Tuesday, November 26, 2013

ALABAMA concert...

   For as long as I can remember, I have LOVED the band, Alabama! It reminds me so much of my childhood...the days when Daddy & I would ride to a Tommy Gregg's store at the caution light in Stanton to get a Grapico in a little glass bottle, while standing up beside him in the truck seat or sitting in his lap while he let me 'drive'...and the days of the many, many rides in the Talladega National Forrest when I was in high school & the dirt roads in Banks, AL, when I was in college in Troy.
   For the first anniversary, the traditional gift is paper (see the whole list of anniversary gifts here). Hunter got a 20 gauge over under shotgun in October that doubled as an anniversary gift & a birthday gift....and it took A LOT of paper to buy it. When he told me about the Alabama tickets, I was tickled to death & I warned him that I would be 'THAT girl' singing 'Dixieland Delight' at the top of my lungs!

   We hunted in Troy Saturday morning & drove to Maplesville around lunch. We went out to Uncle Clem's to put up a lock-on so we could bow hunt the next morning. We needed to leave by 5:00 to get dinner & be at the BJCC in Birmingham by 8:00 but of course we played in the woods too long & didn't leave until 6:00. So, we had a romantic dinner from the Jack's drive-thru in Jemison & trucked on up I-65.
   Hunter bought the tickets on stubhub.com back in September so we just printed them & took them to the door. When the lady at the door scanned them, she said, 'these tickets have already been used.' Excuse me, WHAAAT?!?!?! I didn't know whether to cry or scream! The lady at the door sent us over to the ticket office to see if they could figure out what happened. The ticket office ladies said that the lady that sold us our tickets on stubhub.com also sold our seats to other people! Now, I was under the impression that stub hub was a legit website, but I guess not! The ladies at the the ticket office said they only had 2 tickets left for the concert that night & that they weren't in the same sections. We could buy those or drive back to Birmingham for the next night's show & sit together. I explained that it was our 1st anniversary & my 'paper' gift was those tickets & that we lived in Montgomery & wouldn't be able to drive back to Birmingham for an 8:00 concert on a Sunday night. I knew Hunter didn't want to buy 2 more tickets, but I also knew that he knew how bad I wanted to see Alabama in concert & check it off of my 'Bucket List.' He bought the two tickets in different sections & we went on inside. When we got to the third tier (the highest up we could get), one of the usher ladies asked to help us to our seats, then said, "these tickets aren't even together!" Duh. I told her the whole story about it being our 1st anniversary & about the evil, evil person on stubhub.com. She said, "come on, let's go to guest services." She took us to a tiny elevator & we went down to the first floor. She told us to stay in a certain spot until she talked to a few people. We watched her walk by us a couple times to talk to people that worked there, each time saying, "don't move, I'll be right back." When she finally came back, she hugged me, told us Happy Anniversary, and told us to follow another lady that worked there. What a sweet, sweet lady!! She told me her name was Darlene. We followed the other lady & they sat us 20 rows from the stage in the handicap box! The show was amazing & I sang the WHOLE time! I'm thankful that Hunter helped me mark another thing off of my "Bucket List" & I'm thankful for Darlene!!!!
P.S. Hunter got a full refund from stubhub.com & a $90 credit towards any ticket!