When you've got to go............

When I was a child my mom worked at a movie theater. As far as cool mom jobs in the 70's and 80's went working at at movie theater was at the top of the list. I mean it's not like she could have worked at Nintendo or Chuck E Cheese or anything.

Better yet when I was really little she worked at a drive in movie theater. Now my Little Miss Teen would argue that drive ins aren't so cool because after all you need to be able to DRIVE to get there and they only show movies at night and not even year round. True, but the nostalgic part of me remembers seeing Star Wars for the first time in my PJs in the back of a station wagon. I remember my mom hand breading the fish for fish and chips. Meals at a movie theater now aren't so unusual as last week I noticed ours was offering egg rolls; but you know those aren't home made. I remember speakers on a post that you had to roll down your window to put inside your car and then remember not to drive off with.

I also remember the controversy when the first Muppet Movie played. Controversial because some lady called the manager and complained that the movie was not appropriate for children as Miss Piggy made some sexual advances towards Kermit the Frog. The manager, my dad and a few other people all sat through the movie many nights in a row trying to see what the lady was complaining about. Wow! If all I had to worry about my kids seeing on screen was a puppet pig being flirty with a puppet frog my life would be a whoooooole lot easier!

Eventually they paved paradise and put up a parking lot; or at least a mall with a parking lot. Must put in the musical reference here for Little Miss Teen. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtJPs8IDgU

Across town they put up a 4 plex! Take my word for it, it was the 80s in a small town and it was very exciting. My mom worked behind the candy counter there allowing me to see any movie I wanted as many times as I wanted (However I was NOT allowed to watch "Porky's" or "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas." but for some reason I got to wear their promotional T shirts. Like I said those were the days...) . It was the early 80's and I remember great stuff like "The Empire Strikes Back" "Gremlins" and "Cannonball Run." Is Burt Reynolds even still alive? My favorite movie of that era was "E.T." Not only because I thought the movie was great and I got to see it as many times as I wanted (I think my record was 15) but to promote it came a HUGE box of Reece's Pieces that sat on the managers desk and I was allowed to have it all! I had just turned 10 years old and I had free access to a box of candy that was bigger than my head! Enough said!

Even in Asia I watched movies; (English with Korean sub-titles). I remember being the only person laughing at a joke in some movie. There must have been a cultural reference that was unique to western society and I learned that humor doesn't always translate. I also remember watching Pearl Harbour in a Korean movie theater and the Koreans stood up and cheered when the Americans bombed Japan. (There's no love lost between the Koreans and Japanese. In fact Korea was occupied by the Japanese for 40 years.) Nothing humorous about that. In fact I was honestly just a tiny bit scared to see such anger. That's apparently one of those "walk a mile in my shoes and you'll understand" things. That's probably true about a lot of anger.

Last year I nursed Little Bunny Foo Foo through a whole summer of free movies thanks to Regal Cinemas free summer movies. There's also a great "$3 a seat/every movie" theater downtown.

The point is that I've seen A LOT of movies in my time. And in all that time and all those movies I've probably gotten up to use the bathroom many, many times. And in all those times it never occurred to me that there might be an ideal time to "go." Until now. Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you my very favorite new website:

http://runpee.com/

It is EXACTLY as it sounds. It's tag line is "Helping your bladder enjoy going to the movies as much as you do." Thanks to this ingenious site you will never have to do the potty dance waiting for the end of the movie, or worse yet bothering your neighbor to find out what you missed when you come back from a biffy break.

Basically they review every movie you'd ever want to see and tells you when the best time to get up and go is. For example look up the movie "Tooth Fairy" and you can see that you should "runpee" 36 minutes into the movie when -----. And, you'll have 3 minutes to do it. You can either check out the movie at home before you go (go to the movie that is, not go-go although it's always advisable to go before you go) OR you can download the app to your iphone. Set the timer just as the movie starts and it will vibrate a few minutes before pee time.

Because you know, when you've got to go.....................