Friday,
March 8, 2002

So THAT'S what Fort Worth looks like

I had something of an unexpected jaunt today. As we were on our way into work this morning, the Man from McKinney was talking about his spouse, the Beauteous and Talented Anne, and how Jethro Tull is her favorite band and they were going to be playing Bass Hall in Fort Worth this April. She'd asked him to see if he could get tickets when they went on sale today at noon.

Un petit problem, however -- Bass Hall wasn't offering the tickets through Ticketron or Ticketmaster or any of the usual outlets. The only way you could get tickets was to dial Bass Hall and buy them over the phone. Which the MfM tried to do, repeatedly, only to get a busy signal. Around 12:15, he AIMed me and said he was getting really nervous that they were about to sell out, and he couldn't get THROUGH, dammit.

So I suggested we bop over to Bass Hall in person and pick up the tickets there during lunch. He replied that it was at least 30 minutes away, and was I really sure I wanted to do this?

You might remember how excited I was when I got Dave Matthews Band tickets last year -- I understand all about seeing your favorite band. So I told him to print off a map and get in the car -- we were going to Fort Worth.

Which we did, after fighting with an inexplicable traffic tangle on 183 near Arlington. He kept trying to dial in on his cell phone, fretting that the tickets would be sold out by the time we got there. I reminded him that we were talking about Jethro Tull, not N'Sync, and that I would be shocked shitless if they were all sold out within the hour.

I think I got him there around 12:45, and circled the area while he was in the Bass Hall box office getting the tickets. When he came out with a shit-eating grin, I knew I'd been right, and sang, "Someone's getting laid tonight, doo-dah, doo-dah" when he got in the car. So he's a happy camper, the BaTA gets to hear her favorite band live, and I've earned yet another gold star on my karmic ledger for helping out a friend.

Anyway, Fort Worth -- smaller and a hell of a lot cleaner than Dallas. It also looks like it doesn't turn into a ghost town on weekends, which is nice. Apparently the big difference between Dallas and Fort Worth is that Dallas became more of a technical and services mecca, while Fort Worth's biggest employer was the Army for the longest time, and it's still more of a commodities town than anything. Which would make you think that it would've turned into a ghost town while Dallas boomed during the 90's, but the tech slump has thrown money westward again. In any case, it looks like a happening little burg, so I'll have to see about getting out there this summer and finding things to do.

The funniest thing about this all happened later on in the evening -- because we'd stopped off for lunch after we got the tickets, we decided to stay late and make up the time, then stop off, hit the Apple Store to drool over the new iMac and grab some dinner, as the Bata would be asleep by the time he got home. I sent Lyndon an email informing him of this, and he wrote back, "Call Stacy, then -- she just called here."

So I did, and we chatted about Michael's incredible weight loss (he's doing a half hour of aerobics with her in the morning, taking a walk in the morning and at night, and has just started weightlifting. He's lost 40 pounds so far, and is feeling a hell of a lot better) and other stuff. When I got home, however, Lyndon said, "She sounded very odd when she called -- she asked where you were, and I told her you were at work with Steve because he had to stay late. Then I explained that sometimes you have to stay late, or stop off for dinner, or do stuff like that, and she said, 'Uh-huh.'"

Now, you'd have to hear this "Uh-huh" to understand it -- it's my Dad's Uh-huh, a cop phrase that essentially means, "Don't even bother bullshitting me -- I know you're doing something wrong." And I know exactly what it means -- my wonderful sister still thinks I'm fooling around with the Man from McKinney. Regular readers may remember that I realized this a couple of weeks ago when I was babysitting for his kids.

Oy.

In a way, it would almost be amusing if the idea wasn't so completely improbable (I mean, I'd just taken the man to go get concert tickets FOR HIS WIFE, for Cthulu's sake). So, once again, I had to send her email explaining that no, nothing was going on, and she could even email him and ask him if she didn't believe me. No reply yet, so I don't know if she thinks I'm just lying through my teeth or what.

At least I got a copy of Mac OS X out of the evening. Now I just have to make a backup of my hard drive, and everything will be peachy.