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Sep. 29th, 2006 11:41 pmGot a bloody quartet gig tomorrow. Wasn't told until Thursday that we weren't getting paid. The school district is getting the money from our playing. How does that make any sense? If we're not going to get money I'm not going to play we're not going to get money. It's volunteer work, whatever. If it's a good cause, I might do it, but generally, I don't play for free. The quartet is a job. This thing is the opening of a bank. Not a good cause, IMO.
But why does the district get to make money off of us? We charge $100 an hour. Ends up to $25 a person. Which for a rather experienced string quartet is cheap. I'd bet the lunch that these bank guys are feeding us (which I'm anticipating to be some kind of sub sandwich or something chock full of meat that I can't eat) that the district is charging them more than we would. (And I think I'm going to try and surreptitiously point that out to somebody in charge, if they appear to not have hugely close ties to the school.)
At the end of this concert thing, the district (by our charging, though like I said, they're undoubtedly charging more for this gig than we would) will owe me $175. Just me. The quartet in general is owed $700. 6 hours of playing for the district itself, one gig of which was 3 hours straight (all of which could be construed as volunteer work, but still pisses me off, as we are not a volunteer quartet and were not told if we were getting paid or not before my fellow members told them that we would play).
This gig is the last bloody straw. I've told my fellow quarteters that I will never and no longer play for the district for free. (I said that last time too, but I had committed to this one before we knew we weren't getting money, and feel bad telling them to find a new viola at the last minute.) This time is outrageous ^ n because we're not just playing for the district for free, the district is getting fucking paid for our work.
I'd love for the orchestra department to be audited. I'm sort of suspecting that some of this money (for this and the Strolling Strings gigs and such) is going into the director's pocket. And I plan to try and get a copy of the district's audit, see if I can find out where they lumped in the money they made off of us and where that's going.
The worst thing about it is that the other people in my quartet don't seem to care. And because they don't, me complaining about the unfairness of this is making me seem stingy and obsessive. Yeah, I like money. I'm taking a whole bloody load of AP and IB tests this year and next (something like 11, possibly more, which plus the money for the 1818 program is probably close to $1000) and could really use it. But more so, it's the principle of the thing.
Internet hasn't been working for days at home. Found out that it was because my dad had turned it off so I couldn't stay up late on the internet (which made me end up not finishing my history homework one night, which really pissed me off), and then forgot to turn it back on. My mother seems to believe that there is no way that you have to have the internet for homework. She's all "I went through school and never had to use the internet." That's because it wasn't frakking invented yet. This next week, I've decided to just make her do all my work and see how much of it she can do without looking things up/researching online.
So there have been these little mini-skirmishes between mum and me pretty much several times a day since our huge one on Wednesday. (Which I still completely believe was all her fault.) None of which I have been initiating, so that's good. Yet no matter what I do, I still manage to constantly piss her off. Little shit, like her accusing me of leaving a bag of cheese-nips open and my putting a spatula in the wrong place when I put away the dishes, and I get screamed at. Grr.
So stuff hasn't been all that great lately at the home sector. I've been crying bloody all the time and tired more than usual and switching between eating practically nothing and a whole lot. All of which I'm going to steadfastly blame on PMS.
Yeah. This post was originally a whole bunch of whiny depressive moaning about my issues. Still sort of is, but less so. Took a whole bunch of stuff out. I had to remind myself that nobody really cares about my crazy problems.
But why does the district get to make money off of us? We charge $100 an hour. Ends up to $25 a person. Which for a rather experienced string quartet is cheap. I'd bet the lunch that these bank guys are feeding us (which I'm anticipating to be some kind of sub sandwich or something chock full of meat that I can't eat) that the district is charging them more than we would. (And I think I'm going to try and surreptitiously point that out to somebody in charge, if they appear to not have hugely close ties to the school.)
At the end of this concert thing, the district (by our charging, though like I said, they're undoubtedly charging more for this gig than we would) will owe me $175. Just me. The quartet in general is owed $700. 6 hours of playing for the district itself, one gig of which was 3 hours straight (all of which could be construed as volunteer work, but still pisses me off, as we are not a volunteer quartet and were not told if we were getting paid or not before my fellow members told them that we would play).
This gig is the last bloody straw. I've told my fellow quarteters that I will never and no longer play for the district for free. (I said that last time too, but I had committed to this one before we knew we weren't getting money, and feel bad telling them to find a new viola at the last minute.) This time is outrageous ^ n because we're not just playing for the district for free, the district is getting fucking paid for our work.
I'd love for the orchestra department to be audited. I'm sort of suspecting that some of this money (for this and the Strolling Strings gigs and such) is going into the director's pocket. And I plan to try and get a copy of the district's audit, see if I can find out where they lumped in the money they made off of us and where that's going.
The worst thing about it is that the other people in my quartet don't seem to care. And because they don't, me complaining about the unfairness of this is making me seem stingy and obsessive. Yeah, I like money. I'm taking a whole bloody load of AP and IB tests this year and next (something like 11, possibly more, which plus the money for the 1818 program is probably close to $1000) and could really use it. But more so, it's the principle of the thing.
Internet hasn't been working for days at home. Found out that it was because my dad had turned it off so I couldn't stay up late on the internet (which made me end up not finishing my history homework one night, which really pissed me off), and then forgot to turn it back on. My mother seems to believe that there is no way that you have to have the internet for homework. She's all "I went through school and never had to use the internet." That's because it wasn't frakking invented yet. This next week, I've decided to just make her do all my work and see how much of it she can do without looking things up/researching online.
So there have been these little mini-skirmishes between mum and me pretty much several times a day since our huge one on Wednesday. (Which I still completely believe was all her fault.) None of which I have been initiating, so that's good. Yet no matter what I do, I still manage to constantly piss her off. Little shit, like her accusing me of leaving a bag of cheese-nips open and my putting a spatula in the wrong place when I put away the dishes, and I get screamed at. Grr.
So stuff hasn't been all that great lately at the home sector. I've been crying bloody all the time and tired more than usual and switching between eating practically nothing and a whole lot. All of which I'm going to steadfastly blame on PMS.
Yeah. This post was originally a whole bunch of whiny depressive moaning about my issues. Still sort of is, but less so. Took a whole bunch of stuff out. I had to remind myself that nobody really cares about my crazy problems.
