Series of Unfortuntate Events

   Last night was such a series of unfortunate events - it's almost unbelievable ... almost laughable .... almost.
  At the beginning of the school year Emily's band teacher told the class that one of their assignments was to attend a concert, this semester, that they weren't a part of.  So it couldn't be their own piano recital, but other than that, there were no rules.  After the concert, they had to write a review of the concert, attach the program/ticket and turn it in.  They had all semester to complete said assignment.  Well, unfortunately this went in one ear, out the other.  Until last Saturday. 
   Emily tells me about this assignment, and I was shocked that this was the first I'd heard of it.  I heard about it Saturday, and the paper was due Thursday.  Arggg.... Luckily for us, it's holiday concert season so I went the district website and started looking at every high school and middle school close to us looking for a concert to attend.  I found one on Tuesday night, but didn't want to go to that one because it was Derek's birthday .... but then found one at a middle school close to us on Wednesday night.  Perfect - we planned to go to that one.  I'd have to take Emily and Logan to the concert, because Derek and Tyler would have Young Men's, and Bailey would have Activity Days - but that was fine, we just needed to attend a concert and get it over with.
   Emily tells me her bestie Kate needs to go to a concert too, so we invite Kate and she's in.  So we're planning on going Wednesday night when Derek tells me that he has a city league basketball game at the same time, same school as the concert.  Perfect I think - he can take the girls, get them situated at the concert, go to his game, when the concert's over they can go to the gym and hang out until his game is over.  That leaves me and Logan out of the equation.  Perfect.  I run it past Kate's mom and make sure she's ok with this plan and she's fine with it.  So Wednesday night, off the 3 of them go.
   At 6:50 (10 minutes before the concert and the basketball game start) I get a phone call from Derek.  I knew instantly this was not going to be good news.  Yep, I was right.  There's no cars in the parking lot (other than the basketball players), the school's locked - there's no concert in sight.  Seriously??  I get on the website and see I was a day off - the concert is today, not last night.  That puts me in quite the bind because this darn assignment is due today.  I have to get these girls to a concert!  So on the district website I go again - there's a concert at a middle school 3 miles away from the school they're at.  It starts at 7:00, so late for sure, but we can make it work.
     I get Tyler and Bailey out the door, throw Logan in the car, and we're off to pick up the girls.  We pick them up at one school, drive to another school, and find the concert.  Unfortunately, the side of the gym where the bleachers are, is completely full.  Not a seat for one, let alone 4 of us.  So we go in and stand in the corner.  The orchestra is playing, and the whole time I'm searching for a program for these girls.  I can see parents with them, but can find any extras.  We only catch the last 3 songs and the  concert ends.  I go up to some stranger and ask if I can see her program - which I then take a very blurry picture of with my phone.  

  So home we go - attending the concert and getting the proof technically done - not done well, but done.  Emily immediately starts writing up this review.  She has to write 4 paragraphs giving quite the critique.  As soon she finishes she goes to print it. Yep, we're out of ink.  Not believing this night keeps getting better, I head to Walmart to buy ink.  Off I go, get the ink, come home and put the ink in the printer.  Yep, bought the wrong ink.  Bought color ink, of which we weren't out, but not black.  Unbelievable I think.  Unbelievable.  Off I go to Walmart ... again.  By now it's 9:00 and I can't believe I'm going to Walmart ... again.  At Walmart I can't find the right ink.  They're out of the ink I need.  Again with the unbelievable.

   And it gets worse ....
  So I go home and tell Emily she's going to just have to print it in color - use the darkest blue she can, and it's going to have to be good enough.  She prints it, it comes out purple - and we're past the point of caring.  I tell her to email her teacher the blurry picture of the program to her teacher (which she said was fine if we couldn't send in the actual program).  So Emmy goes to email her the picture, and lo and behold, there's an email from her band teacher.  Her email says, "sounds like lots of you forgot about this assignment ... I don't want you stressing it ... I won't make it due .... if you already did it you get extra credit." 
   Un. Believable.  Are you kidding me??  We went to 2 schools ... we went to a concert ... we wrote a paper .... we went to Walmart .... twice ... we emailed you a horrible picture .... for extra credit?!?  And Emily has a 100% in band.  After that, Emily and I just both had to go to bed.
   A series of unfortunate events indeed.