Friday, October 12, 2012

Fed up...


Sonshine is some kind of pissed.

So last night, we head to the football game, everything is relatively good. We're playing a huge school. And the game (not the football game, cuz we got our butts handed to us) was on. They played, we played, back and forth with the musical challenges....



Then comes half-time. The other band plays first because they're the away team. So they take the field and our band, except the pit percussion and color guard, are on the back side of the field awaiting our turn to perform.

You'd think a group of 15- to 18-year-olds (who think they're grown) could stand quietly for less than ten minutes. But do they? Apparently, a handful of them were chatting and then got argumentative when the drum majors told them to be quiet. So there was a bit of a kerfuffle within our group.

So fast forward to after we perform and have headed to the equipment truck to load the pit percussion and give the kids their snack. It seems everyone can tell when Sonshine is upset. His posture, his attitude, etc. Even the band director knows, either first- or second-hand, that he's upset. Eventually, she goes in search of him and drags the story out of him. It's verified by a few others. He wasn't one of the troublemakers, just in case you were wondering.

I finally start rounding up the kids to head back to the stands--to get them ready, 'cause we don't go any where without the band director's say-so--and then she calls then together a chews them out. Basically she tells them that they're a third division band and they'll always be a third division band because, while they have the skill to be a first division bad, they lack the self-control to behave and comport themselves properly when at games and contests. It's so definitely true.

The kicker in all of this is that the school we played was the school Sonshine wants to transfer to.

On an unrelated note, as I was revising yesterday, I discovered I'm lacking conflict in my current book. That's not good, people, not good. So it'll be time for some plotting/brainstorming this weekend to try and fix that problem.

Also...taxes this weekend. Ugh.

Have a great weekend. Hope it's better than mine. :)

3 comments:

mtnchild said...

Give that guy a hug from his grandma! He deserves it.
Love,
Mom

Regina Richards said...

Good kid. Hope things go the way he wants them to or the way that's best where the transfer is concerned.

I sympathize with the trouble bookwise as well. I just got back one of two beta reads I have been waiting for and the results were disappointing. The reader didn't find any large issues, except the largest issue of them all - they didn't love the story. So I told a story with apparently adequate skill, but I didn't tell a story that was worth feeling excited about.

*sigh*

Good luck with your revisions.

Jen FitzGerald said...

Mom: hugs duly given.

Regina: don't be disheartened--just because your story didn't resonate with *one* reader doesn't mean it's not a good story that will speak to tons of other people. (which story is this? the vampire one??) Don't forget there's a lot of luck involved with this profession, not just skill.