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This post covers Monday and Tuesday.
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MONDAY
Didn't sleep great but that's ok/typical when there are things I'm nervous about on the docket.
Usual breakfast and morning activities + updating my iPad and reserving a rental car in Canada so I can visit my trombone buddy who wants to try the O'Malley trombone. His house is 20 minutes away from downtown and the visit's on a show day, therefore I'd rather drive than rely on Uber or public transit.
Eventually walked to the car rental place. It was only a 10-minute walk but the weather was so lousy that it felt longer, rainy and windy and cold. I'd better get used to it because there's a lot more where that came from in upcoming cities. They didn't have small cars left so I was given a minivan. First I drove out to the Colorado Railroad Museum to retrieve my illicitly re-purchased PA Railroad enamel pin.
Recap for those who don't know what I'm talking about: at the park with my stepsister and her kids last week, the kids gifted me a PA Railroad pin and asked that I put it on my bag. I thought I'd slipped the pin into my purse and thrown the packaging away, but apparently I accidentally threw the pin away with the packaging like a total idiot. The oldest, Elliotte, even told me specifically where to put it on my bag, so I knew they'd want to see it when I came over for dinner. Luckily the museum is close enough to drive, but they're closed to the public on Mondays (the only day I could come pick one up before seeing the kids again.) I called the museum, bought a replacement pin over the phone, and the empathetic retail manager agreed to let me come pick it up on Monday.
And that's why I drove out to the Colorado Railroad Museum this morning. *facepalm*
The empathetic manager was waiting for me, even though the museum was closed. She handed me the pin, I thanked her profusely, and immediately put the pin on my bag. Crisis averted! No one (except you guys) will know that this happened, and the kids won't know that their aunt is a dummy (well not this time anyway)
With that done, the next thing I wanted to do was get bagels for the week. Because I LOVE me some local bagels! There's a small chain here called Call Your Mother and they had a shop just a few miles away. On the drive there, the scenery was amazing. These photos don't capture it but it's the best I could do while driving. Mountains and mesas and big industrial mines and factories.
The bagel shop turned out to be in touristy Golden, CO. A cute downtown packed with "Old West"-style shops.
After parking I did poke my head into a general store and a curiosity shop...may as well while I'm there! Can't afford anything right now but wanted to enjoy the sights. Got my uniquely-seasoned bagels (maple black pepper, pretzel, za'atar!) and drove back to Downtown Denver. Found parking outside the hotel and went inside to eat lunch and decompress for a bit. When my parking time was up, back out to check out the big REI store outside of town. I wanted to look for gloves, headband/ear warmer, hat, warm socks, and possibly boots. But the gloves and hats were right by the door, and as soon as I saw the prices it was clear that I would not be buying a single thing here. The very cheapest gloves I could find were $30!! Just for gloves, ffs! Hats were no better. If those were the prices on the small accessories I'd hate to see what coats and boots cost. I briefly debated going to Walmart for things, but felt kind of disheartened and decided to go back to the hotel and rest some more.
Right as I was getting ready to drive to Kayle's, Jameson texted to tell me that Disney had sent him a health care packet!! Even though he's not full time, they now have a program that offers select health care plans to part-timers!! This means that it MIGHT be possible for him to FINALLY quit his teaching job!!! Not going to lie, the jealousy rose up in my gullet as soon as he shared the available health plans (they cost way less and give you way more than public health options), but I pushed it down quickly. It would be such a load off his shoulders and so much less stress if he could drop the teaching job, which is not what he wants to do and does nothing but suck his time away from the Disney work that he is actually passionate about. He's going to think about it carefully before deciding to give notice at the teaching job, but at least now he has a realistic option and truly can quit at any time, then focus solely on Disney. Wooooo!!! (PS: we on tour are not part-timers nor true full-timers, but contracted employees, which is why we don't get health care plans. The tour is not a permanent position within the company.)
Cheered by Jameson's news, I drove to Kayle's. Her husband wasn't home yet to so I let the kids drag me around, pelt me with questions, show me their artworks and schoolwork, show me their bedroom, and all that good stuff. And yes, within a few minutes Elliotte asked, "Where's your pin?" and I showed her that I'd put it where she'd wanted on my bag (subterfuge success!) They gave me some of their drawings (how sweet) and while Elliotte finished up some homework I installed locking pin backs on all of her enamel pins. Like me she enjoys collecting pins, but she's lost two favorites recently. Hopefully the locking backs will help prevent the rest from falling off.
When Kayle's husband got home we tried to catch up between questions and demands for attention from the kids while Kayle finished up dinner. The kids set the table and I brought the loaded plates out. Crock pot beef roast with potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms. It was so delicious and at this time of year, gave me wonderful nostalgia. Home-cooked meals are SO lovely :)
I was stuffed, but tried to save room for dessert which was ube cheesecake cups from Costco. The kids were unsure whether they liked theirs and picked at them before switching to Halloween candy. We adults agreed that they were tasty but the ube flavor wasn't very strong. I was pleased because even though this was a prepackaged dessert, the ingredients were cream and milk and mascarpone, not condensed milk or powdered milk or whey, meaning I could take one Lactaid and know I'd be all right. Yay!
After dessert we played two board games: a kids version of Catan, and Clue. Believe it or not I've never played either game before, so everybody had to handhold me a bit.
I lost at Catan because Drexel (Kayle's 3-year-old son) snapped up the most parrot cards thereby ending the game, but later on Drexel and I were on a team for Clue and won together. There was much cheating and peeking and suspicious dice-rolling during Clue, but it just added to the hilarity. You can't take things seriously when playing with kids aged five, three, and two! Lol.
After that I got the impression that the adults wanted to start herding the kids toward bed, so I gave hugs all around and started packing up. Kayle, being the overly-generous and thoughtful sister that she is and always has been, loaded me up with a big container of leftovers, a pile of snacks for the road, and essentially ALL of the winterwear that I needed!! She gave me a dark teal winter hat, lightweight but warm gloves, a base layer shirt and leggings in my size, and a coat (since I've got the coat in Canada I'll likely regift this, but it was still very appreciated.) With that I'm pretty much set! Thank goodness I didn't waste money on the overpriced stuff at REI!!
I drove to a gas station to refill the rental, returned it after hours, and walked back to the hotel. Sent Jameson an audio message to ask for more details about his health care offerings and how he felt about the possibility of being free from the teaching job, and when he messaged back I could tell by his tone how excited he is :) It would be really great if he could get out of teaching before the end of the year. We will see what happens and what he decides to do.
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TUESDAY
Awake slightly before my 7am alarm. I have a good internal clock.
Breakfast, putting on my Broadway Serves tee, and off to volunteer at an animal shelter! There were 12 of us participating and it was True Companions Animal Shelter here in Denver. We were introduced to the managers, who told us a bit of the shelter's history. It came into existence in the 80's when a veterinarian and his wife took in a stray dog that had been hit by a car, treated it, and put a jar on the counter to raise money for "Max's Fund", i.e. to pay for some of the treatments and to get the dog to an adoptable state. A few years later that small gesture had inspired them to create a real registered nonprofit, a no-kill shelter that would take in animals to rehabilitate them, find them homes if possible, or give them a place to live out their days if they couldn't be adopted. Today the shelter has three separate buildings: a veterinary clinic x dog kennel and rehab; a "kitty condo" building where cats live, and a kitty clinic and administrative offices building.
We were divided into three groups. Our first task was to take down the Halloween decorations in all three buildings in preparation for other upcoming holidays. That was quickly accomplished, and next we were given gloves and trash bags and asked to pick up any trash around the public sidewalks and shelter buildings. This is important work because dogs like to pick things up or try to eat them during walks, and can be injured or get sick from doing this. There wasn't all that much trash but we did find several spots with broken glass, which we marked and reported to the manager.
After that, it was playtime!! Because a lot of these animals are from difficult backgrounds or are just plain feral, for obvious reasons we were not allowed to interact with most of them. But we were allowed to meet two lovely puppies! One was a little black puppy who was deaf (I forget her name, Clara maybe?), and the other was a boxer-mix named Aaron Gordon (how is it that I can remember THAT name lol.) Aaron was a hyper little guy and was bullying Clara into playing with him, plus he had the zoomies. He'd tear off around the outdoor yard while Clara ran to one of us for protection, then Aaron would come at them like a missile and bowl them over! They were adorable and great fun.
Here's a short video of the puppies with me, Clara sniffing my shoe and Aaron running over to bother her (he'd calmed down a bit by this point at least)
Another with my back to the camera but still interacting with the pups.
Afterward a big group photo was taken! This is a screenshot from the shelter's IG story, still waiting for the original photo.
From there we moved on to "kitty condo" to visit with some of the cats and kittens. We were not allowed to open any closed kennels, so unless a cat was already out and about our interactions had to be "behind bars," lol. Some of the cats were feral, fearful, or recovering from surgeries, so this was the safest way to provide companionship and affection while keeping both us and the animals safe.
A Siamese-mix who was affectionate and appreciated some pets.
A young black cat who was allowed out, very social and I'd imagine many people would want to adopt :)
And that was pretty much it! We thanked the manager and one by one, called Ubers back to the hotel or went our separate ways. I very much appreciate any opportunity to do hands-on service work like this. Donations and contributions are all fine and good, but personally I like ACTIVE service where your work or your presence has a direct and immediate impact. My parents used to make us volunteer to serve Thanksgiving dinners to the needy, rake leaves for the elderly, and signed us up for service-based mission trips involving real labor like crop gleaning, home repairs, or youth mentorships. As a kid I always groaned about the work beforehand, but felt quietly happy to have done it afterward. Knowing that you really did make a difference in someone's day, even in just a small way, is a wonderful thing. I hope that we'll have more opportunities for stuff like this.
There will be more pictures on the shelter's socials soon and I'll share those when they're up.
Back to the hotel for lunch and to type up this post, then a nice rest curled up with my book and some tea. Eventually dinner and to the theatre for the evening show. DAR was back on the conductor's podium and Gary in the drum booth. All is right with the world :D
Quick note on politics: It was Election Day here in the US, midterms. During our show tonight the Democrats won majority in both the House and Senate, and several traditionally Republican states flipped to Democrat (most notably Texas, Iowa, and Kansas. Kansas has not had a Democratic senator since 1932.) Additionally, several of the new Governors elected tonight were women, POC, or openly gay. Notable here are the Governor of New Mexico who is the first female Native American governor ever elected in the United States, and the Governor of Georgia who is the first Black woman in US history to ever lead a state government (That's 250 years. She's the very first.) Her opponent was also a billionaire who spent close to a quart of a million dollars trying to defeat her, 85% of which was his own personal money. His campaign spent approx $231,000,000...and hers, about $48,000,000. He tried to buy the Governorship...and lost.
Anyway, I don't like to talk politics, mainly because I remember a time when politics were not so polarized and there were stances and policies that I agreed with on both sides of the political fence. But things aren't like that any more, so essentially I feel the majority HAS to vote a certain way to effect change whether they fully agree with a party's policies or not. I don't think that's how a democracy is supposed to work (I'm pretty ignorant so I could be wrong) but with that said, my opinion on these election results and "The Blue Wave" is: IT'S A START. There is so much damage to be undone and so much work left to do. But there is a glimmer of hope, now, that we're not totally LOST. That we can maybe dig out of this mess and get started on a brighter future for the upcoming majority. My favorite part about tonight was seeing Governors and Senators and political servants elected who actually represent their constituents.
It's a start. That is all.
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Wednesday: Some more serious Canada prep including a trip to Walmart to get some nonperishables that likely won't be found up there, possibly get a little Canadian cash, and other errands like shipping things or organizing my trunk. One evening show.
Thursday: Two shows and no plans.
