Coming 2 America

This is out today, and I'm super excited.

Laura is also looking forward to it, but not enough that she's willing to re-watch the first one. She said she feels like we just did.

I think I vaguely remember us watching it together. Maybe shortly after we got married. I can't find any reference to it in my journal (I didn't dig all that deeply), and I'm almost positive it hasn't happened since last July. I do remember noting that I'd forgotten how many different roles Eddie Murphy plays.

I don't think we've ever talked about how much the first movie means to me.

Not because I think it's a world-shatteringly great movie, or anything like that. I mean, it's fun. And it was probably the first time I ever got to see Samuel L. Jackson on screen.

But that was the day that I wrecked my pickup.

I had a little white Nissan. It had blue bucket seats with one of those armrest console things in the middle.

I was driving Khrys and Michael Moss somewhere. Khrys was on that armrest console. None of us were wearing seatbelts, of course.

The way I remember it, we stopped at a light. It turned green, nobody was coming, so I went. A guy tore through the red light and plowed right into us.

It's entirely possible (and would have been completely in character) that it happened the other way around. I've always been a fairly cautious driver, but I was also a stupid jerk about it back then.

I do remember being incredibly angry that he never slowed down, and that he lied about it to the cops. And I vividly remember that he was munching down on lo mein when he flew into the intersection. He made sure to clean that up before the cops arrived.

Maybe he was just taking care of his car rather than destroying evidence.

The woman who called it in told us that it happened all the time. She said she could just identify herself by name and tell the dispatcher that there'd been another one.

My car was in ruins. I'm pretty sure that whatever plans we had flew out the window. At the time, I'm pretty sure I didn't think twice to be grateful that no one got hurt.

Maybe we'd been heading to the movie in the first place. I remember a few crazy drives to try to get there before the previews started (I still love that part the most). Or maybe Mike suggested it after the crash.

Either way, I don't remember how we got there. But I remember that it was a balm that helped me relax after the "trauma."

So this is a movie that will always have a special place in my heart.

It doesn't really matter, but the body shop fixed up the exterior just fine. That armrest console where Khrys was sitting was never the same again. The metal frame got bent when he got thrown forward, and I'm not sure they even realized that it was part of the damage.