The times are such that entertaining movies are de rigueur.
We need peace, we need to be able to drown our thoughts for a moment or two and attempt to recover from the numerous catastrophes and bad things of the time period in which we live.
This movie did the job: Paris, people with dreams, a bit of existentialism, good people overcoming and/or dealing well with the pitfalls of the moment, and just pure fun.
I wasn’t expecting what really was not a big deal yet was, with the seating.
I had made the seating arrangement with the idea that there would be a cushion of air, of no people, surrounding us, seats D10 and D9 (which I promptly proceeded to forget). We all know that the new strain of COVID is quite the contagious mutation. In some ways, that is neither here nor there since we were going out and there were no guarantees that we would have the expanse of air without other humans. The movie was better attended than we initially thought, but there was a small dose or two of entitlement and a pure lack of respect for others that came to the forefront.
When we arrived to find that the seating was compromised, that for some reason either I had misread what I had ordered or someone else had deliberately taken one of our seats, I did my usual being flustered. Remembering things like the numbers of seats is not easy for my brain in any condition, much less adding into it an already dark theatre and the surprise of finding someone in our seats with the previews rolling. We mentioned to the ladies that they were in, at least, one of our seats. The lady next to me said something about people sitting in their seats…they had no intention, however, of moving and given the situation, I said that it was okay. MK suggested that we move to the next lower row. We did, but the people soon came to claim it and we returned to sit in the last two seats of the row next to the aisle.
I doublechecked that, in fact, two of them were sitting in our seats, something I had not remembered. I made sure they were aware and they told me to “Have a nice day.” They also mentioned that I was probably wrong. I told them I was not, we said goodbye, and left. I was polite, yet firm. Next time, I will not accept this behavior. Why do we reserve movie seats if they are not to be observed?