Over the summer while my youngest daughter was home from college, she and I went to the movies a couple of times. My son lives in town and we invited him to go with us on both trips. The two films we went to see were Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Annabelle Comes Home. Both trips took place during the same week.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was showing in an older multiplex in town that has recently been renovated. Prior to the renovations, the box office was outside, the snack bar was at the back of a spacious lobby and the restrooms were access by two small doors on the left side of the lobby. A small arcade area was also on the left side of the lobby before you got to the restrooms. When we arrived at the theater, we saw that the ticket counter and kiosks had been moved the right side of the lobby as you enter. The snack bar had been moved to the right side just beyond the ticketing. The restrooms appeared to be in the same area they were in before, but you couldn’t clearly see them because of large cardboard cutouts next to the rail that separated the restrooms from the main lobby area. Because of the rail, you can only access the restrooms after you have entered the theater areas. I need to use the restroom so as soon as we passed into the secure area, I went to find them. Where there had been two separate wooden doors for the men and women’s restrooms, there was a big open entrance way. The left side that had been the men’s room had a picture of Marilyn Monroe painted on the wall just inside the entrance. A sheet of paper on the outside wall identified this as the women’s restroom. There was no sheet of paper on the right side, but I assumed that this was now the men’s room. When I entered, I quickly noticed that there were just stalls and no sinks. That’s when I realized that had been both the men and women’s restrooms was now a larger women’s room. I quickly exited without anyone noticing except my son, who had followed me in. We walked down further to where the arcade had been where we saw a painting of Elvis Presley on the wall inside the cove and a sheet of paper on the wall identifying it as the men’s room.
A few days later, we went to a different theater to see Annabelle Comes Home, the most recent film in The Conjuring series. My family has seen all the films in this series. This was the third Annabelle film, which features a creepy looking doll possessed by an evil spirit. When we entered the theater, we quickly noticed a family that was sitting in the top row of this room with stadium seating. The family included a young girl that appeared to be way too young to see this film. From their family’s conversation, we could tell that it was her decision to come see this movie and the family didn’t tell her no. It also seemed like most of the family didn’t know what they were in for. A teenage boy with them knew exactly what they were getting into. He was sitting in the top corner seat and was excited that he was going to be scared. He said, “I’m gonna be scared and I don’t know what I’m gonna do!” He was a bundle of nervous energy simultaneously bouncing up and down in his seat and sprawling out like the blob oozing from his seat to the floor. When the film started, I was afraid that they would be a distraction especially when the little girl started running up and down the steps. The family quickly restrained her, and I didn’t notice any of them until after the film. I went to the restroom when the film was over. My son followed me in. I took a few steps in and stopped when I saw the excitable teenage boy in front of me standing at a urinal. He was further away from the urinal that where most people stand when using one. Probably about 2 or 3 feet away from the urinal, not the normal 6 inches*. He was far enough back that I didn’t know if he had committed to that stall. With his back to me, his hands were in a position in front of him like he could already be relieving himself. My son walked around me and went to one of the full-service stalls. I finally decided to commit to the urinal stall next to the excitable boy. As I stepped up, the boy jumped and turned around. He quickly says, “Oh man! You scared the crap out of me! I just watched a scary movie and I’m still scared!” He was wearing sweatpants and the waistband had thankfully popped into its normal place before he turned around. When he left, my son and I had a good laugh.
*I googled the normal distance for how close men stand to a urnial. I’m sure it’s an estimate.
