49) Alice In Slippers

Fate sometimes intervenes in life. When it does, I feel strongly it is our duty to allow fate to exercise its will on our destiny. Wednesday night, while I lay in bed, I perused my phone to see if Alice in Wonderland was still available in movie theaters, hoping L. and I might go out on Saturday night. I discovered that Thursday night was the last night the film could be seen in the nice theater closest to our home. Generally I do not like seeing movies in the theater because they are too expensive, and I do not like seeing movies during the week because I like to relax at home. However, L. and I wanted to see this movie in the theater and Thursday night was our last chance to do so.

On Thursday a coworker approached my desk and asked me if I planned to attend the vendor meeting he'd planned for us. The vendor: NCM (National Cine Media). NCM sells commercial space in many theaters across the country in the space right before the film starts. Her presentation included a montage of big budget movies now in theaters. Alice In Wonderland owned a good 20 seconds of the montage.

At the end of her presentation, the NCM rep handed each of us gold passes to any AMC theater. The theater closest to our house happens to be an AMC theater. I sent L. an email asking if she would be interested in a spontaneous trip to the movies, that fate intervened in our lives and we had a responsibility to embrace this opportunity.

L. and I work hard, and often late. AMC scheduled the final showing for Alice In Wonderland at 7:55p. L. generally gets home (on good days) between 7:30p and 8p. She felt she could take off early from work (6:30p) so we could eat something quick and make it to the movie in time. The plan seemed to work smoothly. L. arrived about 6:45. We ate dinner and left for the movie promptly at 7:40 in order to make it to the theater and into our seats by 7:55p. We did not, however, account for Mall parking lot traffic. We pulled into the Park entrance hoping to get a spot near Dilliards. The road at the entrance forks, forcing L. and I to choose between the right and the left parking lots. I chose the right, thinking that the lot outside of Dilliards is always clear and easily accessible. My thinking was right. I pulled to the right and discovered the lot to have empty spaces from which I could choose.

It was at this point that L. looked down at her feet and discovered she wore her pink, fluffy house shoes. She said, "Oh no! I'm wearing my house slippers!" She got home from work, changed into a nice dress and decided to wait until the last minute to put on her shoes. The last minute turned out to be after we already arrived at the movie theater.

The big question arose: Do we go home and get sensible shoes but perhaps miss the first part of the movie? Or do I make L. see Alice in slippers?

What would you have done?