Comedy of errors

So Coldplay was awesome, and I am a spoiled brat, and today was a comedia of errors, and this is how it happened:

First, let me note that it's 2:30 am, and unlike the kids over at Mighty Big Firm's Hong Kong office, tomorrow is not my last day here. Ouch. But I had to fill you in.

This morning, I took a change of clothes with me to work, thinking, "Oh, what IF a ticket frees up for the concert? I don't want to be caught off guard. So -- hell, I'll just bring a change of clothes. Just in case."

Sunshine, my officemate, said early in the day, "Hey, there's a good chance that Other Associate won't be able to make it."

I replied appropriately, "Oh, that would be sad for her, to miss Coldplay. But," I said after a beat, "it might be happy for someone else." Wink wink!

Later in the afternoon, though, Other Associate discovered that she'd be making it in back from Bangkok in time for the concert after all. So I was glad for her, and sad for me.

Soon after, yet another associate walked in and said, "Hey, I might be going tonight. My friends have an extra ticket. But I'm not sure I'll go."

Sunshine said, "They can take hk if you don't go! She wants to go."

That associate turned and said with a smile, "But then she'd have to hang out with my friends, and they're... you know."

I smiled back, because it was an absurd suggestion anyway. But I appreciated Sunshine's effort.

Around 4:30, I surfed around the net, thinking that maybe I'd just buy a ticket myself -- I didn't want to go home tonight and stew in my resentment about not being treated to the concert, when I really did want to hear the band. I found an exchange site for expats where someone was selling his ticket for about $60, and I considered calling.

"But wait," I thought to myself. "Maybe I'll check with Mighty Big Firm folks again, one more time. Just in case."

So I emailed the married guy: "Last ditch effort -- anyone not going to the concert?"

No response.

So I emailed J, another summer there, the same message.

Within 10 minutes, she wrote back, "hk, OH NO! Mighty Big Firm had a rush of interest today, so they bought more tickets! If only you'd written earlier! There's a slight chance one of the paralegals might not go, though -- give me your number and I'll call you if that happens."

I wrote back: "Are you serious?!!? I thought I whined enough yesterday to make clear that I did want to go... damn!"

Then I was pissed. Married guy had promised to keep my back and get a ticket if anyone ended up not going -- what went wrong? Shit! Now that I had come THIS close to going, I REALLY wanted to go. And Mighty Big Firm had chartered a bus, with drinks, and everything, to take us there!

I called J, and whined, "Oh no! What happened? Married Guy was supposed to look out for me!"

J said, "Yeah, I had no idea you were so into Coldplay! Well, this paralegal MIGHT not go... But do you want me to ask for you?"

Putting pride away completely, I said, "Would you really?"

"Sure -- look, just hang on, okay?"

Five minutes later: "Okay, I talked to a LOT of people, and... it's fine if you come."

"REALLY?"

"Yes, really." There was laughter in the background. "I'm with a bunch of people," she explained.

"Oh my god, J, you are so amazing. Thank you!"

"So, you should buy your ticket yourself, and Mighty Big Firm will reimburse you."

"Okaaaay... well, what's the URL?"

"It's hktickets dot com... oh, and it's thanks to Al that you can do this."

"I'll be sure to give him a big wet kiss when I see him."

"Um, I'm not sure his wife would enjoy that. But okay, see you soon!"

The next two hours were a blur of trying to get work done, trying to buy my ticket, and trying to reach J again to see what kind of ticket (they were selling for USD$100 or USD$60) I should get. Sunshine, who was trying to get something finished so SHE could go to the concert, said rather pointedly at one point, "hk! Focus here!"

"I am focused," I said. "I'm focused on getting a ticket to this concert." I told her that Mighty Big Firm had gotten my back. She was all, "oh, good. Now do what I tell you." (Well, not really. But she does have a sharp, almost mean streak when it comes to work.)

Because I was leaving to meet the Mighty Big Firm people at 6:30, Sunshine ended up doing something she'd given me herself, and I ended up turning down an assignment (which was, to be fair, not really work-related -- it was proofing an article an associate had written for a legal rag). I bolted over to Mighty Big Firm's offices and arrived covered in a sheen of sweat.

At Mighty Big Firm, I thanked J, and asked her, "Hey, I didn't know what price ticket to buy, so I just bought the more expensive one --"

"What?" She stared at me.

"I bought my ticket online just like you said."

"I said Al had bought your ticket for you."

"What? But -- but you gave me a URL!"

"Yeah, and afterwards I said you have Al to thank for your ticket. He was buying it as we were talking. It's easier for him to get reimbursed, after all."

Blood rushed to my cheeks. "Are you serious? Because I heard you say I should buy the ticket and get reimbursed."

"Yeah, and AFTERWARDS, I said Al was buying it for you, and you said you'd give him a smooch, remember? Look, you can ask the people who were in the room with me. That's what I said."

"Crap." Yes, I'd just bought a ticket to a concert I already had a ticket for.

On the bus, I sort of reconciled myself to the idea that I might be out $100, but that it was worth it. But I went to the ticket counter with Al, and told my story, and was told with a truly apologetic expression that there was no mechanism for refunds in the system. But that I was more than welcome to stand nearby and sell my ticket to someone else.

Authorized scalping! I had a vision of myself going down the line of people for the ticket counter and whispering, "You wanna ticket? I gotta ticket. Ticket, ticket here." Fortunately, while that would have been very funny, there was a woman with a clipboard helping to manage the line, and she found me a buyer.

Authorized scalping! Gotta love it! I thanked her, and she said, "It's my pleasure."

The buyer turned out to be an overweight American man, who borrowed money from his Australian female friend to pay me the cash $100 I'd asked for (face value, minus the service charge I paid for online purchase). I thanked him for his business, got a smile and a "enjoy the show!" from his friend, and briskly walked away.

When I joined the group, Al greeted me: "I just talked to Social Partner! He said the firm would take care of it! I was going to find you to tell you!"

"Oh, I just sold it!"

"Oh really?" he laughed.

So I sat in my seat next to the wife of a senior associate, and with everyone else in the arena, waited. Around 8:30, my buyer arrived, since the ticket had been for the seat next to mine, and proceeded to tell me that his backpack with his camera had been stolen while he was buying his ticket from me.

"Oh, shit!" I commiserated. He had a very good attitude about it though -- "Yeah, it had all my pictures from the last four weeks. But at least I have all my video footage at home."

So we were chatting about this, when suddenly Social Partner appears in the aisle and gestures for me to come out. "Who, me?" I pantomimed. "Yes, YOU," he gestured back.

I slid out of the row, and asked what was going on. "Come with me," he barked, and we started walked away.

When we reached the other group of Mighty Big Firm folks (tickets had been bought in two batches, thus two groups of seats), summer associate J explained, "He's saving you from being hit on by old white guys!"

"What?!?!" I said, confused.

"Well, I was talking to someone in your row, and he said some old white dude was chatting you up, so I came back here and told Social Partner that you were being hit on by some creepy old guy, and he said something like, 'This is the kind of thing that makes summer associates not want to come back!' and went to go save you!"

"But --" I sputtered, "that's the guy I scalped my ticket to! He was my buyer!"

Despite my efforts to explain, Married Guy ended up taking my seat, and I sat with the two other summers. Well, "sat," as in "sat for 1 minute when the lights went down, then rushed down to the edge of the balcony like everyone else, to stand for the duration of the concert." And what a concert it was. I didn't recognize some songs that were from their third album, but the ones I did recognize almost invariably pulled a distinct memory from me. I'd listened to both Coldplay albums incessantly three and a half years ago, when I'd broken up with my then-boyfriend. I was in Seoul, and on doctor's orders to get at least an hour's worth of walking or other exercise in every day, for my back. So I would get home from work and walk around Olympic Park, looking for pheasants and rabbits and listening to Coldplay over and over and over, until it was associated firmly with loneliness and heartbreak.

I hadn't listened to some of those songs they played tonight since that period of my life, but enough time has passed that the memories are washed with pleasant nostalgia for Korea, and my time there, and who I was then.

So the show was good, even though the arena organizers were so anal about fire codes that they had Chris Martin read an announcement during the show to please move back into our seats. He read it with feeling, but later said, "You know, it's hard enough -- you're trying to be a rock star, but then you have to read out a public service announcement." The crowd ate it up. It also ate up the yellow balloons that fell out of the ceiling when the band played Yellow, and it also ate it up when Martin switched some lyrics to Hong Kong-specific references. Cute.

Also cute: Martin. Not in a drop-dead sexy way, but in a jump-around-skinny-manic-boisterous way. A real showman. Dude was working so hard and sweating so much, he ripped his shirt at the shoulder halfway through the show.

After the show, we had a hard time finding the bus, requiring traversing the long arena hall twice. Then we went to Wan Chai for dinner -- if by "dinner," you mean a drawn out meal at 11:30 pm at a bar with ladies' pole dancing on Wednesdays, thumping club music, and Jenga on the low tables with white cushions surrounding them.

Actually, the Jenga was pretty cool. Each table got into it. Nice, friendly folks, no doubt.

And if the club was a bit skeeze, it matched my feelings upon meeting the wife of a very senior associate -- the wife was a slender, long-haired, delicately shod and clearly less well educated Thai woman easily 15 years younger than the American associate. Sunshine, my officemate, had said today about Wan Chai that she felt it was a part of Hong Kong for white men -- older white men and young Thai or Filipina women. Well, it ain't just Wan Chai, honey.

I have to say, it surprised me to see the pairing. I saw a lot of those types of couples in Seoul, where an American serviceman was married to a younger, hotter woman from the Philippines, or SE Asia. Somehow, I didn't think highly educated lawyers would find that an ultimately satisfying relationship. Dumb, hk. Very dumb.

Anyway, I got all that I wanted -- a free ticket to the show (thanks to super summer associate J), the smoothing out of all kinks (authorized scalping -- whoo!), a free meal, a free cab ride home, and exposure to another firm. And the chance to hang out again with the Mighty Big Firm summers, whom I'll miss. (It's a bit lonely being the only summer at UK firm.)

In sum: no ticket, then ticket, then two tickets, then one ticket again, then an unnecessary rescue. Sweaty Chris Martin, yellow balloons = good, super summer associate J = eternal gratitude, and as always -- How is it that am I such a lucky, lucky bastard?
----------------
Caught thoughts

- Had excellent Shanghai cuisine today for lunch -- truly delectable! The second really outstanding meal so far (the first being that Indian restaurant last weekend). Steak and fancy chocolate is good and all, but I just love the spicy ethnic food.

- A friend of a friend of super summer associate J's is going on a weekend trip and invited me... it sounds legit and fun.

- I must go to bed. It's 3:30 and I must get up and go to work in 5 hours! Argh.

- MUST pick classes tomorrow! Shit.