In a Blur

For one reason or another, this week kind of went by in a blur.
I didn't really document anything day-by-day like I've been trying to do.

Saturday and Sunday were both normal work days, and during lulls I tried to math out how I was going to pack suitcases or calculate the price of putting my car in storage vs letting someone drive it while I'm gone. To and from work, I stopped at grocery stores for items to stock my food box that will live in my luggage. I'm certain that there will be access to a grocery within the first week or so of rehearsals, but as an experienced road-person, I find it is ALWAYS a good idea to have a stash of nonperishables in case you get stuck.

My food box is usually a shoebox, or something about that size.

This time, I want it to contain:

- some type of jerky
- single-serve tuna and chicken pouches
- dry-roasted edamame
- single-serve peanut or almond butter packets
- granola bars (Clif minis are a perfect size)
- a healthy fruit leather
- instant oatmeal packets
- ginger (for motion sickness)
- crackers or Biscoff or both

In addition, since I plan to be cooking at some point on my journey, this time I am bringing

- salt and pepper (grinders if possible)
- olive oil (I got two tiny 3oz jars from World Market!)
- pie spice (for oatmeal, to avoid separate nutmeg and cinnamon containers)
- flax seeds (also for oatmeal)

The spices will be stored inside my mess kit, the oil and peanut butter and other liquid-like things will get their own ziploc before being placed in the food box, in case of leaks. Once we're actually touring, I'll use the food box to throw snacks into my purse in case we get stuck in a rehearsal without time for lunch, or for those times when I go exploring and find myself in a pickle for healthy food. It'll also come in handy on the jumps from once city to the next, most of which will be by bus and between 5-8 hours long. I can restock it at groceries or rest stops. It's definitely a lifesaver, and worth the luggage space.

There are still about two months until tour starts, but I want to gather as much as possible now so that I can do a luggage test run. I want to pack all that I plan to bring and see how much weight/room I have left after that.

So that took a lot of my focus. I also started researching what to do about my steno machine. It's just so BULKY. It's not even that heavy, but the keys are very sensitive so it needs to go in a case, making it about the size of a thick square throw pillow. That's a HUGE amount of space to take up in my luggage. I could try shipping it to myself, but then what happens on the bus? The next time we fly? If it doesn't fit in my luggage, how does it travel with me consistently? It's been worrying me.

So I trolled around the steno forums, and eventually found this:

(photo courtesy The Plover Blog)

It's called the TinyMod, and it's pretty much a very basic steno machine.
As you can see from the picture, it fits inside a pencil box. And supposedly, I can use this to participate in all of my classes.

There will be downsides to this of course...it'll feel different from a true steno machine, and it doesn't come with a stand for me to adjust, I'll have to use whatever surfaces are available. But if it will save me a big section of space in my luggage while allowing me to continue steno, well, I'm all for it. I've reached out to the creator and now we'll see if I can get one before hitting the road.

I also got confirmation that my TSA PreCheck has gone through, so I'll be getting a card for that soon. Yay! Forwarded that info to the production company.
My passport is still "processing", no surprise there.

Nothing else exciting happened during the week except I had a pair of black yoga pants shipped in the mail, which I hope to pass off as dress pants for this gig. I practiced steno every day, and trombone too, sometimes more of one than the other. I finally felt comfortable practicing trombone without listening to the soundtrack for the first time on Sunday, that was nice.

I'm no closer to passing my 100wpm class, but now that I'm dividing my practice time between trombone and steno my productivity is halved so it's not really surprising. If I can maintain, that'll have to be good enough; I still hope to pass before the end of this semester.

Monday felt like a very slow day at work, I almost felt guilty for how little I got done. Almost.
It's a time of year where a lot of people have graduated and are moving away, or going to college, or going on vacation, or hunting for higher-paying jobs. So about a third of my captioning team is absent for one of these reasons, leaving me few people to review or check in with. What can ya do?

Monday's steno class was ok, my brain was all over the place though so I didn't do as well as usual.
I brought up thoughts on storing my car to Jameson, and he was like, "Why would you do that? You could just leave it here."
I swear we had this conversation already, and he had said something about having to move it frequently and/or not feeling confident about being responsible for it, which is why I was looking for storage options in the first place. Guess I imagined that, or put too much weight on his feelings on the subject or something. It wouldn't be the first time. Anyway if he's willing to move it once a month or whatever, great, I'll leave it here. Not 100% pleased about having it parked on the street for much of that time, but it's cheaper and probably still safer than leaving it stored with a stranger.

Tuesday was WFH, for real this time. It was even a very slow day, so I was able to do a load of laundry and practice steno.
After work I drove to Whole Paycheck because Jameson expressed an interest in having Philly-style pork broccoli rabe sandwiches again. I made them once before, and he claims he really enjoyed it. I personally found them kind of gross, probably because I overcooked the meat. Well that won't happen again, dangit! I got a pork shoulder and some provolone, broccoli rabe and garlic and italian rolls.

I also found a small packet of high-fiber crackers, which I think would be good for my food box.
It took ages to get back home, where we finally ate dinner and relaxed.

This weekend there will be no bread-baking; there are enough carbs in this house right now, and I want to take care of test-packing my luggage and going through some stuff for the thrift store.