Well, you’ve read my Mellon Arena related Ticket Sales FAIL and Customer Service WIN blog posts, right? This is a nice conclusion to that.  Well, maybe not a conclusion, but the next in the series.  Derek was nice enough to comp us two tickets to one of the upcoming Trans-Siberian Orchestra events.  How awesome is that? I feel better getting two seats than four, and to me it’s more of a comprable show that a circus or the Harlem Globetrotters.

Here are the latest exchanges…

From: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 11:16 PM
To: Derek Scalzott
Subject: Re: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Derek,

Wow.  Thank you for the well-thought-out and explanatory reply.  It’s rare to have a cutomer-service oriented reply be so frank and sincere.  I can imagine that the tasks faced when putting on each new event are quite complicated, as the arena can be used for such a varying degree of events.

I also now understand that instead of dealing with the ushers, I should have asked to speak/deal with management.  They seemed to give us a “you can do this, but you can’t tell anyone that I said it was OK to do this” kind of vibe, if that makes any sense.  I wasn’t trying to get anyone in trouble or get more than what I felt we had paid for…  I just wanted to enjoy the show.

I would kindly accept your offer of tickets to an upcoming event.  I don’t feel that four tickets are necessary as we had only purchased two seats to the last event, but at the same time I will not look the proverbial gift-horse in the mouth.

The prospect of a circus or the Globetrotters is very cool, but I was wondering if it would be too late and or at all possible to get tickets for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra?  I noticed it in the upcoming events when looking at the Star Wars: In Concert.  I understand completely if this event doesn’t fall within the previously noted constraints, and would like to know when the next circus is coming to the arena?

Thank you again for your time and generosity.  I will be sure to spread the word that Mellon Arena is a champion of customer service.  My last Pens game was the one vs. the Bruins with the tying goal at .04 seconds to go, and the time before that was Crosby’s last hat trick… so trust me, I have a ton of recent great memories associated with Mellon Arena!

I look forward to our continued dialogue.

-Eric

See?  I can write complimentary emails too!

From: Derek Scalzott DScalzott@mellonarena.com
To: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
Sent: Wed, December 2, 2009 10:53:45 AM
Subject: RE: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Eric,

I have approval to offer (2) two Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets to our 3:00 p.m. afternoon show on Wednesday, December 16th.  We have no tickets available for the evening show.

Otherwise, we can do (4) four to Harlem Globetrotters on December 26th or (4) four to the Shrine Circus, which will be here in early April.

Please let me know what you prefer and provide your mailing address and a contact phone number in case there are any mailing issues and we’ll take care of it from there.

Thanks,
Derek Scalzott
Event Coordinator
Mellon Arena
66 Mario Lemieux Place
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
email: dscalzott@mellonarena.com
phone: 412.642.2189
fax: 412.642.1905

Score!

From: Eric Carroll me@myemailaddre.ss
To: Derek Scalzott DScalzott@mellonarena.com
Sent: Wed, December 2, 2009 9:20:43 PM
Subject: Re: Horrible seats for Star Wars: In Concert @ Mellon Arena

Hello again Derek,

We’ll take the two tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!  (Wow!)  We’ll have to take a half-day at work, but it will certainly be worth it!  Thank you once again for your explanation and generosity.

Here is all of my contact info:

____ _______
___ _____________ __
Pittsburgh, PA  _____-____
(___) ___-____

I really appreciate the time and effort that you’ve put into reassuring me that Mellon Arena cares about its patrons!

-Eric

Well, there you have it.  Looks like we get a free afternoon full of entertainment… now we only have to pay for parking (don’t tell me I can take the T)…  and $10 for nachos n’ Coke!

Again, there’s no mention of how or where my media-copied message was obtained, and why it was responded to in lieu of the original.  Ominous!

we walked through the field, that surprisingly wasn’t as green as you’d expect for the peak of spring.

the sun’s influence drew the soft outlines of the cloud’s funny shapes.

as the static filled the air, it almost became unbreathable, like being trapped in a glass cage.

each straw of grass had it’s own presence, and what a strange presence that was.

for the whole time, my hand hardly touched yours, and when it did, it felt like if there were unspoken words between us, struggling to burst out.

watching the fields in that strange afternoon with you, made me realize : we are nothing but pieces of dust drifting through our existence in Nature’s sarcastic flow.

the ones who are lucky enough to realize this can say with true belief, that even if for a mere moment in the eternity of time, they felt true bliss.

and even if you cannot feel overwhelmed with the afternoon we spent in that field, you have to agree with me… something strange happened there.

Simon was wearing a cheeky white scarf thing around his terrier neck and his person sported an equally natty outfit of carefully thrifted items, including a kiwi colored down vest that I coveted. She admired my own second-hand fleece and was thrilled to hear about the Goodwill at 28th & Main in Springfield where I got it. Simon seemed thrilled to enjoy a bit of Jones’ milky excretion. Fortunately Simon’s person didn’t freak out and assume it was a blowjob. “Oh, I’m open minded,” she said.

Cat poop consumed: no

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
~ Henry James

At around 5pm I went back to the jetty I photographed yesterday to see what it looked like in the late afternoon light on a sunny day.

About the photo: This time I got even lower and photographed the jetty. I shielded the lens with my hand as I hadn’t brought my the sun shade for my lens. In Lightroom I brought out the colour of the wood a bit more and had to do a straighten and a crop as I hadn’t quite gotten the horizon straight.

Walking back to the car after doing some landscapes of the LA skyline.

heavy sleeper

my sister and her beloved

there is always time for staring out the window

...in my belly

and so are you

Uppers:

• Pancakes for brunch
• Waking up to the sun
• Sleeping in
• Stillness
• Relentless by Lauren Dane
• Thinking about getting Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Beef brisket noodles

Downers:

• How fast days go by
• Last day of November 2009

it's like decaffeinated tea.

I live because I happen to wake up in the morning.

Sometimes you get a hankerin’ for the ocean, especially when the sun is a-shinin’ and the wind isn’t a-blowin’, both rare things this time of year. Ramona ran free and served as the official State Park greeter, but Jones stayed on his leash tethered to L.’s belt so that his hands could stay free to take photos with the fancy new camera (L.’s hands, not Jones’).

Cat poop consumed: no

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway on a fall afternoon as a storm begins to break up and scatter the clouds.
© 2009 D L Ennis, All rights reserved.

NOTE: Permission for the use of my images is granted for personal websites and blogs but is to include a link back to this site and proper credit given to me, D L Ennis. Link to be used…(Visual Thoughts http://dlennis.wordpress.com/)

NOTE: Commercial use, and the creation of prints, must be purchased! For more information you can contact me here.

Ms. magazine had an early cover that depicted the modern superwoman circa 1973 with many arms doing and having it all; essentially bringing home the bacon and frying it up in a pan. That was pretty much me this afternoon with my baby strapped onto my body and a dog in each hand, strolling with vigor and purpose down the river path, with homemade chicken pot pie left baking at home–plus a set of cinnamon roll-ups made from the extra crust–not to even mention nursing a wound from a cream of mushroom soup can. I also had really good hair.

Cat poop consumed: no

Y a pas à dire! Ca donne bien!

Merci DJ Hero!!

un mix revival du feu de dieu et hop: 2 chansons d’époque en tête… pour un bout de temps je pense!

M’enfin, c’est toujours bon ce genre de flashback!