It was last Wednesday when I was woken up with that questioning that always happens when my ringing phone is that which rouses me- is my phone ACTUALLY ringing? What's going on?- rouses me to the nebulous time of 3 something in the afternoon. 3:20? Who knows for sure?
I guess my phone records.
Heightening my disorientation, and doing its best to ruin me the rest of the day, was the fact that by this point I'd gotten a bare four hours sleep after my shift at work. Hey, so I watched a bunch of Kamen Rider Decade that morning before going to bed, is that a crime?? Apparently so... the day The Dark Knight Rises opens in theatres!!
What, Wednesday? Not Thursday, with its (sadly, now infamous) midnight screenings and whatnot? Ayup. Here's how the caper went down... (That last line is to be read in the voice of Bulletproof from t.v's C.O.P.S.- "It's crime fighting time!" This has been really off topic, and I should delete all that right now.)
So the phone rings, I trust you all got that part, and it's my buddy Jimmy, working at his comic book store: "Isaac, how soon can you get to the store?"
Uh, an hour and a half, an hour forty five?
"Here's the deal, I've got two tickets to The Dark Knight Rises and I need you to pick them up here and wait in line at the theatre."
JIMMY! Forget what I just said, I'll hop in a cab and be there in 45minutes!
That's the motivating factor of Batman. I skipped breakfast, unusual for me, and had the fastest shower there ever was, then dashed out the door... oh, but not before making my brother upset with me when I stole the shower from him.
"Please please please let me in before you!!"- he didn't quite get why I needed to leave right away for a 7pm show... he didn't realize the tickets we had were a promotional event deal, first come first served, and they intentionally give out too many of those.
I run out the door, calling up Jimmy again for the stores exact intersection. The traffic was heavy going north... but I was headed south, so take that. I may be conflating my taxi rides to the store just here and when I went to see Ted. It can't have been that different. As we pull beside the store I get the call from Jimmy asking where I was- I'll be right in!!
Almost right in, some debit machine problems delayed me close to 5 minutes from the time I said I was right beside the store. Weird, but true.
I hop inside the store, neither Jimmy nor myself can hold our excitment in check. I'm raring to go, but Jimmy explains the deal about how there's no guarantee that we'll get seats if I don't go as soon as possible. We take a look around the store for any bags or anything that could be used to hold Jimmy's seat when I get there (this being one of the only times ever where I don't bring my backpack) but we say forget it and I'm out.
BAM! I'm running along Queen St, starting east of Woodbine, I'm headed to the Paramount/Scotiabank theatre. Every other beat I turn, waiting on that streetcar that I can NOT MISS!
Eventually I call Jimmy (I wouldn't ordinarily abuse phone priviledges, but, again, I was really excited about the movie) to say "man, it's weird there are no streetcars, but I'm still going!"
I'm almost at kingston when I notice a police car blocking off a sidestreet that I have no interest in. A block a way I pass a bicycle police officer who comes over and stops me. He's apologetic-ish (as much as a cop can be so- but no, he was nice about it) but he asks me for some I.D. as I matched the description of a dude they were looking for. He may not have said dude. Perscription glasses and jeans. Well, I certainly had those. Fortunately, I think my trustworthy face, my tickets to Batman, my lack of any bags for stolen goods or weapons or whatever, and most importantly the beard I was currently sporting helped set me apart. I figure if they had a description that noticed a guy had glasses, then they would have also mentioned whether the guy had a beard. That's my theory anyways. Regardless, the officer took my address, and I was free to continue running.
I called up Jimmy to tell him about this, because, again, I was abusing phone priviledges, and we had a short laugh because he has always said (other people have surely said this too) that my street running was eventually going to get me in trouble with the cops. And then he told me to stop calling him. If I needed to, text.
I eventually hit on some construction along Queen that I had heard about, but didn't remember at all, and which explained the total lack of steetcars. After the construction it was streetcar city.
I ride on down, there's a guy in front of me using his video/camera/phone to record the scene of the length of the street, building to building- but whatever, Batman!
Eventually the streetcar turns and heads west on King street- I was a little worried because it took forever to see a sign that confirmed what I already knew, that I was on King, but I didn't want any mental map failings on my part to get in the way.
Finally I get to John street, and once again I dash north to Richmond and the Paramount. I ask for the line, I'm right beside the line, and I'm in the line.
Immediately behind me are these two girls dressed in all comic gear. The older sister has a Batman t-shirt, wristbands, and other accessories. Bat-hair clip? I don't remember, but it's a fair bet. The younger sister was dressed all in Marvel stuff, Loki shirt, Deadpool belt buckle she made herself (it looked really good) and a bag, the strap of which was all late 60's-70's era Marvel pictures. The elder sister (Sarah? I may have forgotten her name..) won a radio contest for the tickets, and was actually flown out from Winnipeg. Pretty cool. Various news crews were getting their sound bites for the event, and when they asked for a big time fan I pointed to the girl with the Batman shirt.
It's cool, they didn't need to talk to the guy who'd forfieted a nights sleep to come down that day.
At quarter to six my spider sense started to tingle, and I asked what time it said on the girls tickets was their screening. They said it didn't say.
"Uum, maybe yeah, go ask someone." I'd heard from the line forming type guy that there was a 6:30 show. I joked with the older couple behind the two girls that this was all a ploy to get them out of line. The younger one popped back to say they were supposed to be inside- or someone said that, I forget. The point is, I'm a hero.
We finally head in, and I've explained to the couple behind me that I'll be needing someone to hold two seats when Jimmy finally heads over after closing the comic store at 6 so I can get him his ticket. They were more than willing to, however because of the one guys cane/bum leg, they were sticking to the front of the theatre (not the scary front-front, but you know where I mean). I said Jimmy would murder me if I got those seats when I could get something better.
Instead I got amazing seats dead-center, asking to join up with a group of three who were specifically with Sun Media or whatever (it was just the girl that worked in the advertising department, and I won't begrudge her that, people gotta eat, even if they have to work for the Sun), said girl specifically complimented me on moving right in without leaving any gaps. I said I'd love to take the compliment, but I had the ulterior motive of needing some help with the whole saving of the seats thing. Fortunately, they had my back. I seem to forget the name of the guy beside me that did all the seat saving for me. Phil? Ben? Hmm, I seem to be an ingrate.
I was getting pretty antsy waiting on the film- but Jimmy made it, and there were no issues with him getting inside and calling for his ticket. Why yes, I am glad there was cell reception in that theatre.
We had a lovely time, and I promised to keep my mouth shut throughout, a promise I managed to keep, notwithstanding some squeals of delight.
The movie done, and the adrenaline wearing off I began to feel sick- I hadn't eaten yet besides the ever so small packet of promotional hot tamales candy I was given while waiting in line.
Good times- and I got to repeat the process the next day, saving a seat for my brother to show up at the 12:15 show. The movie was delayed half an hour and we were given complimentary movie passes, so it's like I got to see Dark Knight Rises twice for free!
If we don't count the $30 cab ride.
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