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October Escalates
Oct. 15th, 2023 07:54 pmGosh, Thursday and Friday were so hectic that I ended up not posting or thinking about anything for like 48 hours.
Thursday I got a flurry of calls and information from local trombonists and MDs.
Two of them are the trombonist and MD for a show I'm subbing for on Saturday, and they wanted to give me notes and get me a lot of info I'll need to do a good job for them.
Two of them were the trombonist and MD for the Main Street Philharmonic, because they're starting to look for subs for the holiday season and now that I'm on Disney's "employment" list, I don't have to complete onboarding (which takes weeks) which means I can be hired right away if they need someone. This doesn't mean I'll get a call, but being considered AT ALL is EXACTLY why I've been bending over backwards to be available for Candlelight even though it's costing me two weeks of My Fair Lady and is not a guaranteed gig. Getting sublisted for Candlelight is what got me onto the call list; if you are not on the Disney call list you simply will not be called. That is what's most valuable here: being on the radar. And I was pleased that the money I'm losing by being available for Candlelight is already putting my name into circulation for other gigs. Yes! That's the goal and what makes doing it worthwhile.
The other two were responding to a facebook comment I'd made, not entirely positive but not entirely negative, about cliques and "inner circles" in the music industry. Both were just looking to show support and network a little, which I appreciated.
But all of this cut into my work time, so I ended up a little behind by the end of the day.
I also had the "Production Superstars" meeting for TSOLife, myself and about six other employees who were singled out because our work is both fast and high quality (not to toot my horn, that's just what we were told.) Our supervisor wanted to know what we are doing that makes us so efficient. I had made a list in advance, and just copy-pasted it into the chat rather than take up everyone's time with running my mouth (and also so my supervisor could just grab it if she wanted.)
Everyone liked my suggestion about "Keeping your nails short"...I was just trying to think practically, of easy things that people can do to boost speed. I also suggested not biting off more than you can chew when selecting interviews, and multitasking with information (i.e. If you're filling out someone's education history, you can also look at the locations of the schools and use that information to fill out parts of the Places Lived section.)
We all recommended split screens/two screens, using Ctrl+F a lot, and exercising good time management.
Beyond that...I mean, I think the problem is just that some people have the personality type, and self-discipline, to be able to focus on a task for a long period of time, and others do not. There are many people in this world whose attention bounces around, and they have to work really hard to stick to one thing. As long as the company is hiring 1099 workers without filtering for specific standards, I think they're going to get at least 50% of their workers having sporadic attention spans. They've started requiring a typing test and a sort of short basic grammar/skills test, but that doesn't test for attention spans or discipline to stick to a task.
I was also expecting that some of the people in this chat would have previous editing/data entry experience like myself, but none did. Some had administrative experience and high typing speeds. So when it came to external factors, I had the "non-transferrable" of having worked for CapTel captioning realtime calls with my voice at 300wpm, which I'd say is fairly rare and develops the skill of "listening ahead"--stretching your short term memory to its limit while your text catches up to the breakneck pace of audio--that others would not have.
That was about it; I'm not sure if any of what we provided or suggested was useful, or if we're just statistically on a different part of the bell curve. The one thing I'd like to do before leaving for tour is leverage that a bit, now that I know I'm considered one of their faster/more accurate editors, and maybe just put it out there that I'd love to work in other capacities for them, perhaps training or doing something more involved than 1099 work at $12/hour.
Other than that it was a normal day. I had some tofu that was about to expire in the fridge, so I pressed it, tossed it in spices and corn starch, and cooked it in the air fryer.
It turned out nice, but started to soften shortly after coming out of the air fryer, so I threw it back in for a minute then left it in the basket for a bit. This way any steam coming from the inside could evaporate, rather than get caught in the crust. That worked well. It was good with sriracha and tamari.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday started normally, but on his way out the door Jameson noticed that the AC was leaking in the garage and asked me to call our usual AC repair guy to come have a look. Unfortunately he was booked solid, so I took it upon myself to call someone else.
This turned out to be a mistake. I should have let Jameson know that our usual guy wasn't available, and maybe we could have waited (the AC was still working.) But I was worried to bother him or stress him out during rehearsal, so instead I called someone we didn't know. He seemed ok at first--identified that the drain was clogged and unclogged it with no issues, offered to change our capacitor because it was about due, and offered to cover up some exposed wiring at the base of our unit, which, fine, it was a small fix that took just a few minutes.
But somewhere in there, with switching the breakers and turning the AC unit on and off, something happened to the thermostat (a Nest unit.) It basically stopped responding, would not start up unless plugged into an outlet, and then would just demand to be put on the wall mount where it would promptly say it had no power and shut itself down. The repair guy tested the power at the wall and said it was fine, so there was something wrong with the Nest.
The repairs themselves probably took one hour and cost about $160.
But then he stuck around for an additional TWO HOURS, checking and double-checking his work, frantically pressing the Nest and trying to get it to start on the wall, muttering to himself and telling me "It's gonna be ok!" which was not remotely reassuring.
Finally I wrenched the Nest away from him and insisted that he leave, and I would handle it from here.
Keep in mind that I was basically unable to do any work while he was in the house (I don't know about you ladies but I'm not a fan of slapping on headphones and immersing myself in work while a stranger is walking around in my house) so in addition to the cost of the repairs and his labor, I was also losing hours of work. So hopefully you can understand why I very bluntly and unkindly asked this guy to please leave and send me an invoice.
And here's where it would have been nice to have Penis Privilege, or where once again I should have contacted Jameson to let him know what was going on.
Dudebro INSISTED on going to Lowe's to buy us a new Nest. I was so angry and worried and hangry at that point, and he was so stubborn and male-dominant about it ("I know what I'm doing and this will solve everything!", pushed back every time I said "no") that I finally gave in and said, "Fine, whatever, I just need this to be finished." So he went and picked up a new Nest. Tried the new unit on the old base, and it didn't work. Installed a new base, and it DID work. So we think that somewhere along the way while breakers were being switched, the Nest charging base got fried.
Turning this from a one-hour, $160 repair to a three-hour, $430 repair (the Nest is around $250 or something.)
When Jameson came home I had to explain what had happened, and he was (rightly) annoyed with me for how I'd handled it and angry with the repair guy for breaking our Nest (he may not have meant to but that's ultimately what happened.) I was crestfallen because I'd thought I was being helpful; I just wanted to spare Jameson from the stress of ONE thing, that should have been small. And instead it became a fiasco, at least partly because I didn't share all of the information with Jameson as it was happening. I was too concerned with "protecting" him from the drama and stress.
Jameson saw that I was upset and disappointed in myself, and quickly switched over to soothing and reassurance (this is one thing I really love about him, he is SO empathetic!) He said, "Next time, just tell me what's going on so I can have a say in what happens." I completely agreed, and apologized, and promised that if there was a "next time" I'd definitely make sure he was in on EVERYTHING, even if it would mean stressing him out. I'm glad to have a partner who's a REAL partner. We listen to each other, and are empathetic for the whys and hows behind each other's actions. I'll take that over a diamond ring any day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was a blessed day off for Jameson, he hasn't had one all week.
He watched Outside Xbox and some concerts and played video games, while I cleaned the bathroom and practiced for my show and finished up a few hours of work to make my 30 hours.
I was nervous for the show, but it went pretty well.
I showed up early and the MD brought me some Panda Express for dinner (very kind of him!) and we went over the book together.
Once we were in the pit I got to regale everyone with Stories of Circus Days, and that was fun.
Then we did the show, and it was just fine. I made mistakes of course, I'm not a perfect sightreader, but I didn't do anything embarrassing and didn't get lost once.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early but not 6:30-early, and plowed through 3 hours of work.
Jameson had a very chill day, as it'll be his last full day off for nearly the entire month.
I practiced the trombone for a long time today, feeling more confident from having sightread The Prom the night before, and it was a good practice session.
We decided to go to Lazy Dog for dinner since Jameson had a free entree coupon.
We both got drinks and burgers, he got the "black and blue" I think and mine was a bison burger with havarti, caramelized onion, bacon jam, lettuce and tomato (I had them hold the mayo.) It was very good! That bacon jam was thicc.
Dinner at Lazy Dog is way better than brunch, just FYI.
We talked as we ate of course. About the work we've got to do coming up, and how it's now October 15th and there are only two weeks until I go on tour (GEEZ), and Jameson will be slammed with rehearsals and work up until I go. And how weird the holidays have the potential to be with both of us running around on gigs. It's all good things, thankfully, we were not complaining. Just...I guess speaking it aloud, making it real. For myself, I am a bit in wonder that there are performing opportunities post-covid. Covid was NOT the end of the world, and things are growing back. Not perfectly, and not the same as before. But growing back.
Back home I worked on Foodie Finds, and got really REALLY close to FINALLY finishing it! Yay!
Now I'll just have to go back and cross-check it all before tour starts :p
It was a lovely 68°F, so we had the screen door open and enjoyed the sound of crickets as we relaxed together.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's see, tomorrow is Monday.
From now on I will have a lot to do, to the detriment of my data entry job.
Tomorrow I will work in the morning, and after Jameson leaves it'll be my last Whole Paycheck trip for ingredients for dinners and a treat for the week. Dinners will be sweet potato biscuits with honey ham, arugula, and spiced jam sandwiches; beef stronganoff; and individual apple tarte tatins.
It is supposed to be a high of only 72°F or so, so I will be going for a walk come hell or high water.
And then there's practice, cleaning, yardwork, packing, and more.
Oh, one more thing.
We got two large white envelopes in the mail today.
They contained a nice photo image of Disney's animation building; a letter of thanks for "contributing", as employees, to Disney's 100th year in business; and a special commemorative 100th Disney name badge.
I haven't done a single thing for Disney yet.
But maybe, someday soon, I will get that chance.
Thursday I got a flurry of calls and information from local trombonists and MDs.
Two of them are the trombonist and MD for a show I'm subbing for on Saturday, and they wanted to give me notes and get me a lot of info I'll need to do a good job for them.
Two of them were the trombonist and MD for the Main Street Philharmonic, because they're starting to look for subs for the holiday season and now that I'm on Disney's "employment" list, I don't have to complete onboarding (which takes weeks) which means I can be hired right away if they need someone. This doesn't mean I'll get a call, but being considered AT ALL is EXACTLY why I've been bending over backwards to be available for Candlelight even though it's costing me two weeks of My Fair Lady and is not a guaranteed gig. Getting sublisted for Candlelight is what got me onto the call list; if you are not on the Disney call list you simply will not be called. That is what's most valuable here: being on the radar. And I was pleased that the money I'm losing by being available for Candlelight is already putting my name into circulation for other gigs. Yes! That's the goal and what makes doing it worthwhile.
The other two were responding to a facebook comment I'd made, not entirely positive but not entirely negative, about cliques and "inner circles" in the music industry. Both were just looking to show support and network a little, which I appreciated.
But all of this cut into my work time, so I ended up a little behind by the end of the day.
I also had the "Production Superstars" meeting for TSOLife, myself and about six other employees who were singled out because our work is both fast and high quality (not to toot my horn, that's just what we were told.) Our supervisor wanted to know what we are doing that makes us so efficient. I had made a list in advance, and just copy-pasted it into the chat rather than take up everyone's time with running my mouth (and also so my supervisor could just grab it if she wanted.)
Everyone liked my suggestion about "Keeping your nails short"...I was just trying to think practically, of easy things that people can do to boost speed. I also suggested not biting off more than you can chew when selecting interviews, and multitasking with information (i.e. If you're filling out someone's education history, you can also look at the locations of the schools and use that information to fill out parts of the Places Lived section.)
We all recommended split screens/two screens, using Ctrl+F a lot, and exercising good time management.
Beyond that...I mean, I think the problem is just that some people have the personality type, and self-discipline, to be able to focus on a task for a long period of time, and others do not. There are many people in this world whose attention bounces around, and they have to work really hard to stick to one thing. As long as the company is hiring 1099 workers without filtering for specific standards, I think they're going to get at least 50% of their workers having sporadic attention spans. They've started requiring a typing test and a sort of short basic grammar/skills test, but that doesn't test for attention spans or discipline to stick to a task.
I was also expecting that some of the people in this chat would have previous editing/data entry experience like myself, but none did. Some had administrative experience and high typing speeds. So when it came to external factors, I had the "non-transferrable" of having worked for CapTel captioning realtime calls with my voice at 300wpm, which I'd say is fairly rare and develops the skill of "listening ahead"--stretching your short term memory to its limit while your text catches up to the breakneck pace of audio--that others would not have.
That was about it; I'm not sure if any of what we provided or suggested was useful, or if we're just statistically on a different part of the bell curve. The one thing I'd like to do before leaving for tour is leverage that a bit, now that I know I'm considered one of their faster/more accurate editors, and maybe just put it out there that I'd love to work in other capacities for them, perhaps training or doing something more involved than 1099 work at $12/hour.
Other than that it was a normal day. I had some tofu that was about to expire in the fridge, so I pressed it, tossed it in spices and corn starch, and cooked it in the air fryer.
It turned out nice, but started to soften shortly after coming out of the air fryer, so I threw it back in for a minute then left it in the basket for a bit. This way any steam coming from the inside could evaporate, rather than get caught in the crust. That worked well. It was good with sriracha and tamari.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday started normally, but on his way out the door Jameson noticed that the AC was leaking in the garage and asked me to call our usual AC repair guy to come have a look. Unfortunately he was booked solid, so I took it upon myself to call someone else.
This turned out to be a mistake. I should have let Jameson know that our usual guy wasn't available, and maybe we could have waited (the AC was still working.) But I was worried to bother him or stress him out during rehearsal, so instead I called someone we didn't know. He seemed ok at first--identified that the drain was clogged and unclogged it with no issues, offered to change our capacitor because it was about due, and offered to cover up some exposed wiring at the base of our unit, which, fine, it was a small fix that took just a few minutes.
But somewhere in there, with switching the breakers and turning the AC unit on and off, something happened to the thermostat (a Nest unit.) It basically stopped responding, would not start up unless plugged into an outlet, and then would just demand to be put on the wall mount where it would promptly say it had no power and shut itself down. The repair guy tested the power at the wall and said it was fine, so there was something wrong with the Nest.
The repairs themselves probably took one hour and cost about $160.
But then he stuck around for an additional TWO HOURS, checking and double-checking his work, frantically pressing the Nest and trying to get it to start on the wall, muttering to himself and telling me "It's gonna be ok!" which was not remotely reassuring.
Finally I wrenched the Nest away from him and insisted that he leave, and I would handle it from here.
Keep in mind that I was basically unable to do any work while he was in the house (I don't know about you ladies but I'm not a fan of slapping on headphones and immersing myself in work while a stranger is walking around in my house) so in addition to the cost of the repairs and his labor, I was also losing hours of work. So hopefully you can understand why I very bluntly and unkindly asked this guy to please leave and send me an invoice.
And here's where it would have been nice to have Penis Privilege, or where once again I should have contacted Jameson to let him know what was going on.
Dudebro INSISTED on going to Lowe's to buy us a new Nest. I was so angry and worried and hangry at that point, and he was so stubborn and male-dominant about it ("I know what I'm doing and this will solve everything!", pushed back every time I said "no") that I finally gave in and said, "Fine, whatever, I just need this to be finished." So he went and picked up a new Nest. Tried the new unit on the old base, and it didn't work. Installed a new base, and it DID work. So we think that somewhere along the way while breakers were being switched, the Nest charging base got fried.
Turning this from a one-hour, $160 repair to a three-hour, $430 repair (the Nest is around $250 or something.)
When Jameson came home I had to explain what had happened, and he was (rightly) annoyed with me for how I'd handled it and angry with the repair guy for breaking our Nest (he may not have meant to but that's ultimately what happened.) I was crestfallen because I'd thought I was being helpful; I just wanted to spare Jameson from the stress of ONE thing, that should have been small. And instead it became a fiasco, at least partly because I didn't share all of the information with Jameson as it was happening. I was too concerned with "protecting" him from the drama and stress.
Jameson saw that I was upset and disappointed in myself, and quickly switched over to soothing and reassurance (this is one thing I really love about him, he is SO empathetic!) He said, "Next time, just tell me what's going on so I can have a say in what happens." I completely agreed, and apologized, and promised that if there was a "next time" I'd definitely make sure he was in on EVERYTHING, even if it would mean stressing him out. I'm glad to have a partner who's a REAL partner. We listen to each other, and are empathetic for the whys and hows behind each other's actions. I'll take that over a diamond ring any day.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was a blessed day off for Jameson, he hasn't had one all week.
He watched Outside Xbox and some concerts and played video games, while I cleaned the bathroom and practiced for my show and finished up a few hours of work to make my 30 hours.
I was nervous for the show, but it went pretty well.
I showed up early and the MD brought me some Panda Express for dinner (very kind of him!) and we went over the book together.
Once we were in the pit I got to regale everyone with Stories of Circus Days, and that was fun.
Then we did the show, and it was just fine. I made mistakes of course, I'm not a perfect sightreader, but I didn't do anything embarrassing and didn't get lost once.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early but not 6:30-early, and plowed through 3 hours of work.
Jameson had a very chill day, as it'll be his last full day off for nearly the entire month.
I practiced the trombone for a long time today, feeling more confident from having sightread The Prom the night before, and it was a good practice session.
We decided to go to Lazy Dog for dinner since Jameson had a free entree coupon.
We both got drinks and burgers, he got the "black and blue" I think and mine was a bison burger with havarti, caramelized onion, bacon jam, lettuce and tomato (I had them hold the mayo.) It was very good! That bacon jam was thicc.
Dinner at Lazy Dog is way better than brunch, just FYI.
We talked as we ate of course. About the work we've got to do coming up, and how it's now October 15th and there are only two weeks until I go on tour (GEEZ), and Jameson will be slammed with rehearsals and work up until I go. And how weird the holidays have the potential to be with both of us running around on gigs. It's all good things, thankfully, we were not complaining. Just...I guess speaking it aloud, making it real. For myself, I am a bit in wonder that there are performing opportunities post-covid. Covid was NOT the end of the world, and things are growing back. Not perfectly, and not the same as before. But growing back.
Back home I worked on Foodie Finds, and got really REALLY close to FINALLY finishing it! Yay!
Now I'll just have to go back and cross-check it all before tour starts :p
It was a lovely 68°F, so we had the screen door open and enjoyed the sound of crickets as we relaxed together.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's see, tomorrow is Monday.
From now on I will have a lot to do, to the detriment of my data entry job.
Tomorrow I will work in the morning, and after Jameson leaves it'll be my last Whole Paycheck trip for ingredients for dinners and a treat for the week. Dinners will be sweet potato biscuits with honey ham, arugula, and spiced jam sandwiches; beef stronganoff; and individual apple tarte tatins.
It is supposed to be a high of only 72°F or so, so I will be going for a walk come hell or high water.
And then there's practice, cleaning, yardwork, packing, and more.
Oh, one more thing.
We got two large white envelopes in the mail today.
They contained a nice photo image of Disney's animation building; a letter of thanks for "contributing", as employees, to Disney's 100th year in business; and a special commemorative 100th Disney name badge.
I haven't done a single thing for Disney yet.
But maybe, someday soon, I will get that chance.
