This past weekend, I competed in a collegiate ballroom dance competition. The hosts’ school doesn’t have a good facility that they’re allowed to reserve, so they rent a local function room. Part of the deal is that competitors are not to bring food and drink into the ballroom, but they will be for sale at the venue.
This venue used to have a drinking fountain, so I went over there to get some water after dancing my first round (think 4 back-to-back 100 yard dashes). It had been barricaded off, and a couple of employees of the function hall were standing around it. I asked where I could find a functional drinking fountain, and they snapped, “You can’t bring food or water in here! Go to the bar!” OK, I didn’t know that using a drinking fountain counted as bringing in food and drink, but whatever. I go to the bar and ask for a cup of tap water, fully intending to tip for it. The bartender tells me they don’t have any tap water 
but they are selling warm 12oz bottles of water for $2.25. Even if I was willing to pay that kind of money for water, I don’t have that much on me. So I get to go without water for several hours until I can leave the venue long enough to get cash and then get water to drink in the car.
The food was tuna subs with tons of mayo, potato chips, and stale cookies. Uh, yeah, that’s what I always eat before/during athletic events. (Spare me the “is it a real sport” debate, please - whether or not it is, it requires a lot of physical effort).
Is it too much to ask that something moderately healthy, perhaps even a vegetable be provided for sale? Or that it be possible to drink enough water to replace my losses without taking out a second mortgage?
