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taz_39TL;DR TikTok: CLICK HERE to read
Welp, here we are.
Nine months of touring coming to an end.
252 shows.
Around 100 covid tests.
27 cities.
It's hard to describe how awesome, and difficult, and fun this has been!
There were so many factors that influenced how I personally experienced this tour.
Things going on in our country, personal things, covid things.
But despite all that, it was memorable and wonderful, and I can't believe I got to do it.
I don't totally know what will happen next, but whatever it is, I'm grateful for the now.
Grateful for all the people I've met, and the shows we've played, and the places we've been.
Great job everyone :) Let's wrap it up!
Also, here is a nice infographic that the Segerstrom put together for us:
----------------------------------------
Monday was a "golden day", in other words a day off as opposed to a travel day.
Many people went to Knott's Berry Farm because our tour management had gotten tickets for us.
Some people had family visits or trips planned.
I didn't have much planned at all because pretty much everything has thrown me for a loop lately.
So I had a normal morning, and then walked to Mitsuwa for a "last haul", more or less.
This time, since I wasn't in quarantine, I took my time and looked at lots of things.
I found black truffle ($24, yowch!) and gobo, otherwise known as burdock root, that was longer than my arm.
I went to the Daiso (Japanese dollar store) just to look around.
Daiso is known for having convenient, cute household wares and loads of storage options, as well as lots of stationery and stickers and even some prepackaged foods.
Someone here on LJ (or was it DW?) had told me to look for prepackaged corn, and I found it!
This is a fully-cooked ear of corn, ready to eat! I didn't buy it but was duly amused :)
Here's what I ended up getting:
Cherimoya: related to sugar apples, which I've had before. It's a sweet custard-like white fruit that is delicious and good for you.
Juroku-cha: Never had this before but have seen it frequently. Turns out it's an herbal tea with lots of unusual ingredients like barley, black soybeans mulberry leaf, kelp, mushrooms, bamboo, persimmon, and god knows what else. It had a weirdly brothy flavor, but wasn't "bad". Just tasted, you know....healthy.
Grapefruit pear jelly: clear fruit jelly with lovely sliced fruits inside. Pretty self-explanatory.
Corn snack: Chocolate covered corn puffs. It tasted less corny than I'd hoped, but was still good. A nice treat to enjoy.
Look chocolates: I had no idea what these were but they were on clearance for $1.50.
Turns out they were pea flower and grape-flavored white chocolate.
A - I HATE white chocolate.
B - I HATE artificial grape.
C - This was totally disgusting and I can see why it's on clearance. That said, it only cost $1.50.
The last item there is ginkgo nuts. I thought I'd be able to find information on how to prepare them, but it turns out there's almost no information available online other than "Don't eat them raw because they're highly toxic" and "Don't eat more than 10 of these per day". I wish I'd had better signal in the store to know that BEFORE buying them. But thankfully they were also very cheap, so I don't feel bad about throwing them out. I don't feel comfortable trying to prepare something that comes with so many dire warnings attached.
The main treat was lunch, getting myself one of those premium nigiri bentos.
It was delicious! The only one I didn't like was that one crinkly-looking white one; I think it was a mollusk of some kind and the texture was extremely tough and cartilage-like. The others were super tasty.
In the late afternoon I walked to "anti-mall", which is kind of a hipster hang meant to house local goods and restaurants.
I've noticed a lot of these popping up in the cities we've visited, but they're usually called "food halls".
This one was, like, over-the-top with the pretentious coffee shop and gaudy photo op spots designed for narcissists to pose in front of.
But there WAS a Buffalo Exchange, so I spent time in there trying stuff on until my friend Matt showed up for dinner.
We ate at Seabirds Kitchen, a vegan/vegetarian spot. We both got the Beets Me Burger, which was a house-made shiitake, beet, and chia patty with almond butter and herb mayo, roasted onion, and arugula on a brioche bun. It was very good!
We chatted as we ate, just kind of catching up.
Matt had a hard time during the pandemic, got depressed, put on some weight, lost it again, and has made great progress on getting his life back together. The pandemic really messed so many things up, including people, psychologically. I hope things continue to improve for Matt. We talked about touring and working in theaters and California politics and what we thought of the new Ringling show. Overall a good hang, and I'm glad he took time out of his day to spend time with me.
Since I was fairly caffeinated at that point, I walked all the way to Vons for groceries and carried them back to the hotel.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, I woke up to a load of paperwork from the Discount Court Reporting job.
My background check had cleared, so on to the next step!
Filling out the paperwork turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I expected.
For some reason this big Marriott adjacent to an arts complex and a convention center does not have a business center.
So I had to jump through a bunch of hoops and deal with people who did not know how to scan, print, and/or email documents, first at the hotel and later at FedEx when it became clear the hotel was incapable in this department.
But two hours later(!) I finally sent the paperwork off and ate lunch, so, success.
I'm excited and nervous about this new job! Hope I'm up for the challenge.
The rest of my day was spent reviewing training materials for the new job and doing a little online shopping for office clothes.
There's a Ross nearby too, so I might hit that up later in the week.
I walked into the theater for the evening show and saw a stranger sitting at Taurus's drum set.
Oh no. Our drummer got covid!!
I feel so, so bad for him. I'll bet he's frustrated.
He had a similar experience as me: woke up feeling bad and requested a covid test.
He will not be able to return to us before the end of the tour. Very, very frustrating.
So tonight we had a sub. He did a very good job considering that he was sightreading!
For the rest of the week we will have Avion, who is scheduled to join next year's tour and who has also played this show before, so the rest of the week should go smoothly although there's no question we'd rather have Taurus with us :(
----------------------------------------
Wednesday, more things to do from Discount Court Reporting and then I sent an email off to the data entry job because I'm nervous about their plans for my training. They've left me out of this week's training and have promised to add me to next week's, but haven't told me WHEN that will be and I start my new job next week. Argh. So I sent them potential conflicts (Jameson's surgery, registration with new job) and will just hope that they are flexible enough to work around those things because I really can't change them.
Seeing that there was no work from the data entry job, I had breakfast and spent some time looking at training paperwork, trying on a bathing suit that I'd ordered, and window shopping online before getting an Uber to Meiji Seiman.
It's a little Japanese restaurant in a scruffy shopping plaza.
But as is the case with many restaurants in California, the ones buried in shopping plazas tend to be pretty outstanding.
I was seated right away near the "bar", and given a menu that was pretty much entirely noodles and topping types.
Meiji Seiman makes their own noodles in-house. I love both udon and soba, but went with soba because it's "healthier" or whatever.
Even though it was summer, I asked for "sansai" soba, which is usually a winter dish.
"Sansai" means "mountain vegetable", so the fresh soba noodles and kelp-and-bonito broth were topped with vegetables that you might find foraging, like mushrooms, bamboo, asparagus, leeks, and ferns. I also got a soy marinated egg just because I love them so much (a poached egg would have gone better with this, note to self for future).
As you can imagine, it was delicious. The soba was indeed very fresh and perfectly cooked, and the broth was flavorful but not greasy or overly salty, with a depth of flavor that went well with the earthy veggies. I wish I could have tried their udon, or cold soba, but I've only got one stomach and had to make one choice, and it was good. Meiji seiman, for the best soba and udon in Costa Mesa.
After that I walked to a thrift shop where I had no luck, then walked to the snooty expensive mall because among all those designer brands was a humble Macy's. Usually shopping doesn't take me that long, but I was surprised to find that 70's aesthetic is coming back, and that's exactly the style I'm going for with my office clothing! Like so:
So I had more than usual options, and many things to try on.
I wanted quite a lot of tops, but escaped with just three and then ordered another when I got home because they hadn't had my size and I couldn't let it go. This is probably more than I need, however I own VERY little clothing. For example, I currently have 5-6 pairs of dress pants and that's it! And more than half of my clothing is thrifted or from Target. Those are my excuses ;)
By the time I got home it was nearly dinnertime and I'd walked close to five miles.
I had a snack and then dinner, cleaned up and dressed and off to the theater.
Avion (drummer) was here; he's played our show before, and is also going to be joining us next year for round two of Tootsie!
It was good to see him, and he did an excellent job tonight.
----------------------------------------
Thursday, a nice slow morning chatting with Jameson.
Still no work from part time job, but I think they're pretending I'm unavailable until the 15th.
They DID pay me for my work thus far, so there's that.
After breakfast I cleaned up and decided to do a FAQ for TikTok...I really need to be better at videography and enthusiasm.
Then I had planned to go thrifting again, but went to a walk-in clinic instead because for the past few days I've been getting a rash that doesn't go away, it just keeps kinda spreading and I wanted to make sure it wasn't serious (it's not).
Then Mitsuwa for a bento, this time gyudon beef. Yum!
Then back to my room to chill because I wanted a break from stomping around in the heat, and because tonight is our cast party and I wanted to be well-rested for that :)
The evening show went well, nothing to report.
I walked over to The Silver Trumpet, where the party was to be held.
It started out empty, but filled up quickly.
There were nice appetizers like roasted brussels, mini sausages, chicken breast sliders, and flatbreads.
And a cake that might have been real and might have been a decoration.
It was also an open bar.
I had two glasses of red wine and chatted with misc people.
Everyone was asking each other, "Are you coming back? Do you know if "THEY'RE coming back?"
or, if the answer to that was "no", "What will you be doing instead?"
I was surprised to find that many of my coworkers do not plan to work at all during the layoff.
It's almost a full twelve weeks....I can't imagine not working for that long!
I mean I can, because I've HAD to do it when I couldn't find a job, but I was miserable. It was no fun.
Do you know how much MONEY one loses in three months??
I was equally surprised by how many of my coworkers are going to be doing a LOT during the layoff.
Tyree is going to school full time! Gabe is teaching a lesson studio! Others are going on long vacations!
It was interesting and fun to hear everyone's plans.
A little over an hour later the volume in the small bar was at a roar, and I was ready to leave.
Bill and Dave both caught my eye because they were looking for an out too, so we squeezed out the door and thanked our tour manager for arranging this nice get-together for us. We walked back together chatting about this and that. I had a nice buzz. Life was good.
----------------------------------------
Friday. I had a rather lazy day. The weird rash that I've developed was extra-itchy, so I walked to CVS to pick up my prescription for it and also some Allegra. I won't be taking the prescription until I've been in Orlando for a week, to see if it fades away (then I'll know it was likely an environmental thing, as opposed to something I ate or covid-related).
The rest of the day was watching Stranger Things, cooking meals, reading training materials, a video chat with family for my nephew's birthday, and a little time building my tour spreadsheet for next year. It's certainly early to be doing that, but it takes a surprisingly long time to research each city so I want to get it started now. Just researching grocery stores involves not only a Google Maps search for "Grocery stores near x", but also knowing the names of local chains so I can specifically search them. You'd be surprised; many grocery chains are not actually in Google's algorithm as "grocery stores".
Researching restaurants takes even longer, because it involves a Google search, then sifting through those results, then visiting the restaurant websites to see what's on the menu and how they are operating post-pandemic (some restaurants have reduced hours or are closed on weekdays, or have become pickup-only). And THEN I have to go back to Google Maps to see how far it is from the theater, and whether it would be a walk or an Uber. And then I narrow it down to just 2-3 restaurants, because that's what's generally in my budget.
And then there's the activities, like museums and parks and thrift stores and special events.
Those don't take so long to find, and I'm not deep into researching those just yet, but I still try to grab one or two options.
The evening show was just fine.
Tomorrow starts the weekend. Just four shows left.
Oh, and I got a nice picture of a turtle sunning himself.
But then an egret came and photobombed it.
----------------------------------------
Saturday. A slow morning, oatmeal and yogurt, checking emails.
An episode of Stranger Things and chatting with Jameson, then I began to pack a little.
The first show went well.
Dinner was fine: the last of my chickpea pasta, some artichokes, some edamame, some eggs.
Now that it's the weekend my food is getting more random. I want to eat down all that I can so it's not weight in my luggage.
The evening show was just fine, too.
Although, at one part we heard someone say, "CHARIZARD!" loudly over their mic before the sound guy had turned it down.
It was during a part where two characters are looking over a "script", and we think they've been doodling on the paper, and someone drew a charizard.
After the evening show, two of the ladies in our cast had arranged a small token "awards ceremony".
I wasn't going to go (antisocial + it was bedtime!) but my conscience reminded me naggingly that these two had put a lot of their own time and effort and care into one last event for us. So I went, in my pjs, to the hotel lobby.
They had indeed made little print-out award certificates for everyone!
It was actually very thoughtful and cute, and I'm glad I went.
They made sure every single person got an award, even if they had to make up some weird ones ("Master of Grilled Cheese" and "Most Likely to Back a Good Dad Joke", for example!).
Can you guess what mine was?
I mean, I DID eat grasshoppers while we were in Texas!
But actually, I was a bit surprised that people actually noticed my little food obsession.
There are one or two people in the cast who specifically ask me where I'll be eating each week, and I've taken to sending them my picks in private messages so they can get in on it too. But for the most part I thought it went largely ignored.
But as I went up to retrieve my award, I heard Kathy say,
"She finds the BEST food! But we always hear about it AFTERWARD. And then it's too late!"
And others chiming in, "Yeah!"
One person even asked me afterward, "Why do you send your food lists to Jared and not anyone else?"
Oh! Oh dear. Ok. There's a possibility that I might have been too withdrawn this year (ya think?).
So when I got back to my room, I messaged the group chat to say "thank you", and added that for those sticking around next year, if there was enough interest, I would share my food picks for each city a few days ahead of time.
There wasn't a massive response or anything, just one or two people liked the comment.
It's too early to think of next year.
But I will offer it. I've already started the research anyway, it will be a fun project to make a side-document that I can just share a link to every week for anyone actually interested.
I'm usually shy about my hobbies and likes, because people are cruel and people are critical.
I've been made fun of one too many times for liking anime, or for eating "weird" food.
But every once in a while it's good to stick my neck out again...either to be reminded that some humans are not so bad, or to be reminded of all the reasons I usually keep this information to myself.
----------------------------------------
Sunday. I had barely slept and woke feeling ugh.
But, we have two shows to do, and then we are done! Wow.
Breakfast and Stranger Things and more research for next year, creating a foodie document for sharing with others.
The matinee was good. Not emotional yet.
During the break I packed some more and got really involved in my foodie document, probably to distract myself.
After dinner, the evening show, and the band had a photo on stage.
It felt strange without Taurus (drums), Steve (trumpet), and Bobby (bass) there.
It's been a wild ride, especially due to covid, but everyone made it through one way or another!
The last show went VERY quickly for me.
Before I knew it I was looking up at our MD trying not to get emotional as the actors took their final bows.
And then it was time to pack it up, for the last time.
Since I pack up quick, I escaped without loads of hugging and emotions.
Also, six of the ten of us are coming back next year, so it was a bit easier to say "see you down the road" and mean it!
About 50% of the cast are returning, including Drew (our lead) and Jared (plays Jeff), and more of my favorite people!
I'll be happy to see them again, and work a little harder to make new friends next time.
Next time.
I still can't believe there IS a next time!
As a pessimist, it's hard to hope.
But I am dangling that carrot, and if it means I get disappointed in the end, well, maybe it's worth it just this once.
----------------------------------------
Welp, here we are.
Nine months of touring coming to an end.
252 shows.
Around 100 covid tests.
27 cities.
It's hard to describe how awesome, and difficult, and fun this has been!
There were so many factors that influenced how I personally experienced this tour.
Things going on in our country, personal things, covid things.
But despite all that, it was memorable and wonderful, and I can't believe I got to do it.
I don't totally know what will happen next, but whatever it is, I'm grateful for the now.
Grateful for all the people I've met, and the shows we've played, and the places we've been.
Great job everyone :) Let's wrap it up!
Also, here is a nice infographic that the Segerstrom put together for us:
----------------------------------------
Monday was a "golden day", in other words a day off as opposed to a travel day.
Many people went to Knott's Berry Farm because our tour management had gotten tickets for us.
Some people had family visits or trips planned.
I didn't have much planned at all because pretty much everything has thrown me for a loop lately.
So I had a normal morning, and then walked to Mitsuwa for a "last haul", more or less.
This time, since I wasn't in quarantine, I took my time and looked at lots of things.
I found black truffle ($24, yowch!) and gobo, otherwise known as burdock root, that was longer than my arm.
I went to the Daiso (Japanese dollar store) just to look around.
Daiso is known for having convenient, cute household wares and loads of storage options, as well as lots of stationery and stickers and even some prepackaged foods.
Someone here on LJ (or was it DW?) had told me to look for prepackaged corn, and I found it!
This is a fully-cooked ear of corn, ready to eat! I didn't buy it but was duly amused :)
Here's what I ended up getting:
Cherimoya: related to sugar apples, which I've had before. It's a sweet custard-like white fruit that is delicious and good for you.
Juroku-cha: Never had this before but have seen it frequently. Turns out it's an herbal tea with lots of unusual ingredients like barley, black soybeans mulberry leaf, kelp, mushrooms, bamboo, persimmon, and god knows what else. It had a weirdly brothy flavor, but wasn't "bad". Just tasted, you know....healthy.
Grapefruit pear jelly: clear fruit jelly with lovely sliced fruits inside. Pretty self-explanatory.
Corn snack: Chocolate covered corn puffs. It tasted less corny than I'd hoped, but was still good. A nice treat to enjoy.
Look chocolates: I had no idea what these were but they were on clearance for $1.50.
Turns out they were pea flower and grape-flavored white chocolate.
A - I HATE white chocolate.
B - I HATE artificial grape.
C - This was totally disgusting and I can see why it's on clearance. That said, it only cost $1.50.
The last item there is ginkgo nuts. I thought I'd be able to find information on how to prepare them, but it turns out there's almost no information available online other than "Don't eat them raw because they're highly toxic" and "Don't eat more than 10 of these per day". I wish I'd had better signal in the store to know that BEFORE buying them. But thankfully they were also very cheap, so I don't feel bad about throwing them out. I don't feel comfortable trying to prepare something that comes with so many dire warnings attached.
The main treat was lunch, getting myself one of those premium nigiri bentos.
It was delicious! The only one I didn't like was that one crinkly-looking white one; I think it was a mollusk of some kind and the texture was extremely tough and cartilage-like. The others were super tasty.
In the late afternoon I walked to "anti-mall", which is kind of a hipster hang meant to house local goods and restaurants.
I've noticed a lot of these popping up in the cities we've visited, but they're usually called "food halls".
This one was, like, over-the-top with the pretentious coffee shop and gaudy photo op spots designed for narcissists to pose in front of.
But there WAS a Buffalo Exchange, so I spent time in there trying stuff on until my friend Matt showed up for dinner.
We ate at Seabirds Kitchen, a vegan/vegetarian spot. We both got the Beets Me Burger, which was a house-made shiitake, beet, and chia patty with almond butter and herb mayo, roasted onion, and arugula on a brioche bun. It was very good!
We chatted as we ate, just kind of catching up.
Matt had a hard time during the pandemic, got depressed, put on some weight, lost it again, and has made great progress on getting his life back together. The pandemic really messed so many things up, including people, psychologically. I hope things continue to improve for Matt. We talked about touring and working in theaters and California politics and what we thought of the new Ringling show. Overall a good hang, and I'm glad he took time out of his day to spend time with me.
Since I was fairly caffeinated at that point, I walked all the way to Vons for groceries and carried them back to the hotel.
----------------------------------------
Tuesday, I woke up to a load of paperwork from the Discount Court Reporting job.
My background check had cleared, so on to the next step!
Filling out the paperwork turned out to be a bigger ordeal than I expected.
For some reason this big Marriott adjacent to an arts complex and a convention center does not have a business center.
So I had to jump through a bunch of hoops and deal with people who did not know how to scan, print, and/or email documents, first at the hotel and later at FedEx when it became clear the hotel was incapable in this department.
But two hours later(!) I finally sent the paperwork off and ate lunch, so, success.
I'm excited and nervous about this new job! Hope I'm up for the challenge.
The rest of my day was spent reviewing training materials for the new job and doing a little online shopping for office clothes.
There's a Ross nearby too, so I might hit that up later in the week.
I walked into the theater for the evening show and saw a stranger sitting at Taurus's drum set.
Oh no. Our drummer got covid!!
I feel so, so bad for him. I'll bet he's frustrated.
He had a similar experience as me: woke up feeling bad and requested a covid test.
He will not be able to return to us before the end of the tour. Very, very frustrating.
So tonight we had a sub. He did a very good job considering that he was sightreading!
For the rest of the week we will have Avion, who is scheduled to join next year's tour and who has also played this show before, so the rest of the week should go smoothly although there's no question we'd rather have Taurus with us :(
----------------------------------------
Wednesday, more things to do from Discount Court Reporting and then I sent an email off to the data entry job because I'm nervous about their plans for my training. They've left me out of this week's training and have promised to add me to next week's, but haven't told me WHEN that will be and I start my new job next week. Argh. So I sent them potential conflicts (Jameson's surgery, registration with new job) and will just hope that they are flexible enough to work around those things because I really can't change them.
Seeing that there was no work from the data entry job, I had breakfast and spent some time looking at training paperwork, trying on a bathing suit that I'd ordered, and window shopping online before getting an Uber to Meiji Seiman.
It's a little Japanese restaurant in a scruffy shopping plaza.
But as is the case with many restaurants in California, the ones buried in shopping plazas tend to be pretty outstanding.
I was seated right away near the "bar", and given a menu that was pretty much entirely noodles and topping types.
Meiji Seiman makes their own noodles in-house. I love both udon and soba, but went with soba because it's "healthier" or whatever.
Even though it was summer, I asked for "sansai" soba, which is usually a winter dish.
"Sansai" means "mountain vegetable", so the fresh soba noodles and kelp-and-bonito broth were topped with vegetables that you might find foraging, like mushrooms, bamboo, asparagus, leeks, and ferns. I also got a soy marinated egg just because I love them so much (a poached egg would have gone better with this, note to self for future).
As you can imagine, it was delicious. The soba was indeed very fresh and perfectly cooked, and the broth was flavorful but not greasy or overly salty, with a depth of flavor that went well with the earthy veggies. I wish I could have tried their udon, or cold soba, but I've only got one stomach and had to make one choice, and it was good. Meiji seiman, for the best soba and udon in Costa Mesa.
After that I walked to a thrift shop where I had no luck, then walked to the snooty expensive mall because among all those designer brands was a humble Macy's. Usually shopping doesn't take me that long, but I was surprised to find that 70's aesthetic is coming back, and that's exactly the style I'm going for with my office clothing! Like so:
So I had more than usual options, and many things to try on.
I wanted quite a lot of tops, but escaped with just three and then ordered another when I got home because they hadn't had my size and I couldn't let it go. This is probably more than I need, however I own VERY little clothing. For example, I currently have 5-6 pairs of dress pants and that's it! And more than half of my clothing is thrifted or from Target. Those are my excuses ;)
By the time I got home it was nearly dinnertime and I'd walked close to five miles.
I had a snack and then dinner, cleaned up and dressed and off to the theater.
Avion (drummer) was here; he's played our show before, and is also going to be joining us next year for round two of Tootsie!
It was good to see him, and he did an excellent job tonight.
----------------------------------------
Thursday, a nice slow morning chatting with Jameson.
Still no work from part time job, but I think they're pretending I'm unavailable until the 15th.
They DID pay me for my work thus far, so there's that.
After breakfast I cleaned up and decided to do a FAQ for TikTok...I really need to be better at videography and enthusiasm.
Then I had planned to go thrifting again, but went to a walk-in clinic instead because for the past few days I've been getting a rash that doesn't go away, it just keeps kinda spreading and I wanted to make sure it wasn't serious (it's not).
Then Mitsuwa for a bento, this time gyudon beef. Yum!
Then back to my room to chill because I wanted a break from stomping around in the heat, and because tonight is our cast party and I wanted to be well-rested for that :)
The evening show went well, nothing to report.
I walked over to The Silver Trumpet, where the party was to be held.
It started out empty, but filled up quickly.
There were nice appetizers like roasted brussels, mini sausages, chicken breast sliders, and flatbreads.
And a cake that might have been real and might have been a decoration.
It was also an open bar.
I had two glasses of red wine and chatted with misc people.
Everyone was asking each other, "Are you coming back? Do you know if "THEY'RE coming back?"
or, if the answer to that was "no", "What will you be doing instead?"
I was surprised to find that many of my coworkers do not plan to work at all during the layoff.
It's almost a full twelve weeks....I can't imagine not working for that long!
I mean I can, because I've HAD to do it when I couldn't find a job, but I was miserable. It was no fun.
Do you know how much MONEY one loses in three months??
I was equally surprised by how many of my coworkers are going to be doing a LOT during the layoff.
Tyree is going to school full time! Gabe is teaching a lesson studio! Others are going on long vacations!
It was interesting and fun to hear everyone's plans.
A little over an hour later the volume in the small bar was at a roar, and I was ready to leave.
Bill and Dave both caught my eye because they were looking for an out too, so we squeezed out the door and thanked our tour manager for arranging this nice get-together for us. We walked back together chatting about this and that. I had a nice buzz. Life was good.
----------------------------------------
Friday. I had a rather lazy day. The weird rash that I've developed was extra-itchy, so I walked to CVS to pick up my prescription for it and also some Allegra. I won't be taking the prescription until I've been in Orlando for a week, to see if it fades away (then I'll know it was likely an environmental thing, as opposed to something I ate or covid-related).
The rest of the day was watching Stranger Things, cooking meals, reading training materials, a video chat with family for my nephew's birthday, and a little time building my tour spreadsheet for next year. It's certainly early to be doing that, but it takes a surprisingly long time to research each city so I want to get it started now. Just researching grocery stores involves not only a Google Maps search for "Grocery stores near x", but also knowing the names of local chains so I can specifically search them. You'd be surprised; many grocery chains are not actually in Google's algorithm as "grocery stores".
Researching restaurants takes even longer, because it involves a Google search, then sifting through those results, then visiting the restaurant websites to see what's on the menu and how they are operating post-pandemic (some restaurants have reduced hours or are closed on weekdays, or have become pickup-only). And THEN I have to go back to Google Maps to see how far it is from the theater, and whether it would be a walk or an Uber. And then I narrow it down to just 2-3 restaurants, because that's what's generally in my budget.
And then there's the activities, like museums and parks and thrift stores and special events.
Those don't take so long to find, and I'm not deep into researching those just yet, but I still try to grab one or two options.
The evening show was just fine.
Tomorrow starts the weekend. Just four shows left.
Oh, and I got a nice picture of a turtle sunning himself.
But then an egret came and photobombed it.
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Saturday. A slow morning, oatmeal and yogurt, checking emails.
An episode of Stranger Things and chatting with Jameson, then I began to pack a little.
The first show went well.
Dinner was fine: the last of my chickpea pasta, some artichokes, some edamame, some eggs.
Now that it's the weekend my food is getting more random. I want to eat down all that I can so it's not weight in my luggage.
The evening show was just fine, too.
Although, at one part we heard someone say, "CHARIZARD!" loudly over their mic before the sound guy had turned it down.
It was during a part where two characters are looking over a "script", and we think they've been doodling on the paper, and someone drew a charizard.
After the evening show, two of the ladies in our cast had arranged a small token "awards ceremony".
I wasn't going to go (antisocial + it was bedtime!) but my conscience reminded me naggingly that these two had put a lot of their own time and effort and care into one last event for us. So I went, in my pjs, to the hotel lobby.
They had indeed made little print-out award certificates for everyone!
It was actually very thoughtful and cute, and I'm glad I went.
They made sure every single person got an award, even if they had to make up some weird ones ("Master of Grilled Cheese" and "Most Likely to Back a Good Dad Joke", for example!).
Can you guess what mine was?
I mean, I DID eat grasshoppers while we were in Texas!
But actually, I was a bit surprised that people actually noticed my little food obsession.
There are one or two people in the cast who specifically ask me where I'll be eating each week, and I've taken to sending them my picks in private messages so they can get in on it too. But for the most part I thought it went largely ignored.
But as I went up to retrieve my award, I heard Kathy say,
"She finds the BEST food! But we always hear about it AFTERWARD. And then it's too late!"
And others chiming in, "Yeah!"
One person even asked me afterward, "Why do you send your food lists to Jared and not anyone else?"
Oh! Oh dear. Ok. There's a possibility that I might have been too withdrawn this year (ya think?).
So when I got back to my room, I messaged the group chat to say "thank you", and added that for those sticking around next year, if there was enough interest, I would share my food picks for each city a few days ahead of time.
There wasn't a massive response or anything, just one or two people liked the comment.
It's too early to think of next year.
But I will offer it. I've already started the research anyway, it will be a fun project to make a side-document that I can just share a link to every week for anyone actually interested.
I'm usually shy about my hobbies and likes, because people are cruel and people are critical.
I've been made fun of one too many times for liking anime, or for eating "weird" food.
But every once in a while it's good to stick my neck out again...either to be reminded that some humans are not so bad, or to be reminded of all the reasons I usually keep this information to myself.
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Sunday. I had barely slept and woke feeling ugh.
But, we have two shows to do, and then we are done! Wow.
Breakfast and Stranger Things and more research for next year, creating a foodie document for sharing with others.
The matinee was good. Not emotional yet.
During the break I packed some more and got really involved in my foodie document, probably to distract myself.
After dinner, the evening show, and the band had a photo on stage.
It felt strange without Taurus (drums), Steve (trumpet), and Bobby (bass) there.
It's been a wild ride, especially due to covid, but everyone made it through one way or another!
The last show went VERY quickly for me.
Before I knew it I was looking up at our MD trying not to get emotional as the actors took their final bows.
And then it was time to pack it up, for the last time.
Since I pack up quick, I escaped without loads of hugging and emotions.
Also, six of the ten of us are coming back next year, so it was a bit easier to say "see you down the road" and mean it!
About 50% of the cast are returning, including Drew (our lead) and Jared (plays Jeff), and more of my favorite people!
I'll be happy to see them again, and work a little harder to make new friends next time.
Next time.
I still can't believe there IS a next time!
As a pessimist, it's hard to hope.
But I am dangling that carrot, and if it means I get disappointed in the end, well, maybe it's worth it just this once.
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Date: 2022-06-14 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-15 12:21 am (UTC)