so. damn. stressful.

i know you've been dying to know how the hunt for BTS tickets went, right?  i know, i know.  on the edge of your seats, you were.  well, i'm here to put you out of your misery.

i logged onto the site a good two hours early, knowing that that wouldn't help me in any way but at least that way i knew it was ready and all i'd have to do is sit down when the time came to get down to business.  when it got down to t-minus 1 hour i started keeping a closer eye on it in case they opened the waiting room queue early.

just before 2:50, the screen refreshed and i clicked the button to enter the waiting room.

but then i noticed something - see that little blue box there?  it delivered news that was pretty infuriating - and not just to me, but to hundreds of folks who tweeted their anger (because yes, i went there to check).  my goal was to score soundcheck package tickets so that we could get to the rose bowl early on the day of the concert to watch the band do their soundcheck and basically get fastpasses for early entry to the venue and for the merchandise lines.  ticketmaster always assures everyone that not everything is released during presales, but it seems that they decided not to do that this time.  so annoying.

right at 3:00, i got stuck at this screen:

and then about an agonizing minute later, this.  YARG.

it took another 15 minutes of waiting for the little man to move before i finally got here:

i chose the best seats i could find and then after a couple of glitches where it wouldn't take my form of payment (UGH), i finally got this.

now, the hub had given me the green light to score tickets for both shows - remember the good old days, when i'd take the old lady and one or two of her friends and we'd go see the jonas brothers for every single show they did in the l.a./OC area?  even when it was back-to-back-to-back?  we figured it was only fair to give the bean that same perk.  although she's the only one out of her friends who's a BTS fan, so it'll be me and both of my girls throwing 'bows at the rose bowl come this may.

here's the thing:  the presale code allowed for a max of 4 tickets to be purchased.  and so when the tickets go on sale to the general public today at 3...guess what i'll be doing?

good lord.  give me strength.  it's still hours away and i'm already anxious as hell.

well, here we go again

so almost as soon as we got home from vegas, the old lady alerted me to something that had just been announced:

and so of course you know we went through the calendar to pick a date for a vegas getaway.  she only gets every other saturday off, so we had to make sure we chose the right date to buy tickets for.  and then on the morning that the first presale was scheduled, i was sitting at the computer just before 10.

and then right at 10 the screen refreshed and i had about 300 people in front of me in the virtual queue.  luckily, it moved pretty quickly and the seat selection page popped up.  i picked seats that looked pretty good and weren't insanely expensive (even though i would have loved the front row seats that were $550 apiece, heh) and then i was here:

later that evening, it was the bean's turn to sit excitedly in front of her laptop...waiting for this:

her beloved BTS was doing a live listening party in burbank, and we'd tried really hard (and unsuccessfully) to snag tickets.  but they were going to livestream it, and while she said it wasn't the same she was still pretty happy that she wouldn't miss it completely.  when they walked out onto the stage she was practically glued to the screen in bliss.

as it turns out, the event lasted for all of 30 minutes.  she was so dejected when they all got up from their seats and waved goodbye to the fans:

and then it was over.

but while we were at dinner the next day, i found this announcement on twitter:

and before i showed it to the bean, i made sure to register to receive a presale invitation code.  she was over the moon excited, and so all we could do was wait and see if we were one of the lucky ones who'd get to buy tickets before they went on sale to the general public.  and then i got to thinking - i've been lucky with receiving those invitations the last few times i've registered for one, and wouldn't it be terrible if my luck ran out for this one? there were a couple of hours left in the day before registration closed, so i texted the old lady and asked her to register her ticketmaster account too.  the invitations went out last night, and i don't know if i jinxed myself or what, because i got this:

ugh.  and because i know the old lady is terrible at checking her emails, i shot her a text to ask her to take a look and see if she'd had better luck.  and look at what she sent:

the sale starts today at 3pm, which i thought was weird considering ticket sales usually go live at 10.  but then i got to thinking that the majority of BTS fans are probably school-aged, and pushing it till 3 gave them a better chance of keeping the tickets out of the hands of scalpers.  do we think ticketmaster goes that deep with their planning?  who knows.  maybe i'm overthinking it.  whatever.

the hub is going to pick up the bean from school today while i sit here at the computer, probably with my heart pounding like mad and shaking fingers like i always do when trying for highly sought-after tickets.  think of me at 3PST and send me good luck vibes, will ya?  i can't disappoint the bean for this one.  we managed to come through for the old lady back in the days of operation downsize...now it's her turn.  heh.

mommy & me day at disneyland

with MIL in town, the bean opted out of coming to sunday morning rope drop.  and because the hub invited him to play golf, the old lady's special friend also chose to stay home.  and that's how it turned into a mommy & me day for me and the old lady.

it was a chilly, cloudy morning.  not that we were complaining.

this is the time of year when lots of attractions are down for refurbishment, which made walking through fantasyland a little sad.

we'd placed a mobile order for some breakfast at the red rose taverne, but had about a half hour to kill before we could head over.  the influx of folks at rope drop trying to score a boarding pass for the new star wars-themed "rise of the resistance" ride really made a huge difference in how things were flowing that early in the morning.  it's a big bummer, because sunday mornings have always been such a great time for us to head to the parks and enjoy some quiet time before it starts to get crowded in the afternoons.  now you have thousands of people making the early morning trek, and there doesn't seem to be any such thing as quiet time anymore.

anyway, we decided to stand in the (relatively short) line for the alice in wonderland ride.  it's one of my favorite attractions in fantasyland - which is a little weird since i'm not really an "alice" fan.  but the ride vehicles always take me back to when the old lady was a little kid.  she used to make this face on a regular basis.

as it turns out, as much as i love this ride, she does not.  at all.  she explained later that the queen of hearts has always freaked her out, which was the reason for this face when we got to the part of the ride that takes us outside.

we took turns posing at the white rabbit's front door.

and i tried on this gigantic minnie bow in the mad hatter shop.

we'd also stopped for a chance to have a park photographer take a picture of us in front of the castle.

finally, it was time to head to the red rose to pick up our breakfast.  we bypassed the line that stretched out of the building and headed to the mobile order pickup window, only to find that lots and lots of other folks were still waiting for their orders.

mine was pretty basic - just some bacon and eggs with a mini croissant.

the old lady went for something a little different - a breakfast burger that came slathered with a maple cream cheese.  she said it was actually pretty good.

later, we headed on into galaxy's edge to check out some of the new treats they'd rolled out to celebrate the new ride.  this is the toydarian swirl:  green milk with a ribbon of spicy chili seasoning and little cubes of mango jelly:

and new snacks too - chocolate popcorn with a sprinkle of crait red salt and galma garlic puffed cheese chips.  both were delicious.

as we headed out of galaxy's edge we caught a glimpse of the stormtroopers getting ready to make their way down into the crowd.

my friend weezermonkey and her family were there that day, celebrating mini monkey's 6th birthday. the monkey is most definitely not a disney fan, so i made sure to meet up with them for a quick hello and grab some photographic proof that we'd been there together.  i didn't want to impose on their family fun time, and we had fastpasses for the toy story ride over in california adventure anyway.  still, it was pretty awesome to see them all.  mini monkey seemed to be having a blast at the happiest place on earth.

we made our way across the esplanade and to the very back of the park, and had a blast trying to outshoot each other through the various games.

the one thing i really wanted was another one of those fluffernutter churros, and it was just as delicious as the first time.

and then we were doing a little shopping in one of the boutiques on buena vista street when the text came across from the hub with the awful, terrible news about the helicopter that had been carrying kobe and the other 8 passengers.  to be perfectly honest, the parks were already really crowded and we were pretty much over it anyway, but that just sealed the deal and we hightailed it outta there and headed home.

sigh.

pitstop at the pioneer saloon

so for the drive home from vegas, we decided to take a bit of a detour.  the hub had taken the truck off-roading the last time he'd been out that way and wanted to show us a little fun before grabbing lunch at his new favorite off-the-beaten-path spot.  it was basically 33 miles of dirt roads, with lots of hills and twists and turns and was one hell of a fun ride.

about halfway through, he stopped at the highest point so we could turn around and take a look at the view.  we could just catch a glimpse of the vegas strip off in the distance.

yup...still wearing the sequined chucks.

i don't think i'll ever make the cover of one of those off-roading magazines.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

much to the bean's relief, we finally got to the end of that dirt road and found some pavement just before parking at the pioneer saloon.

it was pretty crowded in there, but we managed to find a table for four.

too bad for us though, because it turned out that the room we were sitting in was designated for 21+ only.  the server was super apologetic when she looked at the bean and realized that we'd have to move, but she found us a table right away in the next room.

this is where clark gable spent three long days at the bar as he waited to hear whether his wife carole lombard had survived the plane crash she'd been in.  sadly, she did not.  and there are original newspapers and other gable/lombard memorabilia on the memorial wall in this room.

the kitchen for the restaurant is in this trailer:

and there's a little gift shop and bar here:

it was a fun place to stop for lunch, and then we were on the road again.  not too long after that, we passed this:

and then i passed...out.  i snoozed all the way till we were getting off the freeway at home, and then we happily reunited with the old lady, her special friend, and all three dogs.

another vegas jamz national championship weekend, check!