Free Flick

This is something I would never have considered a year ago. Mo is getting so much better at sitting still, and the desire to fit in with the audience is coming along, too. Last year, I would have laughed at the suggestion of taking Mo to see a feature film outdoors, on a mall with hundreds of people.



Em's in Chi, overdosing on her favorite Cuz, going to the American Girl Museum, the Field Museum and I don't know what-all.

Mo was very pleased with carrying her canvas chair over a shoulder. I bought canvas chairs for the girls this week because they were only $2 more than chair rentals at the Shakespeare Festival (which I'm planning on making a second run at with Mo tomorrow night). I've had one for awhile, keep it in the trunk so I have it on those occasions when it's useful.



If you're thinking about hitting Crown Center for the free Friday movie, go early if you want to sit close. We got there at about 8:30, a half hour before show time, and we were about a hundred yards back from the screen.



Which is okay, since the screen is the result of cross breeding air mattresses with dirigibles. I'm sure in a couple of years, everyone will have a screen this big in their homes, though they'll have to relocate their ceilings...

Also, bring snacks and sodas. They sell them there, and they're not as overpriced as you'd think: a buck for a can of soda, $4 for popcorn, and $4 for a massive Sheridan's cup (3 scoops) of frozen custard. Not cheap, but even with me splurging, it was less than I've spent in recent years on those rare outings to movie theaters. And the custard was awesome.



But other people I saw had brought popcorn and sodas from home, mental note made to do that next time, save myself fourteen bucks. Also, note to self to bring Mo in her swimsuit so she could run in the fountain. I almost let her do it in her street clothes, but feared she'd strip them off in front of everyone when she decided they were uncomfortably wet.



We'd forgot the bug spray, I realized, and I could already feel myself being eaten up. I asked the folks next to me the time and it was still a quarter till. They'd forgot their bug spray, too, but seemed resigned to their status as mosquito prey and future West Nile victims.



Judgment call: we returned to the car, leaving the $4 popcorn and two sodas (one unopened) with the canvas chairs. I wondered if it would all be gone when we returned. But who goes to the Friday Flick to steal chairs?

Actually, I learned this lesson when I was 15, and I convinced one of my most adorable female friends to go to Eric Clapton with me at Sandstone. We brought a pair of my Dad's folding lawn chairs, and he dropped us off. But the assheads at the gate wouldn't allow the chairs in. So we had to leave them by the gate, hope they were there when we came out.



Big surprise, someone who left before us decided there were two lawn chairs with a FREE sign on them at the gate.

But when we returned with the Deep Woods Off, I was delighted to find my stuff unmolested. Mo dampened the delight some by throwing about half the bag of popcorn at one go into the grass, but at least it was there for her to lay waste to.

I offered my bug spray to our neighbors. The least I could do after having this affirmation of people's basic decency (or their lack of interest in my stuff).




And no, Mo didn't make it through the movie, but she made it a ways in. It was E.T., and Dee Wallace was on hand to make a few awkward introductory comments. She compared E.T. to the Wizard of Oz, which I think is a bit of a stretch.

Anyway, as we were leaving I asked Mo if this had been a fun trip, and she said, 'Yup.' Pretty good, from the kid who says 'no' to everything.