Grrrls

Wow. Middle Child and I went with two of our Honduras teammates last night to see a triple feature ending with the 12:01 release of the latest installment in the "Twilight" series. Failing to grasp the seriousness of this event, I figured we would arrive a half-hour or so before the movies since tickets were already purchased. Not so. Our friends arranged to arrive at 5:00 for the 7:15 movie start time. (I thought they were kidding, so KT and I were not ready.) We made it to the theater by 6:00 where we found that at least one of the multiple screenings set aside for the three part series were already full, but that our intrepid partners had managed to slide into the next one being opened up for seating to snag an ideal location for viewing pleasure.
The building was alive with free-flowing estrogen and t-shirts proclaiming allegiance to one side or the other in the epic battle for the heroine's heart to be won by Edward or Jacob. I was a little taken aback by the middle-aged women joining the throng of teenagers in their Twilight regalia. And tickled to find that the practitioner who did my knee injections and one of my companions for the evening were amongst those dressed for the event. Personally perplexed by this, I figured it best to write it off in the spirit of fun and the recognition that my mister was no doubt correct that most of those present were likely of the Super Fan persuasion rather than simply being entertained by the story. (ahem.)
This remained true until a peppy theater employee entered the room to offer up free t-shirts. My semi-derision sort of evaporated as one of the few t-shirts flew toward our row. In an overly competitive moment I fumbled with my sweet friend for the shirt falling in front of her seat as it tumbled down behind the seats of the row before us. Taking advantage of my longer reach, I grasped the shirt and pulled it greedily into my lap to unroll the prize and see that it was not one of those Team Somebody shirts, but a souvenir of the movie complete with the release date. (Oooh. Ah.) Um.
The fourth member of our group was celebrating her 35th birthday. Breaking the spell of Gotta-Get-It, I checked the size of the shirt since we were a group conveniently made up of an X-Small, Small, Medium/Large, and X-Large with the thought that the shirt ought to go to She Whom It Would Fit. The Birthday Girl wanted the XL, but the Prize was a large confirming it as mine. (Never mind that my size logic conveniently put the odds of ownership in my favor with two sizes...) Leaping out of my seat, I took off after Peppy Employee in the hope that perhaps the Birthday Girl could still receive a free t-shirt to mark her special day and the much-anticipated movie release.
I explained with only a tinge of the prior t-shirt-grasping frenzy that I had caught *cough* one of those shirts tossed into the throng, but that it was a mere size large and my friend was celebrating her birthday and had a preference an X-Large which would be a wonderful gift to mark the occasion. (I did not offer to sacrifice the Large. Peppy did not even ask. She was wearing the same shirt partially revealed by her uniform and had just trumpeted to us all that she had already seen Eclipse-and-it-was-awesome.) She said she would check for the other size, and we headed down the hall. As we walked, I mentioned that our group had met as part of a mission trip to Honduras where we stayed at House of Hope, and Peppy Employee became very excited. It turned out that she spent a month at an unrelated House of Hope in Ghana, and it tickled us both to find this unexpected similarity--- however tenuous. It also resulted in her making not one, but two trips to find the only X-Large Eclipse t-shirt left.
Returning triumphantly to our seats, I presented the shirt to Birthday Girl with a distinct pleasure at her good fortune while wishing that I had somehow been able to score the Small and X-small, too. Stepping past my wrestling partner for the Large shirt, I figured she was good in her Team Edward tee, and was highly amused that Middle Child (the youngest in our group by a full decade+) was the only one no longer possessed of a bit of dorky Twilight apparel.
The movies were entertaining, and the near-swooning women in the audience more so. The evening giggling with the four of our six Honduras Girls was priceless. Coming home after 2:00 a.m. with the car filled by chatter between Middle Child and I as we rehashed the shared experience from crazy bathroom lines to the rabid suburban feminine fans was the best of all.