(no subject)
May. 4th, 2004 10:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jfbSomething weird happened tonight.
It didn't occur to me until very late in the afternoon that a popular band playing at a well-known club might not have tickets available at the door. I looked around on the web a little, and it started to look like the show was sold out, but I couldn't tell for sure. A call to the club would've cleared it all up, but for the life of me I was completely incapable of picking up the phone and asking.
That's not the weird thing, of course--in my world that's exactly par for the course. The thing that really bothers me about these mental blocks is not what I lose out on--in this case, I could decide to go, and risk a long drive with no payoff, or decide not to go, and risk missing a great concert. What really bothers me is my awareness of just how easy a thing it is that I'm not doing. Call someone and ask a yes or no question--what could be simpler?
I'll spare you the full series of rationalizations by which I convinced myself that this would be a good plan for the evening: Leave work, drive half an hour to a club, see if there are tickets left for the show that's just about to start; if not, drive half an hour to another club, see if there are tickets for the show that already started; if not, buy some tickets for a show on Sunday, and congratulate myself on having saved the $7 "convenience fee" for ordering them online. Stupid Ticketmaster.
The weird thing that happened was that as soon as I got into my car and got out on the road, it suddenly became really easy to just make the call. Almost like being normal! Yes, I learned from a recording (!), my first choice had sold out well in advance. At the other venue, though, a guy answered the phone and told me there were plenty of seats left.
So that's how I ended up missing Death Cab For Cutie tonight and seeing Dave Douglas's New Quintet at my favorite jazz club, which was like a visit to an alternate history of my life, but that's another story.
Tomorrow the CEO is visiting from the east coast. I've been asked to dress up to "business casual" standards, which I will do, and to show up an hour earlier than usual, which, I have to say, is not looking good.
It didn't occur to me until very late in the afternoon that a popular band playing at a well-known club might not have tickets available at the door. I looked around on the web a little, and it started to look like the show was sold out, but I couldn't tell for sure. A call to the club would've cleared it all up, but for the life of me I was completely incapable of picking up the phone and asking.
That's not the weird thing, of course--in my world that's exactly par for the course. The thing that really bothers me about these mental blocks is not what I lose out on--in this case, I could decide to go, and risk a long drive with no payoff, or decide not to go, and risk missing a great concert. What really bothers me is my awareness of just how easy a thing it is that I'm not doing. Call someone and ask a yes or no question--what could be simpler?
I'll spare you the full series of rationalizations by which I convinced myself that this would be a good plan for the evening: Leave work, drive half an hour to a club, see if there are tickets left for the show that's just about to start; if not, drive half an hour to another club, see if there are tickets for the show that already started; if not, buy some tickets for a show on Sunday, and congratulate myself on having saved the $7 "convenience fee" for ordering them online. Stupid Ticketmaster.
The weird thing that happened was that as soon as I got into my car and got out on the road, it suddenly became really easy to just make the call. Almost like being normal! Yes, I learned from a recording (!), my first choice had sold out well in advance. At the other venue, though, a guy answered the phone and told me there were plenty of seats left.
So that's how I ended up missing Death Cab For Cutie tonight and seeing Dave Douglas's New Quintet at my favorite jazz club, which was like a visit to an alternate history of my life, but that's another story.
Tomorrow the CEO is visiting from the east coast. I've been asked to dress up to "business casual" standards, which I will do, and to show up an hour earlier than usual, which, I have to say, is not looking good.
