Blog Jones

I went into the FMA today at about 4:15 to pick up my tickets to the upcoming Living Gallery program for my family and me. I had hopes of securing tickets for Saturday afternoon, either at 4:30 or at 7. Unfortunately, I was running a little late; students were required to get tickets by tonight at 5 or face the penalty of demerits. Predictably, there was a shortage of the tickets I wanted: Only 1 ticket was available at 4:30, 1 ticket at 7, and 3 tickets at 2.

I asked the Programs & Productions Guy if there were any other tickets available for the times I wanted; there were not. ^~OK, let me call and see if should get the 2:00 tickets,^~ I said to P&PG, walking out into the lobby to call my mom. Short answer: Yeah, get the tickets. I take the three steps necessary to return to the ticket tables, and…

^~I know you just didn’t.^~ I stood in mild disbelief. P&PG had not only abandoned the table, but had, in the course of my thirty second phone call, during which I was in plain sight of the ticket table, given two of my tickets to someone else while my back was turned.

^~I’m sorry, what was that?^~ P&PG’s associate, P&P Girl, looked up from the Friday table.

I mumbled something, which I’m proud to say didn’t include any of the derogatory terms for P&PG that I was formulating. I then started for the door; P&PG called after me: ^~Hey, there are some seats opening up for Saturday at 4:30.^~

Well, then. All is forgiven. Another group had exchanged their tickets for a different day, leaving 4 seats together for 4:30pm. I asked for three and handed P&PG my permit slip, which entitled me to a free ticket. ^~How much for the other two?^~

^~Oh, I’m sorry. You have to buy tickets at the ticket window, and they closed at 4.^~

My mild disbelief returned.

^~And we’re not open tomorrow because of Gold Rush Daze,^~ he finished.

^~OK, so can you reserve those tickets for me so I can buy them on Friday?^~

^~No, I’m sorry, we can’t reserve tickets. But there shouldn’t be any problem getting three seats together then.^~

Sure. Helpful guy. One or the other of the P&P team pointed out that I needed to get my ticket today so that I wouldn’t get demerits, but that I could exchange them on Friday for the group of tickets.

So, now I have possession of a ticket that I do not want, and I do not have possession of the three tickets that I do want, which were sitting there unclaimed on the desk. I also now have the hassle of trying to find time to get there; I have classes until 4, which is conveniently the same time the ticket window closes. This means either A) They must be open during my 12 o’clock lunch hour or B) I must miss some portion of class in order to get my tickets.

Let’s get the act together better next year, hmm?

In case you were wondering what ^~ means: That’s a new punctuation mark I came up with called the Quasi-Quote. You use it when you’re not sure of the exact wording of what you’re quoting.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 17th, 2005 at 12:18 am and is filed under BJU Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.