Jingle gave me an award, and the rules of the award say – they ALWAYS say – you’re supposed to tell seven things about yourself. Well, OK, but I’m going to cheat and tell a story, with the items thus revealed.
The Wife, at my encouragement, went to see Bill T. Jones at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center a week ago, on Thursday night while I stayed home with the daughter.
1. I appreciate dance, but don’t go out of my way to see it.
I heard about this particular dance about Abraham Lincoln from watching Bill Moyers Journal on PBS.
2. I miss watching Bill Moyers.
My wife went online to order the tickets on Wednesday, but you’re supposed to print your ticket or tickets, which basically is a bar code or a bunch of bar codes. We experienced the same thing when we went to see Cats at Proctors recently.
3. I hate the cost-saving measure (on their part) of having the customer have to print the ticket.
Oh, and not incidentally, these tickets, almost invariably, are UGLY. I have tickets to shows I went to years or even decades ago that I’ve kept; these are NOT keepers.
Well, our desktop computer was being cranky – again – and the Wife ordered the tickets on the laptop, from which we had never printed.
I suggested rehooking the Internet connection doohickey –
4. I am not particularly technologically savvy, except in the eyes of those who are even less so
to the desktop, see if it worked again, and try to print from there.
Thursday night, I get home from work, and the Wife said she didn’t print the ticket yet. Yikes – had she called me, I would have printed the ticket at work and brought it home.
5. I HATE dealing with things at the last minute when it is avoidable; sometimes, it’s not avoidable, but…
She said that I said that I could just take the printer cable to the laptop and print that way. I said that’s NOT what I said. I said to take the Internet cable and reconnect it to the desktop and try to print from there.
6. I HATE it when people say that I said things I didn’t say.
So I made the switch, but unfortunately, the desktop was dormant for so long that I was going to have to reboot it – WHICH TAKES FOREVER – and it’s now 6:30 pm for an 8:00 show that’s a half-hour away.
I said, “You should go to the library and print your ticket from there.”
7. I recognize the library as the remedy to all of life’s problems.
And so she did, successfully, print her ticket at our neighborhood library – YAY, neighborhood libraries! – went to the show and had an enjoyable time.
And after she left, I DID try to link the printer to the laptop, but the laptop required software for which I did not immediately know the location.
***
And I’m supposed to bestow this award on others. If you are reading this, and I’ve never bestowed anything on you before, consider yourself bestowed.