Here is how my morning went: up at 6:30 am to take a friend to VA, then use his car to meet another friend in Cleveland Park to go to the Georgetown theatre to buy tickets.

The theatre assured me...on three seperate occasions that box office would be open at that time.

My friend is late. Take the train. The train is delayed because of mechanical problems, plus, Capital Hill is on lockdown due to something nefarious happening in a building 6 blocks from my house.

I jump out of the Metro and take a cab. It costs me $15.

I get to the theatre and the friend who is supposed to join me at the box office can't come.

I wait.

A creepy old guy comes for a trade screening of Bewitched and tells me the door is open.

I wait.

Three employees come by. None of them understand when I ask them about tickets. None of them can work the ticket machine. The lobby machine doesn't work.

I wait.

The manager saunters in at 10:20am and yells at me that the tickets went on sale at midnight.

Wha?

She turns her back on me and walks away.

I get the name of the regional manager. Once I've walked the half hour in the heat and humidity to the Metro and taken the 20 minute ride home...I place a call to said regional director. Leave a message.

I wait.

Beej, I remember you posting about that the other day. But I discovered that the DC theater was out of tickets when I checked it on Fandango at 9:00 a.m. this morning.

Chicago just went up!

Right.

How is it that ticket sales are A) sooper sekrit and B) staggered in different locations?

Engendering that good Browncoat feeling? Nope.

Beej, weren't you thinking of coming up to Philly for the last screening at some point? Depending on how things shake out once I hear back from people, if I have an extra ticket left, it's yours for the taking.

Whoot! Got 'em.

My Toronto friend got tickets! Whoo!

Tickets! Whoo!

Ack, Beej. That sucks.

Crap.

I clicked on the "Purchase Tickets" button but I can't tell if my purchase went through, as I got bumped back to an earlier menu. No confirmation email either.

Should I try again, risking that I will be charged twice?

I think it's up to the individual theatres as to when to open sales. I don't think there's any conspiracies so much as the screening info is getting leaked before it's announced and theatres putting them on sale when they feel like.

This was the first time they were actually able to announce on cantstopthesignal.com before the tickets when on sale in most places.