31 Awesome Things in 31 Days: Thing #8—Treasure Hunt at an Estate Sale and Experience the Palladium's Opening Day

Our new tray-sures.

Oh, goodness. I've fallen behind. It is just past midnight on Friday night, and we are heading back to Lubbock in the morning, so I may write up Thing #8 now and wait until tomorrow to document Thing #9 (our Mocktail Party that officially concludes our Houston trip).

Briefly, then.

Thing #8 Part I: Estate Sale Treasure Hunting

Yesterday, Mom, Mary, David, Hollie, and I woke early to go to an estate sale in a nice neighborhood. I really love treasure-hunting at estate sales, and Dave and I really treasure the finds we've made in the past (in particular a needlework picture of hot air balloons that we have hanging above our desktop computer). I love owning things that used to belong to someone else; the things become objects haunted by past owners and past adventures. I love feeling like I'm borrowing someone else's memories. Is that too creepy?

Anyway, our new treasures included a wicker picnic basket and four framed bird prints (complete with very official-looking documentation of the bird type and artist signature taped to the back of each frame). We also found one of those backgammon board games that folds into a tiny briefcase. We have a couple of these already from other estate sales—we're officially collecting them. I don't know why these backgammon briefcases were so popular two generations back, but we love them.

So that was our treasure hunting.

Behold, the Palladium. This picture does not do it justice. This is the great and spacious building of Coke products and IMAX theaters. The biggest screens in Texas, it boasts, with something like a zillion screens to boot. Today was the opening day.

Thing #8 Part II: Opening day of the Palladium, Houston's newest super mega grand Greek-themed movie theater/bowling alley/restaurant/mall/arcade/coliseum/hunger games/thunderdome. Not to sound too much like SNL's Stefan, but this place has it all: soda machine robots, classy gelato, super lobby screens comprised of multiple television screens put together, gladiator reliefs, tiny people dressed as computer animated film characters, super max mega DBOX wonkabar technology, and the biggest bathrooms since Francis Buxton's in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

These aren't my pictures, by the way. Taking a camera into a movie theater seemed like a sketchy idea, so I ripped these off from a local news article about the construction of the theater. The screen really was humongous, and those arm rests very capably held our chicken strips and mozzarella sticks baskets quite comfortably with room still for a large Mello-Yello orange soft drink.

 We saw the very first matinee of the Palladium's opening day today—Star Trek: Into Darkness. The theater was pretty empty (though it seems to be incredibly lively this evening we noticed in passing), and the workers were clearly still figuring out the ropes. They could only make five or six food items in the food court (which will eventually serve everything from gyros to sushi), and when we asked for a soft drink lid the friendly young people behind the register looked legitimately perplexed and had to ask a manager where they keep the lids and where they're supposed to store them. It felt like we were at some grand dress rehearsal—everyone knew their lines and were wearing their costumes, but there were a lot of kinks that hadn't been worked out yet. It was fun to feel like we were helping.

The lobby was Greek-themed, and much shinier when it isn't under construction (as in this picture). It felt like Vegas. 

We spent a small fortune on some fried food items and soft drinks, and then Mom, Mary, Dave, and I headed into our *assigned* seating. That's right—you don't even have to hunt for a seat here. It's fancy. Like seeing a play. Only a way more awesome play with big explosions and space travel scenes.

The soft drink robots. Every selection led to more selections asking for preferred tastes within your choice. You press the lemonade button just to find yourself choosing between several different flavors of lemonade. I literally had to choose between four different Mello-Yello flavors. Four!

Star Trek was just what we wanted it to be: funny, lively, nostalgic, thrilling, and brainless. It was J. J. Abrams doing his thing, and Benedict Cumberbatch at his most delightfully villainous. The screens were brand new, bright, clear, perfectly focused, and super-humongous. We had stretching room, eating room, and yet I was close enough to David that we were able to whisper back and forth at ease throughout the film. (Which was great, because I totally whispered to David what was going to happen at the conclusion of the film about halfway through the film. I really find self-value and fulfillment when I get to impress David with things like that.)

Taking this picture was as creepy as you would think. David refused to do it, in fact, because (a) he and I have never seen Despicable Me and (b) he hates computer-animated films to begin with, so a small person dressed as a character from one is even more offensive to him. He did demand that we get the picture, though, as it would give us evidence for this blog that we did actually see on a matinee at the Palladium on opening day.

Anyway, that was Thing #8, divided up into a couple of days. Tomorrow night I'll write up our mocktail party in a disgustingly maudlin way, as we will likely be back in Lubbock and missing all of our delightful family in Houston (especially Hollie, who Dave and I are convinced is happier and healthier in a large family. She has really thrived here. I think she gets sick of seeing just Dave and me at home—we really need to make more Lubbock friends...)