Movies and My Migraines

We don't get out much around here. I used to be a huge drive-in movie lover, but can't really tolerate the big screen experience anymore, even when I'm safely cocooned in my own car.

The first problem is that we don't actually have a car right now. We can't afford to insure, register, gas and maintain our old one, so it's sitting at a dealership, just waiting for just the right family to scoop it up and give it a home. Until we get a new (used) car, we're not going to the drive-in anytime soon.

But besides the obvious lacking of drive, the drive-in is still fraught with hazards. The huge screens can be hard for me to focus on, and the picture quality tends to be terrible. I'm pretty sure there's a projector up there from the 20's. And then there are the cars who merrily go about finding parking twenty minutes into the show with their lights blazing through all six screens and into everyone's mirrors and eyeballs. Annoying as it is to the average driver-inner, it's torture for me.

The movie's sound comes in over the radio now, which is much better than those speakers that used to hook to the car window. I would always get a crackly one. Over the radio, though, sometimes the frequency goes wonky and it's STILL crackly! Or the reception is bad and it's too faint to hear the voices without the sound effects blowing my head off every five minutes. Last time, I just wore earplugs and had no idea what was happening. That dramatically reduced the enjoyment of my movie-going experience. And it's not like I could mute the sound and have captions, because they aren't available at the drive-in.

I don't know if/where captions are available in the walk-in theaters around here because I can't go anywhere near most indoor theaters anyway. They are crowded, smelly, busy, loud, and way too expensive for my SSI-supported self. Even the drive-in is beyond my budget right now, and they have Family Bargain Tuesdays! Darn this economy!

So, we watch at home. There's hulu, and various network websites. We watch some cable online, due to a borrowed account, and we have a redbox nearby for super easy renting. They don't have the greatest selection, but the convenience is pretty stellar when we have a buck burning a hole in our pockets.

And the movie selection process is a whole other thing, too. Before migraines, I could watch anything. Violence, horror, or psychologically disturbing flicks, I could shrug off the images or ideas that bothered me and move on with my day. Not so anymore. I am deeply bothered by this kind of material now. So, I tend to seek out spoilers; I want to be prepared if there is a rape scene, or if there are long, drawn out gory battles. I can handle those things easier if I know they are coming. And some movies are worth a little emotional and physical pain, but most are really not.

I still wish I'd skipped Sex and the City 2.