While we were driving south to Atlanta last Friday, Chestertown was getting battered with the biggest snowfall the Eastern Shore has seen in a long time. We returned home in the wee hours of Monday morning and found our little town transformed. There were misshapen lumps where bushes used to be. There was absolutely no chance of parking in front of the barn.
Yesterday we dragged ourselves about the house, sleep-deprived and yet compelled to complete a series of chores. There were orders to process and Christmas presents to get in the mail. There was a child to watch and various sidewalks to shovel.
We decided to reward ourselves at the end of the day by going to a movie, something we do surprisingly infrequently, considering how much we both enjoy it. We decided to go see Avatar, mostly because we were excited to see the new 3-D technology. We arranged a sitter for Alden, drove to the Chester 5, and bought our tickets. We were in the theater, deciding where to sit, when we realized that something was wrong. No one had handed us our 3-D glasses. We went back to the lobby and looked around, but they were nowhere to be found. Disoriented, disappointed, and nearly despairing, we went to the ticket booth and asked what was going on.
We were informed that the Chestertown version of Avatar isn’t in 3-D. Apparently we’re not ready for that kind of excitement over here. We politely asked for our money back, hiding the rage growing deep within our hearts. We felt duped and morally offended. Avatar without 3-D? It’s like Die Hard without Bruce Willis, 24 without Jack Bauer, the Smurfs without Smurfette. We walked back to our car, broken people without a shred of joy to cling to.
But then we saw this, and our perspective readjusted.
There was a time when snow was enough to thrill us to the core. And here were great heaping piles of it.
Who needs to sit for 2 hours and 40 minutes watching blue people prance about on the big screen when ridiculously tall piles of snow sit waiting to delight us in the parking lot? We could have scaled these impromptu mountains and seen for miles. Did we? We did not. Robbi is quite pregnant, after all. It was enough to look at the snow and remember a time when Star Wars was the most incredible thing we had ever seen in our lives.
We’re back, and home for the duration. It’s all about the waiting now.
