No Pictures Needed

Monday I felt sad. Because MONDAY. And a full actual work week ahead.
I mean, I work a full week normally anyway. But somehow having my days off separated makes it feel like a longer week.

Nothing special happened on Monday except that the fleece "jacket" that I ordered is too big and I'll have to send it back.
I had steno class and it was ok, but at this point I just want to pass the tests. I wish I could do a better job of focusing.

During lunch break I made an appointment to take my trombone to a shop in Cary, NC while visiting my Aunt.
For whatever reason, there are ZERO professional brass repair shops in Orlando. My trombone hasn't been played for two years, and while it's behaving "ok" it's also hanging up somewhat in second position, and I'd like to get that looked at before launching into a year of daily playing. It's convenient that this shop is only 20 minutes from my Aunt's house. Hopefully she won't mind; it shouldn't cut into our visit more than an hour.

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Tuesday. My aunt says it's fine to do the trombone cleaning while I'm visiting with her. Yay!
At work I discovered that the training department doesn't actually need me at all this week. I'm a little miffed because I've lost my consecutive weekend for the week AND my work-from-home day AND I had to use two hours of PTO to cover the doctor appointment that would normally have been on my day off. But, I can't really blame them. If you're not sure if you'll have enough coverage, you make a contingency and cover your butt, and that's exactly what they did.

So, I'll have a normal work week, just no days off until Saturday. Sad trombone noises.

After work I got home where Jameson was getting ready to go out for a game night with friends from Head Over Heels.
I was invited too, but on Monday I did not get to practice trombone and I'm starting to stress about passing my steno tests and also being "ready enough" for the tour, so I opted out. We talked as I ate dinner, then after he left I packed my lunch for tomorrow (chicken salad, homemade wheat bread, kiwis, egg whites, edamame, a piece of chocolate) and then got to work.

I did trombone first because a lot of times that gets me focused and attentive, and I was hoping that would carry over to steno afterward.
Trombone practice went well, but I discovered ONE SINGLE NOTE that requires ONE SPECIFIC MUTE that is never used again for the entire two hour show. I can't find a recording of said note to understand why the specific mute is needed, either. Is it a solo? It's not marked as one, and it's marked "piano" (that means "play this quietly" in Italian). I'm already bringing four mutes: straight/cup combo, bucket, plunger, and a practice mute. Do I really need to bring a fifth just for this one note?

I mean, I totally will if I need to. But DO I need to?

It finally ended up bothering me enough that I emailed our conductor about it.
I feel like it could be perceived as an amateur or unprofessional question. But y'all didn't hire me for my mute collection, right? We're living out of suitcases here. I think it is legitimate to ask about the whys of bringing an extra mute for a single note.

I worded my question as delicately and politely and professionally as possible, cringed as I hit send, and will just hope that it's not taken the "wrong way", whatever that is. The obvious answer is, "It's in the book so clearly it's required." But, sometimes what's in the book is a misprint. Meh.

Speaking of "meh", I took a steno test and did "meh", got an 89. It's probably a 90 after some of the formatting is fixed, but that's still not passing. Sigh.

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Wednesday. It was extremely slow at work.

Last week I had written to our music coordinator to confirm that everything was going ahead as planned, no changes due to Delta variant? She responded that as far as she knows it's full steam ahead. Awesome. I just needed a little reassurance. It's been a year (or two).

Then the conductor wrote back to tell me that, in fact, I do NOT need to drag the harmon mute across the country for a single note in a two hour show. He wrote to the music supervisors to ask about it, and their response was "That bar is getting reorchestrated anyway. We'll have her use a different mute." Thanks guys! One less mute to worry about. I'm glad that I asked rather than chickening out and bringing the mute anyway.

Nothing else to report all day except a good friend dropped off a harmon mute for me to borrow, and now I'll have to get it back to him. Whoooops.

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Thursday. Work felt very slow because I knew I was gonna get to leave early for my doctor appointment.
It was also a very annoying day because call volume was high, so we kept having to get on phones and it was hard to get some tasks done even though there was sort-of enough time to do them all. Also, people kept asking me to take on tasks that needed to be done AFTER I would have left for the day (and yes I had reminded everyone first thing in the morning that I was leaving early). Even my boss, who was the one who approved my leaving early, asked me to take phone coverage at 3pm.

It felt like one of those frustrating dreams where you are trying to get somewhere, and the clock is ticking and you know you need to leave now, but every time you try someone stops you and insists that you do this one other thing first, until you start to hyperventilate in your sleep (at least I do). Of course no one was trying to stop me, but just the fact that I kept having to explain,

"I have a doctor appointment today."
"No, I cannot reschedule it."
"I got approval a week ago to leave early today."
"No, I cannot do that task because I NEED to go to this appointment."
"Yes, I DO need to eat something right now because I am leaving soon and this is my only chance to eat."
"I would love to help you but as I reminded everyone this morning, I'm leaving early because--"

etc etc. It was very frustrating and stressful.
I go to the doctor VERY rarely, and I am NEVER absent or late to work, and I gave plenty of notice, and the only reason I even had to give notice in the first place is because THEY changed my schedule all around! And then people have the gall to question it all day! ARGH!!

My job is not that hard, and I do enjoy it, but today it felt very RETAIL.
I should not have to feel guilty for taking ONE day out of the 365 to look after my health. Very unpleasant.

And then, THEN...

I went to the appointment. And waited in the 98 degree parking lot for almost 30 minutes.
And then someone called and said, "Were you a follow-up appointment?"
And I said, "Um, NO. This was a PCP."
And they said, "Oh! There's been a mistake. We had you booked for a 10-minute follow-up appointment."

Oh my god.

She added, "I can book you for November, how does that sound?"

Oh my god.

I said, you know what, never mind. I'll call you again.
In nine months. When I'm back from tour.

Welp...at least I had some extra time after work today, and I took full advantage.
I went to Target for some small things, got dinner, got to the house and cleaned up and packed my lunch. Cleaned both bathrooms, and dusted the furniture. Ate dinner with Jameson, watched Cobra Kai, practiced trombone for an hour. Jameson left for rehearsal and I practiced steno, took a test and AGAIN got an 89. So f*cking frustrating. I only have like five 100wpm tests left in my bank, I'm terrified to fail all of them, and then what??

So now I'm typing this up, then I'm having a half-shot of vodka just because I'm ANGRY.
Then I'll shower and get to enjoy, let's see, it's 9:20pm now, I should get about one hour of time to "relax" before I should try to sleep because tomorrow it's back to work again.

Then I will have Saturday off, and you know what? I am doing NOTHING.
I will still practice steno and trombone, and will probably weed around the house. But NO chores. NO cooking. NO bread.
Lots of sleep and sitting on my ass.

BECAUSE I'M A LAZY-ASS MILLENNIAL WHO IS RUINING EVERYTHING. You're welcome.