Making the Best of It

Yesterday Jackson and I had big plans. I picked him up at Nana Rose's place at 11:30 to head to Phoenixville to see the 2pm showing of Home Alone. The night before I checked the time it would take to get there from my mother's place and it was about an hour away. Perfect - that meant that even if we hit traffic we would have plenty of time to get there early and chat before the show begins. I also looked up The Colonial Theatre's website to see what other upcoming movies would be playing and saw that Home Alone starts at 1:30, not 2pm. Blah, well, that should still be okay, time-wise. Then as we are leaving Mum's at 11:45ish, Nigel (my iPhone's Siri is set to be an Englishman's voice and Siri just didn't sound right so he was renamed) said that it would actually take about an hour and a half to get to the theatre. Shit. That means if we get stuck in traffic we are gonna hafta race to find a parky spot and dash across the street, get tickets, and rush to our seats in the balcony. I do not like being late for movies. Halfway there when we were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, I knew I needed a Plan B so that we wouldn't be angry and disappointed if we arrive way too late. "Let's go to The Happy Hippo if we don't make it to the movie in time. Cool?" I think Jackson was more than likely secretly hoping we miss the movie so we could go to the toy store and shop for ourselves.

We made it to Phoenixville, found parking in the third god damn lot we went to, I used all the change in my car which miraculously gave us 2 hours and 6 minutes, then practically ran up the street to the theatre at 1:34. I was so excited that we were under ten minutes late. Then we read this on the door:

"Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!" I shouted, unable to control myself. "What?" asked Jackson, "What is it?" "Read the sign, dude." He took his time, then let his jaw drop and said, "Are you kidding me?" But we didn't let it bring us down. We posed for a sad-face selfie to post on Instagram, then went in to use the bathroom, where more selfies took place, got candy at the concession stand and walked back to the parky lot, snapping a couple pix at the big Christmas tree.

Just as we reached Roark a lovely blonde woman, probably mid-50s, in an SUV parked a few cars across from us asked where she needed to pay. I directed her to the box at the corner of the lot, where you could pay with a credit card, then explained that I got lucky with an old school spot that used a coin meter. "Hey, I have an hour and 49 minutes left on mine. Wanna steal my spot?" I asked. Her sincere elation at this made up for my using all my change. We even waved goodbye to each other.

Next we drove to The Happy Hippo where we were each allowed to spend twenty-five bucks. Jax got a Pirate pack with plastic skeleton mask, pistol, compass, and two knives plus a weinie-dog stuffed pupper. I got a fairy tale memory game, a rock painting kit, and, thanks to Jackson giving me his leftover four dollars, a lil' Peppa Pig stuffie just like the giant one on horseback in the display window!

Haddonfield is so beautiful during the Winter holiday season and I hope to go back again with Jackson and maybe get a vegan hot cocoa and take a stroll, looking in the shop windows.