JetBlew

Well, not really. That's just a snarky headline. All things told, I didn't put THAT much effort into getting there superearly, so I only have myself to blame. But yeah: here's the story. I got up this morning at 6, after having borrowed some khaki pants from Geoff & buying a can of soup to donate. Headed in, got to ESPNZone at around 7:15 and BOOM, there was already a 200 person line there. So I knew right away that I had NO chance of actually getting a free ticket, but I never like to give up and leave something if I don't know what's going to happen. Plus, I figure that there will be SOME kind of consolation prize, because they don't want you to be all gung-ho JetBlue and then end up hating them because they cut it off after the first 100 tickets and tell you to buzz off. It turns out that some people had been waiting there since two in the morning, which is nuts because it got really butt-ass cold last night. My feet completely froze while I was standing there for 45 minutes, to the point where they hurt and then turned numb.

The people in line were nice, if a little bit unimaginative in their costumes. There were a ton of people with playing cards stapled to them, and those people were Las Vegas. This includes the semi-crazy woman behind me who was almost in tears when she came up to the line and realized she wasn't going to get a ticket. There was a something a little depressing about her, in her playing card hat and her eyes big and watery. She was so mad at herself that she had just missed the slightly earlier train, which woulda gotten her into Times Square by six. She loved to talk and tried to get everybody around her into a conversation. There were a bunch of Hawaiis, a whole lot of city-related sports fans, and at least one chicken. I didn't get to ask the chicken what he represented. I was the only one who was a Long Beach gang member, I can guarantee you that. Not that it mattered, since after they gave out the 150th ticket (150 because there was apparently a huge line-cutting problem and people were being cheated left and right) they ceased caring about costumes. So now I have a white wifebeater that says LBC in gothic script on it for no reason. Whatev, I'll save it for summer fun. Anyway, after they finish distributing the free ticket vouchers, they start giving out raffle tickets -- which is actually pretty cool, because they're giving away 30 tickets, and there were only another 100 or so folks on line after the cutoff point. So the odds here are pretty good. All things told, worth it. I'm a little tired now (and unable, I think, to organize this blog entry in any sort of meaningful way) but I'm glad I did it.

I just also would like to point out that throwing a costume-related event in the middle of winter that partially takes place outside is STUPID. Good god, save this things for summer. I'm just saying.