It was just not meant to be

Rather than travel to visit N & B on Christmas Day, we waited til Dec 27th (Thursday) for several reasons--Pike family gathering in Granbury on Saturday, going to movies w/ N on Fri and possibly picking up my new van which we ordered at Thanksgiving.

The trip began with our accidentally backing into a pipe barrier in the car we planned to "trade in" on the new car. Our trip was about 10 minutes old when this happened to the car that had been scrubbed and emptied and kept clean for days before the trip, so we could receive optimum trade in for it.

We phoned the dealership on the way to Arlington and were assured that the new van was on the truck that was last heard from delivering in Mesquite (not far from Arlington). It should be at the dealership on Friday, we were told.

We really wanted to see two movies that haven't come (and may not come) to Bwd SWEENY TODD, an "artsy" musical and JUNO. N's favorite theatre has both of these movies playing, so we plan to see S.T. first at 11:20 and then see Juno after. All the while we are monitoring my cell phone for messages from the dealership.

We get tickets and go into the theatre and watch 20 minutes of beginning stuff and 10 minutes of commercials. We sit and wait and we wait and we wait. A manager comes in and says because of a mechanical problem, the movie will not be shown at this time. He hands each person 2 free passes for later use and tells us we can go see any other movie in the place (there are more than 20 screens). Juno isn't showing right now, so we find something that is showing. Alvin and the Chipmunks We figure we can sit thru about an hour of Alvin and then leave to go see Juno. At the appropriate time, we slip out of Alvin to check out Juno. We are walking toward Juno's theatre and the same manager is coming out explaining to the patrons that they can go see any other movie. Technical difficulties are here too. We go back to Alvin and see the rest of it. It was cute, not as screechy and gaggy sweet as we thought it might be. When Alvin is over we leave the theatre complex and head to Red Robin for lunch. Pretty good fast food, very busy, but efficient. We finish w/ lunch in plenty of time to get into the complex to see the next showing of Sweeny Todd. As we enter, we show the ticket taker guy our free passes the manager gave us and he won't take them---says just go on in and save those for some other time. We find the theatre for Sweeney Todd. We sit thru the same 20 minutes of beginning stuff and 10 minutes of commercials and we sit and wait and wait and wait. Then a different manager comes in to say that they have techinical difficulties and this movie won't be showing on Friday at all. He also tells us that Juno is having the same problems. He suggests that we can get our money back. Some really nervey patrons ask the manager person if they can get their money back for their half eaten popcorn and he says YES. I think they would have done anything to keep folks from being angry. It was beginning to be funny. We saw Alvin, got 6 free passes between us and N got her money back for the tickets to get in. Not a bad investment of time, But we still have not seen Sweeney Todd and Juno IT WAS JUST NOT MEANT TO BE. (today at least)

We headed for N's house--- stopped by Sam's to get snacks for the Granbury family gathering--and then headed home. We called the car dealership to check on the car. No one has heard anything from the transport truck since yesterday. As far as they know, it is still in Mesquite (My guess is that the driver of the truck is from Mesquite and he is taking the weekend off and has parked the transport somewhere in Mesquite to complete his route either Monday or Wednesday--just my guess)
On Friday night we open Christmas gifts and N wins the creativity award for gifts when she presents her dad with " Nick's Cats--the calendar that should have been" Included are 12 pictures of Nick's beloved deceased cat Calvin, our current cat Kitty Hawk and N's cat Annie. Those in Bwd who are aware of the Bulletin's Pet Idol contest will understand the uniqueness of this gift. (In a nutshell- the newspaper held a fundraiser for the local animal shelter by publishing pictures of pets and allowing 25 cent votes to be donated to the shelter. The 12 pets with the most votes would be featured in a calendar---do I need to mention that Nick paid for a large number of votes, but did not win---) So now he has his very own NICK'S CATS calendar. A very clever gift. B and Nick also received remote control helicopters for "in the house" flying. Everyone needs a toy for Christmas. We had lots of dive bombing that evening.

We got up early Saturday morning, called the dealership. They say they'll call us back w/ information---which they eventually did about noon as we were heading into Granbury. Oh well, it was just not meant to be--this weekend.

Hope everyone out there had as exciting a week between Christmas and New Year's Day as we have had.
This extra time will enable Nick to replace the tail light on his little Mercury for trade in. And we will "take our time" getting back to Arlington to pick up the new van--if and when it ever gets there. No hurry- after all when we originally ordered it the day after Thanksgiving, we were told that it might take 3 months to be delivered. And this may be the truth. And who knows SWEENY TODD and JUNO just may be showing in Bwd next week. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!