So following our drive in marathon and dealing with the Davinci Code, we thought we would skip the next week. They only added one new movie anyway “XMenIII.” Then on saturday nite we finished watching “Capote” on dvd, which was quite good btw, and it was 1 a.m. and i said let’s go to the drive in! and we went. we went and waited in a nearby semi-secluded parking lot where you could see about 1/2 of the screen thru the trees and you can pick up the FM radio broadcast from pretty far away so we waited there until the Davinci Code exodus was pretty much cleared out and watched just the first few minutes of xmen, which didn’t start til 1:45, from a distance and as we drove in and, woohoo!, the box office was closed so we saw “the final conflict” for free! it was pretty sweet! and the movie wasn’t bad either, definitely better than the second one.

but this week we really paid!! we logically should have gone for the second show on screen 2, “The Omen”, it was sandwiched b/w two showings of XMen III, then switched screens to see the last showing of pixar’s “Cars.” seems a little odd to see a Disney movie at 1 in the morning but hey on the very off hand chance that the whole 666 thing is actually scary (who are we kidding here, there’s no chance in hell that it’s remotely scary), it might be nice to watch something nice afterwords. Anywhoo, plans changed when suky decided to join us ’cause she’s one of these early to bed types and a big chicken when it comes to horror movies. so we went to the first showing of “Cars.”

when we got there the crowd at screen one looked something like this:

it was crazy crowded! kids everywhere! people were camped out - eating, playing frisbee or catch w/footballs, baseballs, walking dogs around, packed! we drove around and found a decent spot but it was by a white pole so we were immediately approached by an employee because our vehicle is between 5′-6′ so we are supposed to park by a yellow pole. i explained we couldn’t find any available yellow poles because there were lots of people taking up two spaces plus putting their lawn chairs everywhere. he said they were making those people move over so we would have to move as well. so we circled around and squeezed in a spot inches away from a pole next to a mini van with about four little kids running around. we got settled in then a man driving a giant suv stopped in front of us and asked the people on the other side of us to move closer to their pole so they could squeeze in. they did and it was like watching a clown car unload! there were four or five adults and i have no idea how many little kids, they had several lawn chairs and a large cooler which included a large bottle of southern comfort.

then came the moths. they descended like a plague. they were in small swarms everywhere. and if you’ve never observed moths in action, you are probably unaware of how unintelligent they are. they just keep flying in loopty-loops against car windows or whatever is in front of them without trying to avoid it or to go around it, like if they hover there long enough it will just go away. And why do they aim for your head & face.

the movie finally started and so did the chain-smoking. the southern comfort man next to us lit up cigarette, after cigarette, after cigarette. it was kind of amazing, especially since he never stopped talking! i’ve never heard a man talk so much, yak, yak, yak, yak, i don’t know how he managed to smoke. i guess every time he took a breath between sentences he did it with a cigarette in his mouth. and it only got worse, the more he drank the more he talked and the more talked the more he smoked. i couldn’t take it any more so i finally asked him if he could please keep his voice down. unfortunately there was nothing i could have said about the smoking. i guess i could have turned him in for the alcohol, but i wasn’t prepared to be “that” person. then came the crying babies, it was like being on a long flight with no flight attendants (tho i’ve been on many flights that would have been better without them). on top of all this, the movie really wasn’t very good. i mean it wasn’t bad and of course it will do well, but it was kind of boring, definitely no Nemo. oh yeah, and the film broke!! with about 15 minutes left it broke and people started honking and yelling. it took about 5 minutes for them to announce they were working on it and another 5 to get going again and we had definitely lost some time in the film. but then it finally came to a predictable end and screw trying to switch screens which we couldn’t have done anyway because people were still pouring in and still waiting outside. we were outta there in a hurry! well, as much of a hurry we could be with vagrants running around not getting out of the way of the cars. it was nuts!

i don’t know when and how the word got out about the beauty of the drive in but we have some new rules in effect at least until school is back in… we will have to stick to week nights unless we want to try and sneak in to the last showing on the weekend for free! and no more disney no matter what! kids just ruin everything.

so we came home at a decent hour and watched a dvd, “firewall” with harrison ford. it sucked. it wasn’t horrible but we were over it in the first 15 minutes, when our leading man, who was head of high-level, network security at a big bank, said his password for his hi-tech home security system was “lark,” the name of his boat. but at least nobody was smoking and there were no swarming insects!

but what’s rule #2?… it’s about the experience. and last night was definitely an experience!