Monday, March 5, 2012

i think i'm going to need some new shirts... red ones, with an "A"

so today . . . rollie went a little crazy.

rollie is not the one in our family who goes a little crazy. i go a little crazy. diandra has been known to go a little crazy. even the dogs go a little crazy! (ok, the dogs go a little crazy all. the. time!) but not rollie. rollie is the calm, rational one...

well, we can't say THAT anymore!

this afternoon, i got this text from my calm, rational husband--"i am at angels stadium trying to get tickets to take mike to a game on may 28." ok, this was not exactly news to me. mike's birthday is really close to rollie's, and the last couple of years they have gone to an angels game to celebrate. even though mike has moved a few hours north, i knew they had been discussing trying to make it happen again this year. so why he was texting me this information was a mystery... unless he was standing in a long line with nothing to do... which seemed highly improbable to me... how could there be a long line for tickets when the season doesn't even open for another month? apparently i don't understand the fervor of angels fans. yet.

and then i got this text--"how would you feel about season tickets?"

HOW WOULD I FEEL ABOUT SEASON TICKETS?!?!?! ARE YOU INSANE????? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH SEASON TICKETS PROBABLY COST???????

that's what i was thinking. that is not what i texted back. because the truth is, i love to go to angels games. and even though i knew it definitely was not in the budget, i wasn't quite ready to kill the dream just yet. so, being the supportive wife that i am (stop laughing!!) i merely said, "why? are they making you an offer you can't refuse?" and he said, "i'm not to the window yet. i was just wondering."

rollie was standing in line at angels stadium, contemplating season tickets. the only thing i can compare it to is when i am in the shoe department at nordstrom rack. it's like, suddenly everything seems possible...

we continued to debate, by text, what to do. this is something we had sort of talked about possibly doing one day... i just didn't think today was that day. so i said, "well, it wouldn't hurt to check it out, but don't get them today! you need to think about this. if we do it, there will have to be budget trade-offs i'm sure." what i didn't say was, "and i'm not sure i am willing to go without home improvements, a vacation, or food, to make it happen!"

he finally got up to the ticket booth and told them he wanted two seats for the may 28th game. the ticket seller clicked around on her computer and said, "i only have two seats left for that game." ONLY TWO SEATS LEFT FOR A GAME THAT IS ALMOST THREE MONTHS AWAY?!?! "and," she continued, "they are in the very back row, clear out in center field, and the view is obstructed by a pole."

ok, now this was a problem. who is going to want to sit in those seats? certainly not rollie and mike for their birthdays! so after waiting in line for 45 minutes, rollie got out of line...

... and went in search of the season ticket office. (i choose to think that at this point, he was following my advice to just check it out. i choose to think that he had not yet made the decision to actually buy season tickets. i may be wrong, but let me just live with my delusions...) he walked in and was greeted with, "do you have an appointment?" you need an appointment to buy season tickets? really?? he obviously didn't have an appointment, but they allowed him to wait for the first available season ticket seller. when he was finally seated in the conference room, the season ticket seller said, "so, what do you want out of your season tickets?"

what kind of a question is that?!? if we are going to get season tickets, we want a world series win! duh!!

but rollie handled the question with a bit more tact than that, and said, "well, i have a budget..."

something you may not know about rollie is that he is a hoarder. i know, i know, you thought i was the one who was in danger of being buried by my stuff, but rollie is a hoarder too--he just hoards something a little smaller than most of my stuff. he hoards $20 bills. whenever he can, he puts $20 bills in a stack somewhere (somewhere where i can't find them, obviously!) he calls this his fun money. he saves it in hopes of some day taking a dive trip somewhere or skydiving or something else he thinks would be ridiculously fun that isn't in the budget. i think he also dips into it when we go to the swap meet or the outlet mall. but the truth is, he hasn't had time to do a lot of fun things in the last year, so his fun money stash has been growing...

the season ticket seller went to work. they discussed his choices. they went into the stands and checked out the best options. he sent me a picture of what our view of the baseball diamond would be. and in the end, he signed on the dotted line.

my calm, rational husband went a little crazy.

so we are season ticket holders for the angels, at least for this year. rollie is deliriously happy. if he was the sort of person to make a bucket list, this would definitely be on it. and i'm happy, because he is happy. and let's not forget that since he is married to me, i am pretty sure i am going to be sitting right next to him for most of those games :) he has assured me that this will not affect our budget at all. we will still have food to eat. my home improvement projects will not suffer. we may even still get to go on some kind of vacation...

... although, now that we have 82 games to attend, our vacation may have to wait until after the world series...

... because, you know, a world series win was part of the deal... wasn't it?

2 comments:

Carroll said...

Well who would of thunk it? I can't hardly believe my son who was so frugal as a child with his pennies, nickles, dimes and if he had a quarter, that too. But I think it's a good think if you can afford it. I know we sometimes think something is a luxury that turns out to be somewhat of a necessity. Considering his position, it just could mean his sanity. A few hours of escape from pressing issues is good. So go for it. Have fun, enjoy it and remember that's quality time spent together on something he adores!
Love you both!

Jewelielyn said...

oh he is still frugal! that's why he had money socked away for his tickets!!