Paul McCartney Mania hits Israel

It's total lunacy. The Beatle fan in me had been lying dormant for the past 35 years or so until I heard on Sunday that Paul McCartney's concert was really happening. Right here in the Holy Land.

Now all hell's broken loose. I came into work telling everyone that Thursday, September 25th is a vacation day for me, and I don't care how much work there is for me to do. I don't care. I had emailed lots of my U.S./European friends who regularly go to rock concerts, and they unanimously said it is worth whatever price tickets will be. Also, out of the 33 songs Paul does, 25 are Beatle tunes. That is good enough for me. Last time I saw him in concert was in 1976, but at that time he only had one Beatles song in his repertoire (Blackbird) preferring instead to focus on his solo stuff.

McCartney's tickets are 490 NIS (which is $145) - for field seats. The VIP seats are about $300 and "more" VIP will set one back $3,000. I'm sticking with field because a) I'll be with the real fans and, b) if I wait in line all day long, I'll surely make the first few rows in front of the stage (unless those are reserved for the $3,000 ticket holders).

My husband, who brushed Paul off earlier in the week - mentioning with a grimace Paul's "puppy eyes," changed his tune, after I told him that tickets were going on sale today.

"Count me in."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. I'll do this with you."

"It's not so simple. You'll be standing on line from 7:00 am until 4:00 pm and then the show doesn't begin until 8:00."

"It'll be a day for me to shoot the shit with people" he tells me.

Shoot the shit? A day to shoot the shit???

For me - this day will be up there with my daughters' weddings, birth of a grandkid, etc. This isn't a day of shooting the shit. This is history.

But I'm not worried. If he decides not to go last minute, there'll be lots of takers.

When I got to work today I realized I didn't have enough money in my charge card and needed more credit. Man, do they love me there. More credit? Sure!!! They're only too happy to do that. The guy said he would extend enough credit until 8:00 pm tonight.

I called up Bimot to order two tickets. I don't think I ever charged anything this expensive in my life, except for kitchen appliances. It set me back $300, which in shekels is 980. I think of 980 shekels as 980 Israeli Dollars, and it seems so much more expensive than a mere $300 for two tickets.

I called Bimot later and asked when my charge card would be charged for the tickets. After all, I only have until 8:00 pm tonight. He said up to 48 hours. OOPS. So what's a crazy person to do?

I promptly called the credit card place back, who now told me they have computer problems - perhaps 70,000 people were probably doing what I was doing - extending their credit to buy tickets. Was that what was causing the all-day crash?

Meanwhile, I was on edge for most of the day. I hadn't heard back from the credit company. They finally called me at 5:00 pm, extended my credit for 48 hours. They're happy and I'm happy.

I still can't believe I'm going to be hearing Paul live in person. It'll only hit me when the tickets are in my hand on Sunday.