Party Animals and Poltergeists

So, yesterday, my parents, as well as my two sets of aunts and uncles, and my grandparents had a wedding to go to. The children/grandchildren (meaning my sisters, cousins, and I) were not invited, so Kelli and I offered to take care of the younger ones for the afternoon and night. We had decided to take our cousins Jimmy & Gina to see a movie, but Jimmy ended up ditching us because a friend had asked him to come to a sleepover for the night. Hmph. I guess our plans weren't "cool" enough. So...it was just me, Kel, and Gi. We had talked about seeing either Barnyard: The Original Party Animals or The Ant Bully...but, in the end, we went with Barnyard because the theater where that was playing was closer to where we were going to be. It was a fairly funny movie, but very cute. Not as funny as I had hoped; but, I'm still not disappointed either.

We were three of only about 20 people (if that) in the theater yesterday...so we had lots of space around us as the previews began...until (dunh, dunh, duuunh) this lady and her two kids had to come in and sit one seat away from us on our left. And, what made it worse was, since I had an empty seat on my left, I decided to put my purse and Gina's purse there because the floor was all gross and food-riddled. So, what does this lady do? Yes, she sits on the other side of that "empty" seat and proceeds to put herrrr purse and bag of popcorn in the seat with myyyy stuff! Don't ask me why I didn't get Kelli and Gina up right at that moment and move down to the other end of the row (where no one was sitting). I thought, okay, well, as long as she doesn't bother me, I'll be fine. But, then again, I should have listened to my instincts...I knew that there were about 15 or so other rows this lady could have chosen because, as I said, there was hardly anyone there...and I immediately had this feeling of "this lady will be annoying"...but, alas, I ignored those observations and feelings, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Not long after the movie started, the annoyance was building...she kept bringing out her cell phone and looking at it (which, by the way, had the brightest light ever, next to the sun) and she kept talking to her little daughter who was sitting next to her. From the beginning of the movie, her daughter wanted to sit on her mom's lap, so, she obliged...but she says to her daughter, "Oh, honey, you're ready to head home, aren't you?"...her daughter says, "Yes, Mommy." That didn't change anything though, because they still stayed....lucky me. Every time mother and daughter would talk, mom didn't even whisper--only talked at a normal tone of voice. Finally frustrated as the woman got up and left her purse with her two kids as she went off to the bathroom, I got Kelli and Gina and we moved to the other end of the row, which I should have done in the first place.

After the movie, we picked up some salads and headed to my house to eat them (we weren't all that hungry after having a little popcorn at the theater). We also made a stop at Blockbuster because Gina loves scary movies (as do Kelli and I), so we figured we'd try to find something good and also appropriate for Gina's 10-year-old age. We settled on Poltergeist because it was PG, Gina had never seen it, and Kelli and I hadn't seen it in a long time. Plus, Gina was going to sleep over that night, so she thought it would be fun to watch it in our pajamas.

After eating our salads and watching Gina's own magic show, we made some milkshakes, turned down the lights, and settled in to watch Poltergeist. Needless to say, we all enjoyed it, but it certainly freaked Gina out. After hearing the dog in the movie barking at the strange things happening, Gina got scared because a little while later Murphy (my dog) was barking at something out the front window. As I went to see what he was doing (knowing full well that he barks at neighbors and passersby all the time) Gina ran up behind me, grabbing my arm and saying, "Collllll, I'm scared!!!!" So, I shooed Murphy away from the window and closed the blinds, and we went back to the movie. Gina buried her head in my arm a few times, but she loved it nonetheless.

After the movie, we turned on all the lights, at Gina's request...but, before we could do anything else, the phone rang...it was our neighbor, as I could see on the Caller ID. I was a little worried thinking maybe our TV was too loud or something...it does sound like a movie theater in our den when we watch movies...plus the windows were open because of the nice cool air coming in. But, no, he was calling because he noticed the lights were on in my car when he was outside in his garage. After I thanked him and hung up the phone, this sent Gi into a frenzy because Kelli and I were going to go outside and see why the lights were on (even though no one had turned them on earlier). Gina said, "You're not going out there and leaving me in here!...I'm coming with you!" So, she hung on my shirt as the three of us went outside to check the lights in my car...turns out the back window hatch was slightly ajar somehow...in any event, though, all was well.

We were all still awake when my parents returned home around midnight and we recapped the night for them; they laughed at our silliness though. Surprisingly enough, Gina did not ask to share my bed last night after the Poltergeist experience...she felt brave enough to sleep in our spare bedroom. I made her pancakes for breakfast this morning (what service!) and we talked more about the scary movie. It was a very fun night...one I can't imagine spending any other way.