Movie Theatre Issues

Today we are introduced to fact number two about me: I work at a movie theatre during the summer and school breaks (fact one was my name, listed at the bottom of every entry).

Anyways, tonight I was working at the movie theatre on door (that's the ticket-taker, for those of you not in the lingo). Later in the night, at around 9:15-ish or so, some young teenage kid jokes with me that he was given a free trial to the theatre, and that he's allowed to go in for free. I played along and told him that was all right, but he had to take it up with the box people to get a ticket for me to rip. He said he was kidding and left.

He came back a bit later and said "Here's my free ticket," and tried to put a dollar into my hand. Instinctively, I jerked away in surprise and said "no, man." I thought for an instant, then said "Which movie do you want to go see?" He told me Chuck and Larry. I looked down at my time sheet, and I saw it was already an hour into the movie. They had missed a lot of the movie, almost half of it. "Heck, just go on back if you want to see it."

Surprised, the boy turned, and got his friend who had been hiding behind a Dippin' Dots machine in front of me. I let them both go, but I at least made them throw out the outside drinks they had before I let them go back.

Later in the night, two older guys asked about going in for free, saying that one of the other employees had said I would hook them up. The guy they were talking about was a good kid, and when I found out they wanted to see Harry Potter instead of Simpsons like I expected, I was relieved. Harry Potter would accommodate extra people much better than the packed Simpsons theatres. I told them they could go in, and they left to get two more people, a cousin and a friend to bring in, for a total of four.

Now, was all of this really so bad? The first two kids couldn't have bought tickets even if they had tried, the movies fall out of the ticket purchasing system 45 minutes after the start of the movie. There should have been a copy of Chuck and Larry running when they came, but it was cancelled due to "technical difficulties." In reality, it was cancelled so the Simpsons movie could be interlocked in that theatre, doubling the number of tickets we could sell for that movie. The kids thanked me, when they went in and when they came out after it ended. The other people were friends with one of my friends. I've thrown my weight around to help my friends at work. Just the night before, I had switched my friends from the crowded Simpsons theatre to the almost empty Simpsons theatre so they could get a better seat that wasn't right in front of the movie screen. My head manager had been being a bit of a pain to everyone that day, so maybe it was just revenge too. However, I didn't think of all of this at the time. I just thought "Ah hell, why not?"

I think the very fact that I have to try to think of revenge to justify my actions shows that it wasn't the best choice. I don't know if I'm really sorry about that though. I think I'd do the same thing again. I know it wasn't too good, but the bad I do seems like it's outweighed by the enjoyment I'm letting others have.

In any case, I have to be back at work in less than 6 hours. I think the lack of sleep might be punishment enough for what I did.