After I did my taxes and saw the refund number pop up instead of payment number this year, I went on a mini on-line spending spree. I bought purses (3 to get free s/h) and bought a ticket to see the World Figure Skating Championship. Men’s figure skating is apparently not that popular as the final was scheduled on a weeknight and the tickets were heavily discounted to the point that the whole trip (event ticket + metro day pass) cost less than $20. (And it was nice that there were plenty of empty seats as I did not have to deal with arm rest hogs.)
Cameras with telephoto lens were not allowed so the camera function on my phone was perfect for the event. (I don’t have a camera so it’s a moot point but I saw plenty of folks in the audience with their big-ass SLR cameras/lenses and people using the video function on their cameras so maybe the whole camera policy can be ignored.)
ice rink before the free skate
Yup, I was in the nose-bleed section but since it was my first time inside the Staples Center, I didn’t really care. Incidentally, I sat next to a figure skating fanatic on the bus ride home and she could not stop complaining about the fact that she spent $1000 on her tickets and the person next to her got her ticket for free. So if you’re working in the downtown LA area, there are free skating event tickets to be had @ Starbucks near the Staples Center/convention center.
And as an early birthday gift (to beat the sales tax hike), I received a mountain bike last weekend. I haven’t been on a bike in over 10 years and I am not altogether that confident that I won’t be hit by a car but it’s been fun riding my bike around during the daytime. I have no stamina when it comes to cycling so the rides have been relatively short & I’m learning to shift gears, which is a first for me. I commented to my dad that I tried shifting gears to slow down the bike when going downhill and that the speed never changed. He laughed and said do I see a transmission on the bike? I never said I was a mechanical engineer.
