Blog of the Green Mage

     So quick back-story: I live in an apartment in the city so I can attend the college up here, but my job of working at a movie theater is in a town about an hour's drive away, where my immediate family also lives.  Due to my often weird college class schedule and the fact past attempts of trying to get a decent job in the city have produced no results, I can only work at my theater job every other weekend, which is currently fine by me because that gives me every other weekend off, and I also get to see my family once every two weeks.

     So with that little info out of the way, I mentioned in my last post that it was shortly after I picked up my new glasses frames that I ran by the theater to check on my work schedule for this weekend,  in which I was expecting to find exactly what shifts I would be working.  Turns out they didn't schedule me to work this weekend... at all... whatsoever... not a minute...

...What?

     This bothered me slightly at first, as this was one of the weekends I was supposed to work, and  now that it has been nearly over two weeks since I last worked a shift, my little cache of extra money I throw around on buying games is beginning to slowly hit that point where it is drying up (I just can't seem to stop hunting down and buying older games).  However, I sort of shrugged it off since I had to drive all the way down here for two appointments, a renaissance festival, and a movie, anyway.  It did, however, seem extremely odd that they would botch up my schedule like that when it's been like this for nearly a year now.  But then my brother mentioned something, and now it is as clear as day to me as to exactly why they did not schedule me to work this weekend, and it can be summed up in one, single, demonic little word.

     Twilight.

     D@mn it, you insufferable, annoying, ill-conceived, embarrassing by-product of sudden mass popularity.

     The next movie in the Twilight saga, Eclipse, is set to come out this week (tomorrow, actually), and my work decided to slyly not schedule me this weekend so that I am forced to work Twilight's weekend release. You sneaky, sneaky little b@st@rds, signing me to my death like that.  So what's the big deal about this?  Well, if you didn't work at a popular movie theater in town when the last two movies hit, you probably wouldn't exactly know, although you could probably make a good guess how hectic it was.  But it's not exactly the movie itself that has me worried (although yeah, I do hold gripes against Twilight in general).  It's the fans.  All of the rabid fans who come to watch Twilight on opening weekend are what kill me.  A nonstop flow of  goths, wanna-be vampires, Team Edward vs. Team Jacob fans, etc. for the entire effin' shift will break you down faster than a sledgehammer to an egg (not actually tested).  Not that I have anything directly against goth-like people, but when every single customer you serve is wearing a black shirt/purse/backpack/ripped-pants/sign (it has happened) bearing the Twilight logo and usually the faces of Edward and Bella staring directly into your soul, for 8 hours straight per shift (14-15 hours if I'm stupid enough to take on a double-shift, but that will be my own d@mn fault), hopefully you can see where I'm coming at for this.  And they usually come in groups; loud, obnoxious groups of 4+ people.  Probably also doesn't help that I share a name with a character in the Twilight series, which each and every customer seems to love pointing out.  Another little "minor" nitpick that bugs the heck out of me is when the fans bring the book of Eclipse along with them when they're waiting in line to watch the movie (actually can be said with nearly any movie based on a popular novel, but a majority of the Twilight fans are sure to bring the book along with them).  Some of them actually read the book while waiting to be let into the theater, which still is somewhat nagging as I'm pretty sure they've already read the book about 50 times.  The vast majority, however, simply bring the book along as a way of saying, "Hey, look!  I have the book with me!  Imma bigger fan than you are!"

     I also just found out last night that I've been scheduled to work Friday through Monday this coming weekend.  All.  Four.  Days.  And to make matters worse, it's effin' Fourth of July weekend, meaning we're going to be vastly busier than usual.  The new Twilight movie's weekend release... on Fourth of July weekend... SOMEONE, SAVE ME!!1!  All on a weekend I wasn't even supposed to work (although in hindsight, I probably should have expected this).  And not that I don't have enough hatred going against Twilight as it is, but Twilight is also knocking out Toy Story 3 from our IMAX after today.  I was planning on heading back up to my apartment this morning to finish up homework and make time for a full-on MH3 editing session all-day tomorrow, but now I'm forced to stay down here until later today or even possibly tomorrow if I wish to see Toy Story 3 in IMAX 3D (for free, of course) before its dismissal.  Heck, Toy Story wasn't even in IMAX for the customary two weeks before getting kicked out the door.  Despite my hatred for Twilight from a movie-worker's perspective, at least its crowd is not nearly as morale-destroying as the Hanna Montana crowd (the horror stories I could tell you...).  It is, however, still significantly worse than even the Sex in the City scene (even more horror stories...).  Those are probably the three worst kinds of crowds we've received at the theater in recent memory (been working there for three years now), but those other two will be stories for another time.

     So assuming I get back up to the city later tonight or early tomorrow, I'm just going to have to drive back down here Thursday evening to prepare for the onslaught of Twilighters I'm going to be facing off against with my fellow concessionists this coming weekend.  While I could bring the MH3 video files with me on my external HD to work on with my laptop, I'd probably be too tired after the shifts anyway to work all that mumbo-jumbo effectively, plus knowing me, I'll probably be fishing for double-shifts despite my better judgment, since this weekend could possibly bring in a lot of dough for those who are looking for a lot of time and shifts (E3 presents a lot of good reasons to own more money later this year...).  With this in mind, it is quite possible the next set of Monster Hunter videos will be delayed until sometime next week, but this all depends how the next few days end up going.  Don't get your hopes up, because I sure as heck aren't getting mine.  =(

UPDATE:  Got back from seeing Toy Story 3 in IMAX 3D.  Awesome movie.  I would highly suggest it to everyone.  Definitely a great sequel to a great sequel to a great movie.  Also, the line for the midnight showing of Twilight wrapped around the side of the building.  Of the 17 screens our theater has, 8 of them are going to be dedicated to showing Twilight, and I have no doubt that most, if not all of them, will be sold out later tonight.  =P