K had the idea to go to the game on Saturday night and see if we could buy tickets in front of the game, since the game was sold out. He and his family (and even MY dad, go figure) are big ND fans. It didn't seem like we would get in, or even if we did, ND would have trouble winning. It sounded possibly expensive and futile, but I thought at least we could have a margarita and watch it in a nearby restaurant if plan A failed.
You see, way back in 2003 the husband and I were in a laundrymat in Rome trying to wash our laundry. A few americans students were there, and we overheard them talking about going to a concert and trying to get tickets there. Someone asked what if they got counterfit tickets? A girl responded with, "Who cares? It will be a great story!" and we were impressed with how positive and adventurous she was.
So we figured that even if we didn't get in, we'd have a story. We ended up leaving later than we wanted to, and got to South Central LA just as the game was starting. We checked out the parking lots that weren't yet full, and we expected it to cost a lot, but we were shocked to find they wanted 60$! I consider myself something of a "parking bandit", and looked for a spot we could get away with. I'm pretty lucky at making up spots and not getting tickets. Finally I spotted an area with lots of other cars around - a gas station/MacDonalds lot. I thought it looked OK since game already starting. We parked in the corner, by the trash bins.
We walked over to Forum, and found the scalpers tickets too expensive ($400 or $325 for 2). There weren't many scalpers, but lots of cool tents and tailgate TV situations and plasmas and very large sets. And food and alcohol. Then we walked over to restaurant, and found it not open anymore, just parking. No margarita for me. So we walked back to stadium. I was ending up getting a lot of exercise! K dissapeared suddenly and came back with tickets. Don't ask what he paid, it was a deal but it was still a lot.
We found our way inside (the tickets worked!), and found our seats at very, very top row. That forum has some tall steps, and I was very tired by time got there. Then we had to scoot in front of everyone who seemed to be standing anyway.
We tried very hard to bring ND luck, but were not too sucessful. We tried standing up, sitting down, but nothing helped. There were lots of ND fans scattered in the crowd. The guy sitting next to us had a Fighting Irish Leprechan tatoo on his hip! He told us that at 4:00 they released another 1500 tickets, so even tho it was sold out he still got a ticket for $65.
At halftime, Andre 3000 sang with the USC marching band. Then they played the Fleetwood Mac hit, Tusk, causing people in the audience to dance like elephants and shout out "UCLA Sucks!"
We finally left a lttle early, as we were worried about the car. Got heckeled on way out, that was fun. When we got back to the parking lot, there was another car parked where we'd left our car. Damn! I couldn't believe they'd really towed it, and actually was considering that it had been stolen!
We asked the tow guys who were in the parking lot, but they were no help. They said we'd have to call the number on the sign. We found a pen and got the address to impound lot. We asked the tow guys if they could take us there, and they said no. I was so mad that I'd actually been towed (this was my first time). I shook my head and told one guy, "I can't believe you guys." He was really big, and leaned forward defiantly, "What?" he snarled. He didn't want to hear any of it.
So we crossed the street, and tried to catch taxi. People kept running in front of us & taking cabs (were they from NY?) One guy even went clear out to the highway off ramp to be the first to catch the next cab. So I called Yellow Cab, and asked them to send us a cab. I gave him the address of Tom's Burgers on the corner. We waited and finally pulled one cab over, but the driver didn't know how to get to the address we were given - Robertson and Exposition.
We bailed on him and got into second cab. The driver was really nice, and followed Exposition till it ran out. Couldn't these guys have towed it somewhere a little closer than Culver City? After awhile we were lost & driving around. We told the driver we only had $25, so he was going to have to let us know when our time ran out. Well, we drove around and around, and finally he just turned off the meter. I think he felt badly that he couldn't find it.
Finally I decided to use the navigation system in my new phone. I laboriously entered the intersection into the system, and tried to understand what it was telling me to do. I kept telling the driver, "We're almost there!" and after awhile that made him chuckle.
I think that driver was possibly the nicest person in whole world. Finally we found Robertson, but Exposition was nowhere to be found! Robertson is a funny little street that goes in a circle at one point, and this made K mutter under his breath about going in circles. Finally I called the tow lot again, and he said we needed to go to Robertson and Venice, next to the Christmas tree lot.
So telling us to go to Exposition was like a dirty trick, really, because it's only about 50 feet long at that spot. We finally found the Christmas Tree place and the tow lot, but there was nobody there! I'd found another $10 in my pocket, so we gave the driver $35 and thanked him profusely. I called the tow place and they told us to wait there 10 minutes.
Then I got a call that our cab had arrived! I say this was the funniest moment of the night.
We got tired of waiting, and I called the tow place again. It went to voicemail, so I left a message asking why they told us to come here if they weren't here, and just for that, they weren't getting a tip! (K thinks that was the funniest thing of the night)
When they finally showed up, it was the very same tow guys who wouldn't give us a ride to the lot. By now we were wondering if they weren't the same person who answered the phone! I was mad at them, so I told the smaller guy "What comes around, goes around you know." He looked alarmed, and asked what I was going to do. I said nothing, that was just karma.
Well, he went back and told the big guy what I'd said, and he got very upset. "Fuck this!" he said, "I didn't even have to come back here! You can come back and get your car tomorrow!" and started putting the padlock back on the fence.
It was so absurd that I was pretty much speechless after that. Such big guys getting all emotional about Karma. I let K smooth it over with them. They even made us walk to the store to get cash, so I just waited there for K to get back. Those guys were just too surly and crazy. People must hate them every day, and they're just determined to not hear any of it. And probably I was more mad at myself than them, anyway.
K came back in just a few minutes, $260 dollars lighter, but with our car. While he was getting the car, some other guy some guy gave him a free ND T-Shirt! What a crazy night.
What I learned:
When someone tows your car away, don't tell them they're going to have bad Karma.
Even McDonalds will tow your car if it's anywhere near USC
Even if you're lucky at something, sooner or later your luck can run out
It almost never helps to get mad
I'm not too sure the good story panned out, either.
When we got home, we stayed up and watched SNL. Beck was the band, and they played along with a puppet show of the band. The second song was Nasuea, and most of the band sat at a table (appropriate for Thanksgiving, no?) and played percussion with glasses, spoons, etc. It was great.
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