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December 26, 2017 - 11:46 p.m.
"petula clark" or "ticket turmoil"

Hey Journal!

Well, today we had a wild and crazy experience going to the city to see Petula Clark! We're on our way home now, in the car, so I wanted to give you the full report. I'm going to start now and finish later!

I got up at the usual time and headed off to work.

I got to work trying to get as much done as possible. There are a lot of things I want to finish up before the end of the week and I just feel like there's not enough time -- especially when I had to leave early today and I don't plan on coming to work on Friday! Yikes!

Since the new bank loan closed last week, Bill spent the day trying to figure out the best way to spend our money.

At about 1:00, I went to get pizza at the Little Joe's for us to have for lunch. There wasn't anything else for us to eat so we had to order out! It's going to be a strange winter without a chef to make us lunch every day!

When I went into the pizza place, there was a guy at the counter picking up and order and he was asking the worked, seriously, if they gave a discount for people named"Joe." The guy kinda laughed it off as a joke and said, "No, but we should implement that!" ANd then the guy was like "Yeah, that would be a good idea. I mean, my name's not Joe, but I have a friend named Joe." And he kept talking about how it would be a great idea and they should totally do it. Not joking. I swear. I was so confused.

Pizza keeps getting more and more expensive...it was $16.20 for ONE pizza. What a rip. But it was good. They do make a good pizza and MUCH better than the one over in Airport Plaza.

When I got back, we ate in the restaurant. It was a little chilly in there so we sat by the windows. Me, Steve, and Bill ate our slices and then, Steve had gotten a gift basket full of chocolates which we attacked for dessert. Bill can't eat chocolate because it gives him bad headaches so we had it eat it without him. I had some chocolate covered raisins, some chocolate covered pretzels, a truffle, and other assorted goodies.

There was so much chocolate... but we were making jokes about it because all of the chocolate came in these giant boxes but then when you opened it up there were only a few pieces inside... they took up about 1/4 of the size of the box. Just to make it look like there's more than there really is!

After we pigged out on that -- we headed back to the office. Steve and I had to go to the bank to get some bank checks for a new house purchase on Thursday. We went to the one in Melville and of course, it was a big ordeal. I was telling Steve on the way there that Pete doesn't go to that bank anymore because there are too many people and never enough tellers. Everyone online is always grumbling about it and it gets so backed up.

When we walked in, there was nobody else there. We walked right up to the teller and told her what we needed. She was super nice and friendly and even asked how Dan's dad was doing. We told her that he was long gone on his way to Florida by now and she told us to say hello to him.

She was pretty quick at doing the withdrawal and then entering the checks into the computer but then she had to go make phone calls to "verify" the transaction. I have no idea what that was about but she was on the phone for probably 15 minutes. We joked that she was calling the Treasury Secretary or the chairman of the Federal Reserve. While she was doing that, there was one other teller and a long line of people waiting. At some point, the second teller just walked away and left. So people were getting RESTLESS. They were mumbling, and at one point, yelling! It's insanity. Then the lady who's in charge of the branch just sits there and says she'll try to find the teller who left -- but she doesn't get up and help. It's just the worst experience. So, we got to see first-hand why that particular branch is so terrible. And the thing is, if they just had one or two more tellers it would all be okay. It happens all the time and everyone knows it because they were all talking about how bad this particular branch always is.

Then, by comparison, the one in Deer Park always has more tellers and the line always moves quickly. It's so strange that they will not get another teller.

Once we had the bank checks, we headed out. We made a pit-stop on the way back to get some half and half because Steve really wanted some for his coffee and the kitchen refrigerators were bare. Nothing left at all!

When we got back, Bill was still working on his calculations so I told him I was going to be leaving early and he's going to enter the checks into the system and tomorrow I will have to make sure we have enough money in the correct places to cover it. We're waiting for new checks from our new bank and then we have money all over in different types of accounts, so we have to get everything prepared for some big payments!

As 3:00 approached, Dan and I decided to drive in. The traffic wasn't looking too bad and we figured it would be nice to have our car and be able to leave as soon as the show was over.

I left work around 3:10 and we met at the park and ride in Melville.

We made good time getting into the city. We took the tunnel and paid the toll and then we looked for some street parking. I had found two garages nearby... one for $20 and one for $25 but we figured we would take a shot at the street first. We went up and down some blocks nearby and there was nothing available. There were a couple of possibilities but one got snatched before we could get there and the others were just a little too small. We drove around for a while and, many of the unavailable street areas were No Parking until 6. We gave up and decided to go to the $20 garage but the guy there acted like he didn't know what the coupon was. See, you're supposed to book it online, and I could have done that -- but instead of just telling us that, the guy was like "no you can't get that rate here." But I could have booked it right then and there, but he didn't tell me that and he had an attitude so we left. We circled around and before long it was just 20 minutes before 6. We decided to just wait and park in the after 6 area and wait for 6 to get out and start walking.

It was freezing cold outside and the doors for Petula Clark opened at 6. We got there just a minute after but there was already a pretty good sized line waiting to go down the stairs and into the room. We got to the door and presented our tickets and the girl told us, "The Harlem Jazz Band is playing in the room to the left." We were confused -- and it turned out that the tickets were for the Harlem Jazz Band and NOT Petula Clark!

We were so confused and then realized we had been bamboozled! We thought that someone intentionally sold us tickets for the wrong event! We had to figure out a plan of action QUICKLY because it was first come, first seated and we didn't want to be too far from the stage! There was no phone service downstairs so I had to run up to the street. Dan asked at the box office and they said they were completely sold out. I went on StubHub and the tickets that were $85 last night were $130 each today! UGH! I bought two. As much as it killed me, we had invested so much time to get to the city and we were so excited to see Petula Clark and we couldn't just turn around and go home now!

Once we had our new tickets, we headed down and in. Finally! We were seated at a table that was actually really close to the stage and had a very good view. Compared to some of the other areas that were all the way in the back, we really lucked out. I don't know why they seated people there first, but it worked out really well for us because there wasn't anything much closer that I think we would have gotten if we had arrived earlier!

There was a $10 food/drink minimum per table and it was no problem because we were hungry for dinner. Dan got nachos and I got a steak. It was actually REALLY good. I wasn't expecting it to be that great but was pleasantly surprised. It was like $40, so at least it was good!

Once we were seated, I called SeatGeek and reported the problem. They were on the phone right away and the people I spoke to were super nice and super friendly. They apologized and said they would try to find replacement tickets. The phone cut out but the lady e-mailed me and said she couldn't find any -- that worked out fine since we had already gotten our own replacements!

She said that a problem with their system prevented the two events from showing up separately and instead all the tickets for that night were grouped into this particular show. Yikes! Well, that explained the issue but we had paid considerably more. She offered to refund the tickets, obviously, and to give us 20% extra for our roubles. Unfortunately, that didn't come close to the difference of what we had to pay from StubHub! I asked them for the difference and she said she would have to check with a manager. Shortly after, I got another email said they WOULD pay for the StubHub tickets. So, in effect, we paid only the $77 we were originally paying to SeatGeek!

That was nice, and they were so good at handling the situation. If you have to have a situation like that, this is definitely the kind of response you should get! I will definitely use them again in the future because I really think the chances of something like this happening are pretty slow and I was very happy with the outcome. Of course, I will also make sure to read over the ticket VERY carefully next time, too!

So now, on to the exciting part. After we had finished eating, at 8:00 on the dot, Petula Clark came out on stage!

There were so many things I liked about this concert.... First, I loved the venue. I loved sitting down at a table instead of a theater. It was small and intimate and we had a great view. The vibe was just so relaxed and I loved it. Then, she came out ON TIME... no opening acts, no shenanigans, just Petula Clark!

She sang all of the songs we know and love and mixed in a few covers and some new songs.

We really enjoyed it. She told little stories about her career between songs and it was just so much fun. She's 85 years old and she's definitely a wild personality. I'm so glad we got to see her live.

If there was one complaint about the show it would be that she changed up a couple of her famous songs to sing them in a different way -- one was sung in a country style, and that was a little strange. Other than that it was perfection!

The show lasted about an hour and a half and ended around 9:30. We headed out and hurried to our car. We decided to take the Queensboro Bridge because it was only 1 or 2 minutes slower according to Google Maps and, of course, there's no toll. It also was a very straight shot from where we had parked our car so it made sense.

We were back much earlier than we had expected and it worked out really well.

We got home around 10:45 and took a quick shower and then watched the first hour of tonight's two-house Major Crimes! Last week we were so shocked by the death of Captain Sharon Raydor and we couldn't wait to see what happened next. With the end of the season coming, the show is really getting good. It's heating up and this whole Stroh thing is really coming to a head. We only watched one of the episodes tonight but we're really looking forward to the next one tomorrow. I was hoping that the series would close with an appearance from Brenda Leigh Johnson but, according to an article I read online, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. A real shame.

Meanwhile, it's past time to get to bed! Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)