Pictures

I've never been big on photographs. Some people would call my bluff on that one right off. I was the guy who brought disposable cameras to parties, video taped the last month of my senior year of high school, the guy who took 600 pictures on his first (and coincidentally last) vacation after he bought his first (and coincidentally last) digital camera. But the truth is I just don't need them. People like to look back at pictures, and show them off, and use them as a tool to accentuate (or correct) their memories of an event, a place, or a person.

I on the other hand just prefer to remember. Seems to work out better for me that way.

This is my photo album. These are my pictures. Here's what yesterday looked like.

-Two Tickets-

I had thirty tickets to the 7:00 screening of Batman up at IMAX. As of Friday I had thirteen unclaimed tickets. By Saturday night I had four people I almost had to say no to. In the end I was left with two extra tickets. I could have sold them. Normally I would have just given them away. But instead...I just kept them. Couldn't tell you why.

-Rides-

I gave Adriana, her boyfriend, and her cousin a ride to the church to meet up with everyone else. When we got there at ten to four there was no one else in the parking lot (even the bus wasn't there yet). This was slightly disconcerting. Within a few minutes Kevin showed up with his buddy Gary who has come on some stuff with us before, his sister Katie (who was an Antioch kid a few years back) and her friend Kristen (who I didn't realize was coming but was glad to see because she was on team a few years back). Alyssa M. pulled in a few minutes later. The Boyles pulled in a few minutes after that. Manny, Al and their friend Steven showed up. And then Mike and Alyssa arrived followed shortly by Michelle and Tommy. It wasn't much after 4:15 P.M. and we were on our way.

-Timing-

I went to wait for the tickets while everyone else scattered towards the food court. I was pretty clear that they should be back by 5:30 and absolutely no later than 5:45. I knew getting on line early was important. Kristen and Katie got on line right at 5:30. Sean and Nicole did as well. House wandered over a few minutes after that. Jere and Kevin were over on Route 59 trying to beat traffic at 5:45 and Nick and his group were just sitting in it. No one else that had rode up on the bus was on line at 5:45. That was a little frustrating. I had arranged with the people directly behind us to not be pissed off if 30 people showed up and cut in line. But after 5:45 quite a few other people had got on line and there was no way the rest of the group could cut in. When they showed up (only ten minutes later) they were a little ways behind the rest of us. Apparently they weren't all very well behaved, but I was still coordinating with the late arrivals and the people on the front of the line to try and get us as many good seats together as we could. Nick showed up after 6, his friends (who are very nice people but whose names I can never friggin' remember) showed up a little later. A fire alarm earlier in the day had the theater running 15 minutes late, but they let us in just before 7:00 P.M.

-The Movie-

The movie was excellent. Just as good the second time around. I'm pretty sure everyone liked it. Some dick across the row from us kept talking throughout the entire movie. Which was sort of surprising since you could literally hear a pin drop in the theater when I saw the movie on Tuesday. I really wanted to say something to him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was a decent guy having a braindead moment.

-Outro-

We met up outside the theater. Half the group went for a bathroom break, the rest of us waited around . Jere and Kevin took off, Sean and Nicole went to grab something to eat. Nick and Co. wandered out a few minutes later and we briefly discussed the movie before they headed out.

-Food-

The rest of us decided to go to Applebees where the 19 of us outnumbered every other customer and employee combined. I had the salmon and some shitty apple juice. I gave the waitress my credit card before we sat down so there was no argument about who was paying for dinner, but she still made the mistake of bringing the receipt over to the table. I left a pretty healthy tip rounded everybody up and headed out into the warm muggy night. As we're all walking out, the waitress comes hurrying out after us, gives me a hug, says thank you and runs back inside. This left 18 other people standing in the middle of the parking lot looking at me like I just did something hilariously wrong. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and headed over to the bus to finish our journey home.

-The End-

Everyone had fun. Everyone was ok. Everyone got home safe. What more can one ask for? What more indeed?