So there’s still no queue at Alamo Village. I’m able to get a parking spot right at the head of where my show’s queue will begin, and I see others in cars waiting to see if anyone will get the line started. I pull out an uncompleted sudoku and hope that we can all stay in our cars for a good while longer. But, alas, a couple gets out of the next CR-V over and starts the line, even after I plead with them not to. So they say I can sit in the car and wait and they will let me come in with them, which I take them up on, until I see that there are a couple dozen people lined up, so I join the queue. Most of the folks are not dressed anymore warmly for standing in line than I was for sitting in an office, so I almost feel like peeling off layers and sharing, but I’m only so kind.

The five people I end up chatting with are very fun, and we have a lot in common in terms of movies. Except that they know why too much about video games and movies based on video games, and they are all 20-30 years younger than me. But anyway, it’s a good group to stand with, as everyone is intelligent, able to contribute to conversation, and adverse to spoilers. (I hated having to put my hands over my ears while being queued up for the last Harry Potter book.)

And then the doors open about 15 minutes before show time, and our group gets the center seats in the center row, and I get an escape seat (near the break between the tables). Perfect. The staff is great, very efficient; beer arrives promptly, and chicken fingers not too much later. Yes, midnight is an odd time to have chicken fingers, but I love their chicken fingers, so I skipped dinner so I’d be hungry for them.

The pre-show selections are not great: some basic Godzilla with some inexplicable clips of a scene from a B movie of a woman dancing while an escaped mental patient watches and then shoots her. Huh?

Then the previews. I didn’t know I was about to get a Star Trek preview, so I wasn’t sure what was happening after I saw the Bad Robot logo. It sure wasn’t “Cloverfield” but what the heck was it? And then we start catching on, and people are cheering and rising up out of their seats. So exciting!

“Cloverfield”? Even what I heard on NPR and read in the paper the next day would have been enough to dull the experience, so if you’ve googled and found this, just knock it off and go see the movie. I’m the biggest ‘fraidy cat in the world and I have serious motion sickness, but I was fine and well able to sleep afterwards. There’s plenty of suspense and surprise during the movie, so it’s well worth seeing. It’s not a Great Film, but it’s a Fun Movie. See it on the big screen and with a big audience. The crowd really helps in movies like this!