Muppets and Pizza

So, this seems to have been the weekend for feeding my inner child. (Not that she’s ever all that deeply buried anyway.)

Saturday, a friend and I, wondering what to do with our evening, decided that clearly, since none of the movies showing interested us, we needed to go to Chuck E Cheese. She had a coupon for a cheap pizza; I had a coupon for 100 free tokens; so we figured we were good to go.

See, the thing about Chuck E Cheese is, if you can get past the high level of background noise, you can sit there and talk for hours and hours–no one’s going to kick you out, because mostly they assume you’re taking a much needed break while your children run around in the human habitrail or play endless rounds of whack-a-gopher. If you’re in the right mood, it’s fun. In the wrong mood, it would be irritating as all get-out, of course.

Afterwards, we did our best to use up all 100 of our tokens–took about 90 minutes all told. It’s sort of like going to Vegas, only less depressing. And I’m pleased to say I’ve still a pretty good hand a skee ball. 🙂

The prizes–for the tickets one earns from the games–were pretty much as I’d remembered. I felt kind of badly for the poor kids who walked up with their tickets, only to realize just how little those tickets would get them–and just how lame the prizes actually were. I also felt for the poor woman behind the counter, who had to keep explaining to child after child just what their tickets would–or wouldn’t–buy.

Interesting people-watching of the night: as one of the costumed characters was singing endless rounds of And Bingo was his name-o, two girls, 8 or 9, were watching. One of them was laughing and tapping her feet; the other had the classic I’m-too-old-for-this expression. Only once in a while Enthusiastic Girl would look at Too-Mature Girl, and tone down her enthusiasm a bit; and once in a while Too-Mature Girl would look at Enthusiastic Girl, and try to at least fake a smile and a bit of interest.

They were both, I think, trying to be kind to one another. I wonder whether they’ll still be friends, in a couple years.

Sunday, I set out early to see the one movie that had appealed to me the night before: a morning-only showing of Muppets from Space at the nearest second-run theater, Crossroads, as part of their summer kids’ series. Because, like, Muppets. And I’d never actually seen this particular Muppet movie before.

Only the paper was wrong, because they don’t show those movies on Sundays. But the woman at the theater looked at the three kids (all under six) waiting to see the film and listened to us adults explain about the newspaper listing that said the movie was showing today. Then she made a call to her manager, got the needed permission and … showed it to us anyway. Pretty much a private showing, just for three adults and three kids waiting outside before the theater was even open, who didn’t realize the movie wasn’t showing today.

I thought that was incredibly classy of them.

The woman gave one of the kid tickets to me with my adult one. I don’t think it occurred to her that an adult would show up just because.

Afterwards, I thanked the parents and kids for showing up. Because I somehow doubt they’d have shown the movie just for me–nor would I have asked them to. I’m that much of a grownup, I guess. 🙂

And now, after this lovely time off, I think I’m actually ready to settle down to some work.