It's been an eventful evening, Dear Diary. I went and saw Spider-Man today (or yesterday, if you want to mark words), all alone. As it were, a good friend with whom I had intended to go could not make it, which at noon left me with roughly eight hours to find someone else who was up for some webslinging. As stated above, I didn't. The few I managed to reach had either no time or possibility to get into town, or just didn't feel up to it. I am thinking that either a majority of my friends live rather far away from me, thus limiting my chances in a matter like this, or that people are getting too busy. I hope I never end up having to "pencil someone in" a week in advance in order to see them.
(Doctor, right?)

So, as it looked, the seat next to mine was the only free one in the room. Had I been more of an entrepreneur or more into the idea of making statements in front of people, I guess I might have sold the ticket off on location, but I never did.
And as it were, upon exiting I was also rather glad to be alone, knowing the odds of me ending up with (or perhaps even knowing) someone who'd feel the same way about this film to be rather small. I'm generally very bad at discussing a film right after having seen it, but what I really dislike is having to motivate my standpoint and "defend" one that really swept me off my feet.

So while going home, I am happy. I wish no one I know will show up that I might have to talk to them and lose focus of what I'm thinking about.
The bad side, I guess, is those looks of sympathy you get (or imagine you are getting) upon going to the movies alone. Groan.

Anyway, though, it was a kick-ass movie, and in spite of a handful of doubts I'd been harbouring, it didn't disappoint me in the slightest.

Now: I think I am fortunate to live in exciting times regarding this matter. Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Spider-Man; all this envisioning I would have shed blood to get to see on the screen when I was 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, has come around. I revel in it.

There is also, perhaps inevitably, a sense of satisfaction involved that these stories and themes to which I've been devoted for so many years are getting absorbed by people, through the immense power that comes with a motion picture.
Where books and comics fail, the movies get people's attention, and I am glad to see them do so. It's like sitting on a huge treasure chest for years, unable to transmit to anyone how much you think they'd enjoy looking inside, until a greater power comes along and gives them a nudge.
(Remember all the people who'd suddenly landed a brand new copy of The Fellowship of the Ring, not long ago? Suddenly they were everywhere, in stores, on the street, on the subway - all of them on the first book, most of them in the first few chapters.)

I realize though, I'm speaking as a Swede here. Every time I visit the U.S. I get reminded that Marvel is about a million times more popular there than here. It's a shame, though. Swedes would do well with more superheroes and less gossip magazines in their lives.

Thought #1: A man asked me for money on the subway home and I gave him all the coins I was carrying. If he'd asked me for my shirt I'd probably have given him that too. Ask people when they are happy, and chances are you'll get what you want.

Thought #2: After the subwayride on my 15-minute, nightly walk home I encountered not one, not two, but three frogs. Almost like in a fairytale. It had been raining, and all the little life was getting out in the open, seeking shelter from anything water-absorbing. Not cold but with slightly chilly winds, that's a charm of the post-rain summer night. Life everywhere, so much that you seem able to inhale it if you try.

Thought #3: Of course I could not contain myself but had to reach down and pick up these frogs, touch them, and look at them closely, before putting them down in the grass, as gently as I could. It's a surprise to feel how cold a frog is every time I hold one. For a long time I've known, theoretically, that amphibians are cold-blooded, but it's so intuitive to think of life as warm.

Thought #4: I am not telling you whether or not I kissed my fairytale-froggies, but here's a secret: Were I ever to catch a girl pick up a frog, look around to make sure she was alone, kiss it and gently put it down again, I'd follow her wherever she led me.

Thought #5: The frog, of course, would probably only be afraid. At least so it appears, and with our seeming advantages in size and intelligence as compared to frogs, perhaps we can tell. Imagine, though, someone that much bigger and with so different a perspective as compared to you, intercepting you on your way from one place to another, picking you up, kissing you, and then gently putting you down. Would your world ever again be the same?