fun (to the third power)

so today . . . i went to the movies with rollie. and diandra.

going with either one alone is fine. we buy our tickets, get our sodas, find a seat, enjoy the movie, and go home. this is not what happens when i go with BOTH rollie and diandra. for some reason, the two of them together are like mentos and coke. seriously. i don't know what happens when they go without me, but when the three of us go i feel like i am in the vortex of a whirlpool, threatening to be flung into the swirling fray . . .

it always starts out innocuous enough. we get our tickets and sodas, and head into the theater. the trouble begins in choosing a seat. if the two of them sit together, they will not shut up during the movie. rollie will make comments to diandra and she will laugh and then he will laugh. while all this hilarity is going on, i cannot hear the movie. neither can the people around us. (this is one reason we usually go to the matinee--the theater isn't so crowded in the afternoon.) but, if i sit between them, the same thing happens except rollie leans over me to talk to her. plus they both make comments to me, which i am then expected to pass on down the line. you can see how it could be hard to follow a story with all this going on . . . it's like they are not really there to see the movie--they are there to entertain each other.

one time it was so bad, i had to get up and move. fortunately, we were the only three people in the theater that day. which is probably why they were so out of control . . .

today i sat in the middle. today we watched a movie diandra had already seen. this added a new dimension to the experience--diandra's premature giggles. i always knew when something funny was about to happen, because she would start giggling in anticipation before it happened. so there were very few surprises. and then there was the heartwarming ending. she leaned over to me and said, "it's ok. you can cry." of course, diandra cries when she sees the previews for movies. she cries whether the movie is happy or sad or animated. if the music swells, she has an almost pavlovian response to cry.

today i didn't cry. but i did laugh, more than once. and not just at the movie. because i have to admit, rollie and diandra are funny. and somehow they are even funnier when they are together. even when i sit between them . . .