"Grace Is Gone".....is gone

Have I ever told you......I always have a plan? Really, I do.

Sometime just after Thanksgiving my mother mentioned that she wanted to go see the new John Cusack movie, something with "Grace" in the title. This was a bit unusual. My father is the cinephile, not my mother. So we noted that and said as soon as we saw it out in theaters, we'd take her. At subsequent get-togethers she would mention it. We would discuss it, but no one else was seeing previews anywhere and we thought it wasn't yet released. She mentioned something about Kenmore Square and we all groaned. An artsy film? Those can be dicey. We all had our individual horror stories. None of us wanted to risk taking our mother to a movie like when Jen took Jim to "My Own Private Idaho" or when I took Mike to "The Rapture". My father corrected her and said Kendall Square Cinema. Not much better....... Finally, last Sunday I looked it up on line and saw that it was indeed out and at the Kendall Square Cinema. Showtimes were 3 pm and 7 pm.
I asked Jen, "7 pm Thursday or 3 pm Sunday?" Sunday.
I called my mother and told her "Next Sunday 3 pm, "Grace Is Gone". OK
I call Grace, "Mark it on the calendar, tell the girls."

I'm all set, right?

Today, I pop up to teach CCD. I have brunch at Laurel. Get over to Charlestown ahead of the 2 pm scheduled meeting time.

I'm all set......right?

Our goddaughters have snacks packed, Jen and Grace are also on time. My mother seems to have forgotten, but there is plenty of time to get ready. I tell her that I did inform her of this plan. She scolds me and says in an exasperated tone "That was a week ago!" My father turns his palms up and says no one told him. He was making Sunday dinner. I am upsetting the apple cart.......there are five of us taking her to the movie....but *I* am upsetting the apple cart. She asked to be taken to the movie......but *I* am upsetting the apple cart. She gets ready & we are out the door. There was some last minute direction from my father, none of us has been in Kendall Square in nearly ten years.

I'm all set.......right?

We miss it on the first two go arounds and finally we call, get the street address (1 Kendall Square, that was hard to come up with) program Jen's GPS and finally, we are there. Still plenty of time, we are all in the lobby.

I'm all set.............right?

Maggie: "Six for 'Grace Is Gone', please."

Cinema employee: "Oh, 'Grace Is Gone', ........is gone."

Grace: "Good job, Maggie."

Jen: "Yeah, good job."

The movie had been there since DECEMBER! It ended it's run Thursday.

We conference. We go back to the parking garage. We pay more for parking 15 minutes than if we had watched a two hour movie and had our tickets validated. We drive to Revere. All cell phones are going; conferencing between the two vehicles and calling the Revere Cinema for movie times. We settle on "The Bucket List". We arrive in time, get in our seats....the screen is FUBAR. Everyone looks like a reflection in a funhouse mirror. We keep waiting for the employees to notice and fix it. Preview, preview, preview.......main attraction. No fix. I go out to the lobby, summon an employee, go back.......wait.......the screen goes black, the pic is rectified, but not restarted. The movie was good, we all liked it. As I left, I stopped at the desk to register dissatifaction. The girl said "Well you didn't miss anything." Yes I replied we missed the first five minutes of the movie. "No, when they fix those problems, they restart the movie." No, I told her they didn't. She sighed and called for complimentary tickets. What do I care if she sighs? $7.75 per ticket on a Sunday afternoon, I want the whole damn movie. So I made her sigh again by handing her the receipt for six tickets. I walk over to the others. My mother asked "Were you complaining?" as though that were bad manners. I laughed and held up six tickets. "They probably have a file on you!" She was referring to another movie we saw in the same cinema, "Mystic River" where they cut off the ending and I got replacement tickets for that. I point out it is dwarfed by my FBI file, which my mother is sure I have with all my subversive blogging and the lectures I attend. Jen says, "Yeah, that one's like the Pensky file."