At the Canadian Opera Company...
So last night Jen scored us some cheap tickets to see a performance by the Orchestra of the Canadian Opera Company, which is great, by the way... they're trying to appeal to a younger, hipper audience, so get some cheap tickets and go! Anyways, we arrived a little late (long story... not Jen's fault... not my fault... not really excusable either) and had to wait in the lobby through the first full movement and the move to our seats in the ensuing applause. Our seats were front row centre on the balcony, which would have meant pushing past some 20-odd people as the next piece of Wagnerian grandeur began, so to be kind to our fellow patrons of the arts, we took two empty seats near the aisle. Aren't we kind?
At intermission (or 'half time', as I like to call it to irritate Jen), once the row had emptied into the lobby, we moved to our assigned seats to drop off our jackets and bags. On my seat, was a man's jacket, hat, and program, so I put my stuff under the seat and went to the lobby to await the signal to wander back in. Once inside, I waited by my seat for the man to return, thinking he was seated next to me and would gladly move his things. Wrong.
He came up the row and stopped in front of me, and I asked if that was his stuff. He said it was, and I politely apologized and said that he would need to move his stuff so I could sit in my assigned seat. He said "You weren't here in the first half." and looked at me. uh... "We arrived late and sat off to the side so we wouldn't disturb people." I thought that he would be so overcome by my niceness that he would embrace me and stuff $10 bills in my pockets. No dice. "I want to see your ticket." Jackass. I showed him my ticket, disbelieving that a fellow patron of the Opera could be this much of a dick, and he picked up his stuff and took it to his assigned seat... WHICH WAS NEAR THE END OF THE ROW. Seriously. He was sitting almost 15 seats down the row, and chose to check his hat and coat on a seat that was front row, centre.
Was he suspicious of me because I was young? Did he think this was a baseball game and I was clamoring for a better seat from which to catch foul balls? Did he have some sort of chemical imbalance in his brain? I vote for the third one. In any event, he paid the price for his crustiness. Jen gave him a stare for the full minute before the house lights went down. I'm sure that he couldn't enjoy his Brahms after having her eyes burn a hole clean through him. Way to stick up for your man, honey! (In all truth, he was the second person I had to keep her from beating up that night... no, really.)
We're going to go to a counselor tonight to help us cope with this injustice. Wish us luck.