Speed Demon

Around 2:00pm, we left the rental car lot on our way to Dodger Stadium to exchange the Ticketmaster voucher for a pair of tickets.

From the passenger seat, Megan read me the directions given by Google Maps as I quickly relearned how to drive in Los Angeles.

About a half hour later, after a few missed turns and misunderstood directions, we arrived at the entrance to Dodger Stadium where we were greeted by the LAPD. Every car ahead of us was being stopped, I figured it was a sobriety check. Megan, being the brains of the operation, declared that they were checking for valid Ticketmaster vouchers. A declaration that I ignored...until we were two cars away. At this point, in all my wisdom, I turned to Megan and said:

"Oh, crap. Baby. They need to see the voucher. It's in the very back of the car. I need you to get it."

And so, with Megan crawling through the back seat of the car, I roll down my window to greet the LAPD. I didn't even have to explain my situation. They simply looked at my girlfriend crawling through the car and decided it was proof enough to let us pass. Let me rephrase that. I didn't have to explain my situation to the LAPD. Megan on the other hand, was less than thrilled with the situation. I believe more than a few "I told you so's" were directed my way.

From the LAPD check point, we followed the road to a drive thru ticket booth, where an attendant scanned and validated our voucher. From there, we were directed to the surprisingly empty parking lot, save for a few rows of cars in orderly lines. We got in a line, waited for our turn and finally, handed over our voucher. Two tickets were given to me and a bracelet was secured around both our wrists. We were quite clearly told that the tickets were not valid without the bracelet and that the bracelet had to be in perfect condition for it to be considered valid. With that we are sent on our merry way, past news cameras and general onlookers and out the exit of the parking lot at Dodger Stadium.

We had heard rumors that the tickets would be for either the Staples Center or a broadcast at the Nokia Theater. As we drove away, Megan scanned the tickets to find that we would be seated at the Staples Center for the service. We had to pull over to text, email, and call as many people as we could...