Tsukimi hell
So. Saturday went about as awful as I expected it to, and then some. (93 degrees and we had to stand outside in kimono. It's like a really fancy sauna suit, at that point.) I shouldn't be as torn up as I am over it, but I guess I was holding onto hope, somewhere deep down, that this time would prove me wrong, that it wouldn't suck. Nope. I paid $45 to be on my feet from 1:30-midnight, get barely 30 minutes for a sub-par boxed meal (that had been sitting for hours), and not once did I get to actually sit and have Tea -- the whole goddamn point of a Tea gathering. Instead, all the other ladies who were working decided that our station should be the last one of the night. Fine, but do you think one of them might have maybe asked if those of us working would like to sit and be waited on afterward? It's not hard to offer 5 minutes of simple courtesy. It really isn't. (Especially when the other group of ladies sharing the tent space left US a pile of dirty bowls to clean and took half of ours, rather than wash their own. I mean really, WTF?) It took 4 Advil to even take the edge off my back pain to get to sleep, and I woke up with a splitting headache along with the back ache. Plans to get to kickboxing/the gym were nixed after that.
(And after digging out the kimono items I was supposed to loan, I get to Sensei's house and I'm told they "figured out how to make it work" and didn't need what I'd brought. So really, that just tells me that the next time I'm asked to do something, she may or may not mean it.)
I have decided that I am never participating in a chapter event again, unless it is as a guest. I'm angry to the point of tears over this; part of me feels betrayed by Sensei because she wouldn't look out for her own students (that last seating? She was supposed to go ask that we actually get to stop and have tea, and didn't), part of me feels like the whole local chapter doesn't even grasp the fact that Tea has four basic principles (purity, harmony, respect, tranquility) and just MAYBE those could be applied to events, too. About the only people I'm not pissed at from Saturday are Sensei's husband (he knows his way around the mizuya and worked his butt off) and the head of the chapter (who was super sweet and made sure to get those of us suffering outside a cooler full of cold water bottles, etc). So. From now on, it's lessons only and events-as-guest. Period. I'm done wasting my time, money, and energy on this mess.
(And after digging out the kimono items I was supposed to loan, I get to Sensei's house and I'm told they "figured out how to make it work" and didn't need what I'd brought. So really, that just tells me that the next time I'm asked to do something, she may or may not mean it.)
I have decided that I am never participating in a chapter event again, unless it is as a guest. I'm angry to the point of tears over this; part of me feels betrayed by Sensei because she wouldn't look out for her own students (that last seating? She was supposed to go ask that we actually get to stop and have tea, and didn't), part of me feels like the whole local chapter doesn't even grasp the fact that Tea has four basic principles (purity, harmony, respect, tranquility) and just MAYBE those could be applied to events, too. About the only people I'm not pissed at from Saturday are Sensei's husband (he knows his way around the mizuya and worked his butt off) and the head of the chapter (who was super sweet and made sure to get those of us suffering outside a cooler full of cold water bottles, etc). So. From now on, it's lessons only and events-as-guest. Period. I'm done wasting my time, money, and energy on this mess.