how not to see a movie

i have some stories from my weekend in state college upcoming, but i thought i'd share a brief Alice Moron Moment first, since i'm a bit too lazy and busy for a full post at the moment (not a good combo for work, lemme tell ya).

so, i thought i'd be a totally awesome girlfriend and surprise theboyfriend with tickets i was planning on winning from our local radio station for "the corpse bride," which i knew he wanted to see. dc101, one of the dc stations, has a website where you can earn points by doing quizzes and taking surveys, and then trade in those points for stuff like 2 passes to the advance screening of movies. like the corpse bride. for example.

so i go online, earn a bunch of points, discover they are indeed having an advance screening of the corpse bride, and trade in my points. yipee! i now have two passes for the movie, and i tell the boyfriend i have a surprise for him and not to make any plans for monday night. i chuckle to myself all the while, congratulating myself on being such a thoughtful girlfriend. well done, me! making plans! and orchestrating surprises! surely nothing could go wrong here!

i get my confirmation email from dc101, letting me know 2 seats are waiting at the Georgetown theater on Wisconsin for monday night's showing of the corpse bride. i arranged to meet theboyfriend after work, drove him into dc, and let him in on the evening plans on the way. me and my excellent planning! so wily! he seemed pleased overall, and happy to see the movie, especially.

we'd done this once before - gone to a dc101 screening at this movie theater - so we knew the drill. walk in, bypass the ticket counter, wave your printout at the ticket collector guy, and make your way to the theater that has a bunch of people with clipboards standing outside collecting printouts just like yours. last time we went, there were some folks from the radio station asking trivia questions and stuff before the show, and throwing tshirts into the crowd as prizes, and this time was no different. i did think it was odd that a number of the trivia questions were about jody foster, but no one else seemed to think so. after about 10 minutes, the radio people had given out all their prizes, and it was closing in on 7:30, so they wrapped up, and said real quicklike, just as the lights went down, "ok everyone! enjoy the show! here's the advance screening of........ flightplan!"

flightplan? with jody foster? (wheels turning... click click click into place)

me: um. we're in the wrong theater.
theboyfriend: huh?
me: we're in the wrong theater. this one is playing "flightplan."
theboyfriend: how could that be?
me: i don't know, but that's what they just said...

we hop out of our seats to go find the RIGHT theater - what a coincidence, two premiers in one night! ha! - and find all the clipboard-types still milling about outside the doors. "hi," says theboyfriend, "we're accidentally in the wrong theater. we meant to go into 'the corpse bride.' "

they stared at us for a second, and finally one of the girls goes "oh.. um... that's at the Odeon. up wisconsin."

now. we have been to a dc101 screening before. WHO HAS 2 DIFFERENT SCREENING LOCATIONS AT 2 DIFFERENT THEATERS BOTH ON WISCONSIN? THAT IS NOT NICE! people like me, who don't pay enough attention, are easily confused! and show up and the wrong theater! thereby COMPLETELY RUINING the whole evening i had so thoughtfully planned for my boyfriend! no corpse bride! no tim burton! no wow-what-a-good-girlfriend! just me dragging his ass to a theater that was NOT PLAYING A MOVIE HE WANTED TO SEE! mean. MEAN. and also, yes, stupid on my part. but seriously. the email said "you have won a pass for 2 to see The Corpse Bride at 4000 Wisconsin Avenue." why would i check the address of the theater AGAIN to make sure that by some freak chance it wasn't a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT theater from the last time they sent us a confirmation for a preview screening on wisconsin? clearly, i wouldn't. and this is why we did not, in fact, see the corpse bride last night.

flightplan was ok though. i guess.



incidentally.... i don't suppose anyone in the dc (northern va) area is looking or knows of someone looking for an apartment around november 1? my roommate is moving out and i need to have a new roomate by sep 29 or i have to move as well. THE CLOCK IS TICKING. anyone? anyone? bueller?

also incidentally, i got those anxiety-inducing tests back (finally! yesterday! 11 days later!!) and they're NOT the bad results, they're the sort-of-decent results. phew. thanks for all the reassurances while i was fretting, everyone :-D