Getting Tickets to the Dark Knight at the IMAX Theater has been an unpleasantly exciting experience.
We first heard that, for the weekend shows, tickets would be on sale on Thursday.
Today at work, however, Shannon and I got on the website to check out the seating map. As we were chatting about where we'd prefer to sit, I thought I'd call the theater and double check on the time tickets would go on sale. The girl on the other end of the line (she sounded like she's 13 years old) calmly told me that tickets would be available online at 6pm TODAY! Boy, was I happy that I called!

I got on the wensite on both laptops as soon as I got home at 5pm. I spent an hour browsing the net: emailing, checking out the courses other university-affiliated language centers offer, and reading the news. At 6 o'clock sharp, I start clicking the "booking" icons on both computers. It took a few tries to get the show times for Saturday. Once I got past the "ticket selection" part, it became the race between the two computers. It all boiled down to which computer can load faster. I was so pumped with adrenalin that my eyes darted back and forth between the two computer screens like pinballs. I rolled the chair between two desks and I got one hand on each computer like a mission comtrol specialist. When Nuage jumped up on the desk looking for attention, I barked, "GET DOWN, NUAGE!" so loudly that he scrambled down to the floor and went hiding under the couch.

When it was time to select seats, Bill's Asus took the lead 'cause I realized I had to download Java on my Sony. While the seating map was loading at the speed of one little green bar every few minutes on Asus, Sony completed downloading Java in a flash. A sense of triumph washed over me and gave me goose bumps. I watched as the "loading" bar got filled at a satisfying speed. Then *black*

SONY CRASHED!!!

I quickly restarted and abandoned Sony and devoted all my attention to Asus. Unfortunately, the loading of the seating map was stuck at one and a half green bar short from completion. I watched the small dots circled around and around on the upper tool bar... around and around... aroudn and around... but nothing happened. At the same time, Sony came back alive again and exhaled that "what-sounded-beautifl-at-the-time" jingle, I pushed myself off away from Bill's desk. My fingers were ready to go, but Firefox had automatically started performing system upgrade. As I read the small print on the top of the pop-up box, "This might take a few minutes," I realized I was pulling my hair out, literally.

With Asus stuck on a page that wouldn't finish loading and Sony buzzing away while Firefox updated the system, I retreated to a less high-tech device -- the telephone. To my surprise, I got through on the first try on the ticket-order line. I followed the pre-recorded instructions and pressed in every number required carefully. I even waited for a few more seconds after the robotic female voice said, "Thank you for using the ticket-order line at the IMAX Theater. Please remeber to pick up your tickets fourty minutes before show time. Good-bye." just to make sure that I had completed the process. Pleased with my quick-thinking ability, I closed all the windows on both computers, removed my bum checks (now sore) from the chair, and rang up Dorion (with pride) to tip him on my easy success using the phone.

D: "You've been trying to get tickets?"
K: "Yeah... you know what? Forget the computer. Just use the phone. They've got an automated voice-messaging system to guide you through the steps. And they've got English too if you need it."
D: "Were you able to get tickets?"
K: "Oh yeah! Easily."
D: "Were you able to select seats?"
K: (oh, crap) "..."
D: "Remember that time we went to see Tranformer? We were stuck in the front at Warner Village and the music was so loud and our necks were sore afterwards..."

Maybe, just maybe, it was so easy for me to get the tickets over the phone because NO ONE wanted to be stuck in the front the IMAX screen, which is like... what? 8-storeys-high?