Today, FINALLY, I got to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I took my youngest son, my daughter, and my daughter's boyfriend.
We stood in line and figured we'd get decent seats.
We did.
Sorrrrrrrrrrrtaaaa.
We found a row with plenty of seats. There was an older gal saving 2 seats on either side of her. I asked her to move one down so my little crew could sit together.
The older lady said "I can't , we need to sit right behind them. 3 and 3."
Ummm, what?
I said, "surely, you can move one seat?"
All of a sudden...
Out of the darkness...
The woman in front of her turned around and from on high, summoned The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse..."She cannot move ONE SEAT OVER!!! WE HAVE TO SIT TOGETHER!!!"
You know that feeling you get when you think "how ridiculous are you?" but you don't say it outloud because YOU don't want to appear selfish and stupid?
So, I shuffled down the row and sat (ALONE) between the older seat-saver, and a lovely family who just about keeled over at the display of rudeness mine had been subjected to. The wife was mortified. She basically said, there was no logical reason for this family of six to be so incredibly self-centered.
Now, understand this, IF someone had politely said "my daughter is not neurotypical and has issues with symmetry and NEEDS to have us seated like this." I'd have been FINE. Not a worry. Seriously, not a problem.
But , nope. She simply refused to have the older lady move one stupid seat over. And no, they did not speak to each other AT ALL. They simply sat 3 in the front, 3 behind.
So, I sat 3 people down from my crew, I could not enjoy the experience with my kids, all because 6 people HAD to keep their seating arrangements.
AND? When my daughter's boyfriend brought me my Coke and popcorn? The snoots complained about how rude we were passing popcorn back and forth.
Sharing popcorn. The scourge of numerically symmetrical movie goers everywhere.
Thankfully, the seat hogs left before I could ask them their names.
Writers do that. Ask people their names.
Why?
Because putting them in books and doing harm that way, you know, that whole 'vengeance' thing? That is legal.
Going geo-thermal on them in a movie theatre and dumping popcorn and Coke over their heads is sorta frowned upon.
As they say, the keyboard is mightier than the sword...