Thursday, June 21, 2012

Oh, Date Night

The husband and I were the type of couple who went to the movies 2-3 times a month.  Sometimes more.  And there was always food involved.
Dates were all the time!  It's so easy when there are no kids.

But everyone knows too well that as soon as the chitlins arrive, date nights are a coveted and prized evening out.  

As soon as I was old enough to baby-sit, I remember my parents having date night once a week.  Sometimes all they did was go grocery shopping.  But hey, they did it together. And that was important to them.  Granted, it didn't save their marriage, but I will never forget seeing them make that effort.  I have always planned on making date nights a priority in my marriage.

So far, we only have date night once every couple months, since there's only so much free baby-sitting time we can take advantage of from the in-laws.  Plus with Paul's work schedule, he doesn't get a lot of family time.  So on weekends, we like to all be together.  And we're ok with that right now.  More date nights will come as the kid(s) get older.

Date Night circa 2008
Blah blah blah, onto my story.

We had a date on Tuesday night!  Paul is off work for the next couple weeks and so we were excited to go to dinner and a movie.  Ah, just like the good ol' days.  Except we are old now and wanted to be home at a reasonable hour.  Tati arrived for duty at 7:30 and we headed over to Universal CityWalk to catch the 8:30 showing of The Avengers.  Yay, so excited!  

Of course we wanted to eat, (duh!) but with so little time we ended up grabbing Taco Bell & Flame Broiler at the food court.  Yeah, we're fancy like that.  We scarfed it down like a last meal and that gave us just enough time to stock up on Popcornopolis, which we basically HAD to buy to get our parking validated.  It saved $3 off the $15 price tag that is CityWalk parking.  Although with the popcorn being a Buy 3, Get 1 Free deal, we also HAD to get 4 bags.  So I think we ended up spending $25 there.  

Nicely played, CityWalk.

The new date night
We arrived at the theater right as the previews started and they stopped us at the door saying there was no outside food or drink allowed in the theater.  

What food?  Oh, the popcorn?  But that's from a retail store!  We're not going to eat it!  They are gifts.  We will buy popcorn and soda from you guys.  Or maybe I can leave it at the front?

Sorry, no exceptions.  It needs to be taken back to your car.

But the car is so far away!  We will miss the movie.

Actually you will only miss the previews.

But I like the previews!

Sorry, then all I can do is refund your tickets.

Are you going to refund our parking too, because that was expensive and we only paid for parking to come watch this movie?!

No, sorry.  We do not validate parking.

Well EFF YOU GUYS THEN.

I didn't say that.  But we got our money back and were annoyed by the whole thing.  We decided to boycott AMC Theaters.  Then we realized that's all we have in Burbank.  So we went to another AMC to watch Moonrise Kingdom.  And bought $10 popcorn and soda and a $5 bottled water.  But free parking!

Who's the sucker now?

3 comments:

Lara Peltekian said...

Uuuuuuuhhhhhh Popcornopolis!?! 4 bags!?!

Your Friend in Real Estate said...

Oh my gosh! In Hurricane the movie theatre has made a deal with a couple of fast food places where you can buy your tickets AND buy your food and bring it into the theatre to eat while watching the movie. Now, I think that is smart. Of course I think this is a way to get more people to come to the theatre and not having to hire more kids to work the concession stands - saves them money I think. Maybe you should write about it in the local newspaper! But the main thing is that the two of you were together!!! Love you!

Alynne Leigh said...

hahaha. we hide our goodies in oversized bags. no way i'm paying is $5 for a soda. And popcorn? Pshhh. That's like a dollar at walmart. I'm cheap. And a cheater.

-Alynne
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