Best Seat In the House For the Photographer Dad Causes A Stink...

Last night was the annual Christmas Fiasco Pageant at my daughters' school.

The recipe is simple: 1 part choir, 3 parts band (beginner, intermediate, advanced), 1 part Nativity Scene with requisite live baby Jesus.

The total number of students easily tops 100 children. Naturally, each child's family wishes to attend and drag grandparents along for the ride. Yeah. Fit THAT into your gym and smoke it. I'm just glad the fire marshall never walks in on this production of "Disaster Waiting To Happen."

As my daughter is in the band, I had a 1-1/2 hour lead on dropping her off. So I'm there at 4:30 for a 6pm kick-off. As the first row was marked "Reserved" and the band was off to the side, I sat at the end of the second row; best seat in the house. I marked off six seats for my family and I bided my time cleaning every bit of glass in my kit.

At 5:30 a bit of a discussion broke out amongst the organizers that there were not enough reserved seats in the front row for all of the expected family members of the baby Jesus plus school administrators and the clergy. Extra seats were brought in to lengthen the first 6 rows of chairs.

Suddenly, I'm no longer sitting in the closest seat to the band.

Hold on a minute! I didn't show up here first to be pushed off to the side. So I scooted my family down to the new end of the row. 15 minutes later, someone with too little charm and too much attitude told me that the seats they added were reserved.

"No," I replied, "I got here early and made sure I wasn't sitting in the reserved seats. You can't just come in here and block my view. I'd have sat somewhere else if these seats were reserved."

"But we need a seat for the parish priest," Ms. Looks-Like-She-Ate-A-Bad-Egg says.

I asked a question she couldn't answer: "Then he should be sitting in the first row. Why are you trying to put him in the second row?"

I don't think it sat well with her when the priest showed up, took HER seat, was hugged by my youngest, and addressed my entire family by name. "Bill, good to see you..." "Merry Christmas, Father..."

An over-crowded nightmare every year. They never learn.

LESSON IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT: If it's not your problem, don't let the people responsible make it your problem. "Wow. You've really got yourself into a pickle. I like my seat just fine, thank you."

While it is great to see your children perform in these events, the real action seldom happens on stage.

Hey Bill, that's the Christmas spirit!

I gonna make this my second motto, first one being "Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."
I have a guy at work that tells me I am unsympathetic. However, when I make a mistake, I claim it and solve it myself. I feel everyone else should do the same. I save sympathy for a tragedy not stupidity.

Good for you. Don't let them push you around. I wouldn't have.

so where's the pics?

How's the eye?
mark

marjnap wrote in post #4523445
I save sympathy for a tragedy not stupidity.

Hey, that's pretty good too.

Reminds me of the time my grandaughter was in a beauty pageant and of course I had to get the photos. I got there very early in order to get a front row seat. It was over 100 degrees in this tent and I was melting. Her group was not until near the end.
After sitting for over 3 hours in this heat finally little Hailey' turn comes.

This woman with her point and shoot decides she is going to come up and stand right in front of me blocking my view. I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me. That is my grandaughter up there and I have been waiting here in this heat for 3 hours to take her picture. YOU can stand OVER THERE." She moved OVER THERE without a word

You know I always put my photos on Smugmug for all parents to view, print, and download. They fell over themselves making sure I had the best seat in the house for every event.