first in line

I'll admit I wasn't first to jump on the bandwagon of the whole Hunger Games craze. And really, I'm sort of just hanging on with one hand as I haven't even read more than the first book {I heard the other two aren't as good???}. But, I was interested in seeing the movie. So, some friends and I went to see it on day two of its release. 

We were trying to figure out how early to get to the theater. We knew all the shows had been sold out and we knew all 10 of us wanted to sit together. And, even though we live in a small town, I remembered this experience and didn't really want to relive it {at least the kinked necks part of it...}. So, we decided to get there one hour early and figured we would be fine.

When Michelle and I pulled up to the theater, it was packed. There were people everywhere. Since she had purchased our tickets earlier in the day, we wiggled our way through the ticket line and headed toward an employee to ask where the line was for the 9:35 showing. He motioned for us to follow him and, when we reached the velvet rope blocking entry to the hallway, he pointed. "The line starts here," he said. 

We just laughed. We were first in line. Two 30-somethings first in line for a tween movie. It was pretty awesome. So we took a picture {of course}. 

To our credit, almost immediately, the line began to form behind us and within 10 minutes it was pretty long.

After the theater was emptied and cleaned from the previous sold-out showing, they began accepting our tickets. Michelle was first, I was second. We joked that she should run into the theater like a crazed fan. So she did. 

Really. She ran. 

And as she sped off, the ticket taker said in all seriousness, "How old is she?"

Needless to say, we got great seats, we all sat together and, except for the super annoying group of girls directly behind us, we all enjoyed the movie. I think I'd like to be first more often.