March Gladness

Anyone else LOVE that Hayley Mills classic? This post has nothing to do with it, but when I typed “gladness” that’s obviously where my mind went. This post is about an “event” that my roommate and I have had going in quarantine that we call “March Gladness.“

One of my favorite compliments that a friend once gave me was “You can turn anything into a themed event. It’s one of my favorite things about you.” It’s true. I LOVE a theme, and I LOVE making an ordinary day seem like an event. It’s the enneagram 7 in me. I’m not one of those who is obsessed with the enneagram, but I DO find it interesting. It’s possibly because I am the poster child for the type 7. The Enneagram Institute says on their website for the Type 7: The Enthusiast, spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered. Nailed it.

Groundhog Day? Make groundhog donuts.

You don’t move for the first time in eleven years? You throw a “We’re Not Moving” Party that’s DJ Khaled themed because you signed the lease for “another one.”

A friend throws an 80s themed roller skating birthday party? You go as Freddie Mercury at Live Aid. Obvi.

The New Girl finale is on Fox? You throw a viewing party.

You get the idea.

So during our quarantine time, my roommate and I finished all of our shows pretty early on. Now, we weren’t just sitting in front of the tv all day every day. We actually tried not to turn it on until dinner because we wanted to make sure we were still productive. But each night we found ourselves asking the question, “Ok. What do you want to watch tonight?” It got old pretty quickly, so I came up with an idea.

Now, all of my friends know that in addition to loving a theme, I’m also ridiculously competitive and can turn anything into a game. At the airport when I see people on the moving sidewalk, I zero in on one and make it my mission to beat them walking beside on foot. I’m a monster. It’s exhausting being me. ANYWAY, I found a way to combine both facets of my personality, ergo March Gladness was born.

We picked the best (in our opinion) leading ladies of rom coms-Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Meg Ryan, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, and Sandra Bullock. Then we picked their top movies and matched them up as fairly as we thought.

We then came up with five categories on which the movies would be judged: chemistry, dialogue, plot, soundtrack, and supporting cast. We used a five point scale with half points encouraged. We would average the scores that each of us got together.

For the first four out of five movies that we watched, we got the exact same final score, so obviously this is an accurate measure. At the end of our viewing, the movie with the highest score will win. If the two movies have the same score, then we will go to Rotten Tomatoes or an Instagram poll. We haven’t quite decided yet.

We’ve been having so much fun with this. It has alleviated the question of “What do we watch?” and I’m watching some of my old favorites with fresh eyes because of the judging.
You could do this with any genre of movie. You could do it with one specific actor. You could do it with desserts. You could do it with the premieres of shows or finales of shows. So many possibilities to make your nights at home more enjoyable.

Caroline and I might be slightly partial to Sweet Home Alabama though.

Happy March (actually now it’s April) Gladness!