:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Monday, December 29, 2003 ::

Today, I went to work at The Tribune newspaper. It was nice to see my coworkers again. A few of them had left the paper, but many were still there. In the morning, I went to a meeting to discuss follow-ups and coverage of last week's earthquake. I was then assigned to write a story about retrofitting regulations in various cities in light of the earthquake. However, after calling half the people I needed to for my story, I was told that I was needed for copy editing, so my story was picked up by other reporters, and I went to copy edit for the features department. Apparently, the old features copy editor had left to go to another newspaper, so they were in the process of hiring a new copy editor.

I copy edited for the rest of my shift. Then, I found out that Rent, the hit Broadway musical, was in SLO-town for today and just today! I actually knew it was coming to town over the summer, but I didn't realize that it would be here when I was home, so I didn't get tickets. Unfortunately, I found out that tonight's show had been sold out for quite some time. However, I found out that they were doing for this performance the neat thing they do at the Broadway show, which is to sell 20 front-row tickets two hours before the show for only $20! I was excited by the prospect of getting tickets, so I called my sister, and as soon as my shift ended, we drove to the Performing Arts Center at the other end of town to wait in line for tickets. I figured that since it was pouring rain, fewer people would be in line. Unfortunately, there were people who had camped out by the ticket booth since last night, so I was probably the 40th person in line. So after the 20 $20 tickets were sold, we waited to try to get tickets from people who had cancelled their tickets and were not going to see the performance that night. I saw some of my friends in line, too, and we chatted.

We ended up waiting for three hours under this little covering from the rain, freezing and shivering. After a while, the lady in the box office came out and said that there were absolutely no tickets left to sell. But I wanted to see this show, so I wouldn't give up. I felt really bad for doing it, but I went around asking people if they had extra tickets. Apparently, there were a lot of people with extra tickets. Some girls who were waiting behind us in the ticket line were able to get two tickets for free. Finally, my sister and I were able to find people with extra tickets to sell, and they were nice enough to sell them to us at the ticket's price. Too bad the seats weren't together. My sister was in the orchestra, and I was in the balcony. The seat wasn't too bad. I had an unobstructed view of the stage. At intermission, my sister noted that practically an entire row of seats was empty, so we sat together in the orchestra for the second act. It was much better from there. Before and after the show, I saw a bunch of old classmates and acquaintances.

Rent was simply incredible. I have the "Best of Rent" CD, so I knew some of the songs, but seeing it performed onstage was just beautiful. The musical had some important messages, such as the need to live for today because life is short, appreciating friends, and understanding the importance of love. It was such an emotional experience; the story could coax some feeling out of the most hardened heart. The performers were incredible, also. I would gladly see the show again.

It was a pretty big deal that Rent was performed here. We never get big-name shows here in the first place, and Broadway tours rarely make one-performance stops because of the time it takes to set up and take down the sets. In addition, Monday is usually the day off for the performers. It was so great that Rent came to town.

After the show, I went with my sister and her friend to Denny's to eat, since we didn't have dinner yet. I got a turkey/bacon/tomato sandwich, but they didn't give me a little piece of lettuce, like I had requested. We conversed, and then we went home.

Quote of the Day: "It stunk, so I told my children to stick their fingers in it."

:: SL 7:15 PM [+] ::
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