in the world, of all the decades throughout history, the one place that I crave to explore is

home.

The drive is only supposed to take an hour, but traffic is bad today. Granted, traffic is always bad in the city, but today, it's especially bad.

We don't mind much, though -- in fact, the drive, despite being longer than normal, seems to fly by in minutes. We're drinking our Starbucks strawberry refreshers and listening to Marshall's "oldies" Spotify playlist, which is nearly entirely Beatles music. Marshall thinks he's John Lennon reincarnated.

Halfway through the drive, Bonnie pulls over to take the convertible top off, and when we start driving again, natures air conditioning tickles us, sending locks of hair flying back into tangles as we sing along to "Here Comes The Sun".

You can smell the beach before you get there, you know. I'm not sure if non-Californians would know that, but it's true. The air gets salty, and for a moment, you debate with yourself as to whether you're smelling the ocean or the sweat of homeless people camping out on Santa Monica Boulevard. You decide it's the smell of the ocean, since that's more romantic.

Parking is hell, like always, and the sand burns your feet as your trudge down to the waterline, ice chests and camp chairs behind you, surfboards marking your trail in the ground.

And then suddenly you're there, at the place where America meets the Pacific Ocean, which is surreal to think about, so you decide not to think about it for too long, and instead dip your toes into the icy cold water, ready to experience one of God's many gifts to the world.