bowling for q tips

Now cut to the beginning of the 9 o’clock shows, chalk up 10 more ‘forgotten’ ids and 2 more requests for personal favors that would allow them to get into the movie underage. I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and turn my head just in time to catch two kids disappearing into Saw II, the same two kids that I had just refused tickets to because the guy’s girlfriend was only 16. My concession guy attempted some half hearted “Can I. . . need to. . . ticket” but they were unaffected. So I jog across the lobby hoping to catch them before they sit down (with the movie already running I was not looking forward to a game of “who’s who” in the dark). As I am almost to the door a little girl comes sprinting around the corner right into my path. With my cat like reflexes I dodge to the left just missing her, but while dodging I managed to bump an adult coming out of Dreamer. Having already used up my reflexes to avoid the first collision I turned to catch myself as I fell. While falling I turned just enough to watch a sixty year old woman

stumble and fall over backwards; the woman that I had bumped while trying to avoid the little girl. I jumped up and helped her back to her feet, feeling much more like a shmuck than I ever have in my life. She was fine. I apologized and mumbled something about trying to keep the younger kids out of Saw II. She apologized for “getting in my way.” I assured her that she had done nothing of the sort and that it was completely my fault. Meanwhile the two underage kids peaked back out and, seeing that they were caught, proceeded to stand there and smirk. Her husband walked her out and, while he looked really pissed, didn’t say a word to me (her husband happens to be one of the primary investors in the theatre). I then gave a weak attempt at kicking the two kids out of the theatre but instead sent them back into Chicken Little.

Before last night I would be hard pressed to recount any embarrassing moment, but not so much anymore.