I love tickets!

Especially when they're free. NBC just called to tell me I won two free tickets to see a dress rehearsal of SNL on Nov. 11, which is four days after my birthday. So Happy Early Birthday to me!

In fact, I've gotten a series of other birthday-related tickets lately. I realized early this month that all I'm really going to want at my age and in my financial and geographical situation is to see a couple concerts for my 23rd. So my mom went ahead and gave me free reign of $100 (an amount of money I sadly have not been able to spend all at once for weeks now) to use on concert tix of my liking.

So I put it toward the Regina Spektor show next week at Town Hall and the Goldfrapp show at Roseland next month, which is her only US date on the entire fall tour. After all the stupid convenience and shipping charges, I was only left with $20 or so, which I spent on the new Amy Millan (from Stars and Broken Social Scene) CD and haven't stopped listening to it since. The first five tracks are all insta-classics, particularly "Losin' You." She's playing two shows at Joe's Pub next month, so assuming I can hold onto $13 by then I can probably just show up and catch her there.

But that's not all the free tickets I have lined up. Kelly and Logan arrive this weekend for what is sure to be my most exciting three days in the city yet, and with them come free tix to "The Daily Show" next Monday. I can't imagine a cooler show for me to lose my studio audience virginity. I have no idea who the guest is, although apparently if we were there tonight it's Bill Clinton. But there's a dude in my building who interns there (we call him "Daily Show Dave") so he can give me the scoop.

Also, perhaps most exciting of all in the realm of free tickets, I'm seeing the Rollign Stones and Kanye next week!!! One of the many joys of a friendship with the fantastic Amy Mitten is the reckless abandon with which she spends her inheritance on cab fare, nice dinners and her friends. If any other friend had asked me if I wanted to see the Stones with them, it would have required months of planning and saving just to be able to afford the concert and make it there on time. With Amy, it was "Do you want to go?" and "We can totally get a car service to take us to Jersey." Granted, the seats are nosebleed, but it's Giants Stadium, where they're certain to have at least five Jumbo-trons, and it's the mothafuckin' Rolling Stones. They're perhaps the only classic rock band that is both still together and has all its importnat founding members still alive and kicking, a claim Pink Floyd, The Beatles The Who and Led Zeppelin cannot make.

But the free ticket that is the most significant to me in terms of fulfillment of a lifelong dream is the one I have reserved on Oct. 20. That is the day I will be sitting in the studio audience for a taping and after-show audition for "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," still hosted by the untouchable Meredith Veiera. Ever since my days of faking sick in kinergarten so I could go home early to watch "Price Is Right," "Name That Tune" and "Press Your Luck," I have always, always, ALWAYS wanted to be a contestant on a game show. And now that I'm piss poor, to win even $1,000 would be amazing, let alone on national television with my absolute favorite daytime talk show hostess.

New York City may be killing my wallet, but just like in life, the best things are free!