Virtual Waiting Rooms

Doctor's waiting rooms are bad enough. You sit there either because you are sick (in which case all you want to do is go to bed) or you are having a well visit (and you just want to get it over with and do something else). Maybe you read a bad magazine, or if you're smart, you bring a book with you. You watch the stream of patients going in and out, waiting for the person who arrived right before you to have his/her name called. You might not like waiting, but you know when it is about to be your turn.

Not so with virtual waiting rooms. Right now I am in two of them, hoping to get Red Sox tickets. It's all completely random and I have no idea how many other people are sitting in the waiting room with me. For all I know, some IT person somewhere is having a laugh over their *insert highly caffeinated drink here* and telling his/her buddies that they have some sucker refreshing her browser every 30 seconds even though no one else is trying to buy tickets for those games. When do I give up? They get you because you don't know when your name is going to be called, so you are afraid to give up, in case the next refresh would be the one that would allow you to buy tickets.

Doh! Just realized I'm not in two different waiting rooms, but the same waiting room twice. Entering hour two of this waiting room thing...

Let's remember why I got up super early on a Saturday morning of a week where I haven't slept well- to buy Red Sox tickets. I love the Red Sox. I go through withdrawal if I don't read about the Red Sox or watch a game every day. I'm not the only one who feels this way. Basically all Red Sox fans are super-passionate. Yet, we have to watch NESN because tickets at Fenway are expensive and impossible to get. Long gone are the days of just showing up at the park and getting a bleacher seat a half hour before the game. It's January and I can't even get a ticket for a game in July!! You're supposed to be able to take your kids to Fenway, to show them what a magical place it is and to teach them to be a Red Sox fan. That's just not possible anymore. You have to be a superhero to get a ticket for your kids. I'm not talking Yankees or Green Monster tickets here. I'm talking about games versus Baltimore in April. What is wrong with this picture?!!

23 Going on 35, or is it 17?

Some days I feel old. I've graduated from college and have a 9 to 5 (ok, 10 to 6) job. Every day I get up, go to work, go to the gym, come home and have dinner, surf the web or something, and go to bed. Now don't get me wrong, I love my job. I do something different every day, and I work with a great bunch of people. It's the right balance of stress and challenges. I just feel sometimes that my life is so normal and predictable. I'm too young to be predictable right?

On the other hand, lately I've been channeling my 17 year old high school senior self. I've been applying to graduate schools. So far I've only turned in one application, and I'm not supposed to find out until mid-March if I am accepted, yet every day I get the mail with a mixture of excitement and dread. What if there is an envelope? What if it is big? What if it is small? The anticipation is just like it was when I was 17, and suddenly, I feel so young.