Let me preface this by saying that I have wanted to see Pearl Harbor for a couple of weeks now. BEFORE it leaves the theaters! I wanna see the battle scenes! I tried to talk Astrogirl into going last weekend, but she wasn’t interested… she likes romantic movies or dramas, not explosions… (I tried to convince her that Pearl Harbor was primarily a love story, and the bombs were incidental to the plot, but she wasn’t buying it.)
So Astrogirl is not interested in seeing Pearl Harbor, but I am!
A day or so ago, my friend and co-worker (at the teaching gig), T calls me. “You wanna go see Pearl Harbor before it leaves the theaters?”, he asks. “Yeah,” I say. He says, “I’ll go buy tickets, and we’ll go see it Thursday night, OK?” I think carefully… what’s on TV on Thursday night here in Korea? Futurama and The 70’s Show are over for the season… “OK, do it! I have nothing going Thursday night!” I say.
So, 'round about noon today (Thursday), Astrogirl calls me at the office, where Tommy Two-Ties and I are hard at work (at our own company) trying to finish a project that we have been working on for the past 10 months before the deadline set by our publisher.
We have a normal conversation (her day is going well, etc.) Eventually I ask, “What are you going to do tonight?” She says, “I’m going out with Eun-Shil. What are you doing?” I reply, “I’m going to see ‘Jin Ju Man’ (Pearl Harbor in Korean) with T and his girlfriend.” She says, “Oh… have a good time!” The conversation comes to an eventual close with the customary expressions of heart-felt love and devotion (IE: I say, “Chukshi-ya!” [our private language for ‘I love you!’][sup]long story[/sup] and she says, “Yeah.” and hangs up.[sup]This may seem weird to westerners, but is not weird in Korea…she has co-workers who are listening in, and it’s not cool to talk to your SO and say “I love you” where others can hear you… I guess. Or something like that… Hell, I just live here! I don’t friggin know!![/sup])
So, a few hours later I go off to meet T and his girlfriend… we go into the movie theater, and I turn off my cell-phone (hey! It’s a movie! It’s polite to turn off your cell phone before the movie starts! Right? Right? Am I alone here??)
We watch the movie… good, but WAY too long! (Anyone have any contacts with Hollywood directors? Could you please pass along the fact that 3 hours is WAY too friggin’ long for a movie?)
On the way home, in the subway, I turn my cell phone back on… it rings within a few minutes. I answer. It’s Astrogirl!
(The following conversation took place partially in English, and partially in Korean. I’ll post it in English to save time, if you don’t mind…)
Me: Hello?
AG: Hello! Where the FU** have you been?
Me: Huh? At the movies. Why?
AG: What? With who?
Me: With T and his GF. Why?
AG: I’ve been trying to call you for the past several hours!
Me: Oh. Sorry. I turned my cell-phone off during the mo…
AG: Why did you turn your phone off?
Me: I was in a movie theater! It’s just polite.
AG: You didn’t tell me you were going to see a movie! I was worried about you!!
Me: Yes I did! When you called me this afternoon I told you…
AG: You did? Oh, yeah… you did! But I thought you were joking because I didn’t want to see Pearl Harbor last weekend… [sup]Do you begin to see why we have the “touch your nose” policy in effect? It’s because of sh** like this![/sup]
Me: No, I wasn’t joking… I went to see Pearl Harbor because I wanted to see it before it left the theaters. I didn’t think you’d mind. You said that you didn’t want to see it…
AG: I don’t care about the damned movie!! I was WORRIED about you!! I tried calling you at home and your cell phone…
Me: I wasn’t at home, and I turned my cell phone off during the movie…
AG: I was WORRIED about you!! You never answered your phone!
at this point, the cell phone started to break up as the subway entered a tunnel or something…
Me: Wait! Let me call you back later, OK? I can’t hear you now…
CLICK… silence
After I got out of the subway station, I tried to call her back… her cell phone was turned off! (I can’t call her at the regular phone in her house because hr family doesn’t know that we are dating [a topic that has been hashed over before]).
I walked in to my dorm room to find that she had left no fewer than 10 messages on my answering machine! “Where are you?” “Hello? Hello” etc.
AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! What IS it with you female-types?