On Thursday night, in a long overdue celebration of Abigail's birthday, we headed over to the Music Hall for an long anticipated evening at The Piano Guys concert. Well, it wasn't supposed to be as long anticipated for Abigail, but the surprise might have been diminished a little when I put on my Facebook page that I was going to the show.
When we arrived, the usher up front asked where we were seated. After telling her, she pointed us to the North side of the Hall, admittedly not knowing where our seats would be, but most definitely somewhere on that side. This should have warned me that things could get a little screwy.
Once there, we encountered another usher, who checked our tickets and said that he wasn't quite certain where our seats would be, but we would have to go around to the South side of the Hall to get to them. Things were beginning to seem a little odd.
On the South Side, the usher there let us know that the seats we had tickets for (and paid a few dollars more than we generally spend on anything) were for seats they no longer had available. At this point, I began to think that we might just miss this thing, since Ticketmaster had sold us non existent seats, or something, but she assured us that she would get another usher that would help us with our trouble.
The next usher that arrived said he check to make sure they could find us some other seats, even though the place was probably sold out. And now I was beginning to feel frustrated. But, we were all looking forward to the show, so we decided to press on, which happened to include a trip back to the North side of the Hall, where the original usher let us know that we had some wheelchair seats.
Did this mean we would be standing for the show, or that we would only get some folding chairs, or that we would have to go find wheelchairs for all of us? Fortunately not. Some other people already in this section shared our frustration by relaying how they too had no idea that his was a wheelchair section 'til they showed up. Fortunately, the usher was able to dig up some banquet chairs for us, and some people that we squeezed into this section with us that arrived shortly after we did.
Admittedly, I get frustrated easily at things like this. Especially when I already feel like I spent too much money anyways. But, I think I learned something that I think I will share with you. Let me see if I can make it sound sensible.
You see, we were there for something really cool that we were all looking forward to. And we did pay out a bunch, but it was because we were at something we really wanted to be at, a chance to see The Piano Guys live in concert. And to bring Abigail, who has been a fan of theirs for years.
In spite of our high expectations, we still ran head first into some frustrations. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, they were so minor, but aren't most of the frustrations we face, in the grand scheme of things?
If we had chosen to storm out, or gotten testy with the staff or even let it leave a bad taste in our mouth, it would have changed our experience at the concert.
It did seem a little odd and I may have felt a twinge of guilt when we watched a lady nearly careening down the aisle, in a wheel chair, and when she had to shuffle awkwardly to her seat but instead of giving in to the emotion, we shook off the frustrations we had and really enjoyed the show.
Frustrations come much more than we think they should. The real test, I suppose, is not how well we can avoid them, but how well we can shake them off and enjoy the show.
In the mean time, if you aren't familiar with The Piano Guys, check out some of their videos here. They are most excellent:
