Practical Penumbra

Beware the Snickerdoodles!

So did you guys change your times yet? For some reason I think it's this weekend. Anyway, I was going to blog about the Halloween doings at the theater, but I'm too darn tired. Maybe tomorrow....

Happy candy gathering on the Eve before All Saints....or is it All Souls? Hmmm...

ADDENDUM: Well, I've had a few hours sleep, and even though it's too early to have to get ready for work, and my poor body is far from well-rested, my brain is awake and running in circles and just won't go back to sleep, dang it! I hate it when that happens.

So I 've had a heck of a weekend so far, and it's only just Halloween today. The strip mall in which my theater is located decided to hold their annual treat giveaway on Friday evening, at least partly because a lot of the boutique type stores either aren't open or close early on Sundays. Last year we gave out cheap candy we bought at the Dollar Store, but this year we decided to go with our "theme" and give out little bags of popcorn and a movie pass. My Assistant Manager scoured the shops for two weeks to find little treat bags to use that didn't cost more than a penny apiece. The ones she finally located were kind of small, and only held about a cup of popcorn, but we bought 400 of them. In the meantime, I printed 500 movie passes on bright orange paper. The clerks filled the bags and set them in boxes and we were ready to go.

We ran out of treat bags and had to go buy brown lunch bags and cut them down. We ran out of orange passes and had to start giving out our regular ones. By the end, we'd had over 600 trick-or-treaters. The worst were the parents who got all pissy because they had to wait a few minutes for more popcorn, sighing and checking their watches. The second-worst were the kids who, after getting their treat, ran around the building and got in line again, only to turn loud and obnoxious when refused seconds. And, of course, there were the brazen few who showed up long after the event's publicized end-time and demanded something free.

Once Friday's festivities were behind us, I had Saturday to look forward to. We had a real estate company doing an employee appreciation day with popcorn, soda and a movie before our first matinee, and in the middle of the movie the electricity went out. It came right back on, but of course I had to go re-start the projector, and one wag wittily asked if we'd forgotten to pay our electric bill. It turned out that we were lucky--half of the strip mall and most of the neighborhoods to our east were without power for seven hours. Plus, business was pretty good Saturday night because folks decided to go out rather than sit home in the dark.

Sounds like a long day, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't over yet. One of my cashiers made a low-budget horror movie last year, and we had a midnight showing of "The Spell of 13." It's actually not too bad a movie, with good gore and some good scares and some great humor. In addition to producing and directing, my cashier also was one of the leads, and he's a very good actor. Anyway, it was after 2 am before I got the theater locked up and could head home.

So now it's actually Halloween, and I'm hoping my 12 hours today is uneventful, because I've had enough for one weekend. Not that I'd object to a treat or two (especially one like this*)--just no tricks, please. I'm not up to it today.

* Found here.

Posted by Susie at October 31, 2004 02:35 AM