We Found Nemo

After Doug left on Sunday Geoff and I killed some time and headed over to Haverhill to Chunky's Cinema Pub to go see "Finding Nemo." He's been dying to see it for weeks, and I figured it would be a great thing for me to do with him to take his mind off the fact daddy was going on a trip.

Mind you -- Geoff wasn't going to miss daddy. Geoff was seethingly envious that daddy got to ride on a plane and stay at a hotel. Geoff, you see, loves to travel.

Anyway... movie. Good distraction. And for those of you who don't know anything about Chunky's, it's a movie theatre with old Cadillac car seats on wheels, that serves food during the picture.

And beer. They serve beer.

We got in line, and it was a good long line. Geoff was all excited. I told him that there was a chance the movie would be sold out and that we'd head over to Methuen to The Loop theatre and see it there, so he couldn't freak out.

He agreed to not freak out.

The people in front of us in line got the last two tickets.

They were old people, too. Like in their 60s.

And even though he promised, I didn't believe that he would keep his cool anyway, true to form Geoff FREAKED out when the girl told me that the movie was sold out. She pointed to the ticket usurpers and said "that older couple just bought the last two tickets."

And I do mean, he FREAKED. Stupid old people gave him a dirty look. Hey, old farty types. This is a six year old kid who wanted to see the movie. You think you'd have like an ounce of compassion to go see, I dunno, some GROWN ALL THE WAY UP movie or something. But no. You had to get in front of US and now I have to deal with... Geoff.

I carted him back to the truck. I told him that if he pulled his shit together (not in those words of course) I'd take him to the Loop. If he couldn't compose himself, we were heading right home. He sobbed for a little while, and then after I started the truck and cranked up The Black Crowes he got all back to normal.

We went to the Loop. It was a mob scene. We were an hour early. We got our tickets and went up to Old Navy and got him a cool new swimsuit (10 bucks, thank you very much) and a pair of cool sunglasses for each of us (Four bucks, each, thank you very much) and he picked out a cool baseball hat. They didn't have his size, but he wanted a red one... so I got the adult size and it says "Long Island Stickball" on the front... whatever that random Old Navy thing is all about I don't care. He loves it.

We went to Borders because I wanted a CD, and he totally enjoyed walking around and listening to the sample headphones. He turned them all the way up past 11, and at one of them he yelled out "This ROCKS!!!" I needed to know, so I begged him to let me listen, and when I put my head between the headphones I heard what sounded like Satan trying to get a root canal and give birth at the same time.

Okay. Let's find another CD to listen to, shall we?

We wandered back to the theatre, bags in hand... still with about 20 minutes to kill. We got goodies at the concession stand. We went in and secured seats. The movie was sold out, and the place was jammed with mewling children and exasperated adults. I sat through the waiting period reading the new Douglas Coupland book that I'd picked up, while Geoff munched his Reeses Pieces.

For the first time ever in my memory, Geoff was the best behaved kid in the universe. He sighed at one point and looked around, and said loudly enough for the woman on his other side to hear him (and get a good laugh off him) "What is with this place? What a bunch of Chatter boxes! It's not your livingroom, ya know. Be quiet!"

We thoroughly enjoyed the movie. There was a ton of action, lots of adventure. I found Dory (Ellen DeGenneres, whom my husband refers to as "the alleged comedienne" because he doesn't think she's funny at all) to be annoying after about five minutes of her antics. I loved the turtles. I loved the fact Nemo has a gimpy fin and his dad is extra protective. The aquarium was amazing. I thought the voice of Gil was Denis Leary, so imagine my surprise when I see the credits and find out who he was really voiced by.

I thought the funniest thing in the movie was the picture of the dentist's niece staring into the fish tank with her hideous braces and her scaryass green eyes. I thought it was awesome how the lobsters had Boston Accents.

I won't discuss my thoughts/feelings on the plot. Suffice it to say it is a great movie about parenting and letting go. A fabulous tale of trust, relationship and damn scary fish with phosphorescent dangly things hanging off their foreheads. A tear or two was shed by your humble narrator, indeed. And it was a perfect movie to see as I pretend to single parent my son with the gimpy arm.

Who could ask for anything more.

We had pizza that night and were in bed by 9. Doug called at about 11:30, and that messed up my being able to sleepness. I read Neuromancer (one of the required books for the online class I'm teaching, starting in like ONE WEEK!!!!!! and I'm so not prepared!!!) and finally fell asleep.

Jack started barking like a maniac at 3. Woke me up. I was late for work Monday because I just couldn't get up. I made up for it this morning by being totally early... I just have a hard time with Mondays in the first place, and then the stupid dog... well. I'll stop.

Jack barked like a maniac again this morning at 2. I kenneled him... I feel bad for him because he is in the kennel all day with me being at work. Tomorrow I may take a long lunch and come home and run them around the yard and free him from the confines for a while.

Tomorrow night I am taking Geoff up to New Hampshire to C&M's cabin on the lake. Hopefully the dogs will be good. I'll stick them in the truck while we're eating. C&M have little wee dogs. I don't want to leave the dogs home because they'll be all alone all day... so we'll see if it works or totally backfires and I end up coming home. I doubt it.

It's supposed to be roasting hot tomorrow. Yippee. We go from the dregs of a long and depressing winter straight into the Dog Days. I'm stuffy nosed and headachy all of a sudden. Thanks, God. Way to manage the seasons. Duh.

Sorry, sorry. No, just kidding. No bolt from the blue to fry my keyboard or my cranium.

Tonight we rented a couple Pokemon Johto League videos and Big Fat Liar. A movie I highly recommend. Nothing beats a good revenge movie, especially when the bad guy is so unlikeable by everyone on earth. Great cast, awesome performances... and a monkey.

More later... Geoff's in the tub, I'm hoping he'll go to bed early. I am beat!