a month on the road and you'll be eating out of my hand

greetings from los angeles.

april is a long month. a fun month, but a long one. la for a week, then dr. w's hometown, then vegas for a week, then home to fll for a weekend, then atlanta, then dc for house hunting. and close in on the 3-0.

started april with an early birthday gift. went to tampa this past weekend to see spring training for the first time. dr. w originally got me red sox tix as a birthday gift. then we found out the sox were playing their last spring training game in philly. who plays spring training up north?!?!? we discovered this:

1. two days before the game
2. after we had bought the tickets

we only find out, in fact, because i'm talking to mpg on the phone on thursday, and he mentions how psyched he is for the sox game (he lives in philly). i mention that i am, too.

wait a minute. we can't BOTH be going to the game.

shitballz. ok, plan B: we get reds seats. but the since we're buying the seats thursday night, we need them overnighted. done.

the next morning, i get up at 5 to fly from atl to soflo. call the ticket broker. thankfully, i catch them before they sent it. turns out they 'didn't notice' that i had requested overnight delivery. important detail, don't you think? so they arrange for ovenight fedex and tell me to pick up the tickets at a fedex kinko's in tampa.

drive up to tampa friday night, stayed with some of dr. w's close friends from her hometown. then next morning, head to kinko's. they don't have the tickets. call the ticket broker. they forgot to send them. are you fucking kidding me?

the guy is really remorseful and tries to be helpful. he says it looks like some seats are left at the box office. and he refunds my money. i try to bargain him to pay for my air fare from atl and gas from soflo, but he's not THAT remorseful.

so we book it to the game. sure enough, there are TONS of great seats left. $17 walk up price, compared to $70 (after tax, service fee, and overnight delivery) from the ticket broker. it works out great. i even get a foul ball, and then wintermute my way to the reds' team bus. however, i have forgotten the mighty pen. dr. w thinks fast, and asks a nearby employee. turns out she's happy to loan me her marker since she has a ball she wants autographed, but as a park employee isn't allowed to ask for one. so everyone wins.

this morning caught the first flight to LA. have a week's worth of customer visits here and in la jolla. then fly to dr. w's hometown on friday. one of her good friends from home is having a baby shower. (almost) their whole crew is coming in for it. and i'll be celebrating my birthday.

next week is vegas. long first half of the month.

gotta get moving with the house hunting.