Hours. I forget how many. For Pink Floyd tickets in 1994. Ha.

University registration, my first year, before they changed it all to mail. About 5 hours to pick up my papers, then another hour to wait to get my courses signed off.

I waited in line for the "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" book/CD signing for.... 6, 7 hours? I was in the front of the line, right behind the eBay guys. They gave me a free copy of the book in exchange for having 5 signed.

Does DMV and DPT (Department of Parking and Traffic) count?

I waited all night once for tickets to an NC State/Carolina game when I was in college...

Stayed up all night in line for Jerry Garcia tickets at Eisenhower Auditorium somewhere around '84 - '85 (memory is a little fuzzy for a few years there).

The first thing that came to my mind: 2 hours and 45 minutes for the Batman roller coaster when it first opened and bottom-less suspended roller coasters were hotter than standing-in-line-for-3-hours-in-August.

But then I remembered I waited 5 hours for tickets to Episode 1. That was absolutely just for the hell of doing it though, so it doesn't really count. Right? Please say it doesn't.

About three hours at the DMV. (Not standing in line, though- sitting waiting for my number to be called.)

I'm so glad you can do all that stuff online now instead of being in line.

I did an overnight DC linesitter thing. Where you hold places in line for the press or whatnot. The things I've done for $50, I swear.

I don't think I've ever really waited in line for too long. Maybe 2.5 hours for front-row view of The Flaming Lips last year? Then there's waiting at the DMV, etc. But those don't count cause I didn't WANT to be there :)

6 hours, for a work visa when I was abroad. Technically it was two different lines, with some random sitting around in the middle waiting for my name to be called, but I was in some ugly office waiting for 6 hours.

I waited all day in line at the Astor Plaza Theatre in New York to see Empire Strikes Back. That was back when movies only opened in one or two theaters in an area so we had to take the train in from Jersey if we wanted to see it in the first two weeks.

Six hours, one Christmas at San Francisco International Airport.

My flight landed at the same time as three packed Air China flights. 90% of the people on the Air China flights did not speak English, nor had they completed their customs forms. Because China isn't on the visa waiver programme, this slowed up the process for each passenger.

There was only one immigration officer on duty who spoke Mandarin and instead of directing the Chinese passengers to her, or at the very least getting her to give instructions to them on what they needed to do, we all had to line up in the order we'd arrived in the immigration hall with the bewildered Chinese passengers being directed to immigration officers who didn't speak their language and who they couldn't understand.

Then two more Air China flights landed. I was desperate to pee after an hour or so, and eventually I managed to persuade the Rosa Klebb marshalling the line to let me go to the toilet and then return to the same place, instead of making me go to the back of the line. There was nothing to eat or drink, you couldn't sit down or you were made to stand up. No allowances were made for the elderly or for people with babies or young children.

It was hell. Welcome to America.

I had friends meeting me, and you can't use cellphones until you've cleared Immigration and Customs. So, after six hours, I finally made it through. And, oh the irony, I got the Mandarin-speaking Immigration officer.

I wasn't expecting my friends to be there, because we'd previously arranged to go to an event that evening and it was something they were involved with, so I knew they'd already have left for it. But I phoned their house, and a neighbour of theirs answered, who'd offered to wait for my call and then drive out to the airport to pick me up.

I'd not met the neighbour. "How will I recognise you?" he asked.

"Because I'm the only person at the airport who isn't Chinese"

Yeah, I, uh, queued overnight for the opening of the Apple store in London with my brother and my girlfriend at the time. Probably about 16 hours. I feel a curious mixture of shame and pride about this.

I waited about two hours to vote in the 2004 elections.

Fucking Bon Jovi tickets. For 2 days. We ended up with backstage passes (and my buddy with Jon's brother!) because of our tenacity, along with the front-row seats, so it was all good.

God, I wish I was 14 again.

I had to wait for several hours once to get through immigration at Stansted.

I won't tell the longest I ever waited in line for something I wanted, because it will date me. The longest I ever waited in line to do something I had no desire to do was a bank queue at Banco Bradesco in Brazil. Holy fuck, I waited THREE HOURS in line, got to the front to cash my check, and the biznatch who waited on me (customer service, hellooooooo?) wouldn't cash my frigging check, because whoever had written it out, hadn't written the same numeric and written out number. I offered to take the lower of the two sums, but the teller-from-hell delighted in telling me to toss off. Bitch. I'm still bitter.

6 hours in Narva, Estonia, for a visa to get back into Russia where I lived. It was December 23rd and the office would have been closed for a week or more if I hadn't gotten in. I had zero money for food or a hotel if I'd gotten stuck in Estonia. I only got in that quickly because some guy working there had pity on the stupid American who doesn't know to rush the door as soon as it's cracked open. I was practically trampled by Russians. I think the guy was slightly embarrassed at the bad behavior of the Russians "in line" with me.

Walking across the border was one of the most amazing experiences- it's a bridge connecting two medieval castles over a river. Snowy banks and pine trees frosted sparkly white, a full moon shining on the river, and ice crystals sparkling in the air. Silent except for the river's quiet trek through the snow. No one else was in sight since it was late and cold and a nearly a holiday in Estonia, if not in Russia. I've never seen anything so magical before or since.

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But then, just for contrast, I had to go to the bus shelter on the Russian side, getting hassled first by the border guard who knew just enough English to hassle me for an hour for the discrepancy between my thoughtless pronounciation of my name and the transliteration of it on the visa. (The person who wrote the visa had obviously learned the British pronounciation.)

I have nothing but great things to say about the people I met in Narva. Not everyone's had my great experience, but they were wonderful to me, and they really didn't have to be- it gained them nothing.

I camped out for tickets a few times in high school (before the internet.)

I spent an hour at a social security office yesterday but it wasn't really that bad or that long of a wait. It was just annoying because everyone else was there to get a letter for the bmv (because the last names on their social security cards don't match names on their licenses.) Once I got called I was there for about two minutes. I finally applied to get a replacement social security card. The last time I saw my original social security card I was living in Florida, I think. (So, 1999.) I'm not worried that someone found it or took it because it would be entirely laughable for someone to try to steal my identity to get credit. HAHAHAHA. I'm pretty sure my original card is in a box somewhere and I just haven't come across it.

I also had to get a letter that says I'm the person who has my social security number so I can get a license in Indiana. I have been driving around on my Tennessee license for longer than the state of Indiana would like. Now, I just have to get a license between now and Sunday (when the TN license expires.)

Well, looks like the image didn't work out, but here's a picture that shows the bridge.

I know I spent a couple of hours waiting in line to get a Babysitter's Club book signed by Ann M. Martin. My folks were supremely cranky.

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Two days at the DMV to get my license changed for my 21st birthday.

Couple of hours for library books. What a geek.

6.5 hours for a flight that was delayed! Ack!

Deliberately queued? That would be the best part of a day to adopt The Mogget from the local RSPCA shelter.

Showed up at 4am for front row seats to the Original Cast of RENT. Worth every second, spent the time with friends singing songs from musicals and reenacting episodes of Pete & Pete while huddled under several zipped-together sleeping bags. Hell of a way to get to know strangers; sharing warmth.