And I did it to myself! Part Three (And thankfully, final)

That's right. I made it through the baby shower. But March Of The Penguins, on top of Clomid, on top of baby shower...

Not one of my brighter ideas.

This is right when it had come out, and there was lots of footage of cute, fluffy little penguin chicks and their devoted parents.

What I didn't realize is that the entire movie is about the lengths that penguins will go to to reproduce. That they travel for miles and miles, freeze their little penguin butts off, starve, lose 2/3 of their body weight, huddle in packs, endure long separations from their significant penguin others, and get eaten by leopard seals...just to produce a baby penguin.


If you have seen this cinematic classic, I can tell you the point where I became hysterical...It's the part when you see the father penguin fumble the egg after the mother penguin has left to go refuel, and Morgan Freeman's voice says, "The egg dies."

I wish I could say there were tears gently rolling down my cheeks, but I literally started sobbing. Heaving shoulders, gasping for air, strange horking sounds, the whole thing.

By some miracle, this occurred when my best friend went out to use the bathroom, and the rest of our party was sitting two rows ahead of us. Still the theatre was packed, and there were people turning to look at me and figure out just what the hell was going on.

I guess there was a line for the bathroom...another stroke of luck. By the time my friend got back, I at least appeared to be somewhat OK, although I pretty much wiped away tears for the duration of the movie.

When we got out, everyone did that thing where they don't look at you.

I have never been so relieved to get in a car and drive back home. And when I got back, I tried to explain to The Man what the issue with the movie was, and I couldn't get it out without becoming hysterical all over again.

I have since watched March of The Penguins several times, and while it's never affected me the same way. But the memory of how impossibly bleak my life seemed while I was sitting in that movie theatre is always with me.