I wasn't sure I was going to try to get to the gym early, but in fact I did make it there at 7 am (and then went to the grocery store after that). Before I left, I signed up to get into the pre-queue. At 10 am, everyone in this line-up would be given a random spot in line and then the sales would begin.
So duly at 10, I checked to see my spot in line. I was #20,600 (or something like that). While the line was moving fairly quickly (and an awful lot of these spots were probably filled by bots that wouldn't even show up after a sufficient number of tickets had been hoovered up), this was still pretty disappointing.
Around 11, I met my daughter at the mall. She had been there to get her vision checked, so we then headed over to Hakim Optical. She didn't want to go anywhere else after we ordered her new glasses, and this actually worked to my advantage. I was going to continue on to the library, but I went ahead and checked my email. It turned out that 6 minutes before, I had been notified that my number had been called, and I only had 14 minutes left to claim my tickets! I was expecting to have at least another hour before I moved to the head of the line, which speaks to just how many people gave up or were just randomly generated bots. Presumably if we had either gone into the Eaton Centre or went off to work, I would have missed my chance. I would have tried to order through my phone, but I suspect it wouldn't have worked, given how often things were timing out on the internet (with an actual connection, not just a WiFi connection).
At any rate, then it was quite agonizing waiting for the bus to make two more stops (partly because someone in a wheelchair got on a very full bus and the driver had to get people to move). Nonetheless, I got back to my computer just in time, and entered the ticketing system. And found that it was completely bogged down (due to probably about 100 people at a time trying to buy tickets).
I actually found a couple of tickets, and put them in the basket. At every single step along the way, it took about 2-3 minutes to enter my information and then move to the next page. And in fact, my tickets expired while I was waiting to enter my credit card info! I was royally pissed, but since I hadn't actually been kicked out, I decided I would try to get them again. I literally could not navigate back to the same performance, but I picked a comparable performance and finally got those seats into the basket. It went just a bit faster before this time around, and I managed to score 2 Hamilton tickets. (Incidentally, these are for my wife and son. I listened to the Hamilton soundtrack and decided this just wasn't for me...) In the end, it took about 25 minutes (on top of the 3+ hour wait to have my number selected). Still--
So that was a very productive (and yet quite frustrating day). I went off to the library after that and picked up 3 books on hold, then went to the other grocery store on the way home. Then I took a long nap...
I've spent the rest of the evening working on cleaning out the basement and have made significant progress. I'll probably work through the remaining boxes with my wife tomorrow. I'll also try to carve out some time to put up Halloween decorations and work with my daughter to carve her pumpkin. It's about that time to get ready for the Great Pumpkin.
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