I had a very stressful thing happen last weekend. We wanted to take Catherine to her first sporting event and we decided on the Lowell Devil’s hockey game since they are really kid-oriented. I checked the “promotions schedule” and found a game that included a “Mr. Potato Head giveaway” to the first 2500 attendees. GAME ON!! I quickly booked our tickets. I was going to get the Potato man. There was no stopping me.
I mentioned the game several times during the week to Catherine and told her all about the Mr. Potato head she would receive. She was very excited about this. It was her first Mr. Potato head –ever!! The game began at 7pm on Saturday. I could not decide what time we should arrive. 5:45? No, that was a little early. She’s only 4 years old and would lose interest in being there by the start of the game. 6pm? Yes, surely there wouldn’t be that many people there that early. By noontime I started to get nervous. I got her so excited about the new toy she’d receive…what if we didn’t get one??!! That would be a complete disaster. She’d see other kids in the stands playing with their potatoes, laughing while changing his face and arms, and there she’d sit….potato-less. We pulled into the parking lot right at 6pm. There was a HUGE line of cars waiting to park. They weren’t moving. There were streams of people going in the building already….all with small children! What to do???!! I hopped out of the passenger seat and unbuckled Catherine and said “come on, we have to hurry!!!!!!!!” Bill took the car to be parked. We got in and went to the box office to retrieve our tickets. Got them – now we can get our precious potato man! But wait, how will Bill get in? I had all three tickets and no cell phone on me. People continued to stream in through the doors and I could see them handing out the Mr. Potatoes. I grabbed Catherine’s hand and pulled her back out side and we ran down the sidewalk to our minivan that was still in a huge line of cars waiting to park. I threw Bill his ticket and we took off back to the arena.
We got in line…the panic set in. Please please please….. We got it!!! He was the perfect potato man. He had a hockey stick arm and one face with a broken tooth and one with a black eye. I was shocked when Bill arrived at his seat with his very own potato! Apparently they really did give them out to the first 2500 (I assumed it was only kids). We had a great time at the game. Catherine asked a lot of questions about hockey and I think she really liked it. And do you know that she has not played with that damn potato ONCE??!!
