Tommy can you hear me?

I'm sorry, my friends are tired of hearing me vent about the Dalai Lama, so I'm writing it out now.

To get Dalai Lama tickets:

August 7th at noon = deadline for "FRIENDS" (aka donors) to buy advanced Dalai Lama tickets, this also means they get first dibs on the first 17 rows.
August 10th at ten AM = Faculty and Staff and Students may purchase Dalai Lama tickets, with their student/staff discount (ten bucks), and they can continue to buy until 5pm before the rest of the general public.
August 11th - General public can now buy tickets, but since our box office isn't open on Saturday, they have to all go through Ticketmaster(aka, extra six dolllar fee).
There is NO group tickets for this event (aka, you cannot buy more than six at a time).
ALL of this went out in flyers, postcards, e-mails, phone trees, website, press releases, etc.
I know, because I did most of those publications, and on each one had VERY CLEAR instructions (word for word sentence: There are no group tickets for this event, we will only be allowing an individual to purchase up to six tickets at a time. We will not set aside "blocks" of seats).

Now, every time you see the word FRIEND I want you to think that I'm saying that in the most sarcastic manner possible.

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I got a call today, from a FRIEND, who wanted tickets. They didn't tell me they were a FRIEND, so when she said, "I want to buy tickets," I immediately went into my speech that starts with "I'm sorry, the tickets don't go on sale until tomorrow and they it's only to Faculty and Students, if you are part of the general public you can purchase tickets starting Saturday through Ticketmaster."
"I'm a FRIEND!" she exclaims, "They said I had..." pause, and I hear papers, then she must have been reading word-from-word from the paper... "until August 7th at Noon to purchase tickets!"

"CAN YOU NOT HEAR YOURSELF SPEAK?!?!" I was livid, but I didn't scream that.
I didn't hold much back, and I found myself saying to her, "Well, yes, and today is the 9th."

She didn't like that response. And I clapped my hand over my mouth, because the proper thing to say was, "Hold on one moment, let me see what I can do for you." These people know that and most of the time, they get away with not following deadlines.

So she stamped her feet a lot and asked to speak with the Donor's Relations Coordinator, or the woman in charge of all the FRIENDS accounts.

She was on vacation, because she forsaw this kind of thing happening and decided to take a "personal day on the beach."

Then the lady hit for one higher, and asked for the Director of Development, which is Donor Lady's boss and the woman who lands all of our big cash donations from Corporate America.
I sent it to her and before I transferred I told her what I had said, and what she had said.

A few moments later, the DoD came down from her office laughing.
"What's so funny?" I asked her.
"I read off the flyer to her that said, 'until August 7th at noon,' and then told her it was August 9th." she said laughing, "I looked her up before you transferred her and she only donates $50 dollars a year. Harry Potter donates more than that!"

Yes, we have a donor named Harry Potter, yes, he donates more than that, and yes, he's the butt of donor-related jokes in our office.

I guess I wasn't the only one frustrated with the nimrods who keep calling in for tickets.

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August 10th:
I got to work at 7:35am.
The phone started ringing at 7:55am.
I answered questions non-stop (minus the sips of coffee) until 9:25am.
Then, I went over to the box offices (which open at 10am officially) to help out. Since security and parking are so different from every other show we've had, we are having to collect every one's address and e-mail and we are sending them all the information on what and where and who and why, so there is less confusion the day of the event.
So it was my job (I volunteered actually) to pass out the cards for them to fill out while they wait in line.
The line was very, very long.
I stayed busy passing out cards until 11:15am.
Then FN took me out to lunch because he had walked by several times and saw me being filmed by a local news station, and wanted to gossip about it and his ex-boyfriend.

I finally got back to my office and started my day at 12:30pm because I had to first refill the water cooler because obviously the tall skinny girl can do it when the short fat women can't (sorry, a little aggression there).
I sat down, my aggression with nimrods at an all time high.
Opened my e-mail.
Got new mail.
Matt had e-mailed me asking me if I had gotten him tickets.

I wrote him:
Matt,
I'm sorry, just like losing your job, when you lose your girlfriend the benefits go with it.
With Love,
QSW

Felt much better the rest of the day.