Harry Potter

One thing about being a parent: going to the movies is not as easy or cheap as it used to be.  (Let's face it, it's not that cheap for any one.)  Since we now have to go to the trouble of hiring a babysitter to go see a movie together (or drive to NC for grandparent support), we don't go to the movies very often.  However, I am a Harry Potter addict, so it was very important to me to see the last movie in the theater. So last weekend, we hired a sitter. 
Because the sitter wasn't entirely sure what time she'd actually arrive at our house (she had a CPR class in the morning), I opted against buying tickets before hand.  My theory was that it was long enough after the opening date that it shouldn't be an issue.  That way, also, if the babysitter was late we could catch a later showing.  This was probably a bad move.  The babysitter arrived right on time, and we found out that she had another job later in the evening.  With assurances that we'd be home with plenty of time to spare, we set out for the theater.
Our problem was that it was a million degrees outside that day.  So everyone and their uncle had gone to the theater.  We arrived at the theater, and a minute after we got in line, the show time we needed sold out.  The next time would be too late for our sitter.  Our options were to either a) see another movie (none of which sounded any good by comparison) b) go home and give up or c) do something completely different. 
I was not satisfied with any of these options, as my heart was set on seeing Harry Potter.  I mean, I'd just finished rereading the seventh book the night before, and when were we going to get a sitter again?  So I pulled out my phone and found another theater near by.  We hopped back in the car for round two.
The next theater was at a mall.  I dropped Zack off and found parking, then met him in line.  The good news was they had a show time that would still get us home in time for the sitter (barely).  The bad news was the theater had broken A/C.  They had signs up everywhere warning viewers that the theaters were "very hot".  But this was a Harry Potter Emergency, so we went for it.
Every employee we spoke to reminded us of the heat situation (remember, it's a million degrees outside, too), but we decided to brave it anyway.  We got our popcorn and sodas and headed in.  The theater was not that hot.  It was warm, but not warm enough to deter a nerd like me.  Zack doesn't mind heat, so he wasn't bothered either (or he's really a great husband and pretended).  We really enjoyed the movie.  I won't give anything away; I'll just say it was awesome. 
When the movie ended, we called the sitter to appologize and work out how to get her to her next job on time, but it turned out that the other people had asked to push their time back.  So that worked out nicely too.  Apparently, we were just meant to see the movie that day.  So it turned out to be a really nice date afternoon.    I love happy endings!