Everything that can go wrong...

So. Friday started off with a bang, on the way in we got word that there was a subway fire, shutting down the 6th avenue line. We get to Penn Station and decide to take the A/C/E, figuring if they've shut down the 6th avenue line, perhaps the 8th avenue line is not affected. Logical thinking does not prevail. Get to the A/C/E station and it is pandemonium, pandemonium with loudspeakers all saying that the service on the A/C/E has been shut down.

Go to work. Enough said.

After work, have plans to see "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang". In Manhattan it is always a fight to get a decent seat at the movie theater, especially on opening night and especially for any film which may (or for that matter may not) develop a cult following. Tried to leave work early, doesn't happen. Fight off other pedestrians for a cab- manage to snag one, things must be looking up.

Until, we get the only english speaking cab driver in New York. You would think this would be a plus, right up until he asks us where we're going (movie theater) and what we're seeing--
"who's in that" he asks, and we reply, "Robert Downey, Jr."

Then comes the stories-- about how he's on the "stuff" and then this morphs into some tale about a cab driver, a casino and a lottery ticket. All of this and we're still at 49th and 7th. Then we get hit by another cab.

Fine, just a scrape, no big deal, Mr. Talkative gets back in our Crown V and we start back up town. Everything seems to be fine until he has to count out our change-- 14 dollars in singles. Slowly, twice to make sure he didn't make a mistake, fold, unfold, etc., etc.

By some shocking grace of God we're at the theater in time. We've fandango'ed in advance so we even have our own printed tickets. Time saving? Of course not. The fandango print out must be scanned and regular tickets issued-- and why would the ticket scanner work on a Friday night? Eventually we made it to our movie, we even got Nachos. Of course the screen was smaller than our tv at home and the movie left a bit to be desired, at least we got a story out of it.

Don't even ask about the train ride home.