last night we arrived a bit early for the movie, i didn’t mind in the least because the apple valley cineplex has an arcade.

something about arcades make me a doofy 12 year old girl all over again. i love arcade games. it’s not the same on nintendo or sony. it’s the standing up, shoving quarters in, smell of sweaty geeks and the racket of all the boops, beeps, and wa-wa-was.

i excitedly dumped my purse out on a table in front of the arcade, i scooped all the quarters and rushed in. wahoo!

when you go into an arcade you have to do the once around. scoping out the games, seeing what cries out for your attention. as i was circling the inner-bank of games, i heard it. there was a ms. pacman machine. wahoo!!

as i rounded the turn i was crushed. there was a big guy with a bad tropical shirt standing in front of the machine. i continued my walk-by and casually looked over his shoulder. he was doing pretty well. rats! as i strolled past, i gave him the patented jodi-chromey-look-of-death. it didn’t work! he did not fall to the ground clawing at his throat gasping for breath.

hrmph!

then i pulled out the next secret weapon, the ol’ jodi-chromey-annoy-them-until-they-leave trick. i set about this task by playing the pinball machine directly behind the ms.pacman hogger. while playing i talked a blue-streak to the ball as it wound it’s way around the machine. i have never claimed to be a pinball wizard and last night it showed.

still the tropical-shirted-pacman-hogger didn’t budge.

finally i resorted to the oldest, dirtiest trick in the book. i whined within earshot. voila! he left. i think this had more to do with his movie starting than with my super-special give me the damn video game shennanigans.

oh what a feeling. i slid that quarter into the machine, the wakkka-wakka-wakka started up and i was in heaven. the machine was old and the joystick was nice loose. ms. pacman was flying around the screen. it was a lovely site to behold. i nearly wept. it was a homecoming. a family reunion.

unfortunately the reunion was all too short. big-ms.pacman-hogger took too much time and i had to hurry or i’d miss the opening of the american pie 2.

parting was such sweet sorrow.

but i’ll go back. the apple valley movie theater is much closer than the airport. how long do you think i could hang around in the arcade before all the movie workers start getting nervous?