I won the WICKED lottery!

I have just had one of the best night's of my life!  I am grinning from ear to ear!  I won the WICKED lottery!  OK... let me back up....

Boogie has been asking for me to take him to see Wicked for quite some time.  He liked the music, he is a dancer and I took his sister once so it made sense that he wanted to go.  The problem there is that we just can't afford to buy tickets to every show we want to see.  Well, if we skipped a few bills we could but we keep paying the bills instead, silly people that we are.  I felt pretty bad about having to tell him no but I had to.  Then I heard about the Wicked lottery.  Two and a half hours before the show you can put your name in a cauldron and then at two hours to show time they pull out names for 20 tickets at only $25.  That's the cost of one dinner out.  That is doable! 

So yesterday Boog and I headed to TPAC to put our names in the pot.  When we got there we discovered that you have to pay with cash as soon as your name is called.  I figured that was no big deal since there is an ATM on premises.  I was so wrong!  We put our names in the cauldron and then walked to the car to get my phone before trying to use the ATM machine.  I found the ATM machine, put my card to the slot, the machine took the card in... and then the machine screen popped up, "Please insert your card".  Uhhh... what?  So I called the number on the machine next to the line, "If you have any problems with this machine please call..."  The person on the phone was no help.  She actually asked me why I was calling her about it.  Really lady?  Really?  You have to be kidding me!  I immediately broke into a cold sweat.  Luckily, the people manning the cauldron got permission to allow me to wait until we found out if we won to run to my bank to cash a check and my Hubby called the bank and cancelled my card.  We didn't win so I didn't have to make the run.  Boogie cried. 

I felt like I failed him in so many ways so today we headed out again.  I figured it wouldn't hurt to try again, right?  This time traffic was lighter, I had my cash with me and I had cash for the parking meter.  The day seemed to be going much better.  At 5:30 they started drawing names.  This time I found myself counting down the number of tickets with Boogie.  20, 18, 16, 14... I started to feel my hope fading and I was holding my breath.  Then the names stopped.  The person drawing the names leaned to the others and asked them how to pronounce the name.  I started to smile.  When she asked another group I asked, "Does it start with a V?"  "Yes."  "Is it Vilara?"  "Yes!"  "Yay!"  Boogie whooped, the crowd cheered for us and I almost cried I was so happy!  OK, so maybe I did cry a little bit! 

Boogie and I shared a dinner and killed time until show time.  He was so excited that he wanted to stand at the doors for the whole two hours!  When we were waiting we even ran into a sorority sister of mine.  (If you are reading this it was so nice to see you!  I hope we run into each other another some time soon!)  So, it was finally time to find our seats.  I was shocked to discover that we were in the 3rd row!  We were so close!  It was just amazing!

Boogie loved the show.  He behaved the whole time and even curbed his chattiness.  I was so happy to be able to share that with him and we had just a wonderful time.  He may even have something new to aspire to!