Well, this was a rather tiring weekend. I had tickets to Carmen on Saturday, at the Civic Center. Pretty good opera, I'd never seen before. I thought the story was a bit weak, and Don Jose was a bit of a doufus, but the music was good, and it was fun hearing so many songs I've heard so many times without knowing their context. The opera got out around 11:30, but it took me about a half-hour just to get out of the parking garage. My car did not move for about ten minutes, which was frustrating, though fortunately I had reading material. So I didn't get to bed until close to one, and then had to get up at 5:00 AM to go line up in Humphrey's parking lot.

Waiting in line was far more pleasant than I anticipated. Last time, I hadn't expected nearly the line I encountered, when I arrived around 9:00. I didn't even bring something on which to sit that time. This time, I brought coffee, water, a sandwich, donuts, cookies, a chair, magazines, my Gameboy, and most importantly, my iPod. And when I arrived, at a quarter to six, the line wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. When they handed out numbers later, I was number 31. And despite the threat of rain from the weatherman, the weather was beautiful, warm even before dawn, with a nice gentle breeze to keep things from getting too hot. I listened to music and caught up on my reading (I was a bit embarrased when an article in Outside magazine about the Himalayan Cataract Project made me misty-eyed), and 10:00 came sooner that I could have hoped. It took me about 45 minutes to reach the front of the line, and I was able to get good tickets for myself. I got fantastic seats for Robert Earl Keen and Pink Martini, and pretty good seats for Randy Newman, back a bit because I requested aisle seating, due to Mom's bum knee. I did feel bad that I couldn't get three seats together for the friend I was buying tickets for, and instead had to get her three seats in a column, over three rows. But overall, I was very glad I waited in line, and didn't give ticketmaster the $60 or so I would have been hit with in Ticketmaster fees.