11: The Perfect Storm

Raleigh Grand Theater,  Raleigh, North Carolina

July 4, 2000

with: Mandy, Jeff, and Trent

Before the computer took over our social lives, I was consistently close to two people from high school-and they were married to each other.  For those of you who follow all my posts everywhere, this is the couple that came for Thanksgiving.

Back in the late 90s, they had moved to Massachusetts-her to teach, him to go to graduate school. Whenever I thought of them doing that, I would roll my eyes. What idiot would leave the south to move New England? Who does that????

I got a phone call on my land line saying:


Hey!  We are home for the summer!

Cool-can you come to Raleigh? 

Absolutely! What are you doing for the fourth?

Do you want to see the Rodin exhibit?  It might be crowded, though...

Well, this is North Carolina it probably won't be crowded...

OK, see that mentality is not true.  That is why I hated the thought of New England.  You had to get your tickets to the Rodin exhibit well in advance, thank you very much.  New England has brain washed my best friends...I'll never live there...ugh.

How do I handle my two best friends after they have lived in New England for some time now?

I know!


 I'm bringing out The Trent....

Trent was another high school buddy that sometimes I talked to and sometimes I didn't. I was teaching elementary school, not working in the hipster downtown Raleigh restaurants until four in the morning like he was.  Were there hipsters twelve years ago?  Well, whatever we called it.  Trent still lived in Raleigh -let's see if he is free on the 4th of July... I looked him up in the White Pages...there he was. 

Yes, I actually got out a phone book, flipped through it and found the name and address of a friend.  When was the last time that ever happened?

 Don't ask how or why, but he was free and coming over!!!

So just like during the high school years, when we had the dilemma of deciding between Beauty and the Beast or Basic Instinct, we had to pick a movie...


I don't remember who said what, but it went like this:


Somebody: The Perfect storm!  That's New England!

That place is becoming the "Marcia" of the United States...New England, New England, New England....

Somebody else: Well, I don't know...but I'm sure the special effects are going to be best on a big screen with surround sound.


The third person: OK...let's go.


We get to the theater and it is PACKED. I mean everyone came out to either see George Clooney wet or the special effects or I don't know what, but the place was standing room only.  This was before you ordered your tickets online.

*Within one blog post-I have used:  a regular phone line, a phone book to look up information, and waited in line to buy a ticket instead of Fandango.  Unbelievable.

So we get to our theater to find seats and someone says:

Look our theater is too crowded...let's go to the theater that starts in fifteen minutes and get seats there.

One person: OK

another person: OK

Page: Um, we paid for seats in this theater.  If all the seats are sold, four people won't get seats. We are cheating people out of seats.

Someone: Don't worry about it. Let's go get a seat.

We are cheating the theater, we are cheating theater.  This is wrong and we are cheating the theater.  What has New England done to my friends?  I kept looking around waiting for someone to shout "Excuse me! Ticket stubs out please!" It didn't happen...

I also kept waiting for four people to give up mad and either stand in the aisle or storm out. -Pardon the pun.

That was the worst thing I had ever done in my whole life-buy tickets for one theater and go sit in another..oh the horror...New England must have made my friends ungodly.... What would I become if I lived there too?  No way....

About the movie, I am not a fisherman so I can't say I would have gone out fishing in the middle of a storm. I can say that I don't like the idea of a cruise or a long boat ride. I would just prefer to crash than sink. That kind of decision isn't up to me anyway.

Yes, the special effects and sounds were quite awesome when I wasn't acting all paranoid someone was going to throw me out of the theater.  I'm so glad George Clooney fans got an eye full.

It was an awesome Fourth of July- a great show and a great dinner and a trip downtown to see the fireworks. It was topped off with board games back at my house-nerds that we were and always will be!

But live in New England?  No how no way....