Bottleneck

I have inhaled so much fume that i sound like a woman who has been smoking for thirty years. It's the city's fault. I can't get enough of walking around its streets.

The second day of the Fajr festival ended yesterday and we're heading for the third. Let me just say that there could have been a better way of planning this, so that people wouldn't forcibly have to miss out on some of the performances that they really want to see. You can read my thoughts and reports of the festival and the schedule of performances that i will be attending at the Rameshgar blog. The address is

http://rameshgar.blogspot.com

So, i got myself to the Vahdat Hall to get all the tickets that i wanted. The choices were difficult to make since the performances happen in two show times simultaneously in a few different theaters and halls. All prepared, I waited for the couple of people that for whatever reason could not detach themselves from the bars in front of the ticket booth. I started telling the guy which ones i wanted and sadly i had to give up on some more performances because they were sold out. The good thing about the way the performances are laid out is that if you miss a show, there are quite a few more happening in the other halls. My total was a bit more grand than i had expected, so I got a receipt and left to get some more cash. I got stuck doing a few things and since the analytical conference was at three, I made my way there and planned on coming back a little earlier to make sure I get my tickets. I knew that even more people would probably be stock at those ticket booth bars, so I got there about an hour earlier. Indeed... people...
I decided to force the line thing. I would wait behind the last person and conciously change my standing position as more people came... like if someone stood beside me, i would stand so that my back would be towards them and they would know that i would have to be attended to first. now, i'm supposedly doing my own little social experiment while some guy that i actually saw coming from the end of the street walks to where we are, looks at me, looks in front of me, notices a space between me and the person in front of me, actually puts his hands up midway to get his hand bag out of the way, turns his back towards me, and tries to get in front of me. I walked forward as soon as i notices so he held himself from jumping in. then he looks to my left hand side (he was trying to cut in from my right), notices an open spot, walks around me and stands in front of me. He was even a bit annoyed that i was in his way. now, when i say an open spot, that doesn't mean that i was standing too far from the rest of the people so that one would think that i wasn't in line. An open spot is... if you imagine a bottle-neck situation where a lot of something is trying to get through a very small opening, that something will distribute itself equally around the opening... by an open space i mean anywhere you can find.
Finally, it was my turn. I gave the receipt to the guy and the poor thing started giving me my tickets. He had to switch one of the tickets, so he asked me which other performance i wanted to see. I had to say the same thing about 10 times because some guy walked up behind me and asked for a ticket to some show. the guy in the booth answered that they were sold out for that show, and since it seemed like the customer wanted to see this show so so sooo badly, he kept asking how he could get in. finally, the booth guy dropped everything and yelled at the customer:

"If you can, turn into Batman, fly in and go see the thing!!"

I got my tickets and was out of there before anything else happened... wondering what will happen at the next bottleneck.