And I lived to tell you about it.

(I know a little dramatic)
I can’t believe how fast Carter is growing up. He is only a few inches shorter than me. I can’t say ‘he’s at my shoulder’ or ‘he’s to my chin’. He’s bigger than that. He’s about to my cheek bone?

Thinking back on my life I realize that most of his memories are going to start from this time in his life. So I want to do some things worth remembering with him.

With that in mind a few weeks ago I remembered that the new Harry Potter was coming out. In my 28 years I haven’t been to the midnight showing of anything. (but in all those 28 years I’ve never really had a desire to- 1:00 the next afternoon suits me just fine) But I thought to myself ‘Carter might like that.’ And isn’t that what parenting is about? Doing things for your kids.

So I went... two days early... to get our Harry Potter tickets. As I waited patiently for my turn I realized that only two people in line were actually buying tickets for that day’s shows. What show were the rest buying tickets for? Harry Potter. (I know you are all thinking I’m quite naive.)

Mr. Ticket Seller Man informed me that I would want to be AT LEAST and hour early. ‘No prob.’, I thought. Growing up with my mom, we were always at least a half hour early. ‘What’s an hour? I’ll just bring a book.’

Well, we did show up an hour and 3 minutes early and what did we see??? A line coming out of the theater (for all those who know what theater I’m talking about you can imagine) all the way to the fence by the freeway. And did it stop there? No, fallowed the fence aaallll the way back around the whole entire parking lot to the very first entrance.

Now I was feeling very naive. Questions ran through my head. Was this the line to get into the movie? Was this the line for people buying tickets? Who do we ask? Should I drop Carter off and go park? That one I decided quickly. No, we needed to stay together, but I didn’t want to go all the way to the theater just to find out I needed to go to the back of the line. The only option was to park, and find out. We had to park in the Shopko parking lot. From there we decided to go about the half way spot in the line and ask someone.

This is where my little man made me proud. He took the bull by the horns squared his shoulders and went to go ask someone. As he was walking off (I was fallowing him but he was determent to do this I could tell) I told him to ask a grown-up. That in itself would be a trick, because at that particular spot in line there wasn’t an adult in sight.

Then out of no where -it seemed- came two workers with their little vest on. Carter and I saw them about the same time, but before I could call ahead to him he was already off to catch the two workers that were walking as if their bums had been on fire. He actually had to run backwards in front of them before he could get their attention.

From the short exchange we found out.
-this is the line for Harry Potter. (du)
-this is the line for people who have already bought tickets. (that had started at about 8pm that night)
-Harry Potter sold out at 6pm that day
-we would have to get in the back of the line.

But then they (the workers) stopped. ‘Is it just the two of you?’ the female usher asked. We told her it was. ‘Do you want to get in right now?’ You see they were filling one theater at a time, and had a few seats in one of the theaters to fill before they started filling another one. “You would have to sit in the front row.” She informed us.

This had me stumped. When I was a kid I could probably have handled the front row. In fact I think I did. Not sure, I turned to Carter. ‘o.k.’ he was all for it, front row and all. Still unsure I looked back at the girl who reminded me if we didn’t we would have to go to the end of the line and chance not even being able to sit together. So I agreed. This was all in all for Carter, and if he was o.k. with it so would I be.

We then were ushered passed ALL of the line like V.I.P. Past everyone’s wondering gazes of aw that we were being let in before them. (I know, probably in my head) She then showed us which theater we were to go in.

We entered what sounded to be more like a high school gymnasium than a movie theater and we looked for our seats. I was surprised that there were so many available seats in the front section. We asked anther usher and he informed us that we could sit anywhere there was an open seat because no one was being allowed to save seats. And what did we find? On the third row two seats. All by themselves flanked on either side with open spaces for wheal chairs. Perfect.

Yep, that’s right. We didn’t even have to stand in line. (oh and the movie was REALLY good)