taz_39 | Tootsie on Tour: Des Moines, IA (Reply)

**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.**

The venue: Des Moines Civic Center

(stock images)

Covid Tests to Date: 54

TL;DR TikTok:

TikTok by @tromboneontour

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I woke up before my alarm at 4:30am (I have a great internal clock) and the taxi was already there and waiting.
I hurriedly brushed my teeth and hair and rushed out the door, careful not to wake Jameson.

I got to the airport in good time, and it was very busy so I'm glad I didn't risk waiting for Uber even though the taxi was so expensive.
The waiting could have cost me me flight. I got to my gate about 15 minutes before boarding, which is pretty "late" by my standards.

Layover in Atlanta was 45 minutes but I used a lot of that just getting to the next gate, ATL being so big and all.
We landed in Des Moines about on time, and while retrieving my luggage I found Isis (crew) and shared an Uber with her.
Luckily for us, our rooms were ready!

As usual I dropped everything, looked at the fridge, walked to the nearest grocery (a Hy-Vee).
I got most things there but didn't find any local bread, so dropped off my groceries and walked to the next-farthest grocery, a local place called Gateway Market. They carry Big Sky breads (an Iowa chain), but they also make their own breads in-store!
I decided to try a loaf of theirs (go local!) So many to choose from!

I was tempted by the plain Italian but went with sourdough instead because I thought it would make a better grilled cheese.
Yes, I'm making skillet grilled cheese this week! It's cold, it will be good! :)

There was also a weird-looking cookie in the bakery called a "Dutch letter".
I picked one up out of curiosity, and also some Chinese chicken steamed buns and a grapefruit basil seltzer water, because fun food is fun!

Here is the "Dutch letter":

Yes it looks like an S-shaped poop!
Turns out it's a puff pastry filled with almond paste or Marzipan.
Originally shaped to look like the first letter of the surname of whatever family was making them,
in the US they're typically made into an "S" shape.
You can find them in Iowa because Dutch immigrants brought them there, specifically to the town of Pella in 1845.
It was really cool to stumble across an Iowa-specific food with a great cultural history.

Here's what the inside looked like:

It was flaky and very sweet, lots of almond/marzipan flavor.
I've cut it into quarters and will enjoy it for a few days.

After all that I unpacked, then took my rapid covid test in the lobby.
Enjoyed some grocery store sushi for dinner while fielding phone calls and emails about some health tests I had planned to take this week.
I had scheduled a DEXA scan and an RMR, but both got canceled...and then rescheduled. It's been weird.
I don't know what will happen, but for now I'm definitely getting the DEXA and meeting with a nutritionist, so I'll post about that!
Very interested to see what it'll be like!

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Tuesday, woke up wondering what on earth time it was. Time changes are weird!

Eventually I got up and had breakfast, then spent the morning doing lots of rebooking with Fitnescity and ordering cookies to bring to work for my birthday and answering emails and talking to family.

Somewhere in there I made time to take pictures of my new "concert black" outfit.
Reminder that this is a Swiss dot, puff-sleeved blouse from Unique Vintage, and high-waised wide leg trousers from Karen Millen.

I like the waist on the pants, and I really like the shirt a lot, and they seem to kind-of go well together?
I know nothing about fashion.
And yes I KNOW, certainly, this would look better with better shoes, but "fashionable" rarely also means "practical".
I'm not wearing heels to walk miles back and forth from hotel to venue each day, neither would I bother with bringing the heels separately and then wearing them in the pit where no one can see them.
I am aware that other women are comfortable in heels. Good for them.
It is a big step for me to even be dressing nicely, though the shoes are an eyesore.
Hopefully it is enough for the Peanut Gallery for now that I'm trying.

Soon it was lunchtime. Time to try out the new skillet on some grilled cheese!

TikTok by @tromboneontour

As you can see it turned out very well.

Next time I'll let it cool more before hacking into it, I was just excited.
And I'd also flip it in the pan one more time so that cheese could have a few more seconds to ooze everywhere.
Otherwise, no complaints. The bread was excellent.

Cleaned up all of that and then found out our sound check was delayed by 15 minutes, no bigs.
My sense of time is still all messed up so I ate dinner early (4:15 is still 5:15 to my body) and walked to Insomnia Cookies to pick up two big boxes to share with the band. A late birthday treat since my birthday was over our layoff.
Everyone loved the cookies :)

I was so busy setting them up and chatting with everyone about how our break went that I forgot to take a picture of the pit.
It's nothing special, looks quite average all around. I can't see the stage again but that's ok.

Sound check went well, and the show went well.
We had some weirdness with the mics and popping noises, but hopefully that will resolve over time.
After the show I walked back with Lewis (head of sound) and we chatted about this and that. It was cold!

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Wednesday I woke up early, excited and a little nervous because today I was getting a DEXA scan!
A DEXA scan tells you the composition of your body, fats and lean muscles and bones and tissue.
It is usually used to measure bone density, and also for fitness evaluations for athletes or those struggling with weight.

Or nerds like me who are super interested in seeing their guts in graph form.

At the scan site I was greeted by a cheerful technician who got my inpatient profile set up while I admired the DEXA machine.

She had me lie down on the purple mat, then rearranged my limbs to be centered on either side.
She asked me to stay as still as possible, point my toes inward, and remember to keep breathing.
The machine arm glided around me, the table moving to facilitate its movement on both sides of my body.
It made a total of three passes, and only took a few minutes. Fun and cool!

I sat across from the technician while she printed out my results.
The company that booked the test for me, Fitnescity, will be going over the results with me (they receive a copy as well).
Until then I'm also going to be taking them to a dietitian, who will hopefully be able to help me engage in some preventative medicine involving good nutrition and appropriate exercise.
For a long time now I've been self-guided with how much I eat and what kind of exercise (if any) that I do.
And I think I've done a pretty good job!
But soon I will turn 40. I'd like to maintain my current weight, and also maintain or improve my muscle mass.
And I know that I don't know enough about nutrition to be limiting my calories the way I've been doing.
Being "skinny" is great. But being HEALTHY is most important of all. And that's what I want to have, and to keep.

Hence, the DEXA scan and a consultation with a dietitian!
I meet with her tomorrow, and will look forward to what she has to say.

Meanwhile I took my results home and googled around to try and understand all the numbers.

Lots of grams and kilograms and percentages and percentiles.
In general, I can see that I have an acceptable amount of fat, and that I'm on the leaner end of the spectrum.
But I also see that my "Lean Indices" are quite low.
I don't want to make assumptions about what that means, so for now it's all just interesting data and we will see what she says.

For lunch I treated myself to St. Kilda, an Australian-style cafe serving lots of delicious-looking meals.
I got seared salmon with mushy peas and snap peas, dill ricotta, pickled veggies, and two poached eggs.

It was very delicious! At that price point, though, I was surprised by how small the salmon filet was (about 3oz).
Otherwise, an awesome fancy lunch.

The evening show was good, fewer audio issues although the opening recorded announcement came out SUPER loud and scared the crap out of everyone present, self included.

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Thursday, my body is finally coming around to the idea that 8:30 is now where 9:30 used to be!
So I am waking up at a normal time instead of at, like, 7:30.

Breakfast, messing around on the computer to avoid doing Adult Things like finding someone to do my taxes or looking for jobs.
But I bookmarked a few sites for these things anyway, to be addressed tomorrow (Friday is supposed to get very cold so less exploring).

Before the dietitian appointment I decided to walk down to the PappaJohn Sculpture Park.
It's quite close to the hotel and it's free art :)

My favorite sculpture was this rainbow circle, not only because it was visually beautiful and you could walk inside it, but also because the acoustics in there were totally wild. When my shoes crunched on the snow the sound echoed and bounced, like a pebble skipped across a frozen lake.

https://instagram.com/p/CZz_DMHJZyl

I then tried to visit a vintage thrift store, but it didn't open until noon, so I just called my Uber to get to the Hy-Vee nearest the airport where the dietitian was waiting for me. Her name was Anne, and she was phenominal. I had sent her a bunch of information in advance, including my DEXA scan and some MFP logs and some bloodwork. She went over each of these things with me, pointing out areas both good and bad, and made suggestions for dietary and lifestyle changes based on my body and my goals.

I am so glad that I had this consultation!
I learned a lot about my body, and a lot of things were brought to my attention that I had not considered before.
As I inch closer to 40, I want to do what I can to keep my health, and getting knowledge and advice from a professional today was so extremely helpful in facilitating that.

After the consultation Anne showed me where to find some of the products she'd recommended in the grocery store.
I picked up a digestive enzyme to help with foods that hurt my guts (beans, high-fiber veggies, dairy) and a pack of Fairlife protein shakes.

Back at the hotel I put my groceries away and immediately walked to Gateway Market for a fried chicken sandwich.
BECAUSE NUTRITION.

That's a hot honey chicken breast with green apple slaw and pickles. And it was absolutely amazing.
And yes, I had planned to eat this and had accounted for it in my food diary even before meeting with the dietitian :p
The nice thing about watching your overall calories is that you still get to eat what you want!
As long as it's one serving at a time :)

The rest of my day was spent documenting the whole DEXA/Dietitian experience in THIS post, and revising my MFP profile to fit the new guidelines the dietitian had given me. It was surprisingly easy to adjust the carbs down and proteins up; pretty much all I had to do was remove one fruit or bread, and add one protein shake. Adjusting the sugar is a lot harder and will take some practice.
After that I just chilled out and ate dinner before the evening show.

I was surprised to find this birthday card on my stand, signed by many cast members. How thoughtful!!

The show went well. It was raining when we finished, and we were all glad it wasn't cold enough to be freezing rain.

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TGIF!

I woke up early, perhaps because there's a lot on my mind after yesterday's adventures.
I had breakfast and typed some of this blog before heading downstairs for my PCR and rapid covid tests in the lobby.
When that was done I did a load of laundry and had a peek at the hotel gym.
It looked clean and no one was in there, so I did my 15 minutes of weights while waiting for the washer to finish.

When laundry was done I walked to a Salvation Army and had some fun digging through the clothes, even found a pair of pants that I wanted! But I only had my AMEX on my and they didn't accept AMEX. Go figure!! It is 2022, how are retailers still not accepting this card??

On the way back I crossed over a river and saw a large eagle swooping up and down, looking for fish.
He was too far away for photos unfortunately.
I swung by Hy-Vee on the way back to get a box of chickpea pasta because Yael (trumpet) says it's high in protein and fiber, two things I need to get more of apparently. She was right; it had 28g protein and 8g fiber!

At the hotel I made tomato soup with grilled cheese and avocado and egg whites for lunch, then put my skillet to work on the pasta.
This was my first time cooking pasta in the skillet. It went well! (See TikTok at top of this post).

The temperature was dropping rapidly outside and it was quite dreary so the rest of my day was spent watching Downton Abbey and actually napping for once.

Walking to the theatre was bitter-cold, but I was well layered, only my thighs felt a little freezer-burned.
The show went well, we had a really great audience :)
A lot of rumors are flying around about whether our show will get extended.
Some people from the "creative team" are supposed to be joining us in Austin for extra rehearsals, perhaps we will hear something then.

Walking back from the theatre, temps were in the single digits. My eyeballs felt sticky, that's how cold it was.

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Saturday!

My usual morning routine, punctuated with a texted conversation with my Jameson.
His car battery died while he was at a friend's house last night, and this morning he got it replaced.

I cooked up the rest of my chickpea pasta just to have it ready, and reviewed my MFP calorie tracker again to try and get the macros lined up in the new way. It is very weird to be drinking milk (the protein shakes) as part of my diet. I haven't actually drank milk since college.

I wasn't in the mood for weight lifting today, I'll probably do that tomorrow and alternate days in general.
Instead I watched Vox Machina (hilarious!) and enjoyed budgeting and making plans for Memphis.
My budget for Des Moines is kind of shot, it did not go the way I had planned at all, but I can't control everything.
I'll just start fresh next city.

The evening show went well, and it was a balmy 20 degrees instead of 8, so that was an improvement.
There's a blues festival currently taking place in our hotel lobby, and it's nice to come back to live music and happy people, unmasked and enjoying themselves as of prepandemic yore. I hope it will last.

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Sunday. I woke up kind of mopey, probably because the flights to Memphis are on tiny jets that both have me in the farthest-back rows.
I get airsick pretty easily, so that's pretty much the worst area of the plane to be for someone like me, and the smaller the plane the more turbulence there is too. I'll try to change my seats after checking in, but if I get stuck back there, well, I might just have to deal with it and feel sorry for my fellow passengers.

I guess the Super Bowl is today! I don't care! Haven't followed it at all.
Many people are annoyed because we have a show right on top of the Bowl time.
If we have an appreciative audience, it won't bother me!

Regardless I got up and had a nice breakfast and kept my promise of 15 minutes of weight-lifting, spending extra time on my left side because that side is weaker. Then I packed a bit and watched Netflix things and had lunch before our matinee.
It seemed well attended.

During the break I packed a bit more and had lunch and watched more tv.
The matinee seemed well attended (I can't see anything from this deep pit) and it went well.

During the break, more packing and dinner.
The evening show was ok, I made a stupid mistake because I had turned down my talkback audio and missed the entrance to the entr'acte, but I think hardly anyone noticed...I hope, anyway. I've turned my talkback back up. (Talkback is the way the conductor instructs us without having to yell across the pit, it's simply his personal microphone. In this case I missed hearing him say "Stand by entr'acte" because I'd turned his track down earlier due to some crackling.)

That's it for Des Moines.
This seems like a really cool city, I'd love to visit when temperatures get above 20F!

Next stop is Memphis, which I think we're all looking forward to.
Good food, BBQ especially. Higher daytime temps. The MLK Museum.
I'm even planning to be social and maybe invite some people to join me on a lunch expedition!