Try staring at these words for, oh, THREE AND A HALF HOURS:
Please wait for the server to become available. The site is experiencing heavy loads at this time.
To improve your ticket-buying experience and to make it as pleasant as possible, this site permits entry to a limited number of patrons at a time.
This page will refresh when the countdown timer below reaches zero. When this happens, the system will automatically try to access the site again.
Do not refresh this page or you will be dropped to the end of the line. Thank you for your patience.
Here's what would have made "ticket-buying experience" (experience? they call this an experience?) "as pleasant as possible": If I could GET THROUGH.
Two and a half hours on Monday, then they announced a server crash. Then three hours yesterday before my screen told me that games three and four were sold out, and there were a "limited number" of seats still available for game five. A half-hour trying for game five, and it, too, sold out. (I'd originally been trying for game four.) And what's worse? That little line about not refreshing the page. What do you do when it freezes? You HAVE to refresh.
Some experience.
Same thing happened to everyone in my family (and extended family, and friends, nearly all of whom are in Colorado) who tried to get tickets. Not one of us got through, ever. Grumble, grumble. I *so* wanted to see a game at Coors Field to cheer on the Rockies. Apparently, however, they do not want me.
On the bright side, I'm going to game one tonight at Fenway. We have ONE ticket, and my husband told me six weeks ago (thinking he was making the safest promise ever), "If it ends up being the Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies, you can have it."
I'm still waiting for the planet to spin off its axis.
So I'm there. My husband is kicking himself. And the biggest surprise is probably awaiting the poor guy who has the other of our two seats for the game...we split our tickets six ways, and Jim has the other seat for tonight. I'm sure he's expecting to kick back, enjoy the game, and have a beer with my husband while he cheers on the Sox. Instead, he gets The Wife. And not only that, he gets The Wife Who Is Also A Rockies Fan.
That brings me to a big dilemma: What do I wear?!? If I'd snagged a seat at Coors for later in the week, it'd be easy...wear Red Sox gear at Fenway, Rockies gear at Coors. Cheer for each team in their home ballpark and enjoy the fact that I get to see my two absolute favorite teams in the Series. But I'm just not willing to shell out over a grand for Rockpile seats on StubHub so I can give a healthy profit to the jerk who managed to buy a ticket online yesterday with the sole motive of reselling to an actual (gasp) FAN.
Instead, I think I'll end up wearing my Manny Ramirez jersey over a Colorado State T-shirt, then pinning a Colorado flag to my hat. (Though which hat, I haven't decided yet. Probably a Sox hat, if I want to survive the evening in one piece.) I'll try to get online sometime tomorrow to post pics from game one (the camera battery is fully charged this time!) Maybe I can convince Jim to take a picture of me before some drunk fan rips the Colorado pin off my hat.
In the morning, I fly out wicked early for Seattle. Come on over to Bellevue and see me, get an autographed book, tell me who you think will win the Series and feel free to make fun of my ticket-buying "experience."
There will be copies of Goddess Games, as well as at least a few other recent titles. This is your chance to ask me, face to face, anything you want about writing, my books, or whatever!
In the meantime, check out the "bonus" promised in the blog's title: The cover for my upcoming book is in! My editor sent it yesterday. Does it not ROCK??
I'm thrilled to be included with the fabulous Terri Clark (author of the upcoming book SLEEPLESS), New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins (author of CRANK and GLASS), and the ultra-cool Lynda Sandoval (author of WHO'S YOUR DADDY? and CHICKS AHOY.)
Look for BREAKING UP this spring!
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