Last year was the first time I tried to get into the 24-hour film marathon known as the Butt-Numb-a-Thon (BNAT for short), by waiting in the standby line on the morning of the event. I wrote an essay about the standby line; it’s one of my favorites, so please go read it if you haven’t already.
The standby line was lots of fun in a film-geeky way, so I thought I’d try my luck again this year. Even if I didn’t get into BNAT, I could hang out with some other friends I knew would be in the line, and maybe meet some new film geeks. The time to line up for standby was an hour later this year, too, which was nice.
After seeing the sorts of things people brought to last year’s BNAT to help survive 24 hours in a theater, I decided to be prepared on the off-chance that I would actually get in. I cleaned out my purse, and had to remove my phone and camera. Suddenly the purse was twice as light as it ever had been. I filled the empty spaces with a small bag of clean socks and underwear, a spare toothbrush and travel toothpaste, and a tin of Altoids Tangerine Sours because those are great for keeping me awake. I also brought a blanket roll, the kind you take to picnics or Jazz Fest or whatever, which I figured could double as a pillow. I tried not to think about the fact that I was probably fussing over nothing. Last year, 45 people were in line, and maybe 15 got in.