A Spring Fling

Hey, America.

I get a lot of anxiety over all these trivial events my kids participate in through the community.  Whether it's a school play, a soccer game, a church program, etc. - I stress over getting a good seat, having the right lens on my camera, and whether or not I have enough battery on my phone to video record everything in the event I need to.

Now, the last couple times my kids have been in a musical at their school (a play, a concert, whatever the hell you call these things), I've arrived early in order to sit relatively close to the front of the assembled crowd in the gym.  I always find myself sitting in the second row, towards the middle of the aisle, which, as it is, is a pretty decent vantage point considering that the first row is always reserved for teachers and classroom aides.

At least it should be.

Here we have a great shot of the back of Jabba's head. . .

The bane of my existence are those people (see here) that waddle in late, and help themselves to an empty seat right in the very front row.  Frequently teachers are needed elsewhere and don't utilize their reserved seats, subsequently leaving a few empty seats, so these latecomers come in and plop themselves down DIRECTLY IN FRONT of those of us who were smart enough to arrive early and nab supposedly good seats.

I guess I was raised differently, but if I came in late to my kid's school thingy, and was forced to pick a seat in the very front row, I would NOT pick the seat directly in front of the guy holding an SLR and three different camera lenses.  Call me crazy, but that guy's there to take pictures.

Also, I'd be more careful about the food I eat - you gotta take care of yourself.

Anyway, here's my kid's stupid school thingy:

Alayna and her friend, Alaina.  The 3rd grade classrooms came into the gym to watch the 1st grade performance.  I had wanted to take a half-day for these concerts, but Abby's was at 10:30am, and Alayna's was at 2:30pm. . . which meant I was forced to take a full day off of work.

First Graders (Abby's in the front row, all the way to the right.)

Abby's BFFF (the extra 'F' stands for 'fairy,' so I'm told), Larkin, and Jackson, our neighbor from down the street.

After the concert, Kris and I ran a few errands before returning to the school for the Third Grade concert in the afternoon. . .

Warming up

Our seats were about the same as last time, except for this concert Alayna was at the opposite end of the stands, a few rows back.

Some genius decided it'd be a good idea to block Alayna and her two friends - both of whom are just about as short as Alayna is herself - with a bunch of monster-children that are nearly my height.  The result was that we got a pretty solid look at Alayna's forehead for the duration of the concert.  Which, as you can imagine, was pretty rewarding.  Definitely worth taking the time off of work.

Alayna and her crew, walking back to class, following the program.

Nice job, forehead.

- Brian