I had my first 3-D experience this weekend. Yep. I can’t believe it either. It was beyond cool. I was expecting to get a pair of goofy cardboard glasses with one red and one green lens. Not so. When the ticket taker ripped my ticket, he handed me a pair of Real-D glasses — black plastic frames, tinted plastic lenses. I could hardly wait. Five seconds into my seat, and I had those suckers out of the bag and plastered to my face. Did I care that the movie hadn’t started yet? Nope. I was there for the total experience. That meant getting those glasses on ASAP. Milk Duds and Twizzlers and 3-D. Oh, my!

The movie was Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Just as the movie began, a father and his two young sons plunked themselves down in the seats next to mine. The one was so small, he was sitting on dad’s lap. He had a mop of dark hair and his 3-D glasses looked like clown glasses, they were so big on his little boy face. He kept reaching out trying to touch everything. He already had the man gene, because he didn’t gasp and eek and squeak as I did. He was capital T thrilled. I loved that about him. Probably no one would gasp and eek and squeak as much as me. I have the wuss gene. I had a good grip on Mr. G, honey’s jean-clad leg, which did give him pause. With every squeal I made, the nails dug deeper. If we had been 16 and sitting in the top row of the theater, he might have run a base or two.

I’d love to see more movies in 3-D. You know, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas would have been fabulous in 3-D. How about Harry Potter? Pirates of the Caribbean — any of them?

While I did find Journey to the Center of the Earth to be short on plot, and I thought it could have had a lot more color in the landscape — this was supposed to be fantastical — the special effects were highly entertaining. Go. See it for that alone.

How did I get to be an adult without seeing a movie in 3-D anyway?

Weekend’s over. Sigh.

Elen