In my mind I was going to be nibbling on horderves while sipping champagne with cool artsy "in the know" Parisiens. I wore the perfect outfit for such an occasion, complete with red lipstick.
What I should have gone for instead was this. Why? When we arrived there were two long lines wrapped around the Palais. And yes everyone had an invitation.
Reluctantly we got in the line. The bf started questioning if it was really worth it. Unfortunately at this point escalation of commitment had kicked in and I was still holding on to the idea of horderves and champagne.
One hour and half way through the line later some friends arrived so I told the bf that he was free to go if he wanted. He fled. Five minutes after he leaves we move up to the front of the line so I called him to tell him that we were almost there if he wanted to come back. When he finally called me back (he's not good at answering his phone) we were still waiting and explained to him the situation. He decided to come back.
Making his way back up the line was in his words "hard". Apparently people weren't buying his "Where are you guys I can't see you!" routine when he was on the phone with me.
But he made it and was there and that's when they made the announcement that there were too many people in the exhibition so they weren't letting any more people in.
People were not happy. It was a scandal! We had invitations! They had to bring reinforcements for the barriers.
As the other American girl there with me said, if this had been in the States she would have just left after the announcement. But she's been in France long enough to know that everything is a negotiation.
So we stand there for a while 20 steps away from the entrance cold and hungry but the laws of escalation of commitment will not let me walk away because at this point I was 2 hours in. Some people left in a huff, some people bitched, some people tried to get a side deal. Me, I apologized to the bf for calling him back into this mess.
In the end we got in. Was it worth it? Let's just say I didn't stand out in the cold for 2 hours in heels and red lipstick for nothing.
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