If you haven’t been following Laura’s African adventures, you should definitely check it out. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to me the differences in cultures. We don’t eat chicken feet for dinner, for example…
One such American cultural point-of-interest struck me this weekend while we sat in the crowded theatre waiting for Indiana Jones to start. The show we intended to see (at 1:20) had sold out, so we waited around for the next one at 1:40. The ticket girl helpfully suggested we go ahead and get seats – so we wandered in to the theatre around 1:10 to find it already nearly full. We found 2 seats on a row that kind of stuck out in the aisle enough that they weren’t behind other seats, but WERE behind a little bar I could put my feet on – perfect! We soon began to notice there was somewhat of a commotion behind us. There were 2 people attempting to save 11 seats in the row directly behind us. 11! That is almost an entire row in the movie theatre – and for a movie that was likely sold out! That’s gumption.
So it’s one thing to attempt to save 11 seats in a movie theatre during opening weekend of the 20-years-in-the-making fourth installment of Indiana Jones. But what blows my mind is that people respect the idea of “saving seats”. What is that?? What is it in a person that makes them heed the phrase “These seats are saved.”??
We sat by and watched poor sap after poor sap spot the mirage of empty seats from the floor of the theatre – only to climb the stairs to engage in the following:
Seat Saver: Sorry – these are saved.
Poor Sap: All of them?
Seat Saver: Yeah, sorry.
Poor Sap: (Walks away – defeated – to find a less desirable seat.)
No argument. No protest. Crazy! I decided right then and there that I would not have tolerated this nonsense. There is no movie theatre rule about saving seats and if I didn’t already have a seat and needed one in that row – you better believe I would have sat there. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to prove this to myself.
) and recovered the rocker, my handy and patient Dad built the changing table shelf and refinished the crib for the little guy, and Dad/Jeff/Mom/Me (mostly Dad and Jeff) have spent endless puzzled moments poring over assembly instructions for things like highchairs, Pack’n'Plays, and strollers. The room is still in-progress, hopefully I’ll be able to post some “officially done” pictures someday soon. 
