Movie day

It is gray, rainy and cold here today. This is what I call a movie day, because I just want to stay inside, curl up in a comforter and watch movies. I didn't do that (well, yet...we may still watch a movie this evening) today, though, because I had a long to-do list to work on instead! And I still need to unpack from our vacation! (Yes, we have been home for several days now and I still have not unpacked. John's theory on this is that I don't want to admit the vacation is over. He may be on to something with that...)

I thought you might be curious about movie watching on the island, since there isn't a movie theater here. So what do people do? A handful of things.

Sometimes islanders will ride the ferry to Hatteras and then drive to Avon to attend a movie in the four screen theater there. We have done that a handful of times. Before moving to Ocracoke, we went to see a movie in a theater about once a year, so living here has not really changed things much for us. In 2007, we went to Avon to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. (I'm a HUGE Pirates fan.) I'm not sure what movie we'll see in the theater this year, but there will probably be one that I don't want to wait for it to come out on DVD.

Which brings me to the other thing that many islanders do to watch movies: they get them in the mail. We have been Netflix subscribers for years and I can honestly say I LOVE the service. I am a walking advertisement for it, frankly. I love being able to make a list of movies I want to see and then just wait for them to arrive. You can even put movies in your list which haven't yet come out on DVD. So if you see a preview and think "I want to see that", or a friend tells you about a movie that sounds good, you just add it to your queue and one day it shows up in your mailbox. After you watch it, you put it in the postage paid return mailer, send it back to Netflix, and they send you another one. Even out here on an island, we get our movies the day after they mail them. There are obviously many other people here on the island who use Netflix (or other DVD via mail services), as evidenced by this:



Yes, that's a specific outgoing mail drop in our post office for...well, you can read the sign.

There are a couple of options for viewing movies on bigger screens than a TV right here on the island too. The Assembly of God church shows movies (yes, with religious themes) about once a month. I have seen several good ones there: Amazing Grace, The End of the Spear, The Last Sin Eater, Nativity Story, and Noah's Arc (about a professional surfer from Hatteras).

And then there's this option:


Last year, a local started the Island Bijou to show movies on a recurring basis (I think approximately monthly) at DeepWater Theater, using the projector and screen there. The focus seems to have been on older classic movies or remakes of them. I haven't attended one of these showings yet, but might do so in the future. I like classic movies. Speaking of which, maybe I'll go watch my current Netflix selection (The Grapes of Wrath) now. Hope you have plenty of entertainment options, wherever you are.