Sunday, April 08, 2007

Happy Easter from the Apocalypse Cafe

With no family in Mayberry we were left to fend for ourselves this weekend. Yesterday a guy in a bunny suit scared the crap out of Opie at an otherwise delightful egg hunt/brunch. This morning I took Jo to church. It always makes me uneasy when I don't get hit with any droplets of holy water during the Asperges. It feels like a bad omen for the rest of the year. At the Brooklyn church where I attended Easter services for several years, the priest always approached this rite with glee, traveling the aisles with a sopping branch and a lieutenant holding an extra-large bowl of holy water for refills. He made it his personal mission to soak every single congregant.

So on our way out of church we made sure to stop at the baptismal font for a quick application of water, just for safety's sake.

This afternoon, with the temperatures barely rising above freezing, outdoor play was out; we went to a matinee. Happy Feet was playing at our local second-run theater. Tap-dancing penguins + minimal crowds + cheap tickets = best odds for Opie's first movie.

So this theater is in a mall that was reborn several years ago as a "youth mall." (Agreed, it sounds like an oxymoron.) It was meant to be a destination for teens, with various retailers, eateries, organizations, and even a charter school. It struggled along for a few years, suffering, no doubt, from the presence of a shiny new mall not far away; and then recently the building was sold. Now the movie theater is the only surviving business in the place.

Walking through the defunct mall to the theater was the creepiest. We're talking exposed wires, crumbling cement, cheap drywall partitions, broken glass and boarded windows, and to top it off, a planter containing three huge dead trees. It was straight out of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie. A really bad one.

So you can see why it's a good thing I'd loaded up on the holy water.

9 comments:

Lisa said...

As a former Catholic, I can completely relate to the soakings. And the holy water at the end, (for good measure.)

How did he do at the movie?

Hope all went well and you guys had a great Easter.

Lady M said...

Like Lisa, I'm wondering how the movie went. We haven't taken Q to one yet, although he has a few favorite DVDs at home. He knows when the parts he dislikes (scary) are about to come up, and will remind us to fast forward. Hmmm, maybe we need to preview movies at home for a little while longer. ;)

Happy Easter!

Suzanne said...

I had no idea that the holy water sprinkling has a name! You'd think that would have been explained at some point during twelve years of Catholic school education....

Magpie said...

Yes, but how was the movie?? I took my kidlet to Happy Feet a couple of months ago - she made us leave about half way through. Not scared, not really bored even, just done.

Mayberry said...

Opie did really well at the movie -- he lasted almost an hour and a half before he fled for the lobby.

Kate said...

That mall sounds creepy. Are you sure you didn't walk into a Matrix movie by mistake?

Scribbit said...

Funny, very funny. "A quick application just in case." Wish they sold it by the gallon for emergencies.

Movin Mom said...

Never knew it had a name either.

It was so good to see you there. I have no idea what movie theatre you are referring to and maybe perhaps I don't want to.

We have to have you guys over since we too have no one here....Cinco De Mayo is also 1st communion for us...so if you guys are free...let me know! We will be making confetti eggs!!!!

Anonymous said...

Holy water can never hurt. Same reason I never object when someone tells me they'll pray for me or blesses me after I sneeze.

Your description of the mall gave me a flashback of a place in Dover that I haven't thought about in years. It had been a mall and was converted into office space, but the conversion never quite took.