Yesterday I posted about my experiences in dealing with the PIC, including my saga to get tickets to the Inaugural Ball.
Well, the story goes on. This morning I showed up in DC for work, and I decided to drop by the convention center around 10:20 or so to see if I could get in line without a printout of my confirmation e-mail. Well, it turns out that you can't, so I schlepped over to get a quick haircut at David's Hair Studio on I Street and to my office to print the e-mail out.
I had to rush, because the e-mail said that the designated pick up time for my last name would stop at noon. By the time I was done, I returned to the convention center at about 11:45. I got on the queue sans coffee, sans breakfast or lunch, and sans cell phone battery. I prepared for what could potentially be a very long wait – after all I've gotten tickets for Otakon, so I know all about long lines.
I met a few nice people in line. That was pretty cool and made the wait more tolerable. Once of the ladies knew a guy ahead of us, and said that he'd gotten in line back around 10:30 and he wasn't too far ahead of us. That was not a good sign. Then there came the rumors that people from the Finance Committee, who were in line with the rest of the alphabet soup, could not be served at all since their packets were not ready. Oh boy!
Oddly, in spite of these foreboding signs, the line moved along pretty quickly. We rounded the corner and were in the main queue before 1:30. I had dodged a bullet by showing up late, because many people had been waiting since 9a.m.
To my further delight, when we got to the front and handed the folks our e-mails, the staff came back to me not with tickets to the Mid-Atlantic Ball as I was expecting (I live in Baltimore), but for the VP Home States Ball for PA & DE. If I understand right, that's actually an upgrade! Well anyway at least I've heard of Maroon 5 – no offense to The Dead, but I have no idea who you are, probably because I am un-hip.
So, I gleefully took my tickets, said goodbye and good luck to my new friends, and left.
Then I got on the Metro and went back to my office, where I received this:
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Dear Thomas,
Due to overwhelming ticket demand and a printing problem, today's scheduled ticket pick-up at the Washington Convention Center has been postponed.
Please note that this affects ticket pick-up for today, Friday, January 16th, only.
If you were planning to pick up your ball tickets today, please do NOT come today. We recommend that you come on Monday instead. We apologize to anyone who has already come to the Convention center and experienced service delays. If you need further action to fulfill your ticketing requests, please return on Monday.
Once again, this affects today only; we will follow the original schedule on Saturday and Sunday. For last names beginning with:
A through H -- Saturday*/Sunday, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
I through P -- Saturday*/Sunday, 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Q through Z -- Saturday*/Sunday, 2:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
*On Saturday the will call box office will remain open for all groups until 8:00 p.m. We will troubleshoot and have a final day of ticket pick-up on Monday, January 19th.
If you would like someone other than yourself to pick up these tickets or if you have further questions about the pick-up process, please email inauguralballs@pic2009.org.
We will attempt to resolve any other questions at the pick-up location.
Thank you for your patience and understanding,
The Presidential Inaugural Committee |
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Wow, I feel sorry for all the people who don't get this message because the e-mail server threw it into another dimension.
It looks like today I dodged a hail of bullets! J