Cry Baby

I decided, with the weather so cold and dreary and my schedule being pretty open, to treat myself to a movie the other day. I picked a movie called Breaking and Entering, mainly because Jude Law was in it. And it was playing at the Angelika. I usually like the movies showing there.

So I showed up, bought my ticket, got my popcorn and walked into the theater. It was about 10 minutes before the movie started and the only people in the theater besides me were an older couple and a lady with a baby.

But then two by two, more people arrived. I'm not just talking people, I'm talking ladies with babies. Little ones. Ones that look like they just might cry during the Jude Law movie.

I then noticed right in the middle of the main aisle a white baby changing bed. Uh oh. Then I remember hearing something about this thing called "Cry Baby Matinee" that the Angelika has during the week. A friend of mine that had a baby told me about it. For her it sounded like a cool solution to, "How can I take my often times crying baby to a movie without pissing off everybody around me?" Who can get mad when the feature you've chosen it called "Cry Baby Matinee". But since it was a "Mommy" thing, I wasn't as clued in as I could have been to what she said and then soon forgot all about it. Until yesterday!

I was getting a little nervous as I counted 8 babies in one small theater. Then the previews started. The volume was turned way down. Which is just fine for previews, but was I going to have to watch the whole movie this way? It was hard to hear, and what if one or more of the babies started crying?

But then I realized, maybe the babies weren't my biggest challenge. I had a woman behind me that sounded like she had just run a marathon...breathing really hard after just climbing the stairs to get her seat. Then she started making all sorts of noises. The kind my dog, Scout makes as she's laying down or getting up, like its a big physical struggle "UUUUUUrghhhhh". Then she popped open a canned soft drink. And then she had some kind of snack package that made a peeling noise- Like the kind of noise Sprees would make as you peel away the paper. Her noises were endless.

I felt like I was the one that was going to be a big crybaby before this thing even got started.

Fortunately as the movie began, the volume went up. But the lights stayed ON. They were dim, but oh yes, they were on. That's a cool thing if you need to look at your baby, or if you need to change a diaper, or breast feed?! But I really didn't need the lights on, at all, for any of my purposes, which were very few.

Eventually I had to use the restroom and when I returned I got to see a mom actually putting the changing table to good use. Yay. Then I got to relocate a little further away from the lady with all the food packaging noises.

There was a little bit of crying here and there, several diaper changes but nothing too distracting. If I were I mom, I'd be all over this movie option! What a great idea for them. Not that great for non-moms tho.