Saturday, August 13, 2005

ticketbast*rd

my brother is a huge cubs fan. his girlfriend is from st. louis. so i bought two tickets for him to the cubs/cardinals series this weekend. he decided to take me as his date.

i got them from a guy at work. also a huge baseball fan. he seems nice enough. but then he's like, 'i have to charge you a little over face value.' i was like, fine, i promised the little bro. then i found out i had to fork over 100 smackers.

last night i got off work at 4 a.m. the tickets were for today's game at 12:30. bleacher seats = get there early. we live in suburbia, so that meant my brother was shaking me awake at 8 a.m. hoping to get into the city by 10 so we could catch some express bus. needless to say, i move at reverse warp speed in the morning (especially when i've only gotten 2 hours' sleep). we didn't make it. but we did get there early. parked in a lot, took the elevated train, heckled a whole bunch of cardinal fans, and got into line.

oh, by the way, despite illinois being in the middle of a severe drought this summer. THIS was the day mother nature decided to play catch up. we were caught in a monsoon.

so there we are, standing in line at the stadium. it's 11 a.m. and there are at least 100 people in front of us, who obviously got there yesterday to stand in line. we're listening to these 40-year-old men rip on each other for their team affiliations as if they were in line to buy clearasil at the drugstore for the big eighth grade dance this weekend. it was sad. but they were drunk.

we get up to the ticketperson, who fidgets around with them awhile before she tells us our tickets aren't registering in the machine. jiggawhat? my bro and i look at each other in dismay. then the woman -- who had the best front-tooth gold outline i have seen in a really long time -- tells us that these tickets are bogus; that the person who had purchased them at the window had canceled his order and that his credit card had been refunded that same day he had bought them. in february. however, the tickets had already been printed and mailed out. the woman had already confiscated the other two out of the four that were bad. the bossman felt bad for us, a pair of wet rats who weren't going to see the big show afterall. he said they were all sold out, even of standing room by that point, but if we took a walk down the street, we might just find something. (that was kind, considering he's not supposed to endorse scalping.)

but i was livid. i f-ing got up at the bootycrack of dawn. for WHAT? to get rejected at the door while dodging the cats and dogs falling from the sky? uh-uh. i don't THINK so. after much discussion we realized that in order to get into the game, we'd have to part with the better part of $300. my bro was pretty bummed. he goes back to school far away next week.

i, of course, couldn't go home because i had to work tonight. so we rode the train up and down a few times to hide from the rain and dry out a little. it didn't really work.) we went out for hamburgers and prayed the game would get rained out as poetic justice. it was delayed (and i would have had to leave at inning 4 had we even gotten inside, so i was secretly happy about that). we perused the mall, and my brother bought me a very snazzy new handbag because he was feeling generous. it didn't turn out to be such a horrid day, afterall.

come tuesday, i wouldn't want to be that chump who took me for 100 for broke-ass tickets.

5 comments:

M @ LiveLikeYoureTraveling.com said...

Oh cadiz, i'm sorry to hear about all of the trouble. However, i'm glad things ended on a up note...and...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BY THE WAY !#@%#%$!!! Get some rest tonight cus we are going to get tog. like the good ol days... :)

cadiz12 said...

thanks, guys! yeah, sunday (14) is the actual day. i get to ring it in here at the dungeon. whoohoo.

i know, i'm so irritated i have to wait till tuesday for the showdown. i'm hoping i can just re-read this post and get all fired up again. but most likely i'll just be like, 'um dude, you owe me 100 bucks.'

but maybe i should bust into a very loud routine of 'bitch better have my money.' on second thought, probably not because that is a very dirty song and although i'll feel avenged, i'll probably get fired.

cadiz12 said...

okay i'm sitting here in the dungeon and my phone goes off. i'm like what? i dont' have service here. but it's the alarm
with a message that says memo reminder: 'turning 50'

gotta love little brothers.

omar said...

50?! Wow! I wouldn't have guessed! Happy birthday, cadiz!!

It's a good thing your brother brought you to the game and not his girlfriend. That really sucks. I'd be so pissed at that guy... In fact, I AM so pissed at that guy. Let us know what happens.

Jon said...

Hmm, if it were me, I would wait until a lot of people are around, hopefully important people, and loudly announce, “Hey so and so, I just wanted to thank you for those Cubs tickets you sold me the other day. I really enjoyed driving to the game, standing in the pouring rain, only to be humiliated at the gate when they told me that these tickets had been bought and cancelled back in FEBRUARY!!! Oh, and double thanks for OVER CHARGING ME!!!!” I implore you, bring the full wrath of Cadiz down on his sorry butt, he deserves no mercy. And when you get your money back, kick him in the groin. That’s what ninja Steve would do, and ninja Steve is known world wide for always handling every situation appropriately.

And Happy 50th kid! I’ll bet you don’t look a day over 27 though ;)