hellevator

Currently listening to: Stray Kids – Stray Kids

어린 나의 분화구에 터져 나왔던 갈등
The conflict that exploded in the crater (heart) of my young self
눈이 감길 때쯤 무너져 내렸던 노력들
Efforts that collapsed by the time I closed my eyes
Every part of me, 해내야만 했던 그날들의 힘듦
Every part of me, the struggles of the days on which I had to manage
속에서 버텼네 이젠 자랑스러운 그 이름 ’cause
I endured them inside, now I’m proud of my name ‘cause

GSOWM.  Get stressed out with me.

Ticketmaster was selling tickets today for the Stray Kids 2025 tour.  I had signed up for the presale a week ago for the show in LA at 1100.  I’ve been waiting for this sale for over six months now and I was beside myself.

A colleague gave me a heads up that upper management was in today.  Dammit, of all days to be there…it had to be today.  To make matters worse, I had a teams meeting at 1130.  And I had to use my personal cell phone to purchase the tickets, I couldn’t use work’s desktop and its fast connection because it’s obvi not work related.

I promptly got in the queue at 1100 and by this time I was number 59,623.  The number was slowly decreasing.  It was hard for me to focus on what our meeting was about because I was preoccupied with getting these fucking tickets.

   

I was relieved to be out of the useless meeting so I could divert all my focus on getting seats.  By the time I was out of the queue, I was trying to get any ticket that had decent seats.  Each time I clicked to purchase I kept getting that the tickets were no longer available.

I tried again to get any ticket that was available since these would be much cheaper than the resell tickets that the bots would be buying up.

Again, it would happen over and over and over.

And over…and over…and over…I tried 20 times (I have additional screenshots as evidence because my friends couldn’t believe it) to get tickets and right when I was about to checkout, they were taken right from me.  I decided to give up at this point.

I felt defeated till I got a text from Ticketmaster announcing that another day was added to the tour and it would go on sale at 1500.  I felt elated and a renewed sense of hope emerged.

I was in the queue with only a few thousand people at 1500.  Then I was number one.  I could feel my heart racing.  Here we go again.

I was at the checkout and I bought tickets…and then the app froze.  These were hella good seats too.  I loudly cursed at my phone and startled one of my assistants.  Up until this point, I was very discrete because I didn’t want to bring attention to myself but that went out the window at that moment.  When she figured out what I was up to, she logged on to Ticketmaster to help me.

I had to close my app and relog putting me back to the fucking queue again.  By the time I got back into the purchasing screen,  all the VIP and semi-good seats were taken.  At this point, I was trying to get anything I could get my grubby little fingers on.

I continuously got denied over and over and over again.

 

It was an endless stream of denial.  I had mixed feelings between anger, helplessness, hopelessness, and anxiety all in one.  I knew because I didn’t have a fast connection that my chances of getting tickets were zilch.

There were no seats left.

A friend of mine texted me and told me that there were new tickets available.  I logged back into the account and got back into the queue again.  For the love of God, here we go again.  Tickets being sold right underneath me.  I decided to do a search for just one ticket and each time I tried to purchase one, the ticket was no longer available.

 

I went back into the waiting room for the other date at SOFI stadium.  Fuck the queue and fuck these fucking tickets.  What in the actual fuckity fuck?

Then the app crashed again but I was on a mission and went on the Ticketmaster app again…until I was back in the queue again.  As soon as I saw the number 9,533, I knew that I was cooked.  I legit wanted to cry. I felt like a failure even though it was not my fault.

I shared my sentiments with my friend and she got on her desktop and fast internet connection to assist me but she had the same issues as well.

On Monday, my friend (Connie – who is a Mexican + Native American STAY (Stray Kids fan: You make Stray Kids STAY)) and I made a pact that we would try to get tickets for each other in the event one of us was not successful.  I figured where she’s at, there wouldn’t be as many STAY as Los Angeles because everything here is K-pop, K-drama, K-BBQ, K-dance, K-skincare, K-basically every damn thing cause this is Korea 2.0 up in here.

Luckily, she came in clutch and got me a ticket but it’s out in the East Coast…but they’re fucking great tickets.  The cost of the ticket + airfare and hotel would have been equivalent to the cost of a resell ticket in a semi-good section in LA.  Her boyfriend had VIP tickets but when they went to checkout, they disappeared.  VIP or not, I’m going to the MF concert!

The last time I almost had a nervous breakdown getting tickets was for BLACKPINK.  At that time, I was in a meeting too but no video.  Thank goodness because I was a complete wreck then too.