On Thursday night I attended Beverly’s first ever pasta get-together. About seven people showed up and we ate delicious Italian food that Beverly and her coworker planned and prepared that day. Towards the end of the night her roommate mentioned he would be going to see Wall-E Friday night. We made plans Friday morning to join them. However, I waited too long to buy our tickets and the showing that they were going to was sold out. I hastily bought tickets to the earlier 7:10 showing. Traffic was miserable and I didn’t end up at Beverly’s office until after 6:30. We finally arrived at the mall (with the theater) at 7. Beverly hopped out to go get our tickets while I parked. Twenty minutes later I was still lurching around the parking garage. There were quite literally no parking spaces left in the entire garage -but the automated tickets kept pouring out and more and more cars entered the garage. Twice I left the garage and looked for street parking -but the way that mall is situated there is no other accessible parking around. As the clock struck 7:30 my anger was fermenting and I actually started screaming things like “goooo!” and “c’mon!” It was then that I realized that the situation was out of my control and I should calm down (although the thought of Beverly waiting for me and wondering where I was didn’t make me feel great). About ten seconds after I consoled myself to calm down a woman calmly walked in front of me and got in her car and left.
Now keep in mind that Beverly left her cell-phone’s charger in London by accident – so I had no way to contact her and let her know what was going on. She had said she was going to grab the tickets and leave mine at the box office. So, I jogged up to the theater and made a b-line for guest services. I was so focused that I had to hear my name called out from above three times before I realized that Beverly was standing above me on the second floor with our tickets in hand. Twenty minutes earlier she had procured sweet seats at the back of the auditorium and come out looking for me.
Wall-E turned out to be lighthearted and somewhat funny. The visual look of the film was fantastic, with Pixar employing even more “real” camera tricks than we’ve seen before (although Ratatouille was very good at this too). The subject matter was actually a little heavy for a kids movie, but I doubt the kids in the audience noticed. I couldn’t help but think that Wall-E’s head looked exactly like Johnny 5’s….but then again I’m sure the kids in the audience wouldn’t know what that is either.
Anyway – the moral of the story – do NOT go to the Century City Westfield mall on a Friday night (unless you’re taking a cab).
Hey why didn’t you tell me you left the garage and went to look for st. parking twice. =/ Now I understand why it took you 40 min =x
Because I got so riled up I decided to go get a pint at the local pub – that is how I was able to calm down đŸ˜‰
No, seriously, when I left the parking garage I was only gone for a max of two minutes each time. The first time I just drove across the front (past that restaurant) looking for a second parking garage – but it turned out to just be the other end of the same garage and I went back in. The second time I was in a long long line of cars and to my right was the back (south) exit sign with no cars – so I sped out there and turned south – but quickly realized it was all business buildings and not even parking meters, so I literally only drove a few hundred feet and did a U-turn and went back in the garage. It didn’t really add to the time it took to park because both times I was in stopped traffic in the garage and zipped out the nearby exit (where there was no traffic at all). Literally every spot in the entire garage was taken and we were all stuck in a “train” of sorts just hoping to get lucky and someone would leave right in front of us (which finally happened to me).
That garage is really the only place you CAN park to go to that mall – so they know they’ve got a monopoly – no wonder a quarter of it is always closed for valet parking!