Panic at the Movie Theatre!

Eve and I just got home from the movies (Big Hero 6). We went with three of her friends and three of mine, with a not-exact breakdown of parent-to-related child ratio, which isn't really important so I'm not even sure why I just tried to figure out a way to describe it. We were all roughly in the middle of the theatre, the four girls in front of the three adult women and one adult male.

Photo by Carlos Garcia |Campillo

We got there pretty early because a couple of weeks ago I took Eve and her friend from next door to see The Book of Life and the theatre was super short-staffed and we didn't get into the movie until two minutes before the movie started which stresses me the fuck out and there were almost no seats left, which was okay except some douchey couple dragged their five little girls in fifteen minutes after the movie started, bustled up to the top row where we were and started calling out asking people to move so their kids could sit down, then left and sat somewhere else while the five little girls whispered and went to the bathroom five times and spilled snacks and jumped up and down until I snarled at one (I didn't actually snarl, I just said "please sit down" quite firmly).

I was focused on not letting this kind of thing happen again. Of course, I can't control the actions of douchey people, but I could get us there early so maybe we would could sit in a less douche-accessible area. 

It seemed to go pretty well. I thought any late-arriving presumptuous douches would have trouble accessing us in the middle where we were. And we had a bit of a wait, but I hadn't seen my one friend in months, so hey, more time to catch up.

We had a lovely chat. It seemed like we had been sitting there for quite a while, but not in a bad way.

The movie was supposed to start at 1:30.

We checked our phones. It was 1:40.

Someone from the theatre came in at 1:45 and said they were having some technical difficulties and it would be ten or fifteen more minutes. We weren't overly upset, since our friends still had time to make it to their family dinner, and our kids were still happily chatting. The people with small children were less sanguine. There were bathroom breaks. There was crying and complaining. There was mutiny among the troops. 

Twenty minutes later, the gentleman came back in and said it would be fifteen to twenty minutes more, MAX, before the movie started, OR we could go to the 3D one at 2:40 (too late for our friends to still make their family dinner, plus I loathe 3D), OR we could get our money back.

Eve and Marielle asked if they could get Dippin Dots. Caitlin and her friend asked for popcorn. Did I mind that we were now basically rewarding the theatre for making us wait for our movie? A little, but not as much as you might think.

We talked some more. The front section of the theatre where the birthday party was set up devolved into something resembling Lord of the Flies. I asked Eve if, in the event that it got too late, she wanted to go to the 3D movie or wait and see it with Marielle next week-end. She said she would wait. 

We were just on the verge of having to bail, and the movie started. I thought the movie was fantastic - I laughed out loud and cried three times, not including the time I cried during the beginning short. As we were leaving the theatre (they refunded everyone's money, even the people who stayed and saw the movie), the parents with small children looked like battle-weary soldiers fresh from the wars.

Sometimes I miss the little hands and baby voices and hilariously mispronounced words and lapful of toddler. 

Sometimes having older kids is a really good deal. 

(A mother and two kids did, in fact, squeeze in right next to me after the movie had started and there was some phone fiddling and loud talking. I might have to avoid the movie theatre for a while until the douche-magnetism  wears off).