Vastine adVentures: One Direction ~ Antwerp!

I had been watching the online sales for weeks. Tickets for the One Direction concert in Antwerp, Belgium were sold out, but online second-hand sellers were making loads of money on the overpriced tickets they were selling. As a mom, I wanted to make my girl happy by taking her to this concert, but doing that would make the husband very unhappy. I had given up hope that I was going to be able to take her to see her favorite group....that was only 40 minutes from our house. I kept telling myself it was okay. She just saw them in London in February. That was the most terrific weekend, but there was a part of me that just wanted to be able to do it again. The morning of the concert, the price of the tickets had dropped significantly. Now I'm not saying these tickets were inexpensive...but I'm saying that it was more feasible. I promised Chris this would be her birthday present, and we decided she would pay for part of her ticket. She was just going to have to be okay with it. And of course, she was fine with it. We gave her the tickets, and it was followed by screaming, laughing, tears, lots of "Thank you Mom and Dad...you guys are the best," and hugs. It was a great surprise!

So, it was time to get working on this concert that was just a few hours away. Allison made a great sign to have at the concert.

Ready for the big event!

We found out when we got to the concert that posters were not allowed. They took it from her at the gate and told her they would give it to the band. Yeah right.....

She just got these shoes for a future trip to London in June. They were perfect for the big night.

She cracks me up!

What could make this even better??? Allison's friend Preslee got tickets too!

Allison and Mom of the Year! :)

Everything was going great until we entered the concert venue. They scanned my ticket and called me back because it didn't scan right. Allison's looked okay (they thought) but there was a problem with my ticket. Lucinda and Preslee's worked fine too (all tickets were purchased through the same seller.) So, I had to go to a ticket window and wait with a bunch of crazy people trying to get tickets or complaining their tickets wouldn't work. People all around us were yelling at police and girls were crying. They kept closing the blinds of the ticket windows because the people were out of control. Finally, a woman tried to help me but told me my ticket had already been scanned into the venue and was oversold four times. I had a "black market" ticket, and there was nothing she could do. By this point, Allison is starting to freak out. She just kept saying, "We can't go to the concert??" This was a total nightmare! Long story longer....I call the company we purchased through, and they can do nothing but offer me a refund. That is not going to help the crying 11 year old at my side. So, I decide I would just send Allison in with Lucinda and Preslee if her ticket worked, and I would wait at a restaurant (I admit I was really disappointed I wouldn't get to see the concert with my girl.) We had the man rescan Allison's ticket, and it was fine. He said he would give mine a try again, and it WORKED! I don't know why, and I don't care. It worked! The seats were probably "oversold" because they had tried scanning my ticket at least four times. Turns out it was their fault all along. Crisis averted!!!