Saturday excitement

It's two weeks to house closing, and it seems like the time will never get here. Meanwhile, I have had some fun moments here while staying with Rebecca and the kids. The biggest event for me (quite a new experience) happened last Saturday morning.

Tom, and now Becky, are long time fans of Bruce Springsteen, they love his concerts. Bruce announced a concert here in Richmond a few weeks ago, and of course the two of them were hot for tickets.

It seems tickets are a tricky proposition, requiring finesse and mind blowing strategies (To Becky and I). Well Tom, being up to the task, and Becky and I being game for anything, were up and on the road Saturday morning, with kids in tow, to be at the Coliseum in downtown to get tickets. But not tickets for the show, tickets to get in line for a lottery to try to get tickets for the show! We were each given a number at 8 sharp, 05, 06 and 07. You see, they do the line-up to buy a ticket by lottery, whoever's ticket is drawn is number 1 in line, and then the rest of the people line up in ticket order.This prevents scalpers from buying big lots of tickets. Online tickets are almost impossible without a high speed connection.

So, once we had our 3 tickets, we broke for breakfast, because the drawing for the lottery wasn't until 9:30. Tom went on to a ball tournament with Zack and left Becky and I (and Maddie) to take our chances, but not before briefing us to find someone to trade with for our number 06. The thought and logic being that if we had a group of numbers spaced out, we would have a better chance. If they drew 08 we would have been last in line. So, Becky went off to trade the 06, and I, looking older and innocent was offered another ticket by the man handing out tickets. He told me it was 55. I didn't even look at it, I just took it and smiled. We now had 4 tickets!!! becky traded for a 20, and my 55 was really a 14. We thought we were in good shape.

Well, the number was drawn, and it was 05. I thought Becky would stroke out, as it was her ticket. I ended up 3rd in line, and the man she traded with for the 20 slot was 3rd. He was almost as excited as she was. Turns out we then had to decide if we wanted floor seats (she and Tom did) or other regular seats. Tom had committed to buying 4 of the regular seats, so I was in charge of those four. The ticket gurus split the line to those wanting floor seats, and those wanting others, so I was first in the other line, Becky first in Floor. Then they announced the “others” would be given a 4 minute jump on Ticketmaster. Seems most tickets for his concerts are sold in about 10-15 minutes. Floor people got a 2 minute jump.

To cut to the chase, I got the first 4 tickets, very good seats, for Tom's friends. Then Becky got her two, and the number 06 man got two, and then, the floor was entirely sold out. Less than 3 minutes. She was so excited, as this will be the closest they have even been.