Last Night Was A Disaster (but none of my own blood was shed)

Printer problems. Problems getting into the software that allows tickets to be sold. Password problems.

A fucking nightmare. I did not suffer personally but I suffered for Leslie. I was the passive observer, hoping to rekindle my knowledge of managing a show. Leslie was in charge.

To her credit, she did not panic and showed very little anger. We were there at 6:00 - doors were to open at 7:00. At 6:50 she was still struggling to right the ship.

This is my worst fear of working the box office on the night of the show. Born of experience. I do not know why we can't get it right, why we can't make it simple. Last time around, I got into the habit of arriving 30 minutes to an hour before I was scheduled to be there so I could trouble shoot every possible problem. I never put the additional time on my time sheet - I was there so I could have peace of mind when I opened the box office to the public.

And still.............

So I got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth last night. Like, oh shit - nothing has changed.

Use this laptop, don't use that one. Use that laptop, don't use this one. Use this password, the password has changed. Re-start your laptop. Unplug the printer, plug it back in again. Set up auto-print. Figure out why auto print won't work. Try printing 8 times. When you get it right, all the tickets you queued up will print out - eight fucking times (that happened last night).

Anyway, I got to sell a few tickets. Answer some questions. Figure out how some reports work. Talk to a few customers - get my feet wet.

Then it happened - the magic moment I live for.

A crusty old dude (probably around my age) came up to the window and pointed to his son and told me his son plays guitar and he was psyched to see the show. We talked a little, then he proceeded to tell me the guitar players crusty listens to are Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana etc. Immediate connection.

Then he said that the guitar player he loves the most is Dicky Betts. BOOM! For the uninitiated, Dicky Betts is one of the founding fathers of The Allman Brothers Band. I lit up. Told him he was talking to the biggest ABB fan in the world. Then we talked about Dickey's guitar playing for a bit. We high-fived and he and his wife and his son walked into the show.

After the show he stopped by the window to say his family enjoyed it. Then he proceeded to tell me that he himself plays guitar. That when he is in the mood, he goes into his special room, turns the lights down, cracks open a beer................and plays. Very cool.

So the night was not a total loss. There was some magic in it.

All I gotta do is fan the flames.