I feel like proclaiming 'Today I am a bander'! Not because I got my band, but because I passed (suffered??) my first initiation - the rite of the first PB. OWWWWW!!!
I knew about it, had read reams about them, thought I would be able to avoid them because I knew and practiced the rules. I practiced before getting the band, and since banding have passed the other stages (liquid, mushies, bandster hell, first fill, second fill) with nary a glitch. But, alas, the gullet is greater than the fork!
Sorta like childbirth - until you experience it, you cannot imagine it. Reading, researching and conversations do not adequately describe it. It is beyond description - although I do recall someone on this forum referring to it as the golf-ball from hell. Gotta say, to me it was more like a flaming soccerball! Whatever you call it, ouch!
So, I guess I hereby annoit myself (with slime) - a bandster!