The Good Sheep

We went to seen The Good Shepherd last night at Galaxy. Who knew that going to see a spy movie would turn into a covert operation to sneak into the movie theater. How appropriate.

We arrived early due to KD's fear that the movie would be sold out. I guess that is not all that strange given it was cheap night and a newer movie. Turns out this had a drastic effect on the plot. I went to get the tickets while Heather went to get the froyo/coke. I wandered over to her with the tickets and grabbed the coke and headed for the straws. That was the last time the movie tickets were seen.

Now either I just left the tickets on the serving counter or threw them away with the straw covers. There's a chance they disappeared later, but my memory is fuzzy since we went to play video games. This perfect distraction (probably Galaxy's ploy) allowed me to not only give them more money, but forget about the tickets altogether. It was only after KD and I had finished racing that I realised I had no idea what I did with the tickets.

This is where things get ridiculous/fabulous, depends on your point of view. So I am searching away for the tickets in every crevice of my clothing. They are nowhere to be found. Heather is nagging, the movie is starting, and I'm getting pissed. So, craftily, Brad notices that there is nobody manning the entrance to the theater hallway. Light bulbs go off.

We start walking toward the destination. False alarm, Galaxy employee comes out of a side room. We freeze. However, he continues walking to another side door and out of sight. Brad is still leading the way and he passed the target. Hesitant, we are lagging behind. This occurs to me not to be the best idea, and probably 10 times so for Heather. Bravely, I tell her we are making a run for it. We march towards glory. Sam Fisher would have been proud, I tells ya. We make it in and turn toward our eventual safe haven. We make it about three steps in. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see the attendant come out of the room behind us. "Excuse me, can I see your tickets please." DAMN IT!

So my mind starts racing, how do I explain this one? What would a good spy say? What would a good spy do? I probably should have knocked him out with a nerve gas injection to the neck after hacking the security cams, but I pussied out. "Our buddy has our tickets, he's out there," I said, pointing back to the lobby. So now I've lied to the guy, no chance for remorse for our situation and letting us in on merit. We move back out to the lobby while the guy chuckles behind us. And why shouldn't he? How many times has he seen this happen? Probably dozens. But how many times has it happened that the people trying to sneak in were a working married couple with 300 Euros in their wallets (ie. don't need to be sneaking into movies) and actually bought tickets!? Probably never.

I was sick to my stomach. The movie then got really expensive when the girl at the ticket counter, a new one from the one I had bought from before, didn't buy my story and forced me to purchase new tickets.

Then the kicker.

We take our new, freshly printed tickets toward the attendant so that we can finally go relax and watch our movie. THERE IS NOBODY THERE AGAIN! We walk in without having to show our tickets or have someone stop us this time and nobody is any wiser.

FUCK!

I still have the unused tickets. If someone wants to doctor them to change the date so they can go some other time, I would be interested in recouping some of my gate fees. And yes, I'm sure it is legal.

PS, thanks Brad for stealthily dropping your unused ticket by the gate entrance for me to reuse. Given the attendant standing right beside you, I don't think that me going to pick it up right after attempting to sneak in would have gone unnoticed.