Getting into the mood

Before any performance, my dance teacher encourages us not to talk about anything unrelated to dance and the programme ahead of us. She asks us to be silent, thinking about what lies ahead of us, meditating in our own ways.
In keeping with the idea, if ever we dance to recorded music, I try and play the music while we get ready. Make-up is a long and tedious process, and having the music in the background helps us settle into the mood of the performance. I also play the music in the car while getting to the venue, to avoid getting stressed about the traffic and the stares we get, dressed as we are in full costume.

As usual, when a friend and I were to perform at Softbridge Solutions, Magarpatta City, we played the music during our long journey there. Entering the township, we were happily in the mood to perform together, having spoken of very little apart from the presentation and performance ahead of us.

But we could not get the CD to come out of the player.

We had parked and had twenty minutes left to perform, but the CD was stuck in the music system of the car. The eject button did not work. The system continued to play the CD cheerfully, but it wanted the CD for itself.

We tried everything we thought of trying. For fifteen minutes, we struggled with the player. We played the music, stopped the music, paused the music, but could not eject the CD. Five minutes left to begin the performance. We could not even go back and get another CD.
Finally, my friend pulled out the music system yet again, hoping she could coax the CD out. Smoothly, as if there had been no trouble in the first place, the CD slid out.

We ran upstairs and started our performance. So much for getting into the mood.