On Charmed Lives

Ben is lucky.

There is no arguing with this fact.

I present to you some of the long list of items that prove this fact.

Ben has been pulled over six (6) times since we moved to Orem. I have been pulled over once (1). Ben's tickets: two (2). My tickets: one (1).
(As a sub-note. Ben has been pulled over countless times in his life and has only had perhaps one or two other tickets, ever. I have been pulled over twice in my life and both times got a ticket.)

Ben found $300 Kenneth Cole shoes at DI for a few bucks. I found a cute Prada bag at DI for a few bucks. It turned out to be a knock off that was made in China. (I'm not mad about it, I'm just illustrating the luck discrepancy.)

Ben has won a variety of prizes from radio or raffles. I won a prize from a radio station once and when we went to pick it up, they had run out. They told me they would mail me a copy of the book I won, but I never got it.

Convinced yet?

I could go on.

But I won't.

Ben leads somewhat of a charmed life. The benefit of being his wife is that, while I rarely if ever experience this luck myself, I often enjoy the benefits of his.

Last night, Ben returned home from work at an earlier hour than normal and cheerily asked me if I'd like to go and see the last Harry Potter film. I asked if there was any possibility that we could even get a showing and he said he'd check. He spent some time online looking and most everything looked packed according to the websites, but there seemed to be a few seats here and there. I suggested that he call and find out from a real person if the website was updating live. He called and got an automated system that was very little help.

So, he took a shower and I talked to my parents about making sure that my children don't burn down the house in their sleep.

We left the house at about 8:45.

I know what you're thinking... opening night of one of the biggest phenomena of our generation... of COURSE it's going to be sold out. BUT, remember who I was spending my evening with?

We checked a couple theaters nearby and no one had anything before 3am. I don't care how much I wanted to see this movie, I am NOT staying up until 3am.

We finally went to one other theater and passed the truly freakish die-hards, dressed up and waiting patiently in queues for their showing. This theater had a kiosk in the front selling tickets, so Ben decided to check that. He pulled everything up and we found, to our utter disbelief, that there was a showing at 12:01 that had tickets. He speedily bought them up and we attempted to find our queue.

After a few minutes of wandering around, we found a cute young thing that worked there and asked her where we were supposed to line up. She wasn't sure and went to ask. A few minutes later, we went to find her. When we did, she and the guy she was asking were both looking rather befuddled. They, in turn, asked the head manager fellow who, at this point, was looking rather relaxed for someone surrounded by such insanity.

When we showed him our tickets, he looked surprised and said, "You shouldn't have been able to get those!"
Apparently, the 12:01 showing in theater 9 was a private one for Seven Peaks employees. In the 30 seconds that the showing opened up for Seven Peaks to buy all the tickets, we just happened to get to the kiosk and get in on the show as well.

They didn't have a line set up for them yet, so we were cut loose to do whatever we wanted for a while. Ben was starving, so we went to the Subway at the mall who had decided to stay open for an extra hour because of all the Potterites. Smart of them, I say.

So, Ben ate his foot-long BMT and I ate cookies and stole sips of his Dr. Pepper.

While we ate, we watched several groups of kids (i.e. adults dressed up as HP characters) "duel" each other with their wand replicas or twigs. There was a fellow who strapped his feet to buckets and dressed up like Hagrid. People kept stopping him to have pictures taken. There were numerous Dobbys, Tonks, Harrys of both genders, Umbridges and one or two Lavender Browns. I saw The Fat Lady complete with frame and Molly Weasley. There was someone dressed up like a penguin and another dressed up like Where's Waldo. There was a rather shabbily done Dumbledore and a spectacularly done Snape. Robes and Hogwarts schoolgirls abounded.

When we finally sauntered into the theater again to look for our queue, we eventually got directed to the management again. The head manager was looking quite harried by this point and informed us that the lady who set up the Seven Peaks showing was intending to conduct some company business before the movie started and that we couldn't be in there for that. Instead, he said that theater 8 was already seating and we could go in there and see if there were any seats available.

What? No waiting in a queue?

Yes, please!

Feeling slightly guilty, I followed Ben (who was suffering no complex of any kind) into the theater and right into some seats right in the middle of the row.

Yes, please!!

The showing turned out to be a 12:15 one, but I wasn't especially concerned about 14 minutes. We got seated at about 10:45. For the next hour and a half, we chatted about the unbelievable night we were having and various pipe dreams of our possible future. Like how one day I will be a famous author. Not as famous as Rowling, but almost.

When the screen started the movie quotes and quizzes, I sent Ben out for snacks.

There were a million previews, which was okay.

The movie was stunning. I cried. A lot. It was completely worth the staying up late and feeling like a zombie today. The benefit of watching it so late (early) is that we were in a big group of adults who wanted to see it as much as we did. There were scenes where you could have heard an owl flap, it was so quiet.

That's all I will say about the movie.

If you've read the book, it's not exactly true to the story. A few things were left out, a few things were added.

If you haven't read the book... what rock have you been under for the last fourteen years.

Either way, the movie is worth the high ticket prices and ANY hour you choose to see it.

This lengthy story should by now convince you of Ben's fantastically charmed existence. Is he always lucky? I will have to give a judicious answer and say that even when it seems like his luck has run out, it's usually because his good luck is keeping something from happening that would be even worse. That aspect of his life is difficult to explain, so I won't even try.

I'll just keep things simple and say that my evening was truly magical!