Christmas Concert Miracle

Corey and I had an adventure this evening. First, Corey and his high school buddies arranged for the gang to meet and visit at one of their houses. Corey picked up India House for our to go meal. We got there early cause we thought we might try and leave early to go to the Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert with Kristin Chenoweth. We didn't get tickets to it in October, but today my lil' sis sent a text saying they had 2 tickets they were not going to use and offered them to us. So, we were pushing it with a friend gathering at 6, but thought we'd try anyway. We got to our friends house at 6. Others came around 6:15, we were eating and visiting at 6:30.

I was watching the clock but wasn't pushing to leave. At 7:30 Corey asked if we still had time to make it downtown. Uh, I doubt it, cause as you'll recall I said that they said to be in our seats 30 min before the program starts. ...Which is right now. Corey thought maybe we could still make it. Uh, sure, whatever let's try. So we left at 7:38. Highly highly doubtful that this will work out. My brother had texted that they had tried to go to the concert yesterday and were in the standby line for over an hour and didn't get in. Yeah, this ain't gonna happen. But it's fun just to be together. 

We get downtown at 7:55. There is a huge crowd outside the conference center. No way we're getting in. But Corey tells me to jump out anyway and go take a look while he tries to find a place to park. So I get out. And as he's pulling away, I remember that I do not have my cellphone. I left it at home. How am I going to contact him?!? So now instead of getting into the concert, my focus has now turned to how do Corey and I find each other again? I didn't tell him where I would be waiting! He doesn't know our seat number or door entry number as I had both of the tickets. We did not have a plan and we have no way to communicate. I stood in the cold trying to figure out what to do. I figured I could stop any passer-by and ask them if I could use their phone for a minute to call him. I sized up the many people walking by and never got the courage to ask anyone, but I knew I still had time as he probably hadn't found a parking place yet. The ushers and door attendants were telling everyone that the building was full and turning people with tickets away. "If you read the fine print, it says to be in your seats 30 min before..." I heard a man tell people. Yes, I saw that. Great, I'm just here out stuck outside though until I figure out how to find my husband. After 10 min I asked if I would be able to go inside for a minute to use the bathroom (preg lady bladder). He said the nearest bathroom available was over at the North Visitor's Center. Ok, thanks. Ok. But I didn't want to risk going over there in case I missed Corey and maybe he thought I made it inside to the concert? How is he going to know where I am? How am I going to find him? And then, I happened to look in my bag and I discovered that I had HIS phone! I had just used it in the car before he dropped me off to read him a Deseret News article about the concert... Oh great! Now I can't call him! He can't call me! There were no calls on his phone. I called home, hoping maybe Corey would follow my back up of stopping a stranger to ask for their phone and call there? Abi hadn't heard from him, but I called her several times with instructions to tell Corey if he did happen to call. By now it was 8:15. The crowd was gone, and I was still standing there in the cold. All the doors were closed except the one I was by - door 13. There were like 4 ushers there. Then one of the ushers started to call out to people that walked by "Do you have tickets? Come on in! We got 20 more seats!" "You got tickets? We've got 5 more seats" They were a group of 6... "We'll make it work, come on in!" And he was still inviting people in. I walked over... "I have tickets, but I can't find my husband... and I have his ticket. And his phone... suggestions?" "What's his name?" "Corey... he should be looking for a pregnant lady in a red shirt" "Yes, we knew that... Give us his ticket, come on in, we'll find him and send him in! Go to balcony section 1" Balcony section 1. Ok. So I took a risk and went in. I used the bathroom, and then was still looking around for Corey as I went up the stairs. I wanted to hang out in the hall and wait for him (unless I had just missed him as I went into the bathroom?) But as I stood there on the Terrace level, looking behind me, more helpful ushers appeared and tried to get me where I needed to be. "I'm going to balcony 1, but I'm trying to find my husband..." The nice guy told me to come into the terrace. "I don't want you to miss the show!" I didn't want to explain everything, so I went in for a minute, he had me sit in a wheelchair which was funny. I listened to the rest of the number and the next song too, then said thank you and said I was going to go try and find him again. I went back down to the door 13 entrance to see if the people there who were going to send him up had seen him. "Yes! We sent him up!! If you got her on time this wouldn't happen!!" I was laughing, I know, and thank you! Yay, we've kinda made contact... he might be in the building! So then I went straight up to Balcony 1. I was shown a seat, there were 3 left. I looked around me, but no sign of Corey. I tried to enjoy the show and not be a distraction by looking around for him, but did try to look during the applause between numbers. No luck during the show, but pretty amazing that we did get in to the concert at all, right? Too bad that it's not much of a date when you're not together. I stayed for the end of the program, but as soon as people started to applaud, I ran out to the escalator. From the hard time we had finding Elvis after the First Presidency Devotional, I knew that it was going to be a challenge to find each other in the huge crowd of 20,000 people, but maybe if I was by the stairs right from the start of the building exit process, maybe we would see each other... So I stood by the two escalators. People were going down from Balcony 1 side

...and the other escalator down looked the same, with throngs of people. I didn't know if there was a 3rd escalator down further toward Balcony 10. But I thought I'd just stay as close as I could to where I was supposed to be in the first place: Balcony 1. Soon, I saw a familiar face. We both gave each other a smile. Wow! So, where have you been! What was your adventure like? We found each other! It's a Christmas Miracle!!! We shared with each other the drama of the evening from each of our perspectives as we walk outside. He joked at how we were unjustly lucky to have left so late for the concert and got to see it while so many other people didn't - "Take that, Neil!" (my little bro that waited in the cold for hours last night only to be unsuccessful) We got in, it's just not fair.

We took a selfie, and then a nice couple took our picture. 

So then we walked over and bought some gifts at Deseret Book (scripture quads on sale for a screaming deal, we stocked up) and then to the car. We were slow enough that most everyone had left and it was easy to find our car. And we headed home. And that was our Christmas Concert Adventure. The concert was nice too. But again, my mind was so preoccupied with how I'd find Corey that I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have had we been sitting together. How did people survive before cell phones? They probably had a plan in place before hand. Lesson learned: If I'm going to leave home without my phone, have a plan if I want to avoid the stress of the unknown!