Dinner and a Movie with ParaGirl - Reign of Fire
I had been waiting to see this movie for a long time, both because I LOVE dragon movies, and I LOVE Matthew McConaughey! I REALLY wanted to see this one opening night (not easy due to my screwy work schedule), so I made plans to catch an opening day matinee, grab some dinner after that, and head off to work. It was a good plan, in theory, but there were several snags along the way.
I basically dressed for work for this movie - I put on a long, black, light skirt with a nice floral pattern, and a sleeveless black blouse. I wore black socks, and kept a pair of shoes in the car, as I was going to work afterwards. I did wind up slipping a diaper on, too, just for the sensation of it.
I got to the theater and was fortunate to get a good parking spot where I could still transfer out of my chair easily. I put my chair together and transferred easily into it, adjusting myself in heading in to the movie. Some Milk Duds and a medium Mountain Dew, and I was ready for DRAGONS!
I will start my review by saying that the movie I saw was NOT the movie in the trailers - and I have to think that's a good thing. From the trailers and other footage I had seen, I was expecting an action-packed summer blockbuster, with big explosions and over the top performances, lots of flash over script and story. How wrong I was!
This is a movie about the human condition and our desire, our will to survive. This is a story about the making of mythology. In this move, dragons are merely a catalyst for one man's discovery of the strength within himself, and another man's acceptance of his own destiny. Oh, and there are a lot of really cool explosions, and the dragons tend to eat people.
The basic premise, in case you don't know, is that in modern times, a dragon - i.e. a big honkin' fire breathing lizard with wings - is awakened below London, and proceeds to breed a whole race of Dragons, who pretty much destroy the world. Bummer. Now it's a bunch of years later, and mankind is living in caves and old castles, hoping the dragons will just go away. That's what Quinn is doing - he's living in an old castle in the English countryside, with a bunch of people hiding from the dragons. Everything is nice and peaceful (except for the whole dragon thing), until some Americans arrive (isn't that just typical?), led by Van Zan (Matthew!!), who enjoy killing the dragons. This leads to some really intense clashes between these two ideologies, and leads to one of the most heart-pounding climaxes I've seen in a long time.
I won't give away any more than that, but this is a truly amazing movie - just don't go into it thinking your're going to see 'Triple X' with Dragons - it's not that kind of film. It was fast, intense, and the dragon effects were probably the best special effects I've seen in a LONG time - they made dragons real. As far as I'm concerned, those were living, flying, fire-breathing dragons on that screen. Truly amazing.
After the movie, I decide to go to a nice dinner in the area, and come to my first little snag of the day - it's dinner time when the movie gets out, and just about every eatery in the local vicinity has a wait, even for a table for one, and I do have to get to work. I try one last place, Chilis, and they are able to seat me - sort of. You see, at Chilis (ar at least this one in particular), all the tables are booths. There are NO tables with chairs you can just pull out - this means I have to transfer into a booth, and let some high-school aged busboy walk away with my wheelchair, so I'm pretty much stranded at my table until they decide to bring it back. I didn't really want to, but it's all they had, and I was hungry - there was no way I was going into work without some sort of dinner. So I transfer into the chair, managing my legs expertly, and the waitress wheels it away - she puts it behind the hostess station, so I can't even see it.
Well, I get over the wheelchair thing, and order my dinner, plus a small salad to start it off. I'm finally relaxed and enjoying myself, my food is brought to me, and I enjoy a nice meal. I finish the meal, the waitress brings over the check, and I pay - she takes the check and the money, and heads off the the register. And I wait. And I wait. And I'm still waiting. She's not coming back, and I don't have my wheelchair. I now have to leave, so I can make it to work on time, and I don't even see her anymore. I try to flag down a busboy, but he's oblivious. I flag another waitress, and she waves at me like we're old friends, but doesn't come over. I've now been sitting there for over five minutes, unable to leave the booth because I don't have my wheelchair, and I still haven't seen my waitress. Finally, a man who was apparently the manager for the night comes over to my table and asks me if my meal was OK and if everything was alright. I told him the meal was fine, but I was having trouble leaving, because the waitress took my wheelchair away and has not brought it back. He was SO embarassed, he rushed over, got my waitress, who had a look of pure horror on her face, and she went, got my wheelchair, and returned it to me, parking it next to the bench as I intsructed. Both she and the manager apologized a few times, and the waitress said she simply forgot I came in a wheelchair. I got a couple free appetizer coupons for the trouble, but I was annoyed and let them know it. I doubt I'll go back.
Of course, now I had to rush to get to work so I wouldn't be late. I had gone to the movies and dinner a few towns over from work, so it was going to take me a little while to get there, and I was hoping I wouldn't hit traffic. I made it to work with no time to spare - and then as I pulled into the parking lot, the next snags of the evening occurred to me. I still had my wheelchair in the front of the car with me, and I was still wearing a diaper. Now, the diaper wasn't something overly noticable, especially since I was wearing a loose-fitting skirt, but the wheelchair in the front seat was an issue - everone knows my car where I work, and there would have been questions, I'm sure. I couldn't pull the chair out in the middle of the parking lot, as I would surely be seen, and I didn't have enough time to drive away and do it, so I did the only thing I could think of - I pulled down the back seat and stuffed my frame into the trunk, then I folded the seat back up, and set the wheels in the back seat on the floor - for anyone who doesn't know any better, they look like bicycle wheels, so that wasn't a big problem. I hate to manhandle my wheelchair like that, but I didnt' really have a choice. this time.
I got into work and got to my desk, still wearing a diaper, and waited a little while until I could take a quick bathroom break, and then took off my diaper (I hadn't used it) and tossed it in the restroom garbage. I finished off my exciting day with a very boring night at work, and that was that.