Confessions from the Virtual Waiting Room:

Here's a little log of my attempt to get Opening Day seats. Welcome to the Virtual Waiting Room:

10:05 AM – Johnny B’s broadcast is over in the Loop. I guess I could go over to Cubs.com and see if I can get something decent for Opening Day.

10:31 AM – Ok, the VWR screen refreshes every thirty seconds, so the screen has refreshed 52 times already. Scary.

10:33 AM – If I have to hear about my coworker’s condo woes anymore (this has gone one for more than a year), I’m going to scream.

10:40 AM – I just love some of the rock music on the Loop. Journey’s Separate Ways is playing, it doesn’t have to be good to be a classic.

10:51 AM – There’s nothing that sucks more than a day in prairie dog town. I really wish I had an office right now. 92 refreshes of the VWR. I think I’ll close the window after 1,000 refreshes.

11:13 AM – Just had a little conversation on competitive eating. Yeah, slow day in the office. I’m not even going into how ridiculous that “sport” even sounds.

11:17 AM – 144 refreshes in the VWR. I am honestly working, I just check the browser screen every few minutes to see if there is a change. So far, nothing.

11:31 AM – Just read a “discussion” at another Cub site. Realized that I need to take up another hobby, possibly bonsai tree sculpting. 172 refreshes and no change. VWR, VWR, VWR, whoo hoo.

11:37 AM – an actual update. Tickets are no longer available at this time for the Cubs vs. White Sox game 7/1/2006. Just my opinion and I live two blocks from Wrigley, but the last place I would want to be on that day is there for a Cubs vs. Sox game. I can’t possibly imagine the amount of fights in the stands, streets and bars and Sox fans have a lot to hold over the heads of Cub fans.

11:47 AM – I wonder if Premium Tickets has Opening Day seats. I know this is the Cubs “attempt” to stop scalpers from cornering the market, but let’s be honest with ourselves, is this even possible. They can’t even keep them from jumping the line for SRO tickets.

11:54 AM – The VWR has got to be worse than the DMV. This is about the second or third time I’ve gone online to get single game tickets on the first day they go on sale and have faced the same result. 218 refreshes so far. Now this is just a battle of will to see if I keep it open all day today.

11:57 AM – More sold out games: Cubs vs. Cardinals 4/7/2006; Cubs vs. White Sox 7/2/2006. SRO for Opening Day, here I come.

Well, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it. I’ll post updates as I see fit, but the only seats I wanted were for Opening Day. I’m now just going to see how long it does take to get another screen.

UPDATE:

1:08 PM - Its been three hours and 366 refreshes of the VWR browser. The following games are now sold out (or at least for the purposes of this discussion, you are really never truly shut out of any event it just boils down to how much you're willing to pay)

Cubs vs. Cardinals 4/7/2006
Cubs vs. White Sox 6/30/2006
Cubs vs. White Sox 7/1/2006
Cubs vs. White Sox 7/2/2006
Cubs vs. Cardinals 7/29/2006
Cubs vs. Cardinals 8/19/2006

UPDATE AGAIN:

3:06 PM - Ok, I just had to see how long it would take to get through and to even see if there was a chance at tickets, so I checked the browser and the April schedule popped up. I decided to give it a shot and get bleacher seats. This will be my one and only return to the bleachers (the last time I was there was Opening Day 2004). So, April 24th, I'll be there.