At the movies
I love going to the movies. Even when I was in high school and the theater was walking distance, and well, long story short, I hope my principal isn’t reading this…. We would get there for the first showing and then the second movie was free! (Forgive me, I was young.…) Movies are this beautiful escape from reality. What gal from the 80s didn’t watch “16 Candles” and not fall in love with Jake? The original “Star Wars” trilogy? “Get Out”? (Gee, those were random..) But each movie you have seen reminds you of that time in your life. My first R-rated movie that my sister took me to — I felt like such a grown-up. The first date I had at a movie and saw “Top Gun.” And then there is the movie date story that husband #1 loves to hear.
Many, many years ago, before social media and sushi, a boy who my mother made me go out with took me to a movie. I did not want to be there, at all. Sitting next to me, coincidentally, was husband #1, and I remember thinking, I would rather be here on a date with HIM than the boy I was with. Sometimes wishes do come true!
But what if the movie is really bad? What if you are watching Ashton Kutcher, who is usually nice to look at, but the acting and plot are so terrible that you want to bang your head on the seat in front of you? “Why not just leave the theater?,” one might ask — well, movies are now like $30 a person. And if I have learned anything from living with husband #1 for all of these years, it’s you don’t leave a movie if you have paid for it. Not unless you can get your money back. Funny story (and my mother-in-law will love this one). A few years ago we went to the movies and then I had to pay a visit to the restroom. Well, the restroom looked like a boys hockey team had had its way with it — and there was no attendant in sight. I was so appalled that I called the theater and got gift certificates for free movies!!
In any event, movies are an experience — you come in, find your seat — I usually like the one with no seats in front of it so I can crack my bad knee during the movie. I sneak in some snacks because the snacks are more expensive than the movie (yes, husband #1’s influence again — $10 for soda and peanut M&Ms. Do you know how many bottles of soda and bags of M&Ms you can buy for $10?!?!?!?) Relax, enjoy the 40 minutes of previews and all is good.
Well kids, not anymore. For the past few Sundays, husband #1 and I have gone to an early movie on Sunday mornings. (It’s the cheapest and we are practicing to be senior citizens.) Two weeks ago, we get to the movie and the guy tells us we have to pick a seat because starting now, there are only assigned seats at the movies. NO! I DO NOT LIKE THAT!! And we didn’t know we could do it online so all of the good seats were taken. So we pick two seats and we go into the theater. Of course, there are two cute old people sitting in our seats. We don’t want to bother them so we go to two other seats. A few minutes later, we are asked to leave those seats, so we go to two other seats. And then we are asked to leave those seats…. You see where I am going with this. We just wanted to be nice to the old folks and not make them move!!!!
In the end, it was fine, and the movie was great. And now we know that we have to get seats online before we go to the movie. (Well, we learned that after this past week when we had to sit in two different rows, but then the nice man moved without us asking and we got to sit next to each other.)
Man, it was so much easier in the olden days… But maybe it’s just me. Who out there likes the assigned seating? Next time you go, give us a holler….
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck really loved “Bohemian Rhapsody” and now Alexa knows to play Queen all day long….
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