LOTR Trilogy Update

So at the last minute (11:30 a.m.) I decided to walk over to the theater and get tickets. I had called the theater at 11 a.m. and the woman told me there were only about 30 people in line when she arrived for work. I told BW (my co-worker who also wanted tickets) that he should hang at Fandango.com and try for tickets in case the line was long.

I got to the theater at 11:45 a.m. The line was only 20 people deep. I was shocked by this, but happily got in line and called BW to tell him that I would have no problems getting tickets because there were only 20 people ahead of me. After I hang up, the guy three places ahead of me turns and says, “You do know there’s more people inside getting tickets, right? This is just the end of the line.” I groan and call BW back to tell him to try Fandango after all.

So as you do when you are all in line for the same stupid reason, a few of us started chatting. The guy directly in front of me was a total SciFi geek (but thankfully not dressed as a hobbit). The woman behind me, Susan, writes for TheOneRing.net, a fan site dedicated to LOTR. Just in front of SciFi Geek was a really cute young man that looked just like my main man Michael Vartan (“Alias”). I mean, he was the reason the word “doppleganger” was created.

Well, as SciFi, Susan and I talked, the MVD kept turning around and smiling at me, but wouldn’t really participate in the conversation. But it was driving me nuts how much he looked like MV. So I turned to Susan and asked her if she watched “Alias”. She said she did occasionally, and I asked, “Doesn’t that kid right there look like Michael Vartan? The guy that plays Agent Vaughn?” She waited a beat for him to turn around, and gasped, “Oh my gosh – he really does!” So the next time he turned around I smiled and asked him if he watched Alias.

He proceeded to speak with a REALLY thick accent, and it was obvious that he was not that good with English. But man was he still good-looking and all MVD and stuff. So I told him he needed to watch “Alias” on Sunday night and he’d see his long lost twin, which made him laugh and say, “Thank you.” I doubt he knew what I was talking about.

But then he started chatting me up, which was funny since I could barely understand a single word he said unless I made him say it twice. Which I did. Turns out his name was too hard to pronounce, but was the Slovenian version of Michael (in fact, he even said, “I have same name as twin on tv”, so he must have understood SOME of what I said). He moved to NYC from Slovenia in 1998 and “work on machine”. No idea. He asked what I did, and I told him I was boring secretary.

At this point, we’re about 10 people away from being actual TICKETBUYERS. We had all been in line for about an hour at that point. Then MVD points up at the theater movie listings and says, “What are you here to see?” I blinked stupidly for a minute. “I’m just here to get Lord of the Rings tickets,” I replied. “My boss would kill me if I stayed to watch a movie.”

He said, “You are not here to see a movie today?”

“No, just to get tickets.”

He pointed to the movie listings again and said, “My movie started ten minutes ago.”

I laughed. Then realized he was serious. My poor little Slovenian MVD. “Are you joking?” I asked.

“No,” he said innocently, “I wanted to see ‘Out of Time’ but now I see something else instead.”

I grabbed his arm (I probably scared him at this point) and turned to Susan and said, “He’s not here for Lord of the Ring tickets!” Then I turned back to him and said, “You poor thing – you are in the wrong line!”

He got all confused again, and Susan and I both pointed to the OTHER line, where there were no nerds. “That’s your line,” we both said at the same time. He turned to me, “So you not see movie now?”

I shook my head and he quickly got out of the line and made his way over to the regular ticket buyers line. He looked back at me and grimaced; I could tell he was a bit embarrassed. And part of me thinks he was asking me out.

So anyway, back to the whole reason for this point : the LOTR Trilogy tickets. Now that MVD was no longer in line, I was that much closer to getting tickets. So SciFiGuy gets his tickets, and then I WAS UP! I asked for my five tickets, and just as she finishes punching that in, she calls the door guy over.

“Hey Ronnie! Tell those people outside waiting that they WON’T get tickets to the Trilogy. We’re about to be sold out.”

Woo hoo!! Sold out! And I was still getting tickets!

I plunked down my credit card, and moments later walked out of the theater with five precious passes in my wallet.