3 people...5 tickets?

Ladies and gents, a simple disclaimer here: I am fairly sure that none of you with children would ever consider such an act to be acceptable (see story below)...and if you find yourself shrugging your shoulders and saying, "Hey, I'd do that...what's wrong with it?" we may not be able to be friends anymore. And so I shall unravel an abhorrent tale (note the sarcastic melodrama...).

Friday night, my sister Rachel, Ben and I went with some of Ben's friends to see Hellboy II. Yes, I know what you're thinking..."Annie went to see what?" Trust me...I'm still shaking my head. But actually, it wasn't too bad!

Anyhow...we got there a little over half an hour before the show started--it was opening night--so we could get seats in a decent place and all together; there were six of us. There were less than two dozen people ahead of us in line, so it looked promising.

They started letting us into the theater, and we went in to find six seats in the row with the bar in front of it. Ben really likes that row so that he can have a footrest and not feel bad. And it's not a bad view, either, I've come to find. Most of the middle seats in the theater were taken, so we decided this was it. We saw six seats and thought we had hit the jackpot.

We asked the woman who was sitting in the middle of the row if any of those seats were saved. She said the one next to her kid was taken. Hmm...leaves us with a dilemma...only five seats for us now. Well, we could have the other guy who was meeting us sit somewhere else, but no fun for him. We asked her if she'd mind scooting down one seat so our group could be together. In a really bitter voice she said, "I'd rather not." Oh! Well... alright. And you know, she did get there before us, so we weren't going to make a fuss or anything. Normally I hate asking people to move, but it wasn't like we were going to be changing her view of the movie or anything. One seat was all we needed! I did not appreciate her tone.

We sat down next to her anyway and decided the friend who was meeting us could find one seat without a problem...but we weren't pleased with that solution. He got there and we figured he could sit on the other side of this woman in the middle...but let me explain. It was a lone woman with two children, one on each side. These kids were probably in the age range of 5-7, I'd be willing to guess. Each of these children was sprawled across two seats. My thought was that she was saving them for people who would be there a little later.

So...the previews began and still no one to come use those seats. Ok, some people miss previews... Then the movie began and still no one. Hmmm...this was looking shady. Please don't tell me this lady was just letting her children sprawl in 'extra' (that word is used very liberally here!) seats. Yes, people, that is EXACTLY what ended up happening!! Her kids each used two seats during the entire film.

Here are my rants:
1) Why is this woman bringing her two children to Hellboy II? Um, isn't it kind of rated PG-13 and not really appropriate for them? Ok, if I can get past this fact--who am I to judge what people do with their children? (yes, I know that's what I'm doing in this entire post...)--wouldn't it have been cheaper for her to come to the movie alone and get a babysitter?
2) You can't move down one seat? I mean, I could understand if we had asked her to move down the entire row, but seriously?! Common courtesy? Maybe we asked too much... I know I've moved down a seat or two for strangers.
3) Did she pay for the FIVE seats she used? Now I can almost guarantee you she didn't, but her sense of entitlement was quite inflated. I really wanted to say something to her afterwards, but we all know that Annie is a chicken and hates confrontation. Plus, what purpose would it have served? I stuck with the whispering really loudly and annoyed-ly, in hopes that she'd hear how angry I was. And I vowed to blog about it and tell the world how wronged I felt.

Ok, so really we survived and it wasn't a life or death situation...but come on. If I have to sit through the 30-second reminder (sounds short, but we all know it gets really boring after the first five seconds!) to silence your cell phone at the beginning of every movie, I think there should be a reminder that you only paid for one seat. I guess some people have a difficult time remembering that.