That Time I Forgot I Had Rick Riordan Tickets

Luckily an email reminder saved the day.

About a month ago, I saw a local bookshop advertising an event with Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson books, and spinning off into several other series’ of books on mythology. My son LOVES those books, so I immediately tried to buy tickets. The event was sold out.

On Monday morning, my kids were going through our daily ritual of looking at the events on our family Google calendar through the Echo Show in our kitchen. An event was listed for that evening: Rick Riordan. My son looked at me inquisitively, but I told him that I must have added the event to our calendar before realizing that it was sold out.

Later that morning, I received an email: REMINDER — DETAILS FOR YOUR UPCOMING EVENT WITH RICK RIORDAN.

Huh?

I scanned my email Inbox and sure enough — I had purchased tickets back in MAY when the event was first announced. I then remembered thinking at the time that it would make a great birthday gift for my son, who was turning 10 only about a week and a half prior.

I then told my son when he arrived home from school that it turns out we did have tickets to see one of his favorite authors (second only to maybe J.K. Rowling) and that we would need to leave the house shortly. The suburb where the event was taking place was at least a 30 minute drive, in normal conditions, and we were headed into rush hour.

I also had a fleeting thought in the back of my head that a good friend had also bought tickets for her son. I sent her a text and sure enough, she was on her way.

By the time my son and I reached the theater, there were over 100 people already lined up, and doors didn’t open for another 45 minutes. I told my son that we would not be finding a place to eat as planned, but instead grab some sandwiches to go from Starbucks and sit and eat in line.

When the doors opened, we were each handed our pre-signed copies of Rick Riordan’s latest book, The Trials of Apollo. In all my glory, I had already bought my son a copy of this new release for his birthday. He told me that he hadn’t started reading it yet, so in its pristine state I told him I would be returning that copy to…