Rhapsody (on a F***ing School Night)

'Sup kids.

How's your Tuesday? Super-cool? Ours was, except for the whole staying-out-past-10pm thing on a school night - I'm definitely not a fan of that bullshit.

Every year that Alayna has been involved in Midland High's annual student talent show, Rhapsody Rendezvous, it has been on a Friday night in December. In the middle of the Holiday Season, when folks aren't stressing out about getting home at a decent time and having to wake up bright and early for yet another day of work.

Well, apparently there was a scheduling hiccup with the venue, Midland Center for the Arts, and Midland had to hold the damn thing on a random Tuesday in January. Totally sucked, but we survived. Hopefully the jackass in charge of scheduling learns how to adult next year, because I sure as hell don't want to have to do this nonsense ever again.

Since Abby is a Freshman now, we had two girls in Rhapsody this year, and a few different showcases they were featured in: Symphonic Orchestra (Alayna and Abby), JV Pom's performance (Abby), and Honors Orchestra (Alayna.) That broke up the monotony of watching random student acts and having to stomach the so-bad-it's-cringy, student MC 'skits' throughout the evening.

Anyway, I managed to find the evening's professional photographer's pictures online, and included them here for your viewing pleasure. 

Enjoy. . .

The photographer managed to get on stage and get pictures of all the kids performing during their practice before the audience showed up. All the high schoolers participating in the evening's big show left school halfway through the day on Tuesday and headed across town for some last-minute practice sessions before the big night.

The team would change into their official school uniforms for their pom routine later in the night.

I'm not sure how the photographer got all these pics being on stage with all these girls moving around like they do - that's a good way to get knocked flat on your ass.

The Cannonball, warming up with the orchestra during their practice session. Sadly I couldn't upload the video of the Symphonic Orchestra performing a suite of music from the Indiana Jones franchise, as it lasted nearly six minutes. Really impressive, though.

Abby joins the ranks of Symphonic Orchestra this year.

Later that evening, during the actual show, Midland JV on the stage.

Abby, front and center as usual.

Ella, also front and center.

I think this one's Honor's Orchestra (hard to tell because I had to film it in a way where the lit up phone screen wasn't visible to folks sitting around/behind me.)

Hanging out behind the scenes following another orchestra performance.

Not sure what's happening backstage at this point. . .

Alayna, hanging out backstage while the Marching Band closes out the evening with a showcase of three or four songs from their season.

Abby requested I get a video of the Drum Line doing their thing, which always ends the evening's show.

The girls with Papa and Nana, who drove down from Clare to check out the girls' performances.

. . . and of course they brought flowers, because God forbid the girls don't get flowers at the end of a show.

The Cannonball, please with her favorite - red roses.

Kiersten and Abby, at the end of the night.

- Brian

Poms, Parties and Pools

Abby and Ella hitched a ride with teammate Harper and her fam this morning.

Hey gang.

Today was jam-packed with The Houghs being spread out across the State of Michigan, scattered to the four winds and each of us tasked with separate goings-on. 

Abby had to be dropped off at 6am to Midland High School, where another JV Pom parent was taking her (and Ella) downstate to the team's Atomic Pom invitational. This was like a mini, day-long, boot camp where teams across the state drilled a new routine throughout the morning before performing it in front of judges the very same afternoon. This quasi-exhibition was more of a fundamentals camp than an actual competition, but it marks the first time Abby and this new team have performed together, so they were all still pretty excited about it.

Meanwhile, Kris was currently on Day Two of her annual Momcation - the female equivalent of the grander, more elaborate Brocations our friend group does - that saw her once again in downstate Michigan, kinda by Three Rivers, hanging out poolside for three days. It's a low-key event where moms just bronze, float in the pool, do their nails, gossip, and drink a shitload of seltzers. I included a few pics Kris got from today, but one thing's for damn sure - the wives definitely don't take as many pics as us guys do.

That left Alayna and I, who had to attend Bradley's Open House in Clare this afternoon. . . with her driving us to and from the Whites' house in order to catch up on her required driving hours. Compared to the other two, Alayna and I didn't have as much going on, but still - we did stuff, too.

I'll leave you now with an assortment of pics and video that chronicle how today went down, all over the frickin' state.

Enjoy. . .

Some of Midland's JV squad, assembled outside the school (somewhere in Plymouth, I guess.)

Navigating their way through the school, our team had to go to some designated area where they would warm up and do. . . whatever the heck pommers do at practice.

Learning the new routine. Not sure how long they had to rehearse this, but I can't imagine they had very long because there were tons of other schools there.

You can spot Abby there at the far left.

Post-practice break time.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Southwest Michigan, Kris and the moms continue to soak up the sun (which must've been nice, we didn't have any to speak of back in Midland. . .)

Mees greets a colleague.

Bathroom mirror selfies are super popular around these parts (not sure if the random-ass, little kid in the background there appreciates them, but whatever.)

Abby and Nica, pre-performance.

Abby, Ella and Harper

Waiting to perform.

So later that evening, once she got home, Abby told us that the squad performed really well, but that the judges rated the song choice and routine poorly. She said it 'lacked sass and energy,' whatever the hell that means.

Also, I'm not sure who took all these pictures, but from the looks of things (I pulled all these off Abby's account) they came from multiple vantage points.

Some more still pics from the routine (I don't think I really need to caption all these. . .)

(I assume this was screenshot from someone's social media thing.)

After pom performances, all the teams come down to the gym floor and sit in these weird-ass circles while they await the judge's results. Lots of anxiety, lots of emotion, but this time around - seeing how it's not a real competition - Abby said most folks were pretty chill.

Not sure what this collage is, or where it came from, but there ya go.

Loading back into Harper's family vehicle, following the boot camp.

Sometime in the early afternoon, on the way back up north, they all stopped off at Chik Fil A (is that how you spell it?) for a late lunch.

Yes, this is a thing.

Meanwhile, a couple hours north, Alayna had successfully driven us to Clare without getting into a car accident (so that's definitely a win.) It was on-again/off-again raining out, so when we got there we hung out in the garage with my siblings and parents.

Lil' Bradley and two of his homeboys.

They once again catered a local food truck (slinging burgers, hot dogs and fries), but had a dessert spread out for folks to graze upon while they came in and out of the open house.

Many Bradleys.

Me and Dad

Bradley and two of his friends, hanging out inside away from his guests.

Yours Truly and the Cannonball, waiting for food (we got ours to go - now we didn't have to worry about dinner when we got back.)

A few hours south of us, the moms continued swimming and drinking and clucking about boys (I guess.)

Aaaaaaaaand that was The Houghs' random-as-all-hell Saturday, guys - we'll see ya next time.

- Brian