All dressed up and no place to go

This time one month ago today I was sitting behind my wheel, exhausted but trying to press on to the first stop, on what was to be a four day drive.

No earth shattering anything has happened in the past month since arriving. It's gone by fast, but peacefully. It's been a good feeling.

I did have a bit of disappointment Saturday evening. Once I decided to move back to UT, I excitedly updated my calendar with one special event per month. One of the things I hated most about D.C. was the inability to go to concerts and plays. Sure, D.C. has plenty of events, but they cost an arm, leg and at least 100 hairs off your head. As an example, the only thing I went to was West Side Story. It cost $75 for nose-bleed seats, took an hour to commute via bus/subway connection and then coming home $25 for subway/taxi connection. $100 for bad seating and no food. It was actually easier and cheaper for me to take the Chinatown bus to NYC and catch shows that way. (This I did do several times.)

So, needless to say, I was very excited at the prospects of a 15 minute drive and $20 dollar seating for really good quality performances.

This past Saturday I had planned to attend the Utah Symphony performing Rachmaninoff symphony #2. I really struggled with myself about if it was the most prudent thing to do as I don't yet have a job. I decided that for $20 (and this included parking) I could afford to attend. (and then I fretted over parking which turned out to be wasted anxiety. This isn't Boston. There is no traffic downtown and ton of easy and cheap parking!)

I walked in to the ticket counter, and shock of shocks, they did not have one single $16 dollar seat. The ticket agent claimed the only seats they had left were $40 dollar tickets which are at the top of the price range for Abravenell Hall. I've been so used to Boston and NYC where a) people pay for the better seats so there are always cheap seats available and b) there are so many venues for patrons to attend that there are always seats available. I'm not used to UT where there may be one symphony, and one play, and maybe one dance production in a weekend.

I had struggled, but rationalized $20 for a ticket. There was no way I could part with $40. That's grocery's for a week. Not to mention that I find it statistically improbable that they would not have ONE cheaper seat available...

So I drove over to Charles and Peter's and watched a little old Star Trek with the family.

So I guess it wasn't a total lost, but all that make-up, hair and jewelry was kind of a waste.