why I hate TicketMaster

If someone had asked me a month ago what I would be doing at this very instant I would tell them that I would be in Denver, primping for the No Doubt concert. The same would have been said two days ago. So, why am I not going to the concert? Because TicketMaster is the devil.

No Doubt has been one of my favorite bands since I first heard Gwen Stefani belt out the lyrics to "Just a Girl". That was well over ten years ago. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that the band had just re-united and were going to be touring the US beginning in May. I was even more excited to see that they were going to be in Denver! I learned that the $10 general admission tickets were going on sale the day of the concert. I tried to pre-order the tickets just to be on the safe side, but everytime I was visited TicketMaster I was told that there were "none available". Weird. Then I read on the amphitheatre where the concert was taking place that tickets were available on the day of the show. So, I figured I had all of my ducks in a row; I had two other girl friends going with me. I had my perfect concert outfit. I had a free place to stay. I even had a cute little mini bottle of Crown so I could enjoy a tasty Crown and Coke during the concert.

My husband and I made a quick trip to Oklahoma for Memorial Day weekend, but I could have cared less. I was just ready for today to get here. Then, yesterday afternoon, I got the phone call that ruined my week. My friend Jen called and said that she was on TicketMaster and suddenly the General Admission tickets were $85. I figured she was wrong (denial is the first stage, right?) so I called the amphitheatre just hoping that an actual person would answer. To my surprise, they did! I asked about the No Doubt concert and she said it was Sold Out. WHAT?!?!

Now, this is the part where I really start to beat myself up. Since we were driving back from Oklahoma my husband overheard all of this. After I finished throwing a hissy fit he asked, "why didn't you order your tickets from the amphitheatre to begin with?" *sigh* "Well," I replied "because the No Doubt website kept directing me to TicketMaster. They kept showing tickets were not available. When I visited the amphitheatre website it said that tickets would be available the day of the show." He then broke it down to me that TicketMaster will buy a whole bulk of tickets from whatever venue a band is playing a concert at. Then, they hold on to those tickets until the venue's box office has sold out. Then they release their tickets for sale at a higher price.

After I soaked all this in, I was even more angry. My best friend and I had plans to go watch Britney Spears in Dallas back in March. And I had the same problem. Every time TicketMaster would show that the tickets we wanted were not available. Yet, the concert itself had not sold out yet. I realize now that if I had just called the stadium and the amphitheatre where both of these concerts were taking place I probably could have experienced two amazing concerts this year.

As the saying go, I have learned from my mistake. From now on I will always call the location of where a concert is being held, and hopefully everyone reading will, too. Stupid TicketMaster.

good things come in small packages

I have to share with everyone the awesome appliance we purchased a couple months ago. It's a Splendide Washer and Dryer! I meant to write this post a long time ago, but lazy me just never got around to taking a picture of it so I could put it up here for all to see. Better late than never though.....

The cool thing about this appliance is that it is made for RV's! And luckily, our trailer came complete with plumbing for a washer/dryer (our other trailer did not). Now for those of you who are not familiar with life in a recreational vehicle, let me tell ya: nothing is simple. And this little washer/dryer is no exception. Here is why: it washes your clothes, then dries them. Meaning: I put dirty clothes in and take clean dry clothes out. Kinda weird, huh? I know what you're thinking; that is actually less work since I don't have to transfer wet clothes into a dryer. WRONG!!! This sucker is tiny! The instructions came with sample load sizes, and for instance it recommends 2 bath towels and 1 washcloth. Or 1 pair of jeans and 2 shirts. I have recently taken a liking to the "express" mode, but that still takes about 2 1/2 hours for one load. (still pretty snazzy though, huh?)

In case you are wondering how the clothes get dry, this is how it works. The washer dumps water into some compartment inside the machine and then it gets heated, which cause the clothes inside the bin to be tumbling around in some pretty humid temperatures. It's so weird. The instruction manual even stated that the clothes will still be slightly damp when you take them out because of all the humidity.

I've become quite familiar with this awesome little purchase of ours, but I do have to tell everyone a funny story. The first day I used the machine, I sat down and read the instruction manual. I was pretty sure I read that I could not open the machine once a cycle has started and that there was no way to turn the dry cycle off. That kind of upset me because I have several shirts that I like to hang dry. But I reminded myself that I wasn't having to haul all the dirty laundry to the RV laundry mat and to get over it. By the third load that day I wasn't real impressed with how damp everything felt when I took the clothes out of the machine. So I decided to set it on the "Cotton Dry" setting. I did a load of a few of Greg's shirts and some socks and underwear. When I took that load out I thought to myself that nothing really smelt fresh and clean. By the end of the day I was a little ticked off about all the time I had spent doing laundry, the damp clothes, and the "non fresh" smell that our clothes now had.

I felt a little guilty when Greg came home and asked how I liked the washer since, like everything on an RV, it wasn't cheap. I told him the story and he said that I just hadn't figured out all the little tricks yet and that it would take some getting used to. The next day I decided to use the "Regular Wash" setting again and I set the dry time to 90 minutes rather than 75. That seemed to help the damp problem I was having and I noticed that the clothes actually smelt better, too!

About two weeks later I happened to be flipping through the instruction manual, again, when I read something that I had misinterpret ted the first read-through. Apparently, I could stop my washer before a dry cycle. In fact, my washer actually had dry only cycles. Which just happened to be called "Cotton Dry". No wonder those tee-shirts, socks, and underwear didn't smell fresh! And of course, since it had been weeks before, chances were pretty good that we wore what we thought were clean underwear and socks. EWWWWWW!!!!!