I got my notice from the Red Sox to renew my 10-game plan in early December. Physical invoice, and an e-mail telling me I could renew online. It being 2011, I decided to do it online. The deadline to renew was January 12th. I waited and waited--not because I'm a Professional Crastinator, which I am--figuring if I was gonna put a huge payment on my credit card, might as well not lump it in with all the money I spent on Xmas gifts. I did however leave a couple of days leeway, just so I felt secure enough that the Internet gnomes had time to run my money through the cables/wires/air to Boston well ahead of the 12th.

So Sunday night, the 9th, I go to make my online payment. Got into the MyTickets section of redsox.com, and clicked my "To Do" list. I'd actually done this a month earlier just to make sure my plan was listed and ready to be paid for. But this time: "you have no items in your To Do list." Sheeeit. Okay, don't panic. I went back to the My Tickets home page, and saw this lovely message:

"My Tickets is no longer available for 2011 Season Ticket renewals. Payment via check or credit card can still be mailed to the address provided on your invoice. Thank you."

Great. Now I suddenly have two days to get my physical invoice (good thing I saved it) to them. They never said the online method would stop being available BEFORE the 12th. But I want to pay by card, and even though it says I can do this in the above message, there's no space for that on the invoice.

So I write them an e-mail asking what to do. The next day, I bring the invoice to work, waiting to hear from them. Nothing. At lunch, I call the ticket office. Man on other end calms my fears by saying the online thing is just broken--they're trying to get it back up, but it probably won't happen by the 12th. So I can fax or mail my invoice in. And as long as it's postmarked by the 12th, there won't be a problem. I tell him I will mail it in. He says to just write my credit card number on the invoice, and, oh yeah, to NOT SEND IT TO THE ADDRESS ON THE ENVELOPE. He says that address is for a "Bank of America lockbox." He gives me the address to send it to as if it were a brand new locale: "four...yawkey...way..."

So had I just sent it in without calling, it would have been late AND gone to the wrong place. And they never answered my e-mail. Now I just sit here and hope that I still have my tickets. I kind of feel like they could improve this system.

(I know Matty likes to make fun of me when I complain about having season tickets, so, Matty, as long as I've got ya here, do you know that song "Still in Massachusetts"? We can't get it out of our heads at our house.)