Speaking of treats, don't even get me started on what the theaters charge for drinks, popcorn and other sweets. If we indulged in that snack-happy goodness at the cheerful counter, we could easily spend three times what it cost to get us all in to the movie in the first place! And on the occasions that we have decided to get a drink or a small popcorn, there's always a kid behind the counter who is hell bent on getting a commission of a saccharine sort, or maybe he just has a quota of stale, overdone popcorn that he is required to move under threat of having his happy badge revoked. In any case, we place our $70 order for a few water bottles, a large Coke for Bill and oily popcorn for everyone to share, and the Kid goes, "Will that be all?" Will that be all? HAHA YES! That will be all, unless you'd like me to refinance my house so that we can buy the Raisinettes too.
Relentless, the Kid replies, "But if you buy our Super Saver Popcorn Membership, then you get this really neato container for your Popcorn that you can refill any time. You can fill it up even if you aren't actually going to see a movie. And it will only cost you $50 for the three month membership - which will pay for itself over time."
Blink Blink Blink
For real? As we glanced at the neato plastic container that was the size of a 1 liter soda bottle, I couldn't help myself from asking, "But why would we want popcorn if we weren't here to see a movie?"
Kid doesn't miss a beat, "Oh I take this popcorn home with me all the time. I think it's the greatest snack ever. You could keep the refill container in your car and stop by on your way home from work even."
Now that's just weird.
We spent at least 5 minutes politely declining his sophomoric sales pitch, ever conscious of the impatient movie-goers in line behind us that were eagerly anticipating their turn at the Kid behind the counter so they could scurry off to their seats before the previews started without them. We walked away shaking our heads at the completely new approach to movie snacks. A Popcorn Club. It boggles the mind.
Trust me, I am going somewhere with this story. I just need to reel in the tangent and get back on track.
So there we were, Friday night stretched out beautifully ahead of us, and I had said something silly to Bill in a text message earlier that day. I think it was something along the lines of, "We should sneak off to a secret movie today. Just the two of us." His reply was an extremely enthusiastic, "YES! I'm all over that!" Of course, that was before I spent the day moving my office, box by box, to our new location. I was tired and needed a shower - so much for meeting in secret... no way I was going anywhere until I cleaned up a bit.
I didn't even take the last load to the new office. I simply headed home with my Durango overflowing with files, ginormous water jugs, various boxes of desk clutter.. whatever. All I know is that it was enough to completely fill every inch of available space in the Durango and I had to be careful when I turned so that the water jugs didn't throw me around with their liquid momentum. But I was excited about going to a movie!
When I saw my girls, I immediately wanted to take them with us to the movie. They are so much fun to be around and I enjoy everything so much more when I can turn a conspiratorial glance their way and share the giggles that follow. If I tried to do that with Bill, he'd look at me funny and ask if I had something in my eye. ;) Some things are only for us girls I suppose.
The problem was that even though I wanted to take the girls with us, Bill had his heart set on us going out on a date. A DATE! As parents of 6 teenage girls, dates are rare events that we have to really work on to make happen. So I was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place, wanting to have a fun evening with all of my family and wanting to honor the date that I had initiated in the first place.
I came up with this brilliant plan to send the girls off on a girl date of their own. I told them to go see a movie together and that I would pay. They were actually excited about that and I was relieved. Even though I would miss out on being with them, I knew that they would have fun and I wouldn't be disappointing Bill either. So the girls headed off to see their chick flick while Bill and I bought tickets for another movie (District 9 - it was awful!) that would start just as the girls were getting out of the movie they chose. (They saw The Proposal and loved it!)
I still am not completely used to the girls being drivers. Granted, Madison hasn't driven much since the accident that totaled her car, but Carley does a lot of driving and it is nice to have another chauffeur in the family. As we headed to Iggy's, Bill and I scouted the parking lot to find Carley's Camry and we smiled as we noticed that she had parked away from the crowds. Good girl. Safe parking 101.
We enjoyed hanging out at Iggy's and as we were getting ready to leave for the movie, we had a silly idea to play a little prank on the girls. I use the term prank loosely because it wasn't really a prank, and the girls would know immediately that we were the culprits. But it was a fun little game nonetheless. As Bill gathered up sugar packets, I picked up two of the cocktail swords on the counter. I had no idea what we were going to do, but we were pretty sure the kids would get a kick out of it - whatever it ended up being.
We were in luck! Carley had pulled through the parking space and faced outward.. the space behind her was still vacant, and Bill pulled the truck in right behind the Camry. We thought we were clever by sticking the swords in the door locks, and Bill had a curiously great time placing the sugar packets under the wipers. I took the time to scrawl, "Oh! Hai!" in the dust on the back window, and with that we were satisfied. We thought the girls would giggle and text us when they saw what we had done.
Bill and I were settled in the theater, watching an endless loop of movie trivia before the previews began, when the girls sent us a text telling us that their movie was over and they were headed to the arcade for a bit. I was certain that we would get a text from them about the prank before our movie started... but that text never came. We sat through the entire movie without a word from the girls and I started to think that could only mean one thing.
Revenge.
We walked faster than normal out to the truck, anticipating what we would find, and we were not disappointed. Even in the dark I could see brightly colored shapes outlining the wipers, and as we got closer, we could also see that the sugar packets had been relocated to the truck's windshield but they seemed to have multiplied. We laughed as we discovered that they had decorated the wipers with neon bouncy balls, our original sugar packets, and their movie ticket stubs. Clever little monkeys. They had even skewered a note through the door lock with the cocktail swords. We admitted defeat as we gathered up the items. Even though their window writing was not as visible as ours, they trumped us. And they were completely silent about it. It had to have killed them waiting for us to get home so they could see our reaction.
We never sent them a text when we discovered their trickery. Nope. We were quiet about it, prolonging their anticipation. Yes, we can play that game too! However, once we were home we all traded stories and much laughter. We confessed to them that we considered sticking Oreos on the windows, and they confessed that they had thought about buying window paint. I am relieved that neither side took the prank too far, and I think it is awesome that the girls thought to take some pictures!
It wasn't our typical movie night at home, but we had fun in a new way... Yes, we are dorks.... but at least we enjoy it!
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