Guilt and a dead guy

I'm enjoying a glass of wine while writing this post. We don't usually have alcohol in the house, but this was left over from a movie night I had with a friend earlier in the week and I'd hate for it to go to waste.

Tonight was to be a movie night as well. A very fun, very BIG movie night. I had the opportunity to see a sneak preview of "The Wildest Dream," an IMAX movie about two men who attempted to climb Mt. Everest, 75 years apart.

While I was really looking forward to the movie, I was feeling guilty about leaving the boys with a babysitter. They'd been with a sitter all day while I was at work. I wrestled with what to do for most of the day. Go and make it up to them tomorrow? Or not go and miss the chance to see the film for free and to turn it into a post for the Indiana Insider?

After unsuccessfully trying to give away the tickets to another Visit Indiana blogger, I asked about bringing the boys with me. Turns out, that was just fine.

Sweet! I could see the movie that I wanted to and that I'd planned to blog about later without feeling guilty about leaving the boys home with a second babysitter for the day.

So I picked them up from the sitter and told them we had a special night planned. We drove downtown, keeping our eyes open for any strangely dressed folk attending the massive Gen Con gaming conference. (The boys were disappointed that there weren't very many in costume.)

We took advantage of the free parking at TGI Fridays/Marriott complex (I thought about you, Joanie!) and went there for dinner. After dinner, we walked around the grounds of White River State Park for a bit, including walking along the canal, where I just KNEW that Robbie was going to fall in. Ok, sometimes I'm wrong...

Safely away from the water, we checked out the county sculptures built into the facade of the Indiana State Museum (never did find our county), and then finally -- much to the boys' delight -- headed in to get our seats for the film.

Before the movie started, Robbie was a little antsy and I wondered if we would make it through the whole thing. He was quite fidgety as Indianapolis native and Mt. Everest conqueror David Carter spoke for about 10 minutes before the film.

While Robbie was busy being bored, I was fascinated with the history of George Mallory, the 1924 Everest climber who died, along with his hiking companion Sandy Irvine, on the face of the mountain, never to be found until 75 years later.

With Robbie bored and me fascinated, Charlie was getting anxious. He's in a phase right now where he has some anxieties about death. He said, "Mom, if they start talking about dying in the movie, can I go out?" No, I told him, but he could pull his sweatshirt hood over his eyes.

Soon the movie began with some gorgeous shots of Mt. Everest, big as anything on the IMAX screen. Within a minute or two the word "died" was spoken. I looked over and Charlie was hunched under his sweatshirt.

The film went on to begin to explain how, in 1999, climber Conrad Anker found Mallory's body, still intact, frozen on the mountainside. Only it didn't just explain the finding. It showed, in recreation, Mallory's partially exposed body, face-down in the rock. I looked over and the opening of Charlie's sweatshirt hood was pulled tightly closed over his whole face.

I watched another 5 or 10 minutes of the film, casting frequent glances in Charlie's direction to see if he was warming up to the story. Nope. Not even a little bit. I leaned over and asked him if he was all right. He shakily said, "Not really..."

Poor kid. I felt bad about trying to make him stick it out, even for just that short time. So, it was guilt that got me to take them to the theater with me and guilt (ok, and love) that got me to take them out.

I tapped Robbie and told him that we were going to leave. Not really being a documentary-type of fellow, Robbie was more than happy to get up and asked if we could watch Bugs Bunny when we got home.

At least that's not something I feel guilty about.