As the alarm clock went off I rolled over noting that the time had changed exactly one minute since the last time that I looked at it and two minutes since I looked at it the time before last. In reality I hadn’t slept more than 20 minutes in the last three nights.
Ever since the nightmare where I dreamt I had missed my appointment for Select-A-Seat , I have found sleep the farthest thing from my mind. I wasn’t exactly sure how I would survive until two o’clock today when I had my appointment to choose my seat for the 2010 Diamondbacks season. For some reason, the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities seemed quite appropriate.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
- Charles Dickens
After showering and dressing in my luckiest Diamondbacks shirt that was clean, I would spend the day going through the motions constantly watching the clock willing the hands to move faster.
Mid-morning I received a call from my friend Mitch Jarvis. He had a Select-A-Seat appointment at nine and he wanted to call and let me know he was on his way. Mitch was hoping to upgrade from his current upper deck location to somewhere above the visitor’s bullpen. I was hoping he would act as a re-con party sending me information of what seats were available.
I kept him on the phone during the entire time he was at the ballpark having him list off what seats were available and what the sightlines looked like. Thankfully Mitch is easy going and loved doing it.
After his appointment we talked. He said he met my ticket representative Mandi Howard and happened to mention to her about my lack of sleep over the past few days. Great, as if my ticket representative didn’t already think I was insane now she knows I suffer from a sleep disorder.
When the clock finally reached one o’clock, I couldn’t wait any longer. I grabbed my car keys, Seat Cushion 3.0 (a story for another day), my sunglasses, and my camera. As I drove to the ballpark I pondered whether I really could drive this route with my eyes closed. My wife Trina insisted that I not try that at least not while she was in the car.
We arrived at Chase Field and pulled into the Arizona Diamondbacks parking garage. It felt like I had just arrived home after a long trip. I eased my car into a parking space and walked to the stadium saying a little prayer along the way and offering to sacrifice a Manny Ramirez bobble head if the Baseball Gods would let me successfully relocate my seats.
As I got to the gates there was a security guard waiting. He was welcoming people to Chase Field and checking any purses or bags. No one was carrying anything, well no one but me. I stopped and smiled greeting him.
He looked at me then looked down at my seat cushion then back at me and seemed to have a confused look on his face. I smiled and simply stated, “it’s a seat cushion” to which he replied, “Sir, you do know that you are just selecting a seat, there is no game today”.
Well duh, I knew there was no game, my ticket book was empty there couldn’t possibly be a game today. Besides, I didn’t have my scorebook. Geez, sometimes I wonder. He looked through my seat cushion then let us into the stadium.
The other season ticket holders in my Select-A-Seat group were milling around the concourse waiting for the clock to strike two. We were welcomed by the Diamondbacks Season Ticket services staff and went to the registration desk to check in.
After giving them my name they crossed my name off a list and handed me a sticker. The sticker had my name, my account number, my current seat location, and most importantly my priority number.
We're going to send you the most entertaining Arizona Diamondbacks articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
1 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete