TBD (To Be Deceased)

My life is now complete, and it's a good thing as it's almost over. I have officially had my first death threat. Literally. I don't think I would have quite planned it like this though as I don't even have any witnesses that I know. I'm actually quite disappointed. Well, here is the story....

So tonight I decide to have a little Matt time and go to see the remake of The Manchurian Candidate at 7:35 PM CDT at the Theater 3 in AMC Quail Springs 24 . Well I get there quite early and I'm just sitting there by myself. Some other people come and fill in the row where I'm sitting but there is still 1 empty seat on my left and 2 on my right. I begin to worry that I'm going to have to sit by some wide-legging, late-coming, 50 year old man and sure enough right as the previews finish, my fears are realized.

Needless to say, this wide-legger forced me re-evaluate the position of my lower appendages as I was using the right leg cross on the knee maneuver at the time. (I might add that I was quite comfortable.) I forced myself to hold fast in this position for at least a couple of more minutes but then decided to reverse my position as to achieve maximum comfort level for this film. I stayed in this position for quite a while. I wasn't really thinking about my positioning any longer, but then I made my one fatal mistake. Apparently I unconsciously decided to again reverse back to my original position when I suddenly heard something coming from the row directly in front of me.

I looked down to discover the chap in the row below me and one seat over looking back in my direction. He was a black male approximately age 19 or 20 and maybe 5'9" 160 lbs. I'm just going to call him Reggie (in honor of Reggie Jackson) b/c he had a NY Yankees hat on (and it was crooked to the left, I might add). So I see Reg looking back at me and I lean down close enough to hear what he's saying. Here is the exchange:

Reg: (In a rather belligerent tone with pretty high volume) "Stop kicking her seat!!"
Matt: (In a regular, slightly irritated voice) "What?"
Reg: "Stop kicking her seat!!"
Matt: "I didn't know I was kicking her seat."
Reg: "Just stop!"
Matt: "Have you ever thought of asking nicely? I would respond much better to you if you were polite!"
Reg: "Don't do it again!"
Matt: (As I'm sitting back in my chair) "Whatever."
Reg: (Trailing off) "Don't do it again or I'm going to kill you...."

Needless to say, I wasn't too worried about dying although it was slightly annoying. To top it all off the wide-legger didn't even budge during the whole exchange!!! I guess you really have to be oblivious to be a wide-legger. At the end of the film, I was obviously curious as to how Reggie was going to react. As he got up, he straightened...err, un-straightened his cap and slightly glanced back, but not far enough to make eye contact with me. I just looked straight ahead and was hoping he'd make eye contact but of course he didn't, even as he wound around under the stairs and was facing back in my direction. I guess he just had to show off for his woman while in the heat of the moment. I feel so accomplished now that I stood up to a teenage "thug." :-)

It's a good thing that just this morning I was teaching our Singles' class on Ephesians 5:21-6:9 on the concept of submission, because I really wanted to get mad at that fellow tonight but I was really able to think about what I was doing and to think how God would want me to be submissive in that situation. Funny how God's Word can really change me when I need it. It was definitely a memorable experience....at least for tonight!!

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Ephesians 5:21