A tale of two memberships

Membership #1
About two weeks ago I got Eric and I a dual membership to the SFMOMA, which is about a block and a half from our place. It's a great deal for a great museum and you get to feel good about being a patron of the arts. Or something like that.

Saturday the SFMOMA opened up a new rooftop garden gallery for a member preview, with the opening to the public on Sunday. It was a beautiful day so Eric and I decided to try out our new membership and check it out.

We hadn't yet gotten the member welcome packet in the mail but I had gotten an email confirming the membership was effective from date of purchase so we strolled up to the membership desk and asked for our member tickets to the rooftop garden. The young lady working the desk looked in the system and couldn't find us.

"How long ago did you sign up?" she inquired.

"A little over a week ago," I told her.

"Oh. Yeah. You're not in the system yet."

"How long does it take for the membership order to get into the system?" I wondered aloud.

"About five to six weeks," she answered with a straight face. "Did you bring the printout of your membership order? I can't confirm you're actually a member without it."

"Obviously I didn't bring it," I snapped. "Five weeks for an online order to get from one system to another? What year is this?"

Cold stare.

Resolution did not involve clawing her eyes out but it did involve me imagining doing that while I showed her the confirmation receipt email on my blackberry. And off we went to enjoy what turned out to be kind of an underwhelming sculpture patio.


Membership #2
We've been to the symphony several times recently and have found it sufficiently delightful that it seemed membership for next season was a grand idea. When we learned that the student membership is 50% off the regular price, it became an imperative.

The box office is only open from 10am-6pm during the week so one day last week after a doctor's appointment nearby, I stopped into the Symphony Box Office to get us signed up with a subscription.

I started by confirming that I could purchase two student subscriptions*. Off to a good start. I thought I was all prepared with what I wanted but the lady behind the window threw me a curve ball: student discount only applies to certain programs. She started reading me different options and I was immediately confused because I need to see things written down. So I asked her to show me the different options on paper, which caused her to take a deep breath and roll her eyes; this was only the first of many times she would do that during our unfortunate and lengthy interaction. For some reason I was incredibly challenged as I tried to explain what I wanted to her: dates, programs, performers, series, all swirled together in a soupy mess. She was exhausted by me.

"Where are you a student?" she looked at me dubiously.

"Um, Stanford," I said sort of sheepishly, knowing that I was tarnishing Stanford's reputation as I said this.

She sighed again and rolled her eyes. It took at least another 15 minutes before I got out of there with two student symphony subscriptions in hand. At least she didn't suggest I might also qualify for a discount for the disabled.


*I get a courtesy ID from Stanford through Eric which gives me access to Stanford facilities as well as student discounts when people don't look closely enough to see it isn't really a student ID but just a courtesy ID.