Getting a season of box tickets to the Hollywood Bowl is a full time job.

Here’s how it works.  Every year or so, the L.A. Times or other non consequential newspaper publishes articles on how hard it is to get box seats at the Hollywood Bowl.  Apparently, there are people somewhere who’ve had the same box since the dawn of time and aren’t giving them up.  People, these articles say, must wait in line for years to get a box.  One friend told us of moving to the east coast and buying season tickets in progressively closer seats — even though she wasn’t there — just in the hopes of one day getting a box.

So, imagine my ‘luck,’ last year, when I signed up for a box at the Hollywood Bowl and got it — not the ever popular classical series, mind you, but for the jazz series.  My friends were thrilled!  Sure, they said, we’d love to go with you to the concerts!  A box!  Van Morrison!  You’ll never be alone.

What no one tells you is that when the crucial day comes and you invite them to the bowl . . . they can’t commit.  "Here," you say, "are free tickets, a night of open air fun, free food, great wine."  "Ah," they say, "um, maybe, but there may be conflicts, I hate the stacked parking, but we’ll see . . . ."

So, every other week, all summer, there you’re left hawking tickets, by e-mail, by phone, trying to fill those seats.  "Ok, you’re busy," then Adam and I are moving down our Rolodex/Outlook contacts lists.

Summers, people comment, are light at work.  For us, we spend much of our time working the phones, getting people to the bowl.  Yes, the great Hollywood Bowl where it’s so hard to get seats and we’re lucky to get a box.

Somewhere there’s a lesson here.  I’m just not sure what it is.  But I must go, I need a couple for the August 3d concert.  If I start now . . . .