How The Hunger Games Brought Nerd Balance to My Household

Here are some examples of what my fiancee has had to endure from me in just this past year:

-"Let's watch this movie, Take Shelter, because I heard the lead actor got snubbed for an Oscar nomination. But really, let's just watch it because the guy is going to be playing General Zod in the new Superman movie."

-"Can I tell you my wrestling storyline idea?"

-"Do you hear that drum fill? Seriously, are you kidding me with this drum fill?" - while listening to a Smashing Pumpkins song I've heard 300 times

-"Can I explain to you for ten minutes how my fantasy baseball league works?"

-"I know these episodes of the original Star Trek series are bad, but I have to watch all of them."

-"After work I'm going to see Transformers in 3D by myself."

-"I'm going to try out this wrestling promotion called Chikara. Yeah, sure they wrestle in high school gyms, and some guys wear masks, and one guy's gimmick is a heel marching band drum major, but it's fun."

-"I'm sorry, but I have to rewind that and watch it again." - after nearly every Pete Campbell scene in Mad Men

-"I might cry." - while I was waiting for The Hobbit trailer to load

-And some other stuff  I'm too embarrassed to admit.

The tables are about to turn.

The newest monster of pop culture primed to take over our country will be unleashed today, March 23rd. The Hunger Games already broke the record for most advanced ticket sales of all time, and two weeks ago my soon-to-be wife called me at work to tell me she contributed to that via Fandango. This was the culmination of nearly a year of MacKenzie, who read the trilogy in about two days, squeeing over the release of casting news, posters, thirty second clips, magazine covers, magazines stories, teaser trailers, full-length trailers, and now its 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Tomorrow I will sit next to her at the first showing in the Athens Carmike (which smells like mildew and alley piss, like every other Carmike) wearing my jacket, so that my skin doesn't touch the 70 layers of human filth on the armrests. And it will be in that seat where I will feel a huge relief: I am no longer the only dork in our household. 

The best part? The Hunger Games is the first of four movies. Four sci-fi movies, based on a series of young adult novels, set in a post-apocalyptic future. I'm going to enjoy the next few years.