To celebrate the coming of Summer and to take advantage of an extra day of the weekend, my family and I headed up to the Mall of Georgia for their free outdoor movie…Paul Blart: Mall Cop. We knew it was going to rain, but the weathermen said it would rain at 7pm, dry up (only a 15% chance of rain) for several hours, then rain again after 10pm. It was going to be great.
So, we hit the TGI Friday’s dinner deal ($5 sandwiches and $5 salads during the month of May) and then made our way over to the lawn. A cover band was entertaining the crowd with some 70’s, 80’s and 90’s music…they were pretty good, I guess. We picked some spots, settled in, and relaxed while we waited for the movie. My wife and oldest daughter decided to hit the shops in the mall (no “free” movie is ever “free”)…and I and the other two kids stayed outside to guard our spots. About a half hour later, it started raining lightly…not enough to make us leave, but enough to make us get out the umbrellas. It was actually kind of fun to sit out there and watch a band in the rain…and that’s when it happened.
Have you ever been doing something, and then caught yourself in a reflection…only to realize how ridiculous you actually look? While sitting there looking at my kids in their little chairs covered in their umbrellas, I caught a glimpse of my appearance…that of a 300 pound man slumped down in a pink folding chair, holding a rainbow “Justice” umbrella, in the middle of a relatively empty lawn. I must have been quite a sight.
The movie cranked up just before 9:00pm and then we became some of the luckiest people on earth…we became part of the 15%…it started raining…hard. We wound up seeing about 20 minutes of the movie amidst the onslaught of a heavy downpour before we finally gave up, called it a night, and headed home. Were we frustrated? Absolutely not…we had so much fun as a family…laughing…and getting drenched. Would we change anything about the night? Not at all…well, maybe the umbrella.
