CUT TO: ErinirE at work. Phone rings. It is the mother of ErinirE.

mom: ErinirE, I wanted to buy you tickets to see the phantom of the opera for your birthday, but I don’t know which night you’d like to go, so here’s my credit card number, why don’t you just buy them yourself.

So I go online and WOAH MAN the tickets are like 200 bucks. Each.

me: mom this is nuts. It’s usurous. I could see Phantom in New York for this kind of cash.

mom: well, either place, it’s your choice.

me: (i know that if I don’t buy the tickets she’ll be upset but I can’t really afford another NYC run anytime soon but I am so not going to spend 400 dollars of her money.)

mom: happy birthday!!

me: eeee!!!

CUT TO: later on that night en la casa de erinire and katsu

So I’m puzzling and puzzling and then as Katsumi and I are tucking in for the night, i bring it up to him

me: [tells him]

katsu: are you kidding me

me: no

katsu: I BOUGHT YOU TICKETS TO SEE THE PHANTOM. I BOUGHT THEM THIS WEEKEND. OH CHRIST.

me: WHAT? (alternating between joy and rage) HOW MUCH WERE THOSE FUCKING TICKETS I WILL KILL YOU.

katsu: you know, they were (an amount significantly less that what I found).

me: oh. (beat) ok. this had better stand in as my birthday present.

katsu: ok.

me: eeee!!!

CUT TO: five minutes ago, at work

friend emails me and i am reading

friend: i am going to see the Phantom on saturday!!

me:ok, now, this is too much.

friend: eeee!!!