The Accidental Girls’ Trip
So here’s what it looks like when I’m left alone to navigate online technology…
The other day a rock band that myself and my two daughters LOVE, (and who you’ve probably never heard of) announced that they were, literally, getting their band back together in 2020 and listed their tour dates and locations.
I took a screenshot of the announcement and texted it to my daughters (because that much technology I can handle). They were as excited as I was and immediately texted back that we HAD to go!
My biggest hurdle was that I’m a full-time caregiver for my husband, which makes it difficult to leave the house for any longer than a few hours at a time.
I had no idea how I would work that part out, but this wasn’t the first (or last) time I’d acted without a plan, so I told my daughters we’d go for it. I was sure I’d figure something out later!
I was at work the morning the concert went on sale. Now I live in Northern California and there were two concert dates we wanted to go to, both of them in Southern California, on consecutive days.
So my daughters, the youngest 20 and the oldest 29, started texting me the morning that the tickets went on sale to see if I was ordering them, which I was (I had set an alarm on my phone you see).
The ISSUE that I discovered while trying to order the tickets, is that one of the dates was being sold through one online website with one vendor, and the second concert date was being sold by a completely different vendor through a different website.
Well that’s a pain in the ass, I thought. But whatever! I jumped in.
In order to get the tickets I had to download the first app onto my phone, register for a for the site, get a password sent to my email, go back to the site using that password, find the band, find the date, order the tickets, pay for the tickets and get my confirmation. By then about 25 minutes had already gone by.
The pressure was on and I was beginning to feel it.
My daughters were anxiously texting me, asking if I had gotten the tickets.
I said YES! I had just gotten confirmation for the concert on the 22nd, and I was trying frantically to download the app for the second vendor, so I could repeat the whole fucking process (still at work by the way).
As I was downloading the second app my oldest daughter texted me…”Um, mom that concert on the 22nd is actually in Arizona, not California”. …
I froze. WHAT?!
I double-checked the tickets and she was right, they were for the concert in a different state. I had just spent $60 and 25 minutes buying tickets to the wrong concert.
I started getting anxious…here I am trying to prove myself still relevant to my two grown daughters, was I really at ‘that age’ to where I couldn’t even order concert tickets? I refused to accept it…my brain spun trying to figure out what to do next.
Right about then my youngest daughter texted “Soooo…are we going to Arizona?”. I started to write back No, and that I would go back and order the right tickets and figure out later what to do with the Arizona tickets.
But, before I could type that all out, my oldest daughter answered “No problem, I just bought tickets for the Arizona concert also.”
I love my girls! :)
So I wrote back “Well…I guess we’re going on a girls’ trip!”
After some more wrestling with the next app I managed to successfully order the second set of tickets (after double, triple and quadruple-checking the date), this time in California. And we were set!
My youngest daughter and I decided we would fly from Northern California to Arizona for the first concert. My oldest daughter, who already lives in SoCal, would drive to Arizona to meet us on the first day. We’d stay at an Airbnb, (because, cheaper) then drive back to California the next day for the second concert.
In the meantime I would work on on getting my brother-in-law to come and help care for my husband while I’m gone. It’s no small favor, but thank God I happen to have some of the best in-laws ever!
Not sure how we will work everything out, but I’m definitely looking forward to the adventure!
Now I just have to figure out where on my phone I saved the tickets. :(
