The Show Won't Go On

I am dreading going into work today. Not for the usual reasons. Well, a few are the usual but then there is a new one- a big knot of a bad feeling in my gut.

Friday was D-Day of sorts. I had been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to get cable/Dish into a venue for an upcoming event. TV is the crux of this event as it is a live telecast of the Oscars. Without TV, there is no event. It helps if you understand that bit right at the beginning.

We changed venues this year to a historic movie theater. It was going to be awesome. We would be able to save a lot of money, thus making more money from ticket sales, raffle/auction and the bar. People were excited. Finally, we could lower the ticket price so even broke college kids could go. I was oozing positivity from the get go.

For those of you who have ever experienced the nightmare that is dealing with Comcast (or Dish for that matter), you may understand my pain. They do not communicate with each other. They need an intervention! The people who install do not communicate with the phone operators and those people do not communicate with the higher ups. It is, truly, a well run company.

After many, many calls to Comcast, even after they said they would call me (liars), I was told that they could not install cable at the venue. Then I hear from the manager of the venue that the survey guy from Comcast had said they could drop a line there. What? That makes no sense. So I call back again and ask for all the details. Apparently they can drop a line but it will cost $39 per foot and the nearest drop spot is 1000 feet away. Do the math. $39,000.

Yes, you read that correctly. Thirty-nine thousand dollars.

Clearly, that is not within our budget.

So I call Dish. The guy who answers always seems to be just waking up from a nap. Groggy much? I explain the situation and the direness of it to which he says, "Sure, we can get you Dish. It will cost $375 for installation and equipment." Ok. Let's rock and roll. I need this. My event depends on it.

Apparently after a week of talking details with me, Groggy Guy inputs the address of the venue into some system and discovers that we can have all the channels save one. Oh yeah, you know what I am going to say next. Every channel EXCEPT ABC.

Of course, ABC is the only channel I need. For 5 hours. For one effing night. One! Five Hours!

To get ABC you apparently have to file a waiver with a local affiliate to get permission. That can take 45 days. My event is fifteen days away.

Through all this Dumpling has been my advisor. His job requires a thorough knowledge of such things and his geek inclination doesn't hurt. He was coming up with all sorts of various solutions, most of which I tried. I called a restaurant a couple of doors down from the venue to ask them about how they got TV in there. I considered illegally splitting the cable but that was vetoed pretty quick by the powers that be. I understand but it was one of our two final options and I was desperate. The last resort was to borrow someone's Dish who gets ABC, install it ourselves on the roof of the theater and hope to God it works.

We didn't have that kind of time. With two weeks to go until the event, it was imperative that we make a decision right then. I had to call off the volunteers handing out fliers all weekend in the movie theater lines. I had to get a press release out. I had to refund money and tell the staff. The crunch of time expedited the decision. I had a line on a couple of people who maybe would loan us their Dish equipment that maybe would work. I was willing to gamble that it would but it was a committee decision. After spending an entire work day on the phone trying to figure out a solution, we agreed to cancel the event.

I sat at my desk and cried.

I am very disappointed in myself even though I know in my heart I tried everything. We didn't secure the venue until December and then there was about two weeks lost to the holidays. I contacted Comcast early on for a survey but they are slow and, as I have said, poor communicators. It took Dish a week to figure out they couldn't get the ONE channel I need. Meanwhile, I had to get the publicity out. I never ever thought that cable wouldn't be an option. Blind optimism. What a bitch.

I think this knot comes from feeling like a failure and is exacerbated by the experiences I have had at my job. I don't believe that the people in power have faith in my abilities. I hate disappointing people almost as much as I hate failing. So today I get to go into work and reverse all the work I have done on this event. I probably will have to explain the situation 100 times to questioning people. I will have to reach into my deepest resolve and not personalize their disappointment or disbelief. I will have to try to not feel like a big loser.

Wish me luck.