Loss of Courtesy

May I take a moment to get up on my soapbox and complain?

It began yesterday during my first lesson. The young lady had brought her cell phone with her. Can you see where this is going? Half way through warm ups her phone rings and she answers it! See, it wasn't a real phone call, it was just a text message. (Italics added) She then spent the next three or four minutes texting her friend, not to tell her to not call again because she was in a lesson, but that she could see her prom dress in about half an hour.

ARGH!

The worst part was that her mother, who pays for her lessons incidently, was sitting right there and didn't see anything wrong with it. I would be livid if I was paying for lessons for one of my children and they were wasting their time with their teacher by texting with their friends. What happened to common courtesy?

The second incident happened during rehearsal last night. We were being given instructions on proper use of the microphones, which I will acknowledge is very dry stuff, but very important, and the young lady next to me was, you guessed it!, texting her friends instead of paying attention!

When did we become so interconnected that we can't pay attention to what's going on around us?

I think I'm going to find a "no cell phones" sign, like the one Luke has in his diner and post it in my living room.