In February an American Express email delivered unexpected and utterly delightful news: Madonna Louise Ciccone, known globally by her first name, MADONNA, was coming to Seattle in October…OMG…I’d never seen Madonna and was hell-bent on making sure I was “in the House” for her October 3 show. Within seconds I dispatched my intrepid executive assistant, Celeste, to purchase tickets. Despite an almost 30 year age difference, Celeste too is a huge Madonna fan and also bought tickets. We’re set. Celeste took care of everything and I even had an email confirmation to prove it.
Between February and October however several things intervened to set the stage for what happened at KeyArena minutes before Madonna took the stage. First, I retired and no longer had Celeste to help navigate life’s logistics puzzles. Second, in the hubbub between retiring, vacationing and volunteering, I somehow lost the Ticketmaster email detailing and confirming the precious prize. Third, I forgot how many tickets I’d actually ordered. So when I contacted Ticketmaster to replace my tickets and they sent an email containing FOUR, my response was “sweet, I must have ordered FOUR!” There’s this great young couple, Erik and Amy for whom my partner and I had yet to get a wedding gift. They LOVE Madonna…so we’re off to the races and it’ll be a great evening.
At first all was well. We scan into the arena and on the way to our seats I spot Celeste and another woman who used to work for me. We hug and everyone’s so excited. The Arena is electric and a massive sea of diversity. Young folks dressed in Madonna garb sashay along the corridor ring just outside where the show will take place. Amy and Erik decide to find our seats as we continue entertaining ourselves with people watching. After about 10 minutes of this we spot Amy and Erik coming our way and their looks foretell bad news. “What’s wrong?” Amy speaks first, “your assistant and friends have the SAME SEATS we have…” WHAT? How could that be!!! Where’s Celeste? My heart begins beating double-time as my face turns flush and …in a fog really because now Celeste has joined and is saying something about first using my credit card for her tickets and mine and then paying with hers for hers…. the words rush by as if she’s speaking a foreign language. WE HAVE NO TICKETS!
Next? Celeste springs to action, “I will see this through,” she says and the rest of us follow. First we go to the Information Booth and they send us to a ticket window. The lady at the ticket window prints out my actual tickets…BUT there are only TWO of them and the clock it ticking! So we give these tickets to Amy and Erik and are told tickets are still available -- we assume in the nosebleed section – though we’ll need to scan out, buy the tickets outside the Arena, and then scan in with the new ones. So we find the scanner lady at the entranceway, explain our situation and then something miraculous happens: the scanner lady tells us someone just gave her TWO FREE TICKETS…we examine them…they are in the exact same row as Celeste’s…just one section over…and she GIVES them to us! We’re saved!! Everyone has great seats and we’re just in time for a once in a lifetime show. Earlier that day my partner gave a downtown homeless person twenty bucks. Yes, karma is a beautiful thing!
Between February and October however several things intervened to set the stage for what happened at KeyArena minutes before Madonna took the stage. First, I retired and no longer had Celeste to help navigate life’s logistics puzzles. Second, in the hubbub between retiring, vacationing and volunteering, I somehow lost the Ticketmaster email detailing and confirming the precious prize. Third, I forgot how many tickets I’d actually ordered. So when I contacted Ticketmaster to replace my tickets and they sent an email containing FOUR, my response was “sweet, I must have ordered FOUR!” There’s this great young couple, Erik and Amy for whom my partner and I had yet to get a wedding gift. They LOVE Madonna…so we’re off to the races and it’ll be a great evening.
At first all was well. We scan into the arena and on the way to our seats I spot Celeste and another woman who used to work for me. We hug and everyone’s so excited. The Arena is electric and a massive sea of diversity. Young folks dressed in Madonna garb sashay along the corridor ring just outside where the show will take place. Amy and Erik decide to find our seats as we continue entertaining ourselves with people watching. After about 10 minutes of this we spot Amy and Erik coming our way and their looks foretell bad news. “What’s wrong?” Amy speaks first, “your assistant and friends have the SAME SEATS we have…” WHAT? How could that be!!! Where’s Celeste? My heart begins beating double-time as my face turns flush and …in a fog really because now Celeste has joined and is saying something about first using my credit card for her tickets and mine and then paying with hers for hers…. the words rush by as if she’s speaking a foreign language. WE HAVE NO TICKETS!
Next? Celeste springs to action, “I will see this through,” she says and the rest of us follow. First we go to the Information Booth and they send us to a ticket window. The lady at the ticket window prints out my actual tickets…BUT there are only TWO of them and the clock it ticking! So we give these tickets to Amy and Erik and are told tickets are still available -- we assume in the nosebleed section – though we’ll need to scan out, buy the tickets outside the Arena, and then scan in with the new ones. So we find the scanner lady at the entranceway, explain our situation and then something miraculous happens: the scanner lady tells us someone just gave her TWO FREE TICKETS…we examine them…they are in the exact same row as Celeste’s…just one section over…and she GIVES them to us! We’re saved!! Everyone has great seats and we’re just in time for a once in a lifetime show. Earlier that day my partner gave a downtown homeless person twenty bucks. Yes, karma is a beautiful thing!