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Tootsie Yr2: Tysons, VA and Thanksgiving
Tysons Corner is quite the nice place to spend a holiday.
It's a huge shopping area. Our hotel is right next to two large malls and many shops and restaurants.
Because of this--and because it's a holiday, and because we're about to have a layoff--I decided to allow myself to eat out extra this week.
But for Thanksgiving, the company is providing us a lovely Thanksgiving meal (and an open bar!).
To prepare for that and because it was very nice out, mid-50s, I took a walk to the theater.
The route was a bit wonky, taking me on a walking path through some undeveloped woods, which was actually really nice.
Haven't been among trees in too long.
Cardinals and sparrows were chirping socially in the bushes, squirrels rustling through the leaves. All that fall stuff.
Turns out the theater is inside a larger complex, so I didn't actually "see" it.
But I did see the metro station and got a feel for the walk.
And there's a Wegman's right next to the theater too!
Since they were open anyway I popped in. It wasn't too crazy, actually kind of light-to-normal foot traffic.
I got a seasonal Olipop, Apple Crisp, and that's all.
The walk back was less pleasant because I was hungry and it was almost entirely uphill.
But I logged four miles, which for me is about 260 calories and will cover two glasses of wine nicely :)
Back at the hotel, a small snack and put the National Dog Show on in the background while I wrote emails to friends and family until it was finally time for the Thanksgiving meal. It is so hard to wait, lol!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Company Thanksgiving was a lot of fun!
The food was "standard" catered fare: premade turkey breast with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Dessert was apple or pumpkin pie (or in my case, both).
I had two glasses of wine, a rare treat for me :)
Ate moderately so I could have big hunks of pie.
At each table was a paintable plate with a cartoon turkey emblazoned with the words "Turkey Time".
I guess that was our group activity, lol.
The band was shockingly collaborative about it. We passed the plate around the table as we ate and talked and drank, each of us completing little parts before passing it on. Other tables had multiple collaborators as well, but I am pretty sure we're the only table where everyone participated. Working this way it took over an hour to complete, but complete it we did.
At the crew table, their mascot plush possum was festively dressed in a turkey costume (designed for a dog haha)
Crew also brought their huge blow-up Buc-ees mascot, which the band used for a photo op.
It was all going well until Clayton accidentally unplugged it with his foot and it started collapsing on my head.
A bit after that we took a full group photo, which didn't come out the clearest but was fun to do.
If you can't be home with family, I think this is probably the next best thing :)
Full of food and with a nice buzz going, I went back to my room to facetime with family.
We only spent about a half hour because my sisters have kids + one sister had to facetime outside because people were napping inside.
But it was a good half hour. Just seeing my siblings and their families, and my stepmom, smiling and happy, was heartwarming.
Back in my room I watched some past episodes of Lego Masters, sent a few more emails, and had some tea to help digest all that food.
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, but I have big foodie plans so it had better not :p
--------------------------------------------------------
Friday woke up to a little drizzling, nothing dire.
Breakfast and some data entry work and some actual Christmas purchases, since it's Black Friday (made no difference for the things I was buying, go figure).
In the afternoon I walked to Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hai Duong to get a banh xeo.
(shown "open" here so you can see the filling in the middle. When closed it looks like an egg omelette.)
Banh xeo is a savory crepe. The batter is made with rice flour, turmeric, and coconut cream (so it's subtley sweet).
Pork belly, shrimp, onions, and mung bean are grilled in a pan, and the batter is poured around them, making them part of the crepe itself.
The center of the crepe is filled with bean sprouts, green onions, and sometimes more protein or more veggies.
Then there are your side-veg, which are pickled carrots and turnips, slices of cucumber, fresh basil and mint leaves, and romaine lettuce.
What you do is tear off a piece of crepe and stick it in the center of a romaine leaf.
Top it with basil, mint, pickled veg, and cucumber.
Dip it in the sweet-and-sour sauce.
And enjoy!
I first had this in North Carolina with my dear friends and roommates, Jeremy and Charlie.
I was blown away at how good it was.
Crispy and fresh, strong herbal flavors, plump shrimp and savory pork, with great umami from the sauce.
But banh xeo is actually REALLY hard to find. Not a lot of Vietnamese restaurants offer it that I've seen, and those that do often don't get it right (as I've tragically discovered over the years).
This is the first time I've had a GOOD banh xeo since probably 2015.
So, so grateful to experience these great flavors again, and a little taste of nostalgia as well for good times gone by.
I should really learn to make these myself.
The afternoon was pretty slow, we got our flight info for post-layoff so I worked on that and did more data entry and watched anime.
For dinner I was a bit foolish and preordered some musubi for pickup.
At the mall. ON BLACK FRIDAY.
It was only a ten minute walk, but it was a madhouse in there.
Some stores had lines out the door. Walking between stores, there were so many people that it felt like being in a line.
CLICK HERE to watch
Luckily it was easy to find the Musubi place and just grab my bag and run away.
I was in the mall for no more than five minutes, and I was masked.
From there I met up with some bandmates who were splitting an Uber to the theater (it is about two miles away so just far enough to be a difficult walk in concert black clothing). The Capital One Hall is inside a big complex, so it was a little wonky finding the stage door, which is weirdly inside a parking garage. But find it we did, and this building being only a year or two old, it's quite modern and clean. The hall itself has a modern design and a nice big pit.
(photo stolen from Bill, trumpet)
Our dressing room is spacious and comfy too.
At my station there was this little pumpkin. Probably just for decoration but guess what, IT'S MINE NOW.
...at least while we're here ;)
I took it to my spot in the pit and set it among my mutes.
Soto (MD) asked how it would sound as a mute, so I demonstrated.
CLICK HERE to watch
Love an opportunity to goof off!
After sound check I got to enjoy my musubi.
I picked the Hawaiian classic, Spam and egg.
Spam musubi is, from what I understand, a nostalgic food for a lot of Hawaiians.
It originated during wartime, and is based on a Japanese onigiri, which is pretty much sushi rice wrapped in sheets of nori and filled with whatever you like...usually tuna salad, salmon salad, egg, pickled plum, or seasoned beef. They keep well for travel, so it was probably a popular thing for workers or soldiers to bring with them for lunch.
Y'all know I am NOT a fan of salty things, so I did end up picking the Spam out of one half.
But the goal here was to try the original Hawaiian dish as it was meant to be, and I got to do that :)
It was quite good and I'm glad to get to try it!
Our show that night was kind of unprecedented.
We started as usual--curtain went up, actors and dancers doing their thing--when suddenly our MD's call light began flashing frantically.
Our sound guy even got into our ears to call out ot him: "Soto!", but he didn't answer right away as we were only a few bars from a good stopping point. He got us to that point and then cut us off...and then the actors were instructed to vacate the stage and the curtain was closed, right in the middle of the act!
Really unprecedented.
We ended up waiting around for a VERY long time, probably about half an hour.
It was awkward, but the audience was more or less patient.
Around 9pm, an hour after our scheduled show time, we were able to resume.
The show ended around 11:30pm.
We found out later that a bolt had broken somewhere, causing a stage weight to break free and swing around damaging things.
So in the middle of the opening act they had to pull a lift boom on stage, get the weight, and bolt it back down. Wild!
But I'm glad it's Safety First!!
-----------------------------------------------------
Saturday I was very tired and woke up late.
A little Christmas shopping and a lot of getting ready for a two show day.
My friend
lookfar is coming to visit, and we are going to get banh mi during the break between shows!
Once I had everything ready I walked to Super Chicken for lunch.
It's pretty basic, just Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken with two sides.
But this place has really high reviews and heck, I don't think I've had Peruvian food before, so wanted to try it out.
The chicken had great flavor (they accidentally gave me dark meat instead of white but no bigs).
The yucca fries were tasty but a bit dry. And the salad was fresh and good.
Especially liked two of the sauces that came with this meal, which I found out later are aji verde (the bright green one, spicy and refreshing) and aji huacatay (kind of an umami mayo-type thing, really really good).
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was just me puttering around until showtime when we Ubered to the theater.
The show went well, though it was underattended.
During the break Lookfar came to get me!
We chatted as she drove us to a banh mi restaurant...but they had so much more than banh mi!
These were mostly sticky rice treats wrapped in banana leaves, though there were some that had pork in them, and there was also roasted corn and spring rolls and stuff like that. There were so many interesting foods, I made sure to walk around and look at everything...flans in the fridge, and coconut milk and mung bean beverages, and this place even makes their own jerky! (It came in large bags otherwise I would have bought some!)
The menu was very extensive, not only banh mi but also lots of other Vietnamese dishes and desserts and drinks.
If I lived here I'd try everything at least once!
As it was, I wanted to get an authentic banh mi. Went with chicken, but also couldn't resist a pork steamed bun because they were making them right there in front of us!! I will eat that tomorrow.
Lookfar had planned on being able to eat at the restaurant, but since the pandemic they seem to have become takeout only.
So instead I got to visit her house, and meet her husband and daughter!
Understand that although we are pretty much online-only friends, lookfar writes about her family often, so I feel like I already know these people to some extent. I felt shy to be busting in unexpectedly, but everyone was warm and welcoming, and the house was lovely, filled with plants and cats and misc projects, like lookfar's gingerbread squirrel cookies. She gave me one to take home, I'm very excited to enjoy it on the upcoming travel day :)
She also gifted me a Stayman winesap apple, which is a variety I've never heard of before. Described as "tart and spicy", supposedly great for ciders or making desserts. I'm excited to try it!
We ate our sandwiches and chatted about this and that. Of course everyone had lots of questions about tour life, and music life, and past life as a circus musician. I had brought my Itaki knowing that Lookfar had an interest in it, and showed it off for a bit.
We only had about two hours together, so before we knew it it was time to part ways.
I'm very grateful that Lookfar took time to visit with me. I'm not the easiest to get along with, especially online, and the fact that she looked past all that and reached out in friendship, and opened her home to me, made my icy little heart melt just a bit for the first time in a long time. There ARE still good and kind people out there, and Lookfar is one of them. Sometimes I forget.
The evening show was just fine underattended again but an enthusiastic audience despite that.
----------------------------------------
Sunday it was dreary and rainy out, but I was determined to get the slice of crepe cake that I'd promised myself.
(I'm counting it as about 450 calories and basically eating it as lunch, adjusting other meals for sugar and fat content.)
I got up early to make eggs in the Itaki, one for breakfast and one for lunch.
After breakfast, washing all the dishes and beginning the packing process as well as packing dinner because I plan to stay at the theater during the break and get some work done.
And then the short 10-minute walk to Lady M.
Here are the full-sized cakes that you can buy. Many flavors like matcha, tiramisu, and caramel to name a few.
You can get single slices of each, which is why I'm here.
I chose the marron flavor because it's seasonal.
It features a chestnut pastry cream, roasted chestnuts, and a "marron glace" candied chestnut on top.
There are twenty layers in each cake! Close-up of a bite to show texture and layers.
You can see bits of chestnut, too.
I have never had crepe cake before, but I like crepes and I like cake, so...!
It was quite good! As Lookfar had warned me, it had a very soft texture and was extremely delicate.
The cream was fresh and delicious, with a roasted flavor from the chestnuts that I enjoyed.
The texture of chestnuts is apparently kind of grainy? It reminded me of a bean a little bit.
But overall, a nice flavor and texture experience and I can see why people like these.
Would I choose it over another type of cake? Probably not! But it was delicious.
After that it was time to get to the theater.
Our first show went well, small but mighty audience.
During the break I stayed there and did data entry (I'm awfully behind on that) and ate lunch, and made a trip to Wegman's.
The evening show was fine, but I felt very exhausted, more so than usual.
As a result, I Ubered all the way back to the hotel and forgot my lunchbox in the greenroom fridge.
I was so embarrassed to have to ask someone to grab it :(
Jenna (Wardrobe) very kindly brought it to me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now it is Monday and we are flying to Akron, OH.
We are only there for two days, then I think we bus to Toledo, OH.
And THEN we have the month-long December layoff! And I get to see my Jameson!!
Other stuff:
At the airport there was this big armored car near our bus.
I found out later that these are made by Terradyne. Cool.
I've recently been elected "band representative", which just means any time there's an issue that impacts the whole band it's my job to look into it. The first issue that I was given to address was lighting in the pit, which in some theaters can be pretty poor or nonexistent during our scheduled setup times. I met with Troika management, and we decided on a good solution: these rechargeable lights, and two headlamps!
I'm happy to have contributed to a safer workplace for myself and my peers.
Our hotel this week does not offer free coffee, and I dislike making my own on the travel day because then I have to pack my kettle and Aeropress while they're damp. So I went to Wegman's for a canned coffee, and found this High Brew self-heating can!
Here's how it went: CLICK HERE to watch
It's a huge shopping area. Our hotel is right next to two large malls and many shops and restaurants.
Because of this--and because it's a holiday, and because we're about to have a layoff--I decided to allow myself to eat out extra this week.
But for Thanksgiving, the company is providing us a lovely Thanksgiving meal (and an open bar!).
To prepare for that and because it was very nice out, mid-50s, I took a walk to the theater.
The route was a bit wonky, taking me on a walking path through some undeveloped woods, which was actually really nice.
Haven't been among trees in too long.
Cardinals and sparrows were chirping socially in the bushes, squirrels rustling through the leaves. All that fall stuff.
Turns out the theater is inside a larger complex, so I didn't actually "see" it.
But I did see the metro station and got a feel for the walk.
And there's a Wegman's right next to the theater too!
Since they were open anyway I popped in. It wasn't too crazy, actually kind of light-to-normal foot traffic.
I got a seasonal Olipop, Apple Crisp, and that's all.
The walk back was less pleasant because I was hungry and it was almost entirely uphill.
But I logged four miles, which for me is about 260 calories and will cover two glasses of wine nicely :)
Back at the hotel, a small snack and put the National Dog Show on in the background while I wrote emails to friends and family until it was finally time for the Thanksgiving meal. It is so hard to wait, lol!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Company Thanksgiving was a lot of fun!
The food was "standard" catered fare: premade turkey breast with gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Dessert was apple or pumpkin pie (or in my case, both).
I had two glasses of wine, a rare treat for me :)
Ate moderately so I could have big hunks of pie.
At each table was a paintable plate with a cartoon turkey emblazoned with the words "Turkey Time".
I guess that was our group activity, lol.
The band was shockingly collaborative about it. We passed the plate around the table as we ate and talked and drank, each of us completing little parts before passing it on. Other tables had multiple collaborators as well, but I am pretty sure we're the only table where everyone participated. Working this way it took over an hour to complete, but complete it we did.
At the crew table, their mascot plush possum was festively dressed in a turkey costume (designed for a dog haha)
Crew also brought their huge blow-up Buc-ees mascot, which the band used for a photo op.
It was all going well until Clayton accidentally unplugged it with his foot and it started collapsing on my head.
A bit after that we took a full group photo, which didn't come out the clearest but was fun to do.
If you can't be home with family, I think this is probably the next best thing :)
Full of food and with a nice buzz going, I went back to my room to facetime with family.
We only spent about a half hour because my sisters have kids + one sister had to facetime outside because people were napping inside.
But it was a good half hour. Just seeing my siblings and their families, and my stepmom, smiling and happy, was heartwarming.
Back in my room I watched some past episodes of Lego Masters, sent a few more emails, and had some tea to help digest all that food.
Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, but I have big foodie plans so it had better not :p
--------------------------------------------------------
Friday woke up to a little drizzling, nothing dire.
Breakfast and some data entry work and some actual Christmas purchases, since it's Black Friday (made no difference for the things I was buying, go figure).
In the afternoon I walked to Vietnamese restaurant Pho Hai Duong to get a banh xeo.
(shown "open" here so you can see the filling in the middle. When closed it looks like an egg omelette.)
Banh xeo is a savory crepe. The batter is made with rice flour, turmeric, and coconut cream (so it's subtley sweet).
Pork belly, shrimp, onions, and mung bean are grilled in a pan, and the batter is poured around them, making them part of the crepe itself.
The center of the crepe is filled with bean sprouts, green onions, and sometimes more protein or more veggies.
Then there are your side-veg, which are pickled carrots and turnips, slices of cucumber, fresh basil and mint leaves, and romaine lettuce.
What you do is tear off a piece of crepe and stick it in the center of a romaine leaf.
Top it with basil, mint, pickled veg, and cucumber.
Dip it in the sweet-and-sour sauce.
And enjoy!
I first had this in North Carolina with my dear friends and roommates, Jeremy and Charlie.
I was blown away at how good it was.
Crispy and fresh, strong herbal flavors, plump shrimp and savory pork, with great umami from the sauce.
But banh xeo is actually REALLY hard to find. Not a lot of Vietnamese restaurants offer it that I've seen, and those that do often don't get it right (as I've tragically discovered over the years).
This is the first time I've had a GOOD banh xeo since probably 2015.
So, so grateful to experience these great flavors again, and a little taste of nostalgia as well for good times gone by.
I should really learn to make these myself.
The afternoon was pretty slow, we got our flight info for post-layoff so I worked on that and did more data entry and watched anime.
For dinner I was a bit foolish and preordered some musubi for pickup.
At the mall. ON BLACK FRIDAY.
It was only a ten minute walk, but it was a madhouse in there.
Some stores had lines out the door. Walking between stores, there were so many people that it felt like being in a line.
CLICK HERE to watch
Luckily it was easy to find the Musubi place and just grab my bag and run away.
I was in the mall for no more than five minutes, and I was masked.
From there I met up with some bandmates who were splitting an Uber to the theater (it is about two miles away so just far enough to be a difficult walk in concert black clothing). The Capital One Hall is inside a big complex, so it was a little wonky finding the stage door, which is weirdly inside a parking garage. But find it we did, and this building being only a year or two old, it's quite modern and clean. The hall itself has a modern design and a nice big pit.
(photo stolen from Bill, trumpet)
Our dressing room is spacious and comfy too.
At my station there was this little pumpkin. Probably just for decoration but guess what, IT'S MINE NOW.
...at least while we're here ;)
I took it to my spot in the pit and set it among my mutes.
Soto (MD) asked how it would sound as a mute, so I demonstrated.
CLICK HERE to watch
Love an opportunity to goof off!
After sound check I got to enjoy my musubi.
I picked the Hawaiian classic, Spam and egg.
Spam musubi is, from what I understand, a nostalgic food for a lot of Hawaiians.
It originated during wartime, and is based on a Japanese onigiri, which is pretty much sushi rice wrapped in sheets of nori and filled with whatever you like...usually tuna salad, salmon salad, egg, pickled plum, or seasoned beef. They keep well for travel, so it was probably a popular thing for workers or soldiers to bring with them for lunch.
Y'all know I am NOT a fan of salty things, so I did end up picking the Spam out of one half.
But the goal here was to try the original Hawaiian dish as it was meant to be, and I got to do that :)
It was quite good and I'm glad to get to try it!
Our show that night was kind of unprecedented.
We started as usual--curtain went up, actors and dancers doing their thing--when suddenly our MD's call light began flashing frantically.
Our sound guy even got into our ears to call out ot him: "Soto!", but he didn't answer right away as we were only a few bars from a good stopping point. He got us to that point and then cut us off...and then the actors were instructed to vacate the stage and the curtain was closed, right in the middle of the act!
Really unprecedented.
We ended up waiting around for a VERY long time, probably about half an hour.
It was awkward, but the audience was more or less patient.
Around 9pm, an hour after our scheduled show time, we were able to resume.
The show ended around 11:30pm.
We found out later that a bolt had broken somewhere, causing a stage weight to break free and swing around damaging things.
So in the middle of the opening act they had to pull a lift boom on stage, get the weight, and bolt it back down. Wild!
But I'm glad it's Safety First!!
-----------------------------------------------------
Saturday I was very tired and woke up late.
A little Christmas shopping and a lot of getting ready for a two show day.
My friend
lookfar is coming to visit, and we are going to get banh mi during the break between shows!Once I had everything ready I walked to Super Chicken for lunch.
It's pretty basic, just Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken with two sides.
But this place has really high reviews and heck, I don't think I've had Peruvian food before, so wanted to try it out.
The chicken had great flavor (they accidentally gave me dark meat instead of white but no bigs).
The yucca fries were tasty but a bit dry. And the salad was fresh and good.
Especially liked two of the sauces that came with this meal, which I found out later are aji verde (the bright green one, spicy and refreshing) and aji huacatay (kind of an umami mayo-type thing, really really good).
Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was just me puttering around until showtime when we Ubered to the theater.
The show went well, though it was underattended.
During the break Lookfar came to get me!
We chatted as she drove us to a banh mi restaurant...but they had so much more than banh mi!
These were mostly sticky rice treats wrapped in banana leaves, though there were some that had pork in them, and there was also roasted corn and spring rolls and stuff like that. There were so many interesting foods, I made sure to walk around and look at everything...flans in the fridge, and coconut milk and mung bean beverages, and this place even makes their own jerky! (It came in large bags otherwise I would have bought some!)
The menu was very extensive, not only banh mi but also lots of other Vietnamese dishes and desserts and drinks.
If I lived here I'd try everything at least once!
As it was, I wanted to get an authentic banh mi. Went with chicken, but also couldn't resist a pork steamed bun because they were making them right there in front of us!! I will eat that tomorrow.
Lookfar had planned on being able to eat at the restaurant, but since the pandemic they seem to have become takeout only.
So instead I got to visit her house, and meet her husband and daughter!
Understand that although we are pretty much online-only friends, lookfar writes about her family often, so I feel like I already know these people to some extent. I felt shy to be busting in unexpectedly, but everyone was warm and welcoming, and the house was lovely, filled with plants and cats and misc projects, like lookfar's gingerbread squirrel cookies. She gave me one to take home, I'm very excited to enjoy it on the upcoming travel day :)
She also gifted me a Stayman winesap apple, which is a variety I've never heard of before. Described as "tart and spicy", supposedly great for ciders or making desserts. I'm excited to try it!
We ate our sandwiches and chatted about this and that. Of course everyone had lots of questions about tour life, and music life, and past life as a circus musician. I had brought my Itaki knowing that Lookfar had an interest in it, and showed it off for a bit.
We only had about two hours together, so before we knew it it was time to part ways.
I'm very grateful that Lookfar took time to visit with me. I'm not the easiest to get along with, especially online, and the fact that she looked past all that and reached out in friendship, and opened her home to me, made my icy little heart melt just a bit for the first time in a long time. There ARE still good and kind people out there, and Lookfar is one of them. Sometimes I forget.
The evening show was just fine underattended again but an enthusiastic audience despite that.
----------------------------------------
Sunday it was dreary and rainy out, but I was determined to get the slice of crepe cake that I'd promised myself.
(I'm counting it as about 450 calories and basically eating it as lunch, adjusting other meals for sugar and fat content.)
I got up early to make eggs in the Itaki, one for breakfast and one for lunch.
After breakfast, washing all the dishes and beginning the packing process as well as packing dinner because I plan to stay at the theater during the break and get some work done.
And then the short 10-minute walk to Lady M.
Here are the full-sized cakes that you can buy. Many flavors like matcha, tiramisu, and caramel to name a few.
You can get single slices of each, which is why I'm here.
I chose the marron flavor because it's seasonal.
It features a chestnut pastry cream, roasted chestnuts, and a "marron glace" candied chestnut on top.
There are twenty layers in each cake! Close-up of a bite to show texture and layers.
You can see bits of chestnut, too.
I have never had crepe cake before, but I like crepes and I like cake, so...!
It was quite good! As Lookfar had warned me, it had a very soft texture and was extremely delicate.
The cream was fresh and delicious, with a roasted flavor from the chestnuts that I enjoyed.
The texture of chestnuts is apparently kind of grainy? It reminded me of a bean a little bit.
But overall, a nice flavor and texture experience and I can see why people like these.
Would I choose it over another type of cake? Probably not! But it was delicious.
After that it was time to get to the theater.
Our first show went well, small but mighty audience.
During the break I stayed there and did data entry (I'm awfully behind on that) and ate lunch, and made a trip to Wegman's.
The evening show was fine, but I felt very exhausted, more so than usual.
As a result, I Ubered all the way back to the hotel and forgot my lunchbox in the greenroom fridge.
I was so embarrassed to have to ask someone to grab it :(
Jenna (Wardrobe) very kindly brought it to me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now it is Monday and we are flying to Akron, OH.
We are only there for two days, then I think we bus to Toledo, OH.
And THEN we have the month-long December layoff! And I get to see my Jameson!!
Other stuff:
At the airport there was this big armored car near our bus.
I found out later that these are made by Terradyne. Cool.
I've recently been elected "band representative", which just means any time there's an issue that impacts the whole band it's my job to look into it. The first issue that I was given to address was lighting in the pit, which in some theaters can be pretty poor or nonexistent during our scheduled setup times. I met with Troika management, and we decided on a good solution: these rechargeable lights, and two headlamps!
I'm happy to have contributed to a safer workplace for myself and my peers.
Our hotel this week does not offer free coffee, and I dislike making my own on the travel day because then I have to pack my kettle and Aeropress while they're damp. So I went to Wegman's for a canned coffee, and found this High Brew self-heating can!
Here's how it went: CLICK HERE to watch
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