At the screening of Red Road Friday night, I got sandwiched in between two strangers, one of which was a bigger-than-average woman who felt the need to sit right up on me even though she had an empty seat next to her. I felt like I was in the middle seat on an airplane.

Saturday afternoon at The Singer: I'm sitting toward the back of the theatre. After the movie gets going, a SIFF volunteer comes in, sits down behind me, and goes to town on a big bag of popcorn, rustling the bag noisily (trying to dig for every last kernel, apparently), until I did the "Hmm, what's all that racket back there" quarter-turn. Then she stopped so immediately, I almost laughed.

Saturday night at Fish Dreams: This was my breaking point. This is my 4th year going to SIFF, okay? Lots of people go by themselves, and if they want to go to the bathroom or get something to eat, they leave their jacket, water bottle, etc on their seat and it's understood that someone's sitting there and will be back before the movie starts. Right?

Okay, well, I put my pashmina on the back of my seat and leave my water bottle in the ARMREST cup holder. I leave for 5 minutes, come back, and there's some woman in my seat. So, I tell her that she's in my seat, that's my stuff she's sitting on. Well, she's a total bitch (one of those salt-and-pepper short-haired pinched up-looking middle-aged women, probably from the East Coast), and refuses to get up, telling me it's easier for one person to find a seat than two (she's with a friend). Then she points to another seat, with someone's jacket in it, and says I could sit there. I'm like, "Um, no, that's SAVED." It's really crowded and I didn't want to cause more of a scene than I already had, so I just tell her (among a few other things) she's very rude and walk away. By this time most of the good seats are taken except for the reserved seats for the platinum pass holders. Luckily, an usher found me a seat, which turned out to be at the opposite end of the same row I'd originally been in. But I was so LIVID, it took me a good half hour to be able to concentrate on the film.

I just don't get how you can see someone's stuff draped in a chair and decide to sit in it anyway, let alone have the gall to refuse to apologize and move if you do make that mistake. I mean, my water bottle was still in the fuckin' armrest when I got there...she hadn't even moved it to the floor or something. WTF?

This is probably part of the reason I blew off 3 films on Sunday. I swear, if I hadn't already bought so many tix ahead of time, I probably wouldn't go to any more until you come to town, janey. As it stands now, I probably won't go to any after you leave. Besides, I'm moving next month (just found a place Saturday, yay!), and need to spend time packing and painting.

Grrrrrrrr.




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