Trip to the movies

Today, here in Phoenix, I went to my very first movie theater after stepping foot in the United States. Felt kinda momentous :P

Me and my grandparents had come to see "Julie and Julia". After much hype about the movie and a previously failed attempt to get ready in time, this time we just could NOT miss our movie time. All of had spent a leisurely morning, having breakfast, watching the lawn mower do his job in the garden, stare in awe at gushing winds blowing away dustbins, taking a nice, long slower... you get the drift..

Clock struck 1:30! Show at 2:20. And as fellow students like me having come to US for studying will understand, everything from shops to restaurants to just about anything.... is far ! Not like Mumbai where, for a 2:20 pm show, you could start getting ready at 2, hop into an autorickshaw outside your doorstep and still reach in time for the previews before the movie to end! (Sigh).. makes me miss home.. Anyway coming back to today. So it was rush time at an otherwise lazy household. Thanks to my grandma who is super-skilled at managing stuff, we got lunch ready and us peeps ready with plates and forks in flat 15 min by 1:45! We both were surprised at our own agility..hehe. Then we chomp away happily to 1:55. My mind says..cool... now we just gotta dash with our car and we'll reach well in time.

We lock the door in a frenzy, ready to jump into the car in the garage, when the garage door opens very theatrically to pouring rain!! Damn! should've guessed from the crazy winds before... off we scoot back to the door, scrambling with the keys, burst it open, granny runs inside to fetch umbrella.. and she's back in a moment! Wow... I NEVER remember where I stow away stuff like umbrellas and come situation like this, I tend to attract...umm.. profanities coz I waste precious time searching that stuff.. :D Grateful to my granny's superb organization, we finally hop into the car and get going.

I love the rains man..

Admiring the raindrops trickling down my Lexus window, we set off along the outskirt roads to avoid traffic. One of the roads we drove by was called "Elliot" which sent me into doing funny imitations of "E.T." calling out to his li'l friend in that alien machine-like voice. (Now that was one legendary movie!) Interestingly, traffic signboards here are brown in color as opposed to the usual green i've come across everywhere else and where brown was only for certain defined parklands e.g. Stone Mountain Park. I reason its landscape-specific, Arizona being mostly a mountainous, barren, so mostly "brown" region.

Its 2:30! Praying that we didnt miss much, we finally reached our destination - "Tempe Cinemas". Granny dropped us at the ticket counter and went ahead to park to save time. Welcomed by the enticing smell of fresh, hot popcorn, I entered, helping my grandpa along, and bought 3 tickets for Julie and Julia at.... guess what.... just $2 each!

Apparently its not a hotshot theater; which was kinda obvious from the other movie titles adjoining J&J like:

• Cloudy Blood Meatballs
• Men who stare at the Goat :|

Anyway, my granny caught up with us, we then rushed to the screen, almost tripping over in the dark, and finally sat back.... commemorating a successful "race"! I'm sure my grandparents will not forget this instance easily as being one of the rare times they had to undergo such frantic activity! :D

Bless them! I had a wonderful time! Phoenix is beautiful!