Brilliant … But Bouncy

Finally the Big Day Arrived.

Shane won tickets to a Taylor Swift concert eight months ago.

Taylor Swift – who has, at minimum, nine huge pop hits – had two shows scheduled in D.C. “Which show are we going to?” we asked the radio station staff, who gave us the tickets.

“I think you’re going to the July 13th show,” she said, as I signed for them. Then the morning radio show ended and Shane got his picture taken with the disc jockeys, right in their studio! It was awesome.

We spent the following months planning for the concert. Taylor Swift is no small deal. First, Shane had to choose someone to take with him, because he only won two tickets. That was a six-month process – but in the end, he chose me. (I still feel flattered.)

Then we spent more than a month counting the days to Taylor Swift. The show was on Monday, July 13. We planned all of our summer activities around it. We knew we’d be out late – so we planned nothing for the next day, so everyone could sleep late. Bill had a meeting after work, so we also got someone to watch Dylan (thanks, Mom and Dad). We made sure we had plenty of time during the day to do absolutely nothing.

And finally the big day arrived: Monday, July 13.

I spent all day studying on the internet so we would have a safe and pleasant trip. We were taking the subway to the event, and had to plan to return on the subway with the other 44,809 people who would be riding the subway after the concert.

I made my plan. I took a five-minute nap. I forced the kids to do all of their chores before we left. I made peanut butter sandwiches and shoved them in our raincoat pockets. We took Dylan over to my parents’ house at 5:30, and raced out.

We had a fight with the subway fare machine, which ate my money. We got help from the guy who sits in the little bubble at the station, and finally got our fare cards loaded with  appropriate fares. Then, finally, we started riding toward Washington, D.C.

Shane said, “Do you have the tickets?” He was kidding, of course, because we have had eight months to prepare, and I am the most prepared person on the face of the earth.

I said, “Yeah, do you want to take a look at them, and see what section our seats are in?” We’d done this, too, on the computer, on an interactive seating chart. We knew exactly where our seats were.

Shane said, “okay,” and I pulled out the tickets. Shane looked at them – something I have done ten times already, once that morning, even.

He said, “Oh look. The ticket says Tuesday, July 14.”

I thought he was kidding.

But no, he was not kidding. Taylor Swift had two shows – and we were on our way to the wrong one. After all those months of planning, it had never occurred to me to double check the date.

And we sure didn’t need to ride public transportation on Monday for a concert on Tuesday.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get off at the next stop!”

We had only traveled a few miles. We got off the subway, and walked to a nearby mall. We triple-checked the date on the tickets over dinner at the food court.

And then we went home.

The Taylor Swift concert the next day was, of course, spectacular.