Tiny Violin
Jun. 14th, 2021 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39I am exhausted.
Thursday night/Friday morning, Jameson's dad had a redeye flight and didn't arrive until around 2:30am.
Jameson got home just about an hour before that. So I'm not sure how much sleep I got but it wasn't much.
Work the next day was same old, just harder because I was very tired.
After work I drove straight to the dealership to have my car looked at (nothing wrong, just regular maintenance plus since I'm driving to PA and back I want it looked at). I brought my steno machine because I need to get as much practice in as possible, to make up for the practice I'll miss while home. I got a few weird looks, but I don't really care.
My technician of course wanted to know what it was and how it worked, so I described to him what I was doing and pulled up a letter map of the keyboard. He must have told his buddies because while I was checking out they also had questions, which I was happy to answer and show the machine to them as well. Felt like I was giving a demo.
Anyway, happily my car is fine, just regular upkeep. I'll probably need new tires soon after I get back, not surprising.
Back home I hung out with Jameson's dad for a bit, showed him my plants. I got lucky and caught a fly in the bathroom, and asked if he'd like to see me feed it to my flytrap, to which he responded with a very enthusiastic "Yes!!". So that happened. Much less excited than you'd expect, it just, you know, traps the fly. I explained that I only need to feed it a fly once a month or so, and that it doesn't even really need to be fed that often either, but probably enjoys it.
Back inside I got my pajamas on and we watched the Queen movie and talked a bit.
We went to bed around 10, I fell asleep around 11 but kept waking up to check my phone for where Jameson was. 2:30 rolled around and he still wasn't home, so I texted him suggesting a hotel if needed (he was out with friends after that night's show). He responded quickly that he was just leaving, and got home around 3 or 3:30am. I get up at 5:30am for work.
So, another night in a row of less than 5 hours of sleep.
Saturday, getting up felt terrible, so did going to work.
I did a bit extra stuff since I'll be leaving a day early. Otherwise it was a normal day.
After work I tried (unsuccessfully) to take a nap in a spare room, then drove out to Pig Floyd's to meet Jameson's dad for dinner before Jameson's show. The restaurant is closer to my work than home, so we both agreed it was better to meet there separately, rather than having me drive an hour home and 45 minutes back just so we could ride together.
Pig Floyd's is one of many small, non-chain, amazing restaurants found on Mills 50, a stretch of road in Orlando that is traditionally bohemian, housing the city's Chinatown and with a prominent LGBTQ presence. Murals decorate every building with a bare side.
Many of the murals are dedicated to the victims of the PULSE nightclub shooting.
The nightclub is located at the far end of Mills.
The restaurant where we had dinner is located on the opposite end of Mills near the theatre district. It’s very small, but has a big smoker out back and walking up you can smell hickory and cherry wood and god knows what other fragrant, smoky goodness. Jameson’s dad was waiting for me in line, and we chatted and drooled as we waited our turn to order.
There were many interesting things on the menu, but as always in a new restaurant, I chose their basic/standard fare to see what they’re all about at the core. Pulled pork with apple fennel slaw on a house-made coconut pineapple bun.
It was pretty dang good! My only complaint was that it was too oily. Some BBQ places serve the meat on a piece of toasted bread, which soaks up the oil before you assemble your sandwich. I wish this place did that. But otherwise, I’m bookmarking this one to drag family to when they visit. Cuz it was very tasty! Jameson’s dad had their ban mi made with crispy pork belly. I wanted that too. Why can’t I eat EVERYTHING.
And then it was time for the show.
We drove to the theater and enjoyed a dessert drink in the lobby before getting seated. I’ve played in this theater before. It was nice to see it “full”; although only half capacity is allowed and everyone must wear masks, it was a sold out show.
It gave me a thrill of pride to see Jameson in the lofted pit, directing everyone. What a hunk! :D
I’m so proud of him.
It was an amazing show, hilarious and heartfelt, and it seemed to me that everyone from the actors to the dancers to the ushers and crew were taking it VERY seriously, I mean, giving it their all. Pre-covid, I knew a lot of very jaded artists who were perfectly willing to half-ass lower wage gigs like this. Maybe having your career snatched from under you changes your perspective, hm?
(Says the person who had her career snatched away even before covid began and was condescendingly told “it’s just a job” and to “get over it”.)
So what we got as a result was a truly amazing show. I’m talking rivaling a Broadway production.
In a town where the theme parks, cruise ships, casinos, and yes, Broadway, all scout and hire talent, there is an oversaturation of skilled performers of all kinds. After the past year, it's been easy to forget that. This show was definitely a great reminder that there are a lot of truly amazing people here.
This particular show was special. Afterward, Jameson performed a special arrangement of one of the songs from the show, just him on the piano and the performers singing along, unmiked.
Here is the link, hopefully you'll be able to see the video. (CLICK HERE)
People were sobbing. If you lived in Orlando five years ago, you knew someone involved in this terrible tragedy. The wound is still fresh.
Anyway, it was extremely beautiful and touching. I was so, so proud of Jameson and happy for his involvement in what turned out to be a really special show.
Back home, we talked for a while about the show before going to bed. So once again I didn't get much sleep at all. But at least this time, it was fully worth it.
Work was...well, I did the best that I could. Felt like I would start halucinating any moment, lol.
One nice thing was, I got an invitation to apply for another internal position. This was pretty surprising, I wasn't sure I'd done a good job at the previous interviews. But the Recruiting Supervisor who emailed me described my interview as "stellar" and "highly recommended" me to apply for this new position: HR Assistant. Um, I have ZERO HR experience on my resume. But, ok. With such a flattering recommendation, how could I not at least apply?
That night Jameson's dad and I both packed for stuff, him for his SUPER early redeye flight, me for the start of my drive after work.
I submitted as much steno work as I was able to do, and sent an email reminding my teacher that I wouldn't be in class on Monday.
Then I finally got to go to bed before midnight. Jameson came home around 3, and I said goodnight, and went right back to bed.
Monday, I loaded the car and off I went to work. Nothing exciting happened at work, other than I ate half a Pub Sub and half a huge chocolate chip cookie.
Finally my workday ended and it was time to GOOOOOOOO!
I hit the road and got out to 95, headed north.
The trip was going smoothly until I reached a stretch of road with about four fender-benders and a few minutes of backed up traffic.
Got through it just fine, but as traffic started to speed up again I felt a sudden bump. Didn't see anything, but suddenly something felt...off. As I continued at 70mph with everyone else, there was another loud THUMP, and then things REALLY felt wrong.
I quickly put on my 4-ways and got over to the shoulder to see wtf.
I saw what seemed like thread, coming from my tire? On closer inspection...
OOOOOOH MYYYYYY GOOOOD.
Since the tire had not lost pressure and the majority of the tire wasn't damaged, I made the executive decision to take the exit just a few feet away and try to find a tire shop. I found one, but it was nearly 7pm and every single one was locking up for the evening. As the sales associate locked his door and walked away I frantically googled around. Either everyone was already closed, or was closing in the next 10 minutes. I had just started wondering what the hell I should do next when the sales associate reappeared, and timidly offered to "at least" help me put my spare tire on.
I was obviously incredibly grateful. While I dug the spare tire out of the trunk, he checked his inventory and found that he didn't actually have the tire I needed, but another store across town did. He called them up and asked them to stay open, then got to work on the spare. Once he had it on, I thanked him profusely (with both words and cash) and then drove to the other location where a mechanic had been waiting nearly 30 minutes for me. Turns out he was a former Toyota tech, and he had JUST ONE tire in the size I needed in stock.
While he was working on the tire a car pulled up. It was the first sales associate, who had followed me to make sure I got there ok, and then helped the mechanic to put the tire on my car so the work would go faster. I was absolutely floored by the kindness of these two people. I'm someone who HATES staying at work later than scheduled, I couldn't believe that these two not only stayed an hour later but seemed completely unbothered by it! They cheerfully adjusted the tire and inflated it, chatting and laughing as they did. I felt, honestly, a little embarrassed. I complain a lot, about much less. I need to try to be more like this. Because everyone deserves to be helped the way I was helped tonight.
When they were done, again, profuse thanks all around, then I hit the road.
The car handled just fine, I didn't notice any pulling, thumping, or anything off at all. I got to the hotel about 1.5 hours later than planned, but so what!! I was grateful to get there at all.
There's something interesting that I want to mention, even though it doesn't really make a difference to anything and I kinda doubt anyone will believe me.
I dreamed about this last night.
I thought it was a stress dream. I mean it WAS a stress dream.
I don't know where I was in the dream, but someone came and told me there was something wrong with my car. And when I went with him to look, my left front tire was shredded. WAY worse than what happened today, it was sitting on the rim. But still. It was very disconcerting for it to actually, well, HAPPEN. I think I must have mentally been saying, "NO WAY" for about the entire first half hour.
Regardless, I'm glad everything worked out ok.
Not sure when I'll have time to post again. But for now, the saga continues. Tomorrow I'll hang out a little around here, have some breakfast, do some thrifting, and hit the road again.
Thursday night/Friday morning, Jameson's dad had a redeye flight and didn't arrive until around 2:30am.
Jameson got home just about an hour before that. So I'm not sure how much sleep I got but it wasn't much.
Work the next day was same old, just harder because I was very tired.
After work I drove straight to the dealership to have my car looked at (nothing wrong, just regular maintenance plus since I'm driving to PA and back I want it looked at). I brought my steno machine because I need to get as much practice in as possible, to make up for the practice I'll miss while home. I got a few weird looks, but I don't really care.
My technician of course wanted to know what it was and how it worked, so I described to him what I was doing and pulled up a letter map of the keyboard. He must have told his buddies because while I was checking out they also had questions, which I was happy to answer and show the machine to them as well. Felt like I was giving a demo.
Anyway, happily my car is fine, just regular upkeep. I'll probably need new tires soon after I get back, not surprising.
Back home I hung out with Jameson's dad for a bit, showed him my plants. I got lucky and caught a fly in the bathroom, and asked if he'd like to see me feed it to my flytrap, to which he responded with a very enthusiastic "Yes!!". So that happened. Much less excited than you'd expect, it just, you know, traps the fly. I explained that I only need to feed it a fly once a month or so, and that it doesn't even really need to be fed that often either, but probably enjoys it.
Back inside I got my pajamas on and we watched the Queen movie and talked a bit.
We went to bed around 10, I fell asleep around 11 but kept waking up to check my phone for where Jameson was. 2:30 rolled around and he still wasn't home, so I texted him suggesting a hotel if needed (he was out with friends after that night's show). He responded quickly that he was just leaving, and got home around 3 or 3:30am. I get up at 5:30am for work.
So, another night in a row of less than 5 hours of sleep.
Saturday, getting up felt terrible, so did going to work.
I did a bit extra stuff since I'll be leaving a day early. Otherwise it was a normal day.
After work I tried (unsuccessfully) to take a nap in a spare room, then drove out to Pig Floyd's to meet Jameson's dad for dinner before Jameson's show. The restaurant is closer to my work than home, so we both agreed it was better to meet there separately, rather than having me drive an hour home and 45 minutes back just so we could ride together.
Pig Floyd's is one of many small, non-chain, amazing restaurants found on Mills 50, a stretch of road in Orlando that is traditionally bohemian, housing the city's Chinatown and with a prominent LGBTQ presence. Murals decorate every building with a bare side.
Many of the murals are dedicated to the victims of the PULSE nightclub shooting.
The nightclub is located at the far end of Mills.
The restaurant where we had dinner is located on the opposite end of Mills near the theatre district. It’s very small, but has a big smoker out back and walking up you can smell hickory and cherry wood and god knows what other fragrant, smoky goodness. Jameson’s dad was waiting for me in line, and we chatted and drooled as we waited our turn to order.
There were many interesting things on the menu, but as always in a new restaurant, I chose their basic/standard fare to see what they’re all about at the core. Pulled pork with apple fennel slaw on a house-made coconut pineapple bun.
It was pretty dang good! My only complaint was that it was too oily. Some BBQ places serve the meat on a piece of toasted bread, which soaks up the oil before you assemble your sandwich. I wish this place did that. But otherwise, I’m bookmarking this one to drag family to when they visit. Cuz it was very tasty! Jameson’s dad had their ban mi made with crispy pork belly. I wanted that too. Why can’t I eat EVERYTHING.
And then it was time for the show.
We drove to the theater and enjoyed a dessert drink in the lobby before getting seated. I’ve played in this theater before. It was nice to see it “full”; although only half capacity is allowed and everyone must wear masks, it was a sold out show.
It gave me a thrill of pride to see Jameson in the lofted pit, directing everyone. What a hunk! :D
I’m so proud of him.
It was an amazing show, hilarious and heartfelt, and it seemed to me that everyone from the actors to the dancers to the ushers and crew were taking it VERY seriously, I mean, giving it their all. Pre-covid, I knew a lot of very jaded artists who were perfectly willing to half-ass lower wage gigs like this. Maybe having your career snatched from under you changes your perspective, hm?
(Says the person who had her career snatched away even before covid began and was condescendingly told “it’s just a job” and to “get over it”.)
So what we got as a result was a truly amazing show. I’m talking rivaling a Broadway production.
In a town where the theme parks, cruise ships, casinos, and yes, Broadway, all scout and hire talent, there is an oversaturation of skilled performers of all kinds. After the past year, it's been easy to forget that. This show was definitely a great reminder that there are a lot of truly amazing people here.
This particular show was special. Afterward, Jameson performed a special arrangement of one of the songs from the show, just him on the piano and the performers singing along, unmiked.
Here is the link, hopefully you'll be able to see the video. (CLICK HERE)
People were sobbing. If you lived in Orlando five years ago, you knew someone involved in this terrible tragedy. The wound is still fresh.
Anyway, it was extremely beautiful and touching. I was so, so proud of Jameson and happy for his involvement in what turned out to be a really special show.
Back home, we talked for a while about the show before going to bed. So once again I didn't get much sleep at all. But at least this time, it was fully worth it.
Work was...well, I did the best that I could. Felt like I would start halucinating any moment, lol.
One nice thing was, I got an invitation to apply for another internal position. This was pretty surprising, I wasn't sure I'd done a good job at the previous interviews. But the Recruiting Supervisor who emailed me described my interview as "stellar" and "highly recommended" me to apply for this new position: HR Assistant. Um, I have ZERO HR experience on my resume. But, ok. With such a flattering recommendation, how could I not at least apply?
That night Jameson's dad and I both packed for stuff, him for his SUPER early redeye flight, me for the start of my drive after work.
I submitted as much steno work as I was able to do, and sent an email reminding my teacher that I wouldn't be in class on Monday.
Then I finally got to go to bed before midnight. Jameson came home around 3, and I said goodnight, and went right back to bed.
Monday, I loaded the car and off I went to work. Nothing exciting happened at work, other than I ate half a Pub Sub and half a huge chocolate chip cookie.
Finally my workday ended and it was time to GOOOOOOOO!
I hit the road and got out to 95, headed north.
The trip was going smoothly until I reached a stretch of road with about four fender-benders and a few minutes of backed up traffic.
Got through it just fine, but as traffic started to speed up again I felt a sudden bump. Didn't see anything, but suddenly something felt...off. As I continued at 70mph with everyone else, there was another loud THUMP, and then things REALLY felt wrong.
I quickly put on my 4-ways and got over to the shoulder to see wtf.
I saw what seemed like thread, coming from my tire? On closer inspection...
OOOOOOH MYYYYYY GOOOOD.
Since the tire had not lost pressure and the majority of the tire wasn't damaged, I made the executive decision to take the exit just a few feet away and try to find a tire shop. I found one, but it was nearly 7pm and every single one was locking up for the evening. As the sales associate locked his door and walked away I frantically googled around. Either everyone was already closed, or was closing in the next 10 minutes. I had just started wondering what the hell I should do next when the sales associate reappeared, and timidly offered to "at least" help me put my spare tire on.
I was obviously incredibly grateful. While I dug the spare tire out of the trunk, he checked his inventory and found that he didn't actually have the tire I needed, but another store across town did. He called them up and asked them to stay open, then got to work on the spare. Once he had it on, I thanked him profusely (with both words and cash) and then drove to the other location where a mechanic had been waiting nearly 30 minutes for me. Turns out he was a former Toyota tech, and he had JUST ONE tire in the size I needed in stock.
While he was working on the tire a car pulled up. It was the first sales associate, who had followed me to make sure I got there ok, and then helped the mechanic to put the tire on my car so the work would go faster. I was absolutely floored by the kindness of these two people. I'm someone who HATES staying at work later than scheduled, I couldn't believe that these two not only stayed an hour later but seemed completely unbothered by it! They cheerfully adjusted the tire and inflated it, chatting and laughing as they did. I felt, honestly, a little embarrassed. I complain a lot, about much less. I need to try to be more like this. Because everyone deserves to be helped the way I was helped tonight.
When they were done, again, profuse thanks all around, then I hit the road.
The car handled just fine, I didn't notice any pulling, thumping, or anything off at all. I got to the hotel about 1.5 hours later than planned, but so what!! I was grateful to get there at all.
There's something interesting that I want to mention, even though it doesn't really make a difference to anything and I kinda doubt anyone will believe me.
I dreamed about this last night.
I thought it was a stress dream. I mean it WAS a stress dream.
I don't know where I was in the dream, but someone came and told me there was something wrong with my car. And when I went with him to look, my left front tire was shredded. WAY worse than what happened today, it was sitting on the rim. But still. It was very disconcerting for it to actually, well, HAPPEN. I think I must have mentally been saying, "NO WAY" for about the entire first half hour.
Regardless, I'm glad everything worked out ok.
Not sure when I'll have time to post again. But for now, the saga continues. Tomorrow I'll hang out a little around here, have some breakfast, do some thrifting, and hit the road again.
