Pumpkin and Spice

Today was an early, early morning- at least for me, especially after a late night at work. The alarm went off at 6a, after a mere five hours after I went to bed, but Sissy and I had big plans for the day, so I peeled myself out of bed to get ready.

Saturday night, after getting off work, I "finalized" our Sundance schedule for today. Since all the films today were sold out, we were going to have to waitlist for tickets. There's no way to know how many waitlist tickets will be available for any movie until minutes before showtime, we wanted to have serveral options available. I made a list with film names, the theatre they were playing at, the times we could get in waitlist lines, and the showtimes.

The first movie- and our big hope for the day- was Spread. It starred Ashton Kutcher as a callous "kept man" who falls in love when he least expects it. Saturday was the world premire, but the movie was still considered in the "premire" catagory this morning. The way waitlisting works is- you arrive two hours before the showtime to line up. You're given a number, then, about 15 minutes before the movie starts, they start selling seats that weren't taken by passholders or ticketholders. Since Spread started at 9:15a, we needed to be to the theatre at 7:15a at the latest, which meant we needed to catch the 6:50a bus outside our building! If we didn't get into the first movie, then we had a second waitlist line to get to, and so on.

We got to the theatre just shy of 7a- it was still pitch black outside. We followed signs to where the line started and were stoked to see that there were only six people ahead of us! Our numbers were 7 and 8, so we were feeling good about our odds. We got some coffees in the theatre lobby, then headed back down to our waitlist "pit" to wait to see if we could get in. As it turns out, luck was on our side, and there were fifteen seats available! We paid our $15 for our tickets, and headed into the theatre.

Waitlist ticket holders basically just fill in seats wherever they are. We had been told by some staff that we'd probably wind up in the balcony, but when the usher took us to our seats, we walked past the stairs to the balcony, and then past rows and rows and rows of seats to two prime seats in the fourth row! We were so excited- look how close we are to the stage! (Sorry for the dark picture.)

The movie was good, which was a bonus. (It would have been awful to sit through two boring hours of film, and then pretend we liked it.) After the credits, everyone broke into applause. Normally, I'm not a "movie clapper", and actually, it kinda annoys me, because who are you clapping for? The actors can't hear you. Except, here, they could, because they were there! It was a little surreal. Since it was a "premire", there was a 15-20 minute Q & A afterwards- hosted by Ashton Kutcher! (We were feeling good. We met both our goals for the day- see a movie & a celeb- before noon!)

After the movie, we were starving, so we decided to hit our favorite pub, Squatters, for lunch. When we got in, it was packed, and there was a thirty minute wait. Looking around, we noticed there were only two people at the counter by the kitchen, so we asked the hostess if we could just sit at the counter, rather than wait for a table. She said sure, so we headed over and sat down. Since the end of the counter is by the waiter's station, we didn't want to sit there, because the servers use it to rest trays and such while getting drinks, so we sat next to the two guys at the counter. (To leave space for other people in the other seats.) We order our lunches and as we're chatting, I keep looking at the guy next to Sissy- he looked so familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. "Look next to you," I whisper to Sissy, "that guy looks so familiar!"

Sissy non-chalantly looks next to her, turns back to me and says, "It's that guy from Center Stage!" Not up on your cheese dance flicks? Maybe you've seen American Beauty? Or sex, lies & videotape? Or The OC? Yeah, we were totally sitting next to Peter  Gallagher! We played it cool, though, and let him eat his lunch in peace, and didn't pester him.

After lunch, we went to Main Street to wander and shop, but our celebrity luck had run out, and we didn't see anyone we recognized. It was kinda fun being there, though- it was crowded and busy and filled with energy.

Totally pooped, and very satisfied with our Sundance day, we headed home, and took some serious naps. Back to work tomorrow!