Kickdrum Beating in My Chest Again (Alternate Version)

Chapter 137

!!!!!!!!!!Author's Note!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone! Happy Sunday! Yes, yes, I know I'm two days late but I have a good reason for it. First off, I hope everyone had a good week. Mine was busy! Then, I got an extremely last-minute gig on Friday for the following (Sat) evening. I had to spend most of my Friday afternoon and evening preparing for that. Skip to Saturday. I thought I was going to have time before I left, but that didn't happen. That night, I went to my gig, which ended up being a complete fucking shitshow, which I will get to. I usually show up an hour before my gig so I have time to unload, set stuff up and test the sound. When I got there, there was another band playing and they were supposed to go until 7 p.m. I wasn't aware there was another band that night, so I unloaded all my stuff off to the side It was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. They stopped on time, but then took twenty-five minutes to clear the space before I could set up. The manager was aware of it. So, I started pulling my gear out off to the side, so when they were done, I could set up faster. They played until 7 like they were supposed to, but they didn't bother to clear their shit out of the space until 7:20. Again, I was supposed to start at 7:30. I was waiting off to the side, pulling out all my cords so I could set up quicker. I thought they'd gotten all their stuff, so I started setting up my stuff only to have one of the previous band's members moving my stuff to grab the rug that was covering the floor. Now it's 7:30 and I'm just now starting to set up. I can set up relatively quickly, so I started connecting all the cords and found that I was missing the power cord to one of my speakers. I started searching everywhere for it, knowing that I'd packed it and I remembered that I'd taken it out with my other cords. I couldn't find it anywhere, so I thought it was on the rug that the guy took and told the manager that somehow they'd taken one of my cords. The manager tried to call the other band to see if we could get it back, but it was almost 8:00, so even if they had it, I wasn't going to get it. I was incredibly frustrated and crying because everything that had happened wasn't my fault but I was the one that looked bad. I wanted to do a good job for this place and didn't want to be held responsible or blamed for what happened, because that has happened to me in the past. It was a very triggering experience for me. I think I might've mentioned that last year I had a terrible experience with a venue where they did blame me for starting late because a vendor's stuff was in the space they wanted me to be in. They also didn't want to pay me, and drew it out for months before they paid me. It felt like the same thing was happening again. Mind you, I'd set up my sound for two speakers, so now I only had one. I told the manager that and that I would do the best I could with what I had. So I pulled myself together and performed an hour of music, because I'm a fucking professional! Everyone told me I did a good job, but they could barely hear me. I packed up my stuff and left. The manager told me that it wouldn't count as a strike against me, but that has happened before too, so I'm not sure I buy that. I'm supposed to have another gig with them in a few weeks and if that one gets cancelled because of this, I will be very mad.  By then, I was exhausted and didn't want to anything other than go to bed. I already explained Saturday too.  I got a call this afternoon from the bassist of the other band saying he had my cord.  He's too far away to bring it to me, so he wants to mail it to me, which will take forever.  I also can't practice for other gigs until I get that, so he's fucking me over even more.   That's why you are getting your update today instead of Friday.  I hope you all understand.  I've had a rough few days, and I'm hoping you will give me a pass for this week.

Here's your summary for this week.  Back in the real world, it's been a while since Joe's seen Patrick, so he goes to check on him. He finds him still in the shower with the nurses who are doing tepid sponging to cool him down. There hasn't been much change, but they are keeping it down. Patrick starts shivering so they move him back to his bed and cover him with the sheets and blankets to stop the shivering. Joe notices it's been a while since Spencer has been there and Joel and Ian (nurses) tell him he's been briefed and told them what to do, but that he's really busy because sickbay only has one doctor and mention it will be better when Dr. Woodard starts. That pisses Joe off so he tells them exactly what happened with that situation. They are dumbfounded and think it's awful. Then they leave to go check on things. Brad questions why Joe let Joel and Ian off the hook for their guilt. Joe explains that it involves emotions that Brad doesn't have so he can't really explain it to him. Joe falls asleep and Brad wakes him up to go to Yard Time. Joe meets up with Dan and his friends and begins giving them and update on what'd happened with Patrick up to now.