Monday evening, slightly headachy

[cleolinda]

So I had an eventful day. But just to get it out of the way: OFFICIAL CLOVERFIELD TRAILER OMG. Interestingly, it's listed on Apple Trailers as 1-18-08.

(So what is this? Smoke? A monster? A cosmic lobster come to eat us all with giant wedges of lemon and butter? More discussion over at 011808.)

Re: Smashup 2007: After discussing it with y'all in the previous couple of entries, I took what y'all said back to my mother, the potential Filer of Lawsuits. We're not going to sue, and here's why, per y'all's contributions:

1. Apparently the seat falling back is a known Camry design flaw that has since been fixed. I suppose if the backseat had continued hurtling toward the front seats and my sister's head had been crushed into her shoulders, we could probably sue, or at least scare them into a settlement. Of course, in that case, she'd be dead and it wouldn't help anything; "but she could have been killed" apparently doesn't hold a lot of weight in court.

2. She had already been, as you may remember, in a major accident last August. Toyota would most likely claim that the airbags didn't go off as a result of damages to the car from that accident, or that there would be no way to prove otherwise.

3. There was a front impact when my sister was spun into the ditch, but it probably wasn't hard enough to trigger the airbags. You can argue that airbags are just as necessary in rear-impact accidents, but if it's not an industry requirement, it's not their problem.

4. Toyota would also most likely claim that it was precisely the safety of their design that allowed my sister to walk away from an accident that obliterated the back half of the car. The Driver Seat Detachment actually increased her injuries, but the car was eight years old, since been fixed, not their problem, etc.

So basically, it's scary as hell that the seat collapsed and rendered her seatbelt useless and contributed to her (minor) injuries, and you'd hope that airbags would go off during a rear impact on the chance that you could be thrown forward, but it doesn't merit $50,000 worth of hopeless lawsuit. I would suggest, however, that when you go buy a car, new or used, you make a list of things (like the collapsing seat and the various impacts required to trigger airbags) that you've heard went wrong in other people's cars and research whether the car you're looking at can handle those things.

Also, if you're interested in specific details, her '99 Camry was hit at a slight angle by a Ford Explorer SUV going roughly 70 miles per hour. It's the slight angle that probably saved her life, as well as the fact that she had completely stopped by the time the guy hit her.

Meanwhile, my mother had been wanting to see POTC3 since it came out--her obsession with Jack Sparrow tends to teeter between "adorable" and "needs an intervention"--but wasn't able to get out and see it. Part of the problem was that we allowed the puppies to run our lives, to the point where I just finally flipped out and started demanding why someone had to be in the house with them at all times. They sleep in a crate, after all. So three months into the all-day watching of puppies, she bought them a bigger crate--they were outgrowing the old one--and decreed that from now on we would, in fact, leave the dogs in the crate when we needed to leave the house. Thank Jesus. And then things happened, life was busy, she didn't get to see the movie, and so on. She wanted to go last Thursday, but they yanked her 11 am showing out from under her. I don't know why my mother insists that all theatrical viewings be over before dinner (which in her mind she always has to fix), but she basically won't go to a movie that's on later than 2:30 pm. So you see how she really wants to go see this movie, but then she imposes all these artificial limitations.

So finally, my stepfather finds an 11 am on Sunday for her (awww!) even though he didn't want to see it himself, and he volunteered to take her. At 11:30 that fateful day, I had to call the theater and ask them to go find my parents and drag them out, and the theater employee actually refused to at first. Well, it wasn't so much a flat refusal as a bewildered, "Uh... I don't think we can do that. Let me... get a manager?" Yeah, you do that. I wouldn't have even pressed them except that Sister Girl used to work at a movie theater, and she remembered people being pulled out before. So I'm actually sitting there telling two separate people, "I am so, so sorry to ask if you can do this, but their daughter's been in a car accident, and--look, they're in Pirates, there's probably hardly anyone in there anyway. Couple in their fifties, [names], tell them to call Lauren--I am so, so sorry to ask you to do this..." So finally I get hold of my mother, and she is Not Happy. Of course, she hasn't seen the actual wreck yet. It's hard to imagine the actual automotive carnage until you've seen the pictures (previous entry). Of course, she wasn't too happy then either, but for different reasons. And six hours in an ER didn't help any.

The one good thing is that she got off four weeks of jury duty because of the whole thing--this morning, for example, she and my stepfather drove up to Cullman to take more pictures of the accident site, and it turns out that Earl's Body Shop is particularly good people, because when they cleaned up the wreck, they actually went out of their way to pick up as much of her books and papers as they could. People were really, really awesome about the whole thing--when it happened, a bunch of people stopped to help her. One guy got her a bottle of water; a woman started going up and down the road picking up her things for her. She has, as I've said, really shit luck getting into accidents, but the luck of the angels getting out of them.

So, anyway. My mother calls me about 8:30 this morning, all excited: "They're still showing Pirates at 12:30 at the Summit! If we can get back in time, you and I are going!" Apparently the half an hour my stepfather saw convinced him that it was not the movie for him. We had already known this, of course, but it's one of those things he had to find out for himself rather than us sound like we just didn't want him to go. They got as far as the Multiple Jacks part; I kind of suspect that my stepfather was a little relieved to be rescued.

So, okay, she and I are going to do, and I'll see it for a third time, which means that I'll have seen all three movies in the theater three times each, which has a pathetic nice symmetry to it, and everything will be as it should be.

She gets back from Cullman, and we gun it to the Summit.

The girl at the box office stares at us like we're idiots. "There's no 12:30. The next one is at three." "But..." My mother fumbles for words and gestures at me. "But... she checked the internet!" "Did she check carmike.com?" the girl asks loftily. "Carmike.com is the only site with the correct times for this theater." You will forgive me if I then blurted out, "That's why we usually go to the Rave!"

So we go home. We get lunch. We dope up Sister Girl and put her back to bed. My mother notes that if we leave in an hour and a half, we'll get (back) to the theater in time for the 3 pm.

"But... that's after 2:30."

"I know."

"But... you know that the movie's three hours long, right? By the time you add in trailers?"

"I know."

"You know--I mean, we wouldn't get home until like 6:30."

"I KNOW, AND I AM GOING TO SEE THIS MOVIE. HARRY POTTER IS COMING TOMORROW AND IT WILL GO AWAY."

Y'all know a good bit about my mother by now, I think. The Sonic incident aside--at her best, she's the woman who walked into a car dealership and said, very politely, "I want this car in California blue, I want a moon roof, and I want it at this price. Someone in this town is going to sell that car to me. It can be you, or it can be someone else." (She's also the woman who got that car, and is still driving it.) So we're dealing with someone with an immense amount of will, but also a very self-effacing need to see to other people before herself, and to their dinners in particular. Apparently, if you want to tip the balance, you have to apply Captain Jack at the very last moment, because, so help her God, we were going to see Pirates of the Caribbean today if it took us all damn night.

It started raining. I honestly began to think at that point that an F5 tornado would blow in and rip the theater out of the crust of the earth rather than let my mother see this movie in the theater. But by God, we got there in plenty of time for trailers and drinks and everything.

Until we sat down in the middle of the almost-back row, got comfortable, put our feet up... and two girls came and sat down exactly in front of us.

"Why would they do that?" hisses my mother, who views putting one's feet up as a God- and Constitution-given right. It also doesn't help that some variation of this seems to happen to her every time she goes to the theater, but today, it's like God just daring her to lose it.

"Look, I don't--"

"WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?"

Quickly, I move us over about four seats before it gets ugly.

So, the movie: she really liked it, although there was a large amount of discussion afterwards as to the whys and hows. (Y'all were here back in May; y'all remember.) And I asked her if she was prepared to sit through the credits for the after-scene, which was actually important this time around, thinking that she'd want to blow out of there before the family was forced to forage for sustenance, and she said, "I came to see this movie AND I'M GOING TO SEE ALL OF IT."

So help us God, amen.


P.S. Happy birthday to Valkyrie!

Comments

[thansunshine.livejournal.com]

*debates clicking the Cloverfield link* The whole thing's got me super paranoid, and I kind of want to sleep tonight....Mmm, I'll click it later.

And that really sucks about the car. Shame on them for not recalling it.

About the putting-your-feet-up deal, same thing happens to me. Even when I go to a theatre with the disabled seating, so it has the bar, I put my feet up on the bar. Half the time someone in a wheelchair comes and sits in front of me. *aggravated sigh*

Potter tomorrow squee.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee, I have midnight tickets too. And we totally sit on the front row--the Rail Seats. Of course, we take our feet down if someone in a wheelchair comes up, but usually it's not a problem.

God, I miss the Rave. The Summit's a Carmike and it's so inferior to the wonderful spacious Rave.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope my googling was helpful, although whoever you talked to probably pointed out everything I said anyhow. Glad your mom finally saw the movie.

[chocotaku.livejournal.com]

Cloverfield is the new Snakes on a Plane. That being said, I couldn't make out anything in the screengrabs. I doubt they have all the renders done for any CG in the movie. Good link to that community though...this will keep them busy till Lost starts rolling around again...

[spiderfarmer.livejournal.com]

Re: Lawsuit

Coming in late here, but wanted to mention that although a suit against Toyota would probably be fruitless, a suit against the reckless driver who hit her, especially at that speed, may be worth investigating.

[lilgoala.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who shares your mom's views on putting one's feet up. When people sit in front of him, he leaves his feet propped by their heads.

I'm not sure I'm looking forward to OotP. :/ I was so excited about Goblet and it let me down a little. I think I just don't want to get my hopes up too much.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

That's probably the best way to go into anything, really.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Your mother wins at being funny. Sucks about the car, but if you sent your mom in there? She could own Toyota.

Hmm, HP release tomorrow . . . I must stock up on Kleenex. Ten, maybe fifteen boxes should do it. I mean, I still get teary when I read the book (re-read it over the weekend) so I doubt I'll be able to handle the movie.

[neveth.livejournal.com]

Dresden icon! EEEEEEEEEEE.

I'm actually putting off seeing the movie for a bit myself - don't think I'm up for the tragedy during one of my mental downswing periods. I'll wait till I'm happier before inflicting tragedy.

[stringertheory.livejournal.com]

YOUR MOM FTW.

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

You think your mom could get me a Saturn ION in bright blue(2004) coupe with suicide doors and a grey interior(me, have the car of my creams bought from under me? why would you think that?)?

/bitter

HP has better be good. My mom is going to the midnight showing.

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

and by creams I meant dreams *headdesk*

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

It seems to be a prime week for bizarre and unfortunate car accidents. I didn't think anything could rival the photos of your sister's car, but this one has to rank somewhere....



Paramedics place the driver of a Ford Taurus onto a stretcher after a 1,500-pound wrecking ball slammed into the back of it North Main Street at Randolph Street in Meadville, Pa., Monday. The wrecking ball damaged numerous vehicles after it broke loose from a crane on the campus of Allegheny College and rolled down North Main Street before hitting the Taurus. Two other people were also taken to the Meadville Medical Center for treatment of injuries they suffered in the accident, police said.
(July 09, 2007)

Associated Press

[greyduck.livejournal.com]

...Oh, wow.

Dead center, ended up smack dab in the middle of the trunk. Dude, how many deities did that guy piss off?

(I envision a few dozen bystanders simultaneously and frantically dialing their best friends on their cellphones to have a conversation starting with some variant of, "Y'all are NOT gonna believe this shit!")

[galaxianomiko.livejournal.com]

...your mom is awesome. I haaaaate when people come into a totally empty theater and sit right in front of the only other people there...or next to them... GIVE ME SOME SPACE.

[starline.livejournal.com]

It's the smoke monster from LOST gone wild of course....

[freyalorelei.livejournal.com]

Dude, are you sure we don't share the same mother? Obsessed with Jack Sparrow (or in mine's case, all things Johnny Depp), refuses to see movies after 2:30, places the needs of others over her own....

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Definitely not the same, because my mother's obsession stops cold with Jack Sparrow--she thinks Johnny Depp is "weird" and unattractive, mostly because of all the bohemian outfits he shows up in. I personally feel this could be remedied with large applications of Johnny Depp movies, but she doesn't agree with this hypothesis.

[dives.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I commiserate totally with your mom re: people sitting in front of you @ an empty theater. Happened to me and a friend of mine when seeing GoF for a second time-- we'd been there for like ten minutes before a lady came in, and it was just her and us two in an empty theater. We just yelled stuff at the screen anyway. Douchey, perhaps, but I was young and carefree then.


^{crap, I have a '99 Camry...I don't like driving at the best of times...}

[obigrrl.livejournal.com]

ya know....i've been thinkin'

this movie starts right around the time the new season of LOST starts.....maybe it's a tie-in for the new season!!! LOL!!

i mean, smoke monsters....OMGWTFPOLARBEARS "It's alive! I've never seen an animal that big!" from something i found at this site (http://thecinemattic.com/?p=242)

i have no idea, but this thought amuses me LOL stranger things have happened :D

[phorie.livejournal.com]

Oh hell, I've been trying so hard not to get excited about Harry Potter tomorrow and then I go round reading comments and gah!


...I had a point to commenting here, I just know it *re-reads* OH yeah! Cinemas. I don't understand why people always sit right in front of you when they could have ANY OTHER SEAT in the darn place.
Guess it's just one of those things.

[flamingtoilet.livejournal.com]

Nice icon.

[cosette-esk.livejournal.com]

I personally cannot see the smoke/monster/lobster. Can someone point it out for me? I gave up on the Potter movies after PoA, I just couldn't stand Lupine's stache. Interesting that an Explorer was the rear-ender considering my family owned one for most of my childhood and it was possibly the shittiest, most suicidal and foul car I have ever been in, my memory is filled with vacations in which I had to sit around for hours waiting for the dreaded thing to be fixed.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Kind of between the top two big lights, between the two buildings, that clearing there. There's a darkish shape that looks a little like a lobster with two big claws over its head. I was mostly goofing on the fact that people kept claiming there was a weird monster "behind" the two girls in the picture on the 1-18-08 site, when it was actually the light behind their hair.

[msilverstar]

I'm glad you and sister and mother made a careful decision about the whole car thing. Easy to get carried away with the idea of suing a huge corporation.

Also that your mom has finally seen the light of the crate and you're not tied to the house!

MMMm. Pirates.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, and particularly when she lost so much in the wreck--her books, her schoolwork, and, uh, her CAR--it's tempting to look to the corporation and say, "They can give us enough to fix this."

[ironclad1609.livejournal.com]

Somehow I gotta keep thinking about the ending of the Watchmen comic when I see this...

[dietcokebreak.livejournal.com]

I think that I love your mother. I saw Pirates again on Saturday and in a nearly empty theater, people came and sat right in front of us. I made us move and was pretty obvious about it too. It is one thing if the theater is packed, a whole other any other time.

[Cleo, I realized a plot hole (or a possible mistake) in the film BTW and wanted to see what you thought. When Will and the Dutchman leave Elizabeth at the end of the film, there is a flash of green. Now it has been stated that the flash of green comes at sunset when someone dead comes back to the living, NOT the other way round. It kind of throws off the theory of the Will returning to life (and staying alive) flash of green after the credits. I know that I am over thinking this, but I hate sloppy film making. I also can't decide whether I want Will & Liz to get a permanent reunion or just their one day every ten years.]

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

My mother and I were actually discussing that--I pointed that out, and she promptly responded, "That's Will's father." "What?" "Well, Will told his father that he was free, and Will's father said he wanted to stay anyway." That would mean that the green flash happens whenever a living soul crosses either way... and we didn't see it when the Black Pearl crew first went over the giant waterfall. So... I don't know. Sloppy writing, again.

[elbales]

Seventy? Holy crap.

That guy is so buying your sister a new car and a pony.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

They were on the Interstate, that's how fast people tend to go on the Interstate. I don't know about Alabama, but in NY the speed limit is 65 on the Interstate, so most people go about 70.
He should have been going slightly less than that by the time he hit her, since if he was traveling a reasonable distance behind her he would have seen her slow down and been able to at least apply his brakes, even if he couldn't reach a full stop. I've been in the car that couldn't stop in time, and it sucked (I wasn't driving). But you don't expect the car in front of you to come to a full stop when traffic's cruising along at a normal pace. When my friend hit this other car though, she got a ticket for following too closely, on the grounds that if you can't stop in time, that's sort of the definition of following too closely. So the insurance company of the guy who hit SisterGirl will probably have to pay for everything.

[despairfaery.livejournal.com]

Bless....your heart...your mama...I feel for you *thinks back to seeing same movie with my own mother*

I don't blame your sister for not suing toyota but I would still have a lawyer handle personal injury and such.

[lotusbiosm.livejournal.com]

I never put my feet up because the angle it makes me sit at is uncomfortable, but I do hate when people sit directly in front of or behind you if there's plenty of other seating, and I will refuse to do it myself.

[--kali--.livejournal.com]

I feel your mum is the prefect example of "don't come between a woman and their appreciation of Capt Jack".

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least your mom waits until after the movie for all the discussion. My future mother-in-law is a Movie Questioner.

"Who's that?"
"I don't know. I think this is the first time we've seen him."

"Is he a bad guy?"
"I don't know."

"Is she dead?"
"Diane, I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE BEFORE EITHER."

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Dude, were they playing Wolfmother in the trailer?

And, way confused here. What were we supposed to see... or NOT see?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think that's the whole thing--we were supposed to see things exploding and people being scared, but have no idea what they were actually seeing. It's made everyone start talking endlessly about what the hell was going on, which was probably the point of the entire enterprise. : )