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Fruits of Our Labor
Some random stuff:
☆ While I've been out here rehearsing, Jameson has been in Vegas going to see Aerosmith and Nine Inch Nails, and doing some gambling, and lounging by the pool, and eating at Gordon Ramsey's (beef Wellington and sticky toffee pud to be exact). He's been keeping me updated but I've been trying to leave him alone a bit so he can relax and enjoy this time to himself.
☆ On our first rehearsal day last week, I brought my homemade caramels to Andrew. "Oooh, this bag is heavy!" he exclaimed with joy, and then ran off to presumably eat some. In following days I received many complements on the caramels not only from Andrew but also members of production (I guess Andrew was sharing/rationing them out), including "These are DIVINE" and "Ok these caramels are like crack!". A few people even asked for the recipe, or tips for their own caramel recipes. I was very happy that everyone enjoyed them :)
☆ I keep forgetting to mention this: remember that time I tried a bunch of interesting Asian-inspired oatmeals? Those are made by a company called Yishi, and come in flavors like Red Bean, Black Sesame, and Taro Bubble Tea, among others. Now you can buy them at Whole Foods! If you see them on the shelf I recommend giving them a try (especially if it's the individual cups, so you can sample different flavors).
☆ I have come crawling back to MyFitnessPal. Cronometer was good, but I decided to uninstall the app after realizing that their food database was so incomplete that I'd have to manually input almost every single food item I'd bought at Wegman's. That would have taken hours, and frankly it is just not worth doing. That, and admitting that not being able to separate out my calories by meal actually does make counting calories more difficult for me personally. Nobody likes to admit they're wrong, but I was wrong. MFP still has the best food database, even with all it's flaws. AND when I reinstalled the app, the barcode scanner works again, so they must have actually listened to their users and put it back.
☆ This week in Rochester our hotel is about a mile from the theater. It's a straight shot and an easy walk so I've been walking it pretty regularly during the daytime. While looking around yesterday I noticed a tree that seemed to have dark red globs all over it, dangling from a highway overpass across a rusted fence. I'm pretty sure it's an apple tree!!
And on the other side of the overpass, another apple tree with a variety that looks more like honeycrisp or gala, and also a pear tree, and something that my phone says is a Siberian crab apple.
Fruit trees just randomly growing on the side of a highway is not normal where I'm from, so this is novel to me.
It is now a goal to get one fruit from each tree and see if it's edible (the pears may not be ready).
There will be a bit of squeezing through rusty fences involved, but I think it's doable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday got off to an early start.
Somehow I ended up becoming the designated driver of the rental car, and our guitarist wanted to go in early to set up (we had moved into the theater proper the night before), so we were all out the door at 8:20am.
Got to the theater, and of COURSE they weren't ready for us, so we had to sit around until nearly 10am.
Finally we were able to set up and have sound check. Initial sound checks are pretty extensive because we've got new people who need to dial their mix in, and sound guys who need to get the house mix set up, and then we have to check levels for all of the mics on our various instruments (remember that we have "Reed" musicians who play a huge variety of instruments), then after that we need to all play together with the track so audio can be balanced. And after all that we need to work with the cast and get levels balanced there, for them and us and the audience. It takes a long time but is definitely a vital step.
For lunch I ate my packed chicken, avocado, and bread, then went for a walk to Scents by Design, which I thought was a candle store but turned out to be one of those "art experience" things, you know like where you throw your own pottery or paint a picture as a group while getting drunk or whatever. For this one you choose a scent, or mix and match scents, to create your own candle.
Luckily it was still possible to just buy things without some group experience.
They had some unusual and fun scents like Summer Lawn, Cigar Lounge, Earl Grey Tea, or Tomato Leaf.
I smelled quite a few. Summer Lawn was too floral for me, Tomato Leaf too grassy and not enough of that special "zing" that tomato leaves have in their scent. Peppercorn was a disappointment, it managed to smell sweet somehow. Their Peach candle smelled pretty realistic though, and I liked Old Books too, but not enough to buy them.
As soon as I stuck my nose in Earth, I was sold. It smelled just like freshly tilled, moist soil. I imagine there must be mushroom extract or something in the scent. Anyway I love it and it's not something that I get to smell while performing in cities.
And of course my other top choice was Baked Bread. It smelled buttery and nice, not totally accurate but pleasant and warm.
I also got a Patchouli room spray, which in retrospect I should have tempered with something else like maybe their Yuzu scent so it's not giving "dirty hippy" vibes. But since that will only be used as a room spray, to counteract weird hotel room smells, it probably doesn't matter.
After lunch was Wandelprobe, which was slow going but probably accomplished a lot that I wasn't privy to.
Then we were supposed to have a dinner break followed by more rehearsal, but it was clear that the cast was not ready for the band to be in on rehearsals yet (i.e. not at the point of running full numbers), so we were thankfully cut loose around 5pm. Yay!
I used my night to cook barley and green beans for upcoming meals, and ate dinner and had a snack and just chilled out for once.
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday was quite the long day, partially because of my own choices.
I got up early, packed dinner, and walked 1.5 miles to Voula's Greek Sweets.
This had been on my Foodie Finds list for being vegan/vegetarian, having high ratings, and for their exquisite pastry cabinet.
Who doesn't like homemade baklava?
I'm being "healthy", though, so I didn't get treats this time, just lunch. Sort of.
Full-fat Greek yogurt with honey, walnuts, and almonds. Tangy and sweet, healthy fats and proteins.
Vegetarian seitan chick'n souvlaki with veggies, feta, and tzatziki (which I got on the side to avoid sogginess) on a gluten free pita.
The seitan was very tasty and a convincing replacement for chicken! The seasoning was beautiful.
Like all gluten free breads the pita didn't have that satisfying gluten chew, but it was fluffy and delicious all the same.
Then I walked another 1.5 miles to Village Bakery & Cafe for a loaf of bread because I ran out this morning.
By the time I got there the sun was full up and I was getting a good sweat going.
This place was also on my Foodie Finds because it has a lot of unique sandwich options and some irresistible desserts.
I plan to come back later in the week for actual lunch and treats.
For now, just a loaf of multigrain.
At first I was disappointed because I'd wanted to try their sourdough and they were out, but it turns out the multigrain is sourdough as well!
I had planned to walk from there to the theater, but it was twice the distance I'd already walked and I was hot and sweaty.
I called an Uber and was glad I did, because that gave me just enough time to cool down and enjoy the Greek food before it was time to rehearse.
It was a VERY long rehearsal day. We started at 1:30, had a dinner break around 5pm, then weren't done rehearsing until 11pm.
The worst part of tech rehearsals is that many times the band is not needed for large chunks of time, but we can't leave the pit in case we're called on to play. So time can really drag, and you can get really sleepy and annoyed. The last 1.5 hours was rough...we were asked to play only once during that time, for just a few minutes, then had to distract ourselves with our phones. It's a feeling like waiting at the DMV, haha.
But, that's typical for rehearsal periods. We just have to bear with it.
When our day was finally done I got back to the hotel, sliced my lovely bread, and went to sleep right away.
-------------------------------------------------
Sunday, our call time wasn't until 1:30 so I had a nice slow morning.
Breakfast in the Itaki, packing lunch.
Some of the band guys carpooled to Wegman's but I passed on that because I don't like to be rushed, and I know everyone would be done shopping before me. I did take stock of my fridge though, because I'll need one more grocery trip for the coming week. You kind of have to do math so you don't overbuy and end up throwing food away at the end of the week.
"Let's see, starting tomorrow it's seven days left in Rochester, so I'll need 10-12 servings of protein..." ...and like that.
Other than that, a chill morning which I really needed.
Our rehearsal was a show run, and it went well.
We had some notes afterward of course, but nothing that won't be fixed by time and attention and personal practice.
At 7:30 we had an invited dress, which is just a dress rehearsal with an audience.
The audience is there with the understanding that things are still being worked out, and the show can still be stopped so that issues can be worked out.
It went very well, we did not have to stop the show.
There were of course some mistakes, intonation issues and articulation-matching issues among the horns, but frankly that is not unusual and will work itself out in coming days. Having played this music last year, I know my weak points and am working on them.
--------------------------------------------------------
Monday is a glorious and much-needed day off.
Sadly I didn't get much sleep because this hotel is just LOUD.
I'm right next to the elevator and there were people coming back at 3am, talking loudly in the hall.
Then at 7am someone was blasting yoga music incredibly loudly (not very relaxing at max volume!) and not even my 32db earplugs could block it all out.
But, perhaps I'll have time for a nap later.
For now I'm taking care of laundry, restocking groceries, and going back to Village Bakery for lunch!
☆ While I've been out here rehearsing, Jameson has been in Vegas going to see Aerosmith and Nine Inch Nails, and doing some gambling, and lounging by the pool, and eating at Gordon Ramsey's (beef Wellington and sticky toffee pud to be exact). He's been keeping me updated but I've been trying to leave him alone a bit so he can relax and enjoy this time to himself.
☆ On our first rehearsal day last week, I brought my homemade caramels to Andrew. "Oooh, this bag is heavy!" he exclaimed with joy, and then ran off to presumably eat some. In following days I received many complements on the caramels not only from Andrew but also members of production (I guess Andrew was sharing/rationing them out), including "These are DIVINE" and "Ok these caramels are like crack!". A few people even asked for the recipe, or tips for their own caramel recipes. I was very happy that everyone enjoyed them :)
☆ I keep forgetting to mention this: remember that time I tried a bunch of interesting Asian-inspired oatmeals? Those are made by a company called Yishi, and come in flavors like Red Bean, Black Sesame, and Taro Bubble Tea, among others. Now you can buy them at Whole Foods! If you see them on the shelf I recommend giving them a try (especially if it's the individual cups, so you can sample different flavors).
☆ I have come crawling back to MyFitnessPal. Cronometer was good, but I decided to uninstall the app after realizing that their food database was so incomplete that I'd have to manually input almost every single food item I'd bought at Wegman's. That would have taken hours, and frankly it is just not worth doing. That, and admitting that not being able to separate out my calories by meal actually does make counting calories more difficult for me personally. Nobody likes to admit they're wrong, but I was wrong. MFP still has the best food database, even with all it's flaws. AND when I reinstalled the app, the barcode scanner works again, so they must have actually listened to their users and put it back.
☆ This week in Rochester our hotel is about a mile from the theater. It's a straight shot and an easy walk so I've been walking it pretty regularly during the daytime. While looking around yesterday I noticed a tree that seemed to have dark red globs all over it, dangling from a highway overpass across a rusted fence. I'm pretty sure it's an apple tree!!
And on the other side of the overpass, another apple tree with a variety that looks more like honeycrisp or gala, and also a pear tree, and something that my phone says is a Siberian crab apple.
Fruit trees just randomly growing on the side of a highway is not normal where I'm from, so this is novel to me.
It is now a goal to get one fruit from each tree and see if it's edible (the pears may not be ready).
There will be a bit of squeezing through rusty fences involved, but I think it's doable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday got off to an early start.
Somehow I ended up becoming the designated driver of the rental car, and our guitarist wanted to go in early to set up (we had moved into the theater proper the night before), so we were all out the door at 8:20am.
Got to the theater, and of COURSE they weren't ready for us, so we had to sit around until nearly 10am.
Finally we were able to set up and have sound check. Initial sound checks are pretty extensive because we've got new people who need to dial their mix in, and sound guys who need to get the house mix set up, and then we have to check levels for all of the mics on our various instruments (remember that we have "Reed" musicians who play a huge variety of instruments), then after that we need to all play together with the track so audio can be balanced. And after all that we need to work with the cast and get levels balanced there, for them and us and the audience. It takes a long time but is definitely a vital step.
For lunch I ate my packed chicken, avocado, and bread, then went for a walk to Scents by Design, which I thought was a candle store but turned out to be one of those "art experience" things, you know like where you throw your own pottery or paint a picture as a group while getting drunk or whatever. For this one you choose a scent, or mix and match scents, to create your own candle.
Luckily it was still possible to just buy things without some group experience.
They had some unusual and fun scents like Summer Lawn, Cigar Lounge, Earl Grey Tea, or Tomato Leaf.
I smelled quite a few. Summer Lawn was too floral for me, Tomato Leaf too grassy and not enough of that special "zing" that tomato leaves have in their scent. Peppercorn was a disappointment, it managed to smell sweet somehow. Their Peach candle smelled pretty realistic though, and I liked Old Books too, but not enough to buy them.
As soon as I stuck my nose in Earth, I was sold. It smelled just like freshly tilled, moist soil. I imagine there must be mushroom extract or something in the scent. Anyway I love it and it's not something that I get to smell while performing in cities.
And of course my other top choice was Baked Bread. It smelled buttery and nice, not totally accurate but pleasant and warm.
I also got a Patchouli room spray, which in retrospect I should have tempered with something else like maybe their Yuzu scent so it's not giving "dirty hippy" vibes. But since that will only be used as a room spray, to counteract weird hotel room smells, it probably doesn't matter.
After lunch was Wandelprobe, which was slow going but probably accomplished a lot that I wasn't privy to.
Then we were supposed to have a dinner break followed by more rehearsal, but it was clear that the cast was not ready for the band to be in on rehearsals yet (i.e. not at the point of running full numbers), so we were thankfully cut loose around 5pm. Yay!
I used my night to cook barley and green beans for upcoming meals, and ate dinner and had a snack and just chilled out for once.
--------------------------------------------------
Saturday was quite the long day, partially because of my own choices.
I got up early, packed dinner, and walked 1.5 miles to Voula's Greek Sweets.
This had been on my Foodie Finds list for being vegan/vegetarian, having high ratings, and for their exquisite pastry cabinet.
Who doesn't like homemade baklava?
I'm being "healthy", though, so I didn't get treats this time, just lunch. Sort of.
Full-fat Greek yogurt with honey, walnuts, and almonds. Tangy and sweet, healthy fats and proteins.
Vegetarian seitan chick'n souvlaki with veggies, feta, and tzatziki (which I got on the side to avoid sogginess) on a gluten free pita.
The seitan was very tasty and a convincing replacement for chicken! The seasoning was beautiful.
Like all gluten free breads the pita didn't have that satisfying gluten chew, but it was fluffy and delicious all the same.
Then I walked another 1.5 miles to Village Bakery & Cafe for a loaf of bread because I ran out this morning.
By the time I got there the sun was full up and I was getting a good sweat going.
This place was also on my Foodie Finds because it has a lot of unique sandwich options and some irresistible desserts.
I plan to come back later in the week for actual lunch and treats.
For now, just a loaf of multigrain.
At first I was disappointed because I'd wanted to try their sourdough and they were out, but it turns out the multigrain is sourdough as well!
I had planned to walk from there to the theater, but it was twice the distance I'd already walked and I was hot and sweaty.
I called an Uber and was glad I did, because that gave me just enough time to cool down and enjoy the Greek food before it was time to rehearse.
It was a VERY long rehearsal day. We started at 1:30, had a dinner break around 5pm, then weren't done rehearsing until 11pm.
The worst part of tech rehearsals is that many times the band is not needed for large chunks of time, but we can't leave the pit in case we're called on to play. So time can really drag, and you can get really sleepy and annoyed. The last 1.5 hours was rough...we were asked to play only once during that time, for just a few minutes, then had to distract ourselves with our phones. It's a feeling like waiting at the DMV, haha.
But, that's typical for rehearsal periods. We just have to bear with it.
When our day was finally done I got back to the hotel, sliced my lovely bread, and went to sleep right away.
-------------------------------------------------
Sunday, our call time wasn't until 1:30 so I had a nice slow morning.
Breakfast in the Itaki, packing lunch.
Some of the band guys carpooled to Wegman's but I passed on that because I don't like to be rushed, and I know everyone would be done shopping before me. I did take stock of my fridge though, because I'll need one more grocery trip for the coming week. You kind of have to do math so you don't overbuy and end up throwing food away at the end of the week.
"Let's see, starting tomorrow it's seven days left in Rochester, so I'll need 10-12 servings of protein..." ...and like that.
Other than that, a chill morning which I really needed.
Our rehearsal was a show run, and it went well.
We had some notes afterward of course, but nothing that won't be fixed by time and attention and personal practice.
At 7:30 we had an invited dress, which is just a dress rehearsal with an audience.
The audience is there with the understanding that things are still being worked out, and the show can still be stopped so that issues can be worked out.
It went very well, we did not have to stop the show.
There were of course some mistakes, intonation issues and articulation-matching issues among the horns, but frankly that is not unusual and will work itself out in coming days. Having played this music last year, I know my weak points and am working on them.
--------------------------------------------------------
Monday is a glorious and much-needed day off.
Sadly I didn't get much sleep because this hotel is just LOUD.
I'm right next to the elevator and there were people coming back at 3am, talking loudly in the hall.
Then at 7am someone was blasting yoga music incredibly loudly (not very relaxing at max volume!) and not even my 32db earplugs could block it all out.
But, perhaps I'll have time for a nap later.
For now I'm taking care of laundry, restocking groceries, and going back to Village Bakery for lunch!