THE LUCKY ONE

I'm about to have the best time in the middle of the worst time

I was one of the Swifties who sat online for two full days to get just one ticket to any Taylor Swift Eras Tour show in the United States. I’d paid off my Capital One card with its meager limit specifically for the occasion, never anticipating the utter clusterfuck it became. When I finally got to the point of choosing seats, “another fan” would always have just gotten it. I was forced to admit I’d lost the great war of the Eras Tour, watching the movie on Disney+ a whole lot of times and watching TikTok Lives from the shows.

More recently, I got a new passport (after letting my old one lapse more than a decade ago because I never go anywhere), 100% because I thought maybe I could score a ticket to one of Taylor’s final three shows in Vancouver, BC. It’s about a 6-hour drive from Portland; I’ve never been there, despite living here since 2001. I hate long car trips, but she’s worth that and more, so I checked resell prices and did the immediate NOPE when I saw what just one ticket would cost. I don’t think I wanted VIP seats, but there weren’t any better options anywhere else on any of the three nights.

I posted about it on my socials, including Facebook, on November 19th. My friends Christine and Irelyn had just paid a lot of money (I’m not telling how much, that’s none of your bidness) for Saturday night, two seats in the nosebleeds in the 400’s behind the stage and partially obstructed. But STILL, they were going for sure. There was no way I could swing it, so I just sucked it up like the alleged adult I am, knowing I could live vicariously through all of the videos and pictures they’d share.

And then, the usually shitty Meta algorithm did me the ultimate solid. Like, I could almost forgive Zuck for all of his assholery.

THREE DAYS AGO, as in this past Tuesday, my longtime FB friend Chris Willman responded to the post. I don’t know why or how he happened to see it considering it was exactly two weeks old, but he did. Chris is a fantastic music journalist who writes for Variety, and out of all of the people he knows in this world, he offered ME his plus one for the FINAL SHOW OF THE ERAS TOUR ON SUNDAY NIGHT.

That’s a mind-blowing level of generosity that my brain is still processing. How do you properly thank someone for giving you the gift of witnessing what will be one of the most historic concerts EVER? Taylor has already eclipsed every other live artist with this tour, but the FINAL show is expected to be an epic experience full of surprises orchestrated by the ultimate musical Mastermind.

There are already rumors circulating that Taylor is going to add an entire extra hour to the show, which would make sense if she wanted to squeeze in the alleged “Karma” album that SuperSwifties believe was supposed to be the album after “Reputation” but was shelved.

@the_designgirlFULL BLOWN 🤡🤡🤡 MODE! #erastour #taylorswift #swiftie #karma #reputation #debut #tv #taylorsversion #vancouver

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Here’s what I DO already know will happen: We’re all going to elevate Ugly Crying to an art form about eleventy billion times Sunday night.

I mean, I’ve already cried over receiving a life-altering kindness from a good human being, and that should give all of you a little boost knowing that there are still excellent people out there. I keep saying it out loud to the cats, because there’s no one else here: “I AM GOING TO THE FINAL ERAS TOUR SHOW!” They aren’t that impressed, but my friends are all really happy for me and I just felt so incredibly lucky.

That luck seemed fleeting when it came to finding a place to stay, as hotels close to BC Place Stadium are fairly fleecing fans this weekend. Many Swifties were reporting last-minute cancelations due to unexplained glitches. I couldn’t find anything within walking distance that wouldn’t be a huge hit to my bank balance, so I moved on to the rental property world.

Since I’m not at all familiar with Vancouver BC, I checked out Vrbo & Airbnb & then like a doofus I accidentally booked the Vrbo when I meant to book the similarly-priced Airbnb, which was 15 minutes away from the stadium. The Vrbo was AN HOUR away and the host was a full-on DICK and wouldn’t even consider refunding any of my $220 despite my pleas to have mercy on a clueless Swiftie and Vrbo’s customer service intervening. Hosts set their own cancelation policies, so even though Alex could have given me a break and at least refunded a part of it, he refused. So FUCK YOU, ALEX. $220 is an expensive mistake. And here I thought Canadians were the nicest.

So again, I took to the socials to put out the ask for hotel points or any other suggestions/help for lodging. And lo, a savior did emerge from my Twitter DMs who had a gazillion points thanks to a life of corporate travel. Tom somehow got me a room at a hotel a mere SEVEN MINUTES from BC Place. “Seven” is also one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, so karmic luck swung back my way despite not being in Pennsylvania (IYKYK). I sent Tom an autographed copy of The Sound of Settling (which he’d already read on Kindle and loved) as a thank you, and I’m giving Chris one as well.

Chris doesn’t know exactly where our seats are, but he thinks we’re probably on the floor. As someone who’s seen SEVEN (again, that number) shows on this tour, he warned me that wherever we are, I’ll mostly likely be catching glimpses of Taylor through the sea of little girls holding up their phones.

I’m going to be at the final Eras Tour show, I replied. I’ll just be happy to be in the room.

It still doesn’t feel like enough gratitude from my end, but that will be expressed in all of the videos I’ll be making when I’m actually there. I’m thinking I’ll go on my TikTok Live to capture the FINAL FINAL 10-minute “All Too Well,” which will wreck us so gorgeously.

I’m upping my friendship bracelet game big time and I’m so ready for it. I can’t wait to swap bracelets with all of the Swifties of all ages. My four nieces who love Taylor live 3000 miles away, but I’m going to try to FaceTime the 12-year-old twins before it gets too late on a school night so I can share at least some of the last show with them.

What a weird fucking year, yo. I got credentials to the Democratic National Convention with barely two days’ notice, if you recall. My book is selling (917 copies as of today WOW). And now I get to be a part of musical history thanks to two incredibly generous people I’ve only known online.

The lucky one, getting to have these beautiful experiences, even as the garbage Reichstag Fire burns all around us. I can only thank the universe for returning the good karma like this.