My night out

A friend from our local SMC group sent out a note pointing out that there's a Single Parents Night Out at the Berkeley YMCA on Saturday, free if you sign up. When I called, they were full, but the gal encouraged me to call at 5:30 p.m. (the program starting at 5 and going till 10) to see if there were any no-shows. I did, and they asked me to call back 15 mins later, which I did gladly. They did have openings, so I bundled us off to the car and took G in. He ate pizza, swam, got his face painted, and played.

And I got to go see Harry Potter 4! I called Karen & Sami to see if they could go, but Karen said Sami had fallen asleep and she had to finish something. I moped for a bit, hoping my friends in the South Bay lived closer. And then I went off to the Jack London Theater, turned in one of my vouchers from my Entertainment book, and went in to the movie (I think it cost me like $5.75, woo hoo!). After dropping off G kind of last-minute, I got to the theater at about 7:05 for a 7:00 show, but I didn't miss a minute. I saw one preview and the movie started. (I didn't get to get popcorn, but I certainly wasn't going to miss some of the movie for popcorn, much as I love it.)

I don't like to go to movies alone, just as I don't like to eat in restaurants alone. (This is one of the many ways G makes my life better--no more eating in restaurants alone.) But I still enjoyed it greatly--the man behind me, who was driving me nuts with his sniffling and grunting at the beginning (sinus problems, maybe?), laughed just where I laughed, and when I cried near the end (no spoilers here), I think I heard him crying too (but not his wife, hm). Really enjoyed it. I'd heard from some that it was, ho-hum, just another Harry Potter movie like the others. Not so. It was wonderful and captured all the angst that suddenly came up by Book 4 of the series. Fabulous and plenty of scary, funny, startling, heart-breaking, and joyous moments.

And long! It was 9:40 p.m. when I got out, so I really scurried to get back to Berkeley on time. The front doors of the YMCA were shut, so I followed some other late moms to the alternative entrance we were suppposed to use and picked up G right away. He had had a great time and was sitting quietly, reading a book from their shelves when I got him.

Yay, thanks, YMCA.