Date Night @ The Movie

Last Friday Jennifer and I went to see Iron Man. Here's my review: Pretty good popcorn flick, but nothing spectacular.

Anyway, I love going to the movies. I love the whole experience. With a busy life, three kids and being unemployed we don't go to the movies very often. So, when we go I want the experience to be great. It pretty much breaks down like this: We have to get there early. (Jennifer hates this part.) Getting there early ensures that you can get a good seat. Middle of the row, eyes level with the screen, and in the middle of the surround sound. If you arrive late you just don't get the good seats. Arriving early also lets you get your popcorn (for me) and your milk duds (for Jennifer), and it lets you connect and talk.

The experience also involves the previews. I love the previews. After each trailer you give the thumbs up sign if you want to see it in the theater, the thumbs down sign if you will never see it, or a thumbs sideways if you can wait till it comes out on DVD.

After the previews are over there are a couple of movie do's and don't's. First, do sit back relax and check out for the next hour and a half. Do let the movie effect you. Allow yourself to be moved by it. Next, don't talk! Also don't bring children to a movie that is not appropriate for them. It could emotionally scar them or it could bore them and then they talk, cry or begin to move around ruining the experience for people like me who have movie watching OCD.

So, Friday night we are off to the movies. We got there early, but not early enough to get the seats I would have liked. No problem though because Jennifer and I are sitting enjoying our popcorn and milk duds waiting for the previews while connecting. (That means we are talking about where we are going to live next.) I am really enjoying the experience when in comes Daddy Day Care. I'm not joking. There was a whole row of kids - young kids and babies. None of them were 13, and none of them should be watching Iron Man.

Just as the previews are about to begin in walks an older couple. They somehow finagle their way into the seats next to us. They asked the people who were next to us if they could slide down. Now they were sitting closer to the middle and they got there late! They also reeked of smoke. Not campfire and smores smoke, but black lung of death smoke. The previews come and go and now it is time for the movie to start.

The movie starts and so does the baby crying. Great! And then it happens - the six pack an hour lady starts talking to her husband. It's not just a hushed whisper comment, it's a loud I can't understand the plot please help me understand who is who conversation. Are you kidding me? It's a comic book movie!

Fortunately other people sitting around gave them the universal finger to mouth "shush" sound which means shut your pie hole I'm trying to enjoy the movie experience and you're to stupid to understand that the guy in the iron suit is the same guy with black hair and a funky gotee, and they stopped talking. Which was good because I really don't want to spend the next 50 years in prison.

Looking back on the experience I really did have a great night with Jennifer. It was a nice liitle escape. As I think about the distractions that I felt like kept me from having the great movie experience, I was reminded about a truth in life. Stuff happens. It's true. Stuff does happen to us all the time. While we can't control what happens to us, we can control how we respond to it. We can respond in anger and outrage or we can respond with grace. In life's little distractions remember how God responds to us - with grace. Grace happens!