Chuck looked upset. "I don't have my Alvin Ailey ticket," he said. We were on 55th Street. We had just finished dinner and we were going to Alvin Ailey.

Oh no! It's deja vue all over again! I thought miserably. "Where could it be?" I asked pleasantly.

Chuck thought a long time. Finally he remembered. "I left it at home with my money and my Palm Pilot," he said. He seemed pretty distressed. "I don't really want go anyway," he muttered.

"We'll see what we can do," I said, as I checked for my own ticket. I had my ticket. It was attached to a Visa receipt. The Visa receipt was strange. It was the exact same size and color as the ticket. Well, since I have the Visa receipt, we must be able to do something, I thought. They must have a record of our order. We'll inquire at the box office. We'll get the house manager.

City Center was mobbed. I tried to elbow my way through the crowds. I tried to get to the box office. I tried to speak to the house manager. But the crowds were too thick and too crushing. I glanced over at the ticket taker. She was a little old white-haired lady who looked way past eighty. She also looked totally overwhelmed. She was having so much trouble tearing ticket stubs that she was scarcely giving the tickets a glance. In fact, she was squinting at them as if she could hardly even see them.

I had an idea. "Follow me and don't say a word," I instructed Chuck. You never can tell about Chuck. I had to do something devious and I wasn't sure I could trust him not to give me away. For someone so brilliant, not only will he occasionally do dumb things. He'll also occasionally say dumb things. Especially when I do something devious

I went up to the little old lady and I handed her my ticket, plus my Visa receipt. She squinted at them both. Then she tore off both stubs. She handed them back to me and waved Chuck and me inside. We proceeded to our seats.

So that's what happens when you live with someone who's always losing things. After a while, you sort of get used to it. You become flexible. You adapt. But occasionally you have to be devious.

So you learn to follow these simple rules. First you figure out what can possibly be done. And then you just do it.

December 1999
BB