Well, This Just Sucks.

So my DI [Destination Imagination] team and I found out the wonderful news today. After much, much waiting, we finally got our performance schedule for our Regional Competition.

We perform our Central Challenge solution at 7:36 AM and have our Instant Challenge at 9:20ish.

I almost cried when my mother told me. If we have to perform at 7:36, we have to be in the holding space at 7:15ish. Which means we have to have all of our props ready by 7:05. We'll have to be at the school at 6:45. We'll have to have our costumes completely done by 6:35 and we'll have to start doing face makeup around 5:45. Meeting time is tentatively set for 5:30 AM.

Meaning, of course, that I'll have to be up long before 5 AM if I want to have everything set and ready for the day. And when my wake-up time starts with a "4," my temper tends to flare. Not good.

Talk about a disgusting schedule. We're the very first team to go--never a good place to be--and we're completely and totally unprepared for this competition. There are six teams in our challenge at our age group, so it's not even a guarantee that we'll qualify for states [as it has been multiple times]. We've always gotten first or second anyway [if you don't count our first year], so it's not like we're dependent on there being only a few teams, but that security is sure nice when it's two weeks before competition and you don't even know your lines.

And having IC in the morning sucks as well. Nobody--especially kids who have been together since 5:30 AM--can function at 100% at 9:20 in the morning. I know it's not that early, but considering that we'll be coming off of such an early performance, you'd think they would have given us some time to at least relax in between challenges.

Oh, no. Definitely not. That would be convenient! Imagine that!

Today at our meeting, it was mere shock that lit my teammates' faces. There was even a suggestion that we screw sleeping and just pull an all-night practice. We've done it before, we could do it again...

But I turn into a royal [insert vulgar word of your choosing] when I don't sleep. And caffeine only makes me angrier. Yes, I would be prepared to perform, but my boys on the team would fear for their lives, and Kailey would probably be terrified, too.

This just sucks. Of all the years to be unprepared for regionals, we choose this one. Please, please, please wish us good luck in the upcoming weeks, that just maybe we'll finish everything on time and not kill ourselves [or each other] along the way.

Sleep well, world. I'll be up all night, learning my lines...