LouAnn and Michela have been best friends since high school. They are both high-energy girls who love to laugh and endlessly chat about life, love, and everything in between. They call one another “twins,” and–although they look nothing alike–it perfectly represents their symbiotic and uncannily kindred spirits.
Coming out of college, both girls immediately ventured into graduate school. LouAnn forayed into film school at New York University and Michela went on to study speech pathology at Brooklyn College. Due to the high price of rent in New York City, the two girls elected to live at home while attending grad school to save money and to be better able to pay their student loans.
Living with their families often helps curb the stress and pressure of graduate school, but what really helps them deal with the pressure is one another. At least twice a month, the girls get together to spend time with one another and catch up. Since their lives are so hectic, they often want to spend their nights off sitting somewhere cozy while wearing pajama pants and eating snacks. As a result, they frequently use these rare get-togethers to watch movies. While in high school, they used to host a “bad movie night” every Friday. The logic behind this was that since the movie was terrible, it gave all nine loud teenagers the clearance to scream, yell, and laugh out loud without interrupting the viewing experience. After all, the best part of the viewing experience was the girls’ snarky, sarcastic, and hilarious commentary on the film. During these nights, they created their own “Mystery Science Theater” while chowing down pizza, popcorn, and all the soda they could handle. These evenings always proved to be memorable, and they certainly helped the girls deal with the stress of the work they needed to do for their intense high school curriculum.
LouAnne and Michela remembered this tradition, which unfortunately fizzled after all of the friends from the high school gang went off to college. When many of them graduated from undergrad, they all went off and got jobs, leaving them much more free time and energy to do something more adventurous with their evenings. One night, while their friends were off partying at a club in the city, Louanne and Michela decided to take the night off and have a “low key” party of their own. They had a wonderful time laughing and chatting on the couch. Then, Michela suggested they watch “Grease 2,” one of the notoriously “awesomely bad movies” that made frequent appearances on those Friday nights during high school. She popped in the DVD, and as soon as the first song resounded in the background, they instantly reverted to their more care-free high school mindsets where they had fewer responsibilities and less pressure placed upon them. It felt absolutely wonderful to escape through the movie. As old times, the main focus of the evening was to point out as many lame things about the movie as possible. By concentrating on this–and only this–for the entire night, the girls were able to temporarily forget about their stress and everything else that weighs them down on a daily basis.
This ritual was so successful that they promised one another that they would try to have more nights like this. Whenever they could, they got together and watched a “bad movie” and simply made fun of it. This is one of the key factors, they believe, helped get them through graduate school. They relied on one another and a few of Hollywood’s greatest blunders to relieve the stress and feel some semblance of balance during the two most rigorous periods of their academic careers.
Though time seemed to crawl while they were in school, it also flew by at the same time. Before they knew it, both girls were graduating and ready to head into their respective fields. Michela got a job in a specialized speech center in Manhattan, which meant that in some time, she’d be moving out of her parents’ house in Staten Island and into her own apartment in Manhattan or Brooklyn. LouAnne, on the other hand, had different plans. She was offered a job as a content producer in California, which meant she had to move away from her family and friends. Of course, both girls were saddened by their imminent separation, particularly because they had helped one another get through so many tough times. How would they be able to deal with the tremendous pressure of their jobs (and now life) while they’re on different sides of the country?
LouAnne’s professor mentioned an online application in class the other day that answered this question for her. The application is called “Your Virtual Living Room,” and it allows users from different parts of the world to connect with one another and watch movies together while talking in their own private “virtual living room.” LouAnne took a look at the website, and saw that the application was connected to sites like Hulu, Netflix, and Disney Movies Online. Clearly, there were enough movies on all of these content sites that would allow the pair to host ritual online. Even though they were separated by distance, they could still watch their favorite “awesomely bad” movies and laugh and comment on them throughout it. LouAnne, became extremely excited at this thought, especially since it seems the application would allow her and Michela to keep in touch in a manner that is familiar and true to their friendship. After investigating the application for herself, she calls Michela and tells her about “Your VLR.” Michela also becomes ecstatic, and suggests they try it out right then (even though they are 15 minutes away from one another). Even though they are close by, the experience is still rich and they feel one another’s presence through their laughter, conversation, and the movie. Truly, they feel they are within the same imaginary living room setting that the application promises. They are both thrilled with this, and they promise to make this their main means of keeping in touch with one another after LouAnne moves out to California.