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Tootsie on Tour: Atlanta, GA
**Disclaimer: The content of this post reflects my own personal views, opinions, and experiences.
This post does NOT express the views or opinions of my employer.**
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The venue: Fox Theatre
(stock images. The Fox is beautiful so it gets an extra photo!)
Covid Tests to Date: 49
TL;DR TikTok:
TikTok by @tromboneontour
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We had a late travel day, not leaving the hotel until noon.
I had time to eat both breakfast and lunch before boarding the bus.
Then our flight wasn't until 3pm, so a few hours of hanging out at the airport.
But we made it to Atlanta in good time, then to our hotel.
This is a nice hotel room (they've all been nice, ya know?) but it definitely wins the Smallest Bathroom Award!
Even smaller than the bathrooms on the train AND on the cruise ship. My knees almost touch the sink counter.
I feel bad for all the big guys on our tour this week.
Once we arrived I did my weekly routine: find and evaluate the fridge; walk to nearest grocery for the goods; walk back and put it all away; unpack and get settled in. I want to start budgeting now that the holidays are over, so we will see how I do with a spending limit of $240 per week.
I've been looking forward to Atlanta for several reasons.
For one, I've played the Fox before and it's a beautiful theatre and always a pleasure to perform there.
Also, Atlanta is a great city for foodies.
Finally, the Georgia Aquarium is one that I somehow missed when we came through with the circus, so I've been really excited to check it out!
Budget tracking: $75 of $240 spent so far
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Tuesday!
I woke up semi-early, decided to have a little fun with my oatmeal by adding some dark chocolate and raspberries.
No microwave this week, and while heating things up is more time consuming in the skillet it also allows for more creativity as the food cooks.
Our covid testing has been changed to mornings, which I'm personally happy about. It allows more time for everyone to know people tested positive and react by reblocking or getting subs or whatever. Finding out an hour before the show has seemed kinda risky. I got my tests and then started walking to Ponce City Market.
I had hoped to visit Root Baking Co., but the info that I could find on their site and social media was vague about whether they were actually open and actually making bread on weekdays. Sure enough, I arrived an hour after they had supposedly opened to find the door locked and the lights off. Oh well. The rest of the market was pretty cool, a very hipster vibe, a lot of art and locally made/produced goods for sale. Loads of good restaurants.
I found Bellina Alimentari, an Italian place with fresh pasta, and ordered squid ink lumache with braised octopus, tomatoes, a spreadable sausage called n'duja which served as a sauce, and some herbs. It was spicy and earthy and delicious! My only nitpick is that there was very little octopus, maybe 2oz total, and I felt a little gypped in that department. But what there was, was very tasty.
There was a Whole Paycheck right there so I popped in to get my pea milk and some veggies, then managed to resist temptation on everything else. Got back to the hotel to quickly nom my squid pasta and put everything away before heading back out to hunt for local bread somewhere else. And accidentally stumbled upon Sweet Hut.
Sweet Hut is an Asian-styled bakery, and although it's a chain (I try to avoid chains) it's almost exclusively found in Georgia. Each little bakery item is individually wrapped, and you select what you'd like using wax paper and gloves.
Normally I opt for whole grain or rustic bread...healthy options.
Asians don't "do" rustic or whole grain. They do sweet, they do savory, they do steamed, filled, and encrusted.
And you know what? LIFE IS SHORT and it's time to eat some enriched breads this week!
I got a soft milk bread with a purple taro swirl, a pork sung (crispy pork floss) roll with chive and sesame, and a violet taro mochi bun.
Pulling apart the milk bread:
Pork floss roll:
Violet taro bun:
See, this is why I count calories.
There are gonna be a few days this week where I'm over the fat content quota that I set for myself. Pretty unavoidable now that I've bought the milk bread. BUT, I can still stay within a healthy total calorie range! And THAT is the main goal here: not avoiding foods, but simply being aware of how much I eat overall each day :)
I tried a sliver of the taro bread and it was sweet, fluffy, freaking amazing. Totally worth it.
For dinner I at the pork floss roll. It wasn't stuffed with the floss, but seemed to be dipped in sweet cream butter and then dipped in the floss to make it stick to the ends of the roll. Which was fine because it was deliiiicous, both sweet and savory.
Soon it was time for our first sound check at the Fox.
It's such a beautiful old theatre, and such great acoustics.
The pit is WIDE open...and for the first time, I'll get to see what's happening on stage! I was so excited to realize this!
This theatre opens 15 minutes earlier than most others, and they have an organist who plays for 30 minutes as people find their seats.
The organ is nicknamed "Mighty Mo" and was custom designed for this theatre in 1929 and has been restored several times to keep it rocking the house, most recently in 2019. There's a clip of the organist playing in the TikTok at the top of this post.
The show went VERY quickly for me! Because I stared at everything happening instead of staring at my phone to pass the time.
Some parts line up with what I imagined was happening, others were a surprise to me. I had a great time, probably just as much fun as the audience, who were laughing it up and really enjoying the show. I'm definitely excited for the rest of the week playing this venue!
Budget tracking: $129 of $240 spent so far
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Wednesday, I skipped breakfast because I wanted to eat at a Japanese-style cafe!
The cafe is Momonoki, and it's near Georgia Tech.
The restaurant opens at 11 but you can go as early as 9 to get a coffee and sit in the cafe.
I went over a little early and got a black sesame latte, which was SO GOOD.
If you've had tahini, the flavor was like that only roastier and toastier. A really beautiful complement to the coffee.
When the restaurant side opened I went over there and ordered a chicken "katsu sando".
"Katsu sando" is traditionally some sort of fried meat between two slices of milk bread, sometimes with toppings like mayo, cheese, veggies, sauces, etc. I think it's usually a fried pork cutlet, but this place offered a wide selection of meats including chicken, pork, steak, egg, oyster, shrimp, or a mushroom/avocado version.
Mine was chicken thigh with katsu sauce, kewpie mayo, and seasoned cabbage. Served with a side of lotus chips.
It was really, really good.
The chips were very bland so I didn't eat a lot of those, but the sandwich was amazing and the latte even more so.
Very glad I got to try these foods today!
I went back to the hotel to digest and clean up a little before heading to the Georgia Aquarium!
Somehow, even though I've been to Atlanta many many times, I've never been to this aquarium.
So much beautiful sea life, and it wasn't even all that crowded so I was able to take my time and admire everything that I wanted to see.
Here are some highlights from my visit:
TikTok by @tromboneontour
And here's a picture of the whale shark that I took, that I'm inexcusably pleased with:
The Georgia Aquarium is the only place in the US (besides the open ocean) where you can see a whale shark.
For this reason alone you should visit if you get a chance. If you could care less about whale sharks, there are many other beautiful and amazing animals here that are worth your time!
After that I walked back, enjoying the cold but sunny day and stopping at Chick Fil A for a salad because I knew I wouldn't want to cook.
Spent a few hours chilling out before the evening show, then walked to the pit (it is SO NICE having the theatre so close!) and enjoyed the sounds of the organ as I got ready for the show.
The show went well and the audience was wonderful :)
Budget tracking: $209 of $240 spent so far
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Thursday, I gave myself a nice lazy day since I did so much walking around yesterday.
Not to mention I'm close to my budget limit so it's time to start avoiding the temptation to spend, lol.
I had a nice breakfast, chatted with Jameson, researched laundry facilities, and watched a little tv.
I also decided to book some fitness scans for myself in Des Moines (a good city for working this in financially because I don't plan to eat out there more than once). The scans are DEXA, which uses X-rays to show your body composition and bone density; and RMR, which is your Resting Metabolic Rate. I am already very attentive to dietary planning, but have never consulted a nutritionist or received any kind of feedback about whether the activity levels, diet, nutrition, and overall health choices I'm making up as I go along are any good. As I am creeping closer and closer to forty, I am interested in finding out whether there's anything I should work on changing now that will benefit me later. Overall I think I've done well, but why not invest a little in some more knowledge and feedback while I have the chance.
Anyway I booked those and had lunch and debated going for a walk but decided to be lazy.
Around dinnertime I met with my friends Don and Debra. They are a trombonist and flautist respectively, who were both military musicians and are now semi-retired. I worked with Don at Busch Gardens. He's a dear friend and tonight he drove 50 minutes to visit and see our show, even though I couldn't provide discounted or comp tickets.
Here's a recent picture of them playing a German-style gig.
We ate at Publik House which is pretty much attached to the Fox, and for such a small pub-looking place I was surprised at how nice the food was. Don brought me some hot sauce and dry rub that he made himself, it's been in development for the past five years and pretty soon he wants to sell it online, he's doing some research on starting one's own business before taking that leap. He also brought me a little round of chili chocolate that he made, and that was fantastic, it had a texture like a chocolate torte and a good hot kick at the end. Based on the chocolates alone I think his business will do well! Jameson and I are excited to try the rub with our next batch of air fryer wings :)
The show went well, although all of us musicians deserve a "bad dog" and a whack with a newspaper because somehow we were all late to the call after intermission, and the show had to wait like five minutes for us. Embarrassing! This house doesn't have call boxes in the dressing rooms, plus our rooms are several floors away from the pit, so I think that had something to do with it. But it's no excuse. I'll be setting an alarm at intermission from now on. I used to do it in the circus and there's no reason not to get in the habit again.
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TGIF!
I woke up at the usual time and had breakfast, and went to the lobby for the second set of covid tests, then walked to a nearby laundromat.
During laundry a dietitian called from Hy-Vee in Des Moines, and agreed to do a consultation with me while I'm in town. Yay!
Des Moines will be exciting in its own way :)
After laundry I walked back and had another lazy afternoon of Downton Abbey and a nondescript lunch and dinner, then we had our show at 8pm. It was well attended and we had some catcallers in the back, which is always a fun and rowdy time as long as it's positive heckling.
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Saturday, shows at 2 and 8.
After breakfast and a slow morning I walked to Whole Foods because I'm out of vegetables, and frankly needed some carbs that are NOT Japanese milk bread, as delicious as it is. It's not unusual for me to have to supplement my groceries near the end of the week, but it's usually only one or two items that don't exceed $10. I got a banana, a potato, and some leafy greens and am still nicely under budget.
A chill afternoon and a 2pm show. A CHILLY show at 2pm, it was 30 degrees out and the theatre was quite cold! It has doors all around the front and also the sides, so with them opening and closing all the time cold air was constantly filtering in. It was still a fun show for an appreciative audience. I wore my black fleece jacket, which has been the best investment in my tour inventory by far.
For dinner I ate groceries and watched a new anime series on Netflix, then the evening show was good because it was a rowdy crowd and Neeks (one of our lovely ensemble women) stood in for the character of Julie, possibly because she had family in the audience(?) or because she just had been practicing and wanted to do it. She did a fantastic job!
It was below 30 when we got out, so I put on my animal-ear hat and got some finger-pointing, laughs, raised eyebrows, and "oooo I want that!" out on the street.
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Sunday, perhaps I was extra hungry because I dreamed about cake, about a gooey chocolate candy corn cake and I cut myself a big slice and was so excited to eat it, and then set the plate down to do something else and when I came back of course it was gone. Sigh. I woke up drooling and hunting for my lost slice.
Breakfast was eggs , banana, coffee, and the last of my milk bread...yes, I managed to go through all of it, because although the loaf is pretty tall it's a very fluffy light bread, and when I sliced it normally I ended up with about 10 slices, and at 1-2 slices per day that was just right.
I did a little packing prep, made my TikTok of the week, checked in for my flight, watched Downton Abbey and The Orbital Children, and had a random assortment of proteins and veg and potato for lunch before the 1pm show.
It was a good show, and for the first time I got to see sign language happening alongside the show. They had two ladies doing it, which had to be extremely helpful during those rapid-fire dialogue sections. They were a lot of fun to watch!
During the dinner break I packed some more and got a shower and ate whatever random groceries were left in my room.
The evening show went well, it was certainly well attended and we got really good laughs and applause throughout.
I'm going to miss that preshow organ-playing! It's certainly a special experience to perform at the Fox in Atlanta :)
After the show I packed up all of my things. We were told that all of our stuff will be taken to Des Moines immediately, and it's possibly going to sit outside in the truckbacks for days. It's zero degrees there right now, so this is cause for concern for some of our woodwind and string musicians, and probably the percussionist too. As for me, I just made sure to tie my liquids up in a plastic bag in case they expand and explode. My instrument should be ok.
This was Bill's last show (he's been subbing on trumpet), so we all said goodbye and I gave him a hug.
It was nice to get to perform with him again! He did a great job.
It'll also be nice to have Steve back in our next city. I hope he is feeling better.
Next week we have a layoff, so I'll be returning to Orlando to spend the week with Jameson.
He'll be having a normal work week, so there's nothing special planned.
I'm going to make lemon bars, and possibly peanut butter bread to stick in the freezer for him, and we're excited to try the bananas foster rum that I ordered way back in Greenville. I'll check on my plants and get some clothing hemmed and get my luggage sorted and some winter clothes packed. Because after this break it's off to Des Moines, which I imagine will be pretty frigid this time of year.
Stay tuned :)