By Robin
We are only days away from Rich's yearly "sleep out" for tickets. This means he will arrive 10 hours before ticket sales begin. He will spend all night sitting in a beach chair and waiting for that golden moment when the doors open and he can purchase our priceless tickets. What kind of tickets? Lillianna's dance recital tickets, of course!
She goes to a wonderful dancing school, but the way they handle ticket sales is ridiculous.
The first year, my friend Amy -- who had done this the previous year -- told me I should get to the studio by 5 a.m. in order to get good seats. Unfortunately, I was very sick the night before and there was no way that I could sit outside for 3 hours. Rich volunteered to go for me but he insisted he was getting there even earlier. He would go at 3 a.m. I wished him well and I went to sleep. At 3:15 a.m. he called to tell me he was 19th in line. Yes! 19th! Apparently there were 18 people crazier than him.
Last year he got there at 1 a.m., and he was 4th in line. Since there is no ticket limit, the woman in front of him bought over 60 tickets and blocked up the first 4 or 5 good rows! Rich is hoping to get there before that happens again.
This year, Rich will grab his chair and head over there at 11 p.m., which is just when I will be getting home from work. He is hoping to be the first in line this year, but the guy who is always first gets there around 6 p.m.
In Rich's mind, this is all about how much he loves Lillianna and how far he is willing to go to get seats that will give him the best view of his little angel on stage. I am sure this is one of the things Lillianna will remember for the rest of her life, and it just warms my heart.
I'm totally in shock that parents have to wait hours in advance for tickets to their own child's dance recital! What is this world coming to!?
Posted by: liz | May 17, 2004 at 09:58 AM
I am speechless (okay, not so speechless that I won't finish this comment). That is truly unbelievable. And people wonder why kids in our society are so competitive and angry and obsessed with looking good. Yeesh. I don't know if I would do this for my kids -- I am not sure I would send them to a place that did this sort of thing. (Please don't take that statement as a judgment about your decision to send your daughter there -- I am just giving you my honest reaction.) All that being said, what a nice husband and daddy your man is!
Posted by: Elise | May 11, 2004 at 10:20 PM
I recently went through something similar with tickets to my daughter's ballet recital. For frig sake why don't they just have a lottery for the best seats?
Posted by: andrea | May 11, 2004 at 08:38 PM
Give us an address. We'll send Rich a food item an hour (Hot Pizza, Hot Coffee, Ice Cream, Burritos (to get others to make bathroom trips), etc. He can then trade up to at least the No. 2 slot. That No. 1 guy; you'd better hope he eats too many Polish dogs and has a heart attack. It's like driving in the fast lane -- someone always wants to go faster, and you should let them.
Posted by: daddydaycare | May 11, 2004 at 04:53 PM
I have to admit I don't know if I would do that. Wow!
Posted by: AGK | May 11, 2004 at 12:54 PM
Haven't had the opportunity to do anything like that for my little one yet... BUT, wow, you've brought back memories of when I was a young dancer! People talk about how crazy parents get at their kids' sporting events -- it's NOTHING compared to ballet! Standing in line for tickets is cool and I salute you. Just don't turn into one of those moms who pitches a fit when her daughter doesn't win the big pas de deux audition, or who puts sand (yes, SAND) into someone else's toe shoes and gives them the most gruesome blisters of their life. Dancing should be FUN! (And I think you know that! You just remended me of parental craziness I witnessed as a girl -- and not MY parents either. They wouldn't even get up early for tickets, and always sat in the last balcony. I was just happy they were there at all.)
Posted by: rachel | May 11, 2004 at 12:45 PM
Great Holy Mother of All Things Good.
I'd be fired from Motherhood if I had to get in line for dance recital tickets at 11pm to wait all night.
Posted by: Melissa | May 11, 2004 at 11:50 AM
Robin...do you live anywhere near Toronto.
Damn it. He needs to be first in line. I volunteer to show up at 5pm and stay until Rich gets there. We can fill up the first 5 rows with Lillianna's biggest fans.
I am serious.
Posted by: Robyn | May 11, 2004 at 10:32 AM
Oh,the things we do for them!
I can't believe you have to stand in line like that for tickets!wow.
Posted by: Emily | May 11, 2004 at 09:50 AM