Lucy and Christine's Excellent Downtown Adventure

Saturday was movie night! I'm pretty sure that the last time my younger sister, Lucy, and I went to a movie together it was 1980. We saw The Jazz Singer. (I think...I'm pretty sure about this...and her friend Beth L. was with us. Right, Lucy?)

Generally, Lucy and I don't hang out much and haven't been out in public together since...well...it was about 1984...there was a convertible involved...the top was down...I was throwing up...she was in the back seat. Maybe that's why we stopped hanging out. Can't blame her.

In any event, a new era has dawned and Lucy has remembered that it's fun to hang out with me and do some things with me that she hasn't yet tried in the 21st century. So, we headed to the Regal Riviera theater downtown to get in on the Sex and the City action. The theater itself isn't new to Lucy...It's new to me and Lucy had raved about what a cool place it is. It's closer to where she lives, so when she and her lover take in a movie, this is the spot. The movie satisfied every expectation I had and tied up every loose end that needed tying up. It was probably the most satisfying closure I've ever had. (Watching Sex and the City reruns...even with all its immorality is my dirty little addiction secret.)

After the movie, we strolled down Gay Street and into the Downtown Grill & Brewery where we enjoyed a few beers, some unique shrimp cocktail (sort of a shrimp salsa with chips) and some out of this world burgers. A little text messaging with Andrew was involved--he suggested we try an IPA. We got a sample. It tasted like gasoline to us. We ordered another blonde beer. Andrew called us pussies. It was as if he were there with us. Good times.

Strolling farther down Gay Street, we visited The Mast General Store. The attraction here is that they carry a lot of stuff you don't easily find at other retailers. A lot of it is stuff we haven't seen since our childhood. (Among other things, they carry candy, toys, cookware, Willow Tree figurines, corn meal, clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc...it is, after all, a general store.) Our big purchase was some of our favorite candy...mine being Mallo Cups...that I can never find anywhere. (You know, because the gorging with giant sloppy burgers and beers wasn't enough calorie intake.) The fun of it is that the candy is merchandised in barrels just as you see in the picture. We didn't linger long, because we got there about 10 minutes to close. We'll have to go back on our next big city adventure.

It's pretty exciting to see how alive downtown Knoxville has become. Of course, I later heard on the news that a lot of people went to see the SATC movie at the downtown theater, because it gave them the feeling of being in the big city for the big city movie. Whatever.

The final highlight of the evening was being approached by a young man who asked us to buy his movie tickets. He said, "I'm 19 years old and I can only buy one rated R movie ticket at a time." We smiled and said, "We can't help you." What I really wanted to say was, "Can't you see we're two mid-40s women with joint issues? Do you really think one of us is gonna walk all the way back up to that ticket office for you?" Punk.