Picture-Perfect Suh-WEET

I had a much-needed night out last night. My mother-in-law took me to dinner and the movies. It was perfect: yummy food and drink at the restaurant with a table outside. Strolling through the mall to the movies at a slow pace. Getting into the theatre a whole fifteen minutes early, enjoying humorous laughter and people-watching, all from the best middle seats in the theatre. So relaxed...picture-perfect.

Then the previews began, lots of them, and we were settled in nicely for the feature presentation. The movie began, and we were puzzled. What a strange beginning for a chick flick, I thought. Seconds later, people all over the theatre began to look around, got up and started walking out.

I asked my mother-in-law if she thought a bunch of people had planned a walk-out, because so many were getting up all around the theatre and leaving at the same time. Then it occurred to us. "We're in the wrong movie." So with the mass, we exited, only to be stopped outside the theatre telling us to go back in.

We weren't IN the wrong movie. They had STARTED the wrong movie. So elbowing back through the herd we went, miraculously managing to find our perfect seats still available without earning too big of a bruise in the side.

Our picture-perfect night had been paused, but just for a moment. The movie workers came in and gave us all free vouchers for a free movie ticket, free coke and free popcorn on our next visit. Suh-WEET!  The actual film we saw after all the mayhem was actually quite dull in comparison to the events leading up to it.

Isn't that just like life sometimes? We're walking along and things are pretty ideal. Picture perfect. Then someone or something shows up and changes the scene, usually in an unfavorable way. Instead of waiting on the problem to go away or facing it, we find ourselves trying to escape from it all together. We follow the ways of the world, looking for a way back into our favorable plot, even if we have to go from theatre to theatre looking for it.

If we had left that movie theatre in disgust and not followed the workers' advice to turn around and go back, we would have missed the free movie and popcorn tickets. We would have missed a good laugh down the road. And I would have missed an opportunity to make a blog out of it. ;)

If I try to find an escape for the problems that come my way, I could miss blessings of another kind: the big picture kind. Suh-WEET!