not so close...

I went to see the movie Black Swan yesterday afternoon.  While I was at the theater I had a couple of problems with the people sitting next to me, so I told my friend I needed to take to the blog for some movie theater etiquette.  Listen up all the heavy breathing, texting, sitting next to a stranger movie go-ers, this one's for you.  My friend Emmy and I arrived early to the movie to get a good seat because it was the day after Christmas and we knew Black Swan was a hit.  We found a seat in the middle section next to the aisle, more than half way down to the front.  The theater was somewhat crowded but with plenty of seats available.  After we sat down, an older lady came past us and sat exactly four seats down from me....not a big deal at all.  Then she proceded to take off her scarf and lay it down on the three seats between us.  Again, I was ok with this...thinking maybe her husband was coming and she wanted to make sure to have enough room for him and perhaps her purse and a coat or two.  Well, her husband walks in and sits next to her and then two more friends sit down RIGHT next to me.  I looked around thinking there was no way that the theater filled up that much in the few minutes we had been sitting down and to my dismay there was an entire row empty directly behind us.  Not only that...there were three other seats on the other side of the first lady that sat down that were empty!  So, to give you a visual of our row it was Emmy, Me, and four stranger followed by three empty seats and an empty row behind us.  First rule of movie going etiquette, don't sit directly next to someone else unless there are no other seats in the theater.  So, not only are we sitting right on top of each other...the arm rest between us breaks.  This is no joke, at one point I was holding the arm rest in the air thinking it might make the man move.  He just looked at me and said "yep, it's broken".  The right thing to do would have been to move down one seat, they didn't budge.  So, the movie starts and so did the strangers breathing.  I just kept thinking of those hand sanitizer commercials where they show germs shooting out of peoples mouths and nose....totally disgusted.  It's cold and flu season, we don't need to be sharing germs.  So, another rule to learn: if you are sitting directly next to a stranger, keep the breathing down!  The noise and oxygen intake was unnecessary.  And to top it all off...everytime I hid my face under my coat or jumped because of a scary part in the movie...he laughed at me.  As if I wasn't upset enough with the movie, he had to act like it was ridiculous that I couldn't watch Natalie Portman scratch her skin off or cut her finger nails down to the skin.  Sorry mister, that's just not something I can stomach!  If I was sitting next to a friend and they were making fun of me, that's fine, but it's not ok for a stranger!  So, next time you're at the movie, remember to consider the people around you...and by around I don't mean the person sitting exactly next to you because there should always be an empty seat between you!  I won't get into lice on the seats because that would just be downright gross...hope ya'll had a Merry Christmas!!

xoxo