text: Hell yeah. I love *Groundhog Day*. *The clock switches to 6:00 AM. “I Got You Babe” plays. Sonny & Cher.* Classic song. *Phil slowly rises from his bed. “It’s groundhog day!”* Classic line. Who voiced the radio guys? I should Google that. Every year I watch *Groundhog Day* on February 12. Ten days after Groundhog Day the holiday, but right on the release date of *Groundhog Day* the movie. I love Harold Ramis’s direction. People don’t appreciate him. Revolutionized the comedy-fantasy. Funny yet poignant. Seriously, A+ work. Neil, my roommate, says *Palm Springs* handles the time loop-gender politics better than *Groundhog Day*, but I don’t care. I just love *Groundhog Day*. “Want anything from the store?” Neil shouts from down the hall. “Nah.” No distractions today. I turn off my phone. Ned Ryerson’s intro scene is on. ---------- *Finally free from his time loop, Phil wakes in bed with Rita.* Perfect ending, perfect movie. I watch through the credits. I bet IMDb trivia had something on the radio guys. I hit the red X to close Netflix and-- *Columbia Pictures logo. Music fades up. “A Harold Ramis Film”. Phil Connors is doing the weather.* Weird. I’m still in my bedroom, but it feels like something jolted me. For some reason, Netflix is playing Groundhog Day again. I close out-- *Columbia Pictures logo. Music fades up. “A Harold Ramis Film”.* It’s like I’ve been thrown back in my chair. An intense feeling of deja vu. Holy shit. Hand shaking, I move the mouse to the the red X.... *Columbia Pictures logo. Music fades up. “A Harold Ramis Film”.* “HELL yeah! YES!” Noise in the hall. Neil knocks on my door. “Everything okay?” “Better than ok! I’m in a Groundhog Day!” Neil walks in, laughing. “You’re in a time loop? Or what? You think there’ll be two more weeks of winter?” “The time loop one.” “Sure. Prove it.” “You need to go the store later.” “I guess. To get what?” “Dunno. Didn’t ask. Tell me now, what do you need?” “Uh, eggs, vegetable oil, and, uh Greek yogurt.” “That’s enough!” I close my laptop-- *Columbia Pictures logo. Music fades up.* I’m alone in my room again. The clock’s gone back two minutes. “Neil!” ---------- Neil is lying on my bed. I usually don’t like dirty clothes on my sheets, but it’ll clean itself on the next loop. “What’s the quickest way to prove to someone you’re in a time loop?” I turn. “Oh, like ways to show that I’m not crazy and I’m really in a time loop?” “Yeah, exactly. How long did it take to get enough info to prove it to me?” “Like, 6 or 7 loops. You really wouldn’t believe me.” “Why would I? I still don’t, really. It’s insane.” “Fair point.” I think for a moment. “Saying what they ate for breakfast?” “That could just mean you’re stalking them.” “Hm. Street they grew up on? Childhood pet?” “Are you stealing their credit card? Stupid.” “Dream from last night?” “Not everyone dreams.” Neil and I think for a moment. I clap. “Saying something’s gonna happen, just a moment before it does.” “Yes. *Yes*. That’s fucking it.” Neil sits up. “I’m checking through Twitter now.” “Find the biggest news stories and celebrity tweets. One for every one hundred and one minutes of Groundhog Day. For anyone I meet.” Neil puts his phone down. I’m confused. “Neil? C’mon. Start researching.” Neil leaps up and walks over to me. “It’s your time loop. Do the research yourself.” Before I can stop him, Neil grabs my laptop and closes it-- *Columbia Pictures logo. Music fades up.* Alone again. “Shit.” As *Groundhog Day* plays, I start scrolling. This’ll take a while. “Hey, Neil! Buddy! Can you help me with something? ---------- I’m alone in my room again. *Groundhog Day* plays as I try read a book. I found I can’t turn the volume off all the way, or I loop back to the start. Pausing also makes me loop back. If I keep the noise but hide the video? Nope, loop back again. Leave the room as the video plays? Loop. Fully turn away? Loop. *Groundhog Day* is an hour and forty-one minutes long. Proving I’m in a time loop to Neil takes me nine minutes, at the fastest. He’s pretty stubborn about believing in linear time. On one loop, through some unfortunate-but-necessary violence, I made him tell me a secret. Revealing that secret saves me three minutes a loop, but’s it’s always an awkward conversation, so I avoid it when I can. Exploring the outside world was hard, since I have to carry my laptop with me, and our wifi craps out once I’m past the door. But Neil, always creative, thought of something. If I downloaded Groundhog Day on my phone and timed it exactly with the laptop, I could switch to the phone. Time loop on the go. With our wifi, downloading Groundhog Day to my phone takes four minutes and eleven seconds. My last-gen iPhone dies after playing fifty-five minutes of Groundhog Day, which I think is planned obsolescence. If I charge my portable charger for fifteen minutes, that’s enough charge to keep my phone alive for the full movie. I shouldn’t have started watching the movie during rush hour. Driving downtown takes a while, especially on a route where no cops pull me over for watching Groundhog Day and driving. That means I have to rush visiting museums and seeing segments of movies. By the way, I’ve noticed no one likes the guy in the theater who’s also watching Groundhog Day on his phone. ---------- But you’ve seen all the time loop stories, you get the gist of what I did. Ate all the best food in the area. Did all the drugs. Learned a few instruments. Well, tried to, but I’m not made of time. The cello is a bit of a headache. I talked to my mom a lot. Funny enough, she’s been watching *Russian Doll*. She’s says it’s a pretty tight time loop story, and that Natasha Lyonne is a “revelation”. I checked out *Russian Doll*. Gave me the idea to look for other time loopers. Couldn’t find any. I even found a group of people who started watching *Groundhog Day* the same time as me, but none of them were loopers. They were pretty impressed though. I hooked up with one of them. It wasn’t great. I never tried Groundhog Day’s “kill yourself to escape” method. But I mean, it’s hard to kill yourself while still watching Groundhog Day. Also, what am I getting from it? A world where I’m dead? Seems like a major hassle. Trying to escape with time loop story methods didn’t help as much as you’d think. In *Edge of Tomorrow*, Tom Cruise gets time looping from alien blood. The loop ends because he... gets a blood transfusion. I think? Well I got a blood transfusion. Still looping. Other time loop stories end when you fix something - solve a murder, end a war, find love. Problem is, there was no murder. I can’t end a war in an hour-forty. And I broke up with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago. I’m happy I did! Plus, using time loops to find love seems a little creepy. And maybe I don’t want to leave. Maybe I like that everyone lives the same kind of life, growing older while changing nothing, and I get to do something different. I don’t have to grow old. I don’t have to move on. I don’t have to like new things. I can do whatever I want. As long as I’m watching *Groundhog Day*.