Wicked Lotto attempts 1 and 2

I have a confession to make. I...am a nerd.

Now, for most of you, that probably didn't come as much of a shock. Actually, I hope that didn't come as a shock for ANY of you, because I don't really try to hide my nerdiness. I have my nose in a book most of the time, or I'm staring at my computer screen writing a novel. I do things like watch YouTube videos of authors and laugh at stupid jokes. I go to midnight releases of all things Harry Potter (in costume). I do these kinds of things.

I also love theatre.

Now, the very first musical I fell completely and totally in love with...the musical that opened the gate for my love of all things Broadway and musical theatre...that was Wicked. To date, I've seen it five times. Two of those times were over the course of the last four weeks.

Like I said...nerdy. But I embrace it.

To add to my nerdiness, my friend Tracy and I are trying our hands (desperately) at winning lotto tickets for Wicked before it ends its tour stop here in Columbus on Sunday. I've wanted to try Wicked Lotto for a long time, but I've never really gotten the chance or had someone to buddy with for it. Because that's the thing...for lotto, you really need a buddy, so your chances are twice as good to get the tickets.

So, for your nerdy reading pleasure (because I know most of you are probably nerds too, if you read my blog)...my first two experiences with Wicked Lotto:

DAY 1 -- Tuesday
I beat Tracy to the lotto line, which was kind of impressive, seeing as how I had to swing by Borders first to buy Mockingjay. So...for a good twenty minutes I stood in line, reading Mockingjay, and eavesdropping on the conversations of my fellow lotto-ers. One girl standing near me had tried lotto all last week and never one. Most of the other people around me were thoroughly confused by the whole process. Some news anchor that I don't know from some news station I probably don't watch was the guest celebrity invited to pull lotto tickets. It saddens me just a little when a "celebrity" from Columbus consists of some obscure news dude. Whatever.

Tracy arrived just in time to join me in line (otherwise, she would have had to go to the end), we went into the lobby, filled out our entry forms, put them in the tumbler, got our hands stamped, and went back outside to mill with the other hopefuls. By the time 6pm rolled around, there were a good 100 people there. At least. At exactly 6pm, they pulled the table with the tumbler out onto the steps and started pulling names. The crowd applauded for the first few winners. We all stopped after that. There were 20 tickets to give away and most people had come with a buddy, so were asking for two tickets. That meant that only about 10 people were going to be pulled out of the tumbler.

When they were down to two tickets left, they announced that anyone who didn't win had the option to go to the box office, show their stamped hand, and get a random open seat for tonight's show for only $40, regardless of where in the theatre said seat may be located. Pretty good deal. People either got very antsy or very pessimistic, because half the crowd rushed to the box office door. Their mistake, because there were at least three people in that crowd whose names actually got called about five minutes after that. Sucks to be them.

We didn't win, so Tracy and I went home.

DAY 2-- Wednesday
I beat Tracy again, which was once again impressive since I came straight from a check-up at the doctor. Again, I stood in line reading Mockingjay. Again, there was an obscure celebrity to pull the names and read the instructions (an afternoon DJ from Sunny 95, which was at least mildly familiar to me...I know the radio station well...still have no idea who that woman was, though). Unlike Tuesday, though, all thoughts of decorum were lost. On Tuesday, there was a line. On Wednesday, there was a pushy-shovey blob. I love when 100 adults act like a bunch of pre-schoolers who all want to be the first one on the Merry-Go-Round. Classy.

Tracy and I actually got through the line (er...blob) faster than yesterday. We separated from the crowd (too claustrophobic), leaned against a nearby pillar, and read our respective books...like the epic nerds we are. Again, 6pm came...the table and tumbler got pulled out, the names got read. This time, though, people were smarter and stuck around before fighting for the box office, so we didn't have to go through a bunch of extra names.

We didn't win again.

We're going to try again on Saturday.

Yay nerds!