Montana tickets way too scarce

Well, it's finally over. At long last, "The Big Event" is over, and we weren't there.

"The Big Event," for those of you without young daughters, is ... well, was ... the Hannah Montana concert. And it was Wednesday night at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

AND ... my daughter and I were not there.

But let me tell you, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

My 7-year-old adores Miley Cyrus, otherwise known as Hannah Montana. And she would be beside herself with glee at the chance to see her in concert, as would gazillions of other little girls. It's been a long time since a young girl was the idol of other girls, and as a mom, I much prefer that she's enamored with what appears to be a pretty decent young lady, rather than a teeny-bopper boy with long hair.

So, my husband and I thought that my taking her to this concert would be an awesome birthday present and would create a lasting memory.

Well, the first round of concert tickets was sold out in minutes and we missed out. Then, later, Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced that there would be an additional 4,000 tickets released at noon one day. I still don't fully grasp why Stumbo was the one who announced it, but nonetheless I took his word for it.

I thought perhaps I might get a jump on the other 3,999 potential ticket-buyers, so I signed up ahead of time for a ticketmaster.com account.

I dutifully entered all my credit card information and then opened the Ticketmaster concert site on my computer. I even had the link to the concert already on my screen.

At 12 o'clock on the dot, I clicked "buy tickets." As the "searching" window clicked open, I just knew I was going to make my 7-year-old the happiest girl in the world.

Boy was I wrong.

By 12:00:10, the only response I got was, "None available."

Surely, I thought, there was no way a computer could process that many ticket sales in only 10 seconds. Apparently, there is.

But, very conveniently, there happened to be a link on the page called, "Ticket Exchange." I clicked there ... and nearly died of shock.

I learned that for the paltry sum of $899, I could purchase ONE ticket to the concert. Of course, if I wanted two seats together that was a whole other story. I lost count of the thousands they wanted for those.

I checked the Web site again this past Monday night, just on the off chance that more tickets might have magically appeared. None were on the Ticketmaster site, but even the "exchange" site was limited. The long list of tickets had decreased to just two single tickets for $125 and $185 and a pair for $526.40. All still more than I could afford ... or would be willing to pay.

I think perhaps I'm more disappointed than my daughter was when I told her how we'd tried. I was looking forward to making a special memory with her.

I guess we'll just have to find something else to remember together.

With my luck, it'll be a teeny-bopper boy with long hair.