Wrong Date Night

Our mechanical consultant at work came to me back on the 23rd of February with a story about how he couldn’t make the Flames / Red Wings game that night, and he wondered if I wanted to use his tickets in his stead. I said “sure” and “hooray” and gladly accepted them. He’s a season ticket holder and he usually passes them on to me a couple times a year. Most times it’s because he can’t make the game, the rest of the time it’s just out of pity. They’re pretty good seats too, in the players friends and family section, right in front of Craig Conroy and Jarome Iginla’s families.

Since most of our romantic life revolves around free stuff, Tammy and I decided to leave the kids with Gramma and Grampa and make a date night out of it. Date Nigheeet! With jerseys on we hopped on the train and headed down to the Saddledome. No one else on the train was wearing their jerseys, so we stood out a bit, but if any couple can pull off matching outfits, it’s us. After a half hour on the train we got off at the Saddledome with the rest of the fans, a lively group which consisted of a young man on a cell phone and an older Asian couple. We grew suspicious, but it wasn’t until we tried opening the locked doors of the darkened Saddledome that we knew something was awry. We checked the tickets and they were for Monday the 23rd, and today was definitely Monday the 23rd, so what’s the big idea? Had we stumbled into an alternate reality? Was this the Bizarro world? I mean come on, what gives?

Lightning struck as we read the tickets again and we came to the terrible realization of our horrific folly. We had arrived at the game a month early. Today was Monday the 23rd of February, and the tickets were for Monday the 23rd of March. YAAAAARG!! Our disappointment was almost as overwhelming as our embarrassment. We must have looked like such fools! Taking off our jerseys and quickly stuffing them into Tammy’s purse was the first order of business. Tammy was worried about the frigid temperature, but I thought it better to brave the cold night air rather than continue to brandish our gross miscalculation, and risk further humiliation. It was only a couple of seconds before a train came by heading back to our end of the city anyways.

We wondered as we rode, how so many people that we had shown the tickets to could have missed the bold MAR in the date line. We also wondered if the fellow who gave me the tickets in the first place was going to want them back now. After a half hour of consoling ourselves, we were back at our car. An hour on the LRT doesn’t make for much of a date night, but I did have to work in the morning, so we made a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for some Timbits and hot chocolate, and then went home.

The good news is that we got to keep the tickets (thanks pity!) and we did attend that game together. The Flames won 5 – 3, which was an added bonus, and the kids survived being babysat by my younger siblings, which was also an added bonus. It was a month in the making, but we got our date night and a story to tell that may help others who suffer from "month confusion". Date Nigheeet!