My Fair Lady - Greensboro, NC
Jan. 28th, 2024 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39The evening show DID go well in Columbia, we had a great audience. In fact we seemed to be sold out or close to it for all of our shows there! I walked back to the hotel with Kyla (cello), and we noticed that the full moon had a big shining nimbus around it, probably from the intense humidity.
What the campus looked like as we were walking back.
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Friday morning we loaded up and had a short bus ride to a Walmart for lunch, then the hotel in Greensboro which is six miles from the theatre (unfortunately.) We got there around 2:30, so I did have time to walk to the Asian grocery nearby. Because we're here for such a short time and the schedule is so tight, I didn't actually get much...I'd hoped to find more prepared foods and didn't have luck there. But the bakery section was pretty awesome!
I got a char siu pork-filled bun.
I unpacked and dressed for the show and rode the bus to the theatre for sound check.
The design of this theatre is very 70s. It put me in mind of being beamed up into a spaceship!
Sound check was fine, I ate a packed dinner while others went out to find food.
The show was "ok", we seemed to be having some cognitive dissonance between what the drummer was doing and what the MD was conducting. I'm not sure if the acoustics are to blame, or if someone was distracted. It happens.
(photo courtesy Ashton from our cast)
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Saturday, I woke up feeling kinda blargh because unluckily whoever is staying in the room above mine was stomping around like an elephant around 1am last night. Earplugs can block out a lot of sound, but low-pitched stuff like heavy bass or stomping feet, not so much.
I went downstairs and got oatmeal and coffee from the free hotel breakfast, and supplemented that with my own yogurt and fruit. Took a shower and got ready for the show because with the hotel being so far from downtown, it was unlikely I'd get a chance to come back before the day was over. Plus, my Aunt and Uncle were coming to the matinee!
They picked me up from the hotel around 11, and we drove to Natty Greene's for lunch. It's bar food, but it was pretty good and we each had a drink with our meal too. They asked me many questions about the show, the tour year so far, how I'm doing, how my siblings are doing...except for my sister Raven none of my siblings keep in touch with our aunt regularly, which I can't understand because A) she IS our coolest relative, and B) she's our last living relative on our mother's side. We always touch on the possible "whys" behind her seeming exclusion from their lives, but it's a sad and baffling topic so we never rest on it for long.
She and my uncle look well, although they didn't seem to want to talk about themselves much (I promise, I was a good little socializer and made sure to pelt them with questions too!) My aunt showed me pictures of a bus trip they took recently to Ireland, that was pretty cool! They saw lots of beautiful old castles, forts, and churches, and got to do a self-guided tour of the Guinness factory. Unfortunately it absolutely poured while they were there so several of their promised tour stops were skipped, plus the sightseeing they DID do involved getting soaked to the bone and not having the best views. Still, it looked like a fun time. I am jealous because she and my uncle have been overseas many times...I want to go! But it is so hard to plan vacations with the type of work that Jameson and I do. I expressed hope that I'd get to do an international tour at some point...but also, if that doesn't happen, I've GOT to plan an overseas vacation.
After lunch my uncle took a picture of us :)
I love my aunt. She's my very favorite relative, one of few people on this earth whom I truly cherish.
From there we moved the car to a different parking spot, then walked to the theatre.
I left them at the box office to pick up the tickets I'd gotten for them, and got warmed up and ready for the show.
It was a packed house again. The show went well, but I got a note afterward about dragging in a certain section and felt pretty wilted about it for a while (I am glad to know when I'm doing something wrong so that I can fix it, but because of my upbringing I do tend to take EVERYTHING as criticism initially before coming around.)
I met up with Aunt and Uncle again, but it was pouring rain. We got them checked into their hotel, then tried to go get dinner but everywhere was packed with a 30-minute wait and I didn't have that kind of time. After scrambling around and getting wet we finally gave up and went to Jimmy John's...which is FINE, because I don't care about the food! I cared about being with my family. We got to talk some more and spend time with each other.
They gave me a birthday present, too. My aunt made this card herself!! I keep telling her that she should consider starting an Etsy shop.
Inside was a gift card to Whole Paycheck!! She knows me so well lol.
They dropped me off at the theatre where I had to run through the rain to get to the stage door on the other side of a big fence. I was early so had time to become less soggy before the last show of the night. I paid SUCH careful attention to the conductor and my tempos, and it seemed that the section I'd gotten a note about was better, so I'll have to re-teach myself to look up at the MD more often and I think that will fix it. It's not that I wasn't looking at him, but I was probably relying too heavily on my ears/hearing the drums, and also watching the MD using peripheral vision meant I may have been seeing more of his UPBEATS than downbeats, and getting off that way. Anyway, the technicalities of professional musicianship. The important thing is that you take steps to correct; then things will work out :)
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early because I wanted to hit a co-op downtown (since the Asian grocery hadn't been quite what I wanted.) I did as much as I could at the hotel--showered, partial-packed, packed one meal to bring to the theatre, stole some food items from Free Breakfast to supplement my travel food and the packed lunch. Tour tip: if there's a free breakfast, steal stuff. Bagels, boiled eggs, single-serve packs of peanut butter, plasticware, fruit, etc are all useful for travel or a tight show schedule.
I took the earliest bus to the theatre (10:40) and walked to the co-op.
It was a cute little one, small but mighty.
I got a curry chicken salad sandwich for dinner, a yogurt for breakfast, a local canned coffee, some fruit, and a few small things to snack on for the 9-hour bus ride to Pittsburgh. Then back to the theatre for our first show. It went pretty well, we're still not quite all on the same page musically (we talked about it and agreed) but hopefully it's just a rut of overthinking. Between shows, back to the hotel for light packing and prepping for the bus ride (the curry sandwich was very good!) and then our final show in Greensboro.
Before going down to the pit I signed the wall tag, and Victoria (flute) kindly offered to take a pic of me with it.
The show went well, and before we knew it it was time to pack up once again.
Next stop, Pittsburgh!
----------------------------------------------------------
Our luggage call tomorrow is at 7:30am. We'll have two rest stops and one lunch stop before reaching P-burgh around 5pm hopefully.
It's a shame there wasn't time for sightseeing in Greensboro, but we had good audiences here and it was a nice run overall.
We will be in Pittsburgh for a whole week so I'm hoping to catch up on some rest, it would also be nice to visit a museum or see some sights. My stepmom and sister will be coming to see a show and I'm looking forward to spending time with them. And Sunday will be my 40th birthday!
What the campus looked like as we were walking back.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday morning we loaded up and had a short bus ride to a Walmart for lunch, then the hotel in Greensboro which is six miles from the theatre (unfortunately.) We got there around 2:30, so I did have time to walk to the Asian grocery nearby. Because we're here for such a short time and the schedule is so tight, I didn't actually get much...I'd hoped to find more prepared foods and didn't have luck there. But the bakery section was pretty awesome!
I got a char siu pork-filled bun.
I unpacked and dressed for the show and rode the bus to the theatre for sound check.
The design of this theatre is very 70s. It put me in mind of being beamed up into a spaceship!
Sound check was fine, I ate a packed dinner while others went out to find food.
The show was "ok", we seemed to be having some cognitive dissonance between what the drummer was doing and what the MD was conducting. I'm not sure if the acoustics are to blame, or if someone was distracted. It happens.
(photo courtesy Ashton from our cast)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I woke up feeling kinda blargh because unluckily whoever is staying in the room above mine was stomping around like an elephant around 1am last night. Earplugs can block out a lot of sound, but low-pitched stuff like heavy bass or stomping feet, not so much.
I went downstairs and got oatmeal and coffee from the free hotel breakfast, and supplemented that with my own yogurt and fruit. Took a shower and got ready for the show because with the hotel being so far from downtown, it was unlikely I'd get a chance to come back before the day was over. Plus, my Aunt and Uncle were coming to the matinee!
They picked me up from the hotel around 11, and we drove to Natty Greene's for lunch. It's bar food, but it was pretty good and we each had a drink with our meal too. They asked me many questions about the show, the tour year so far, how I'm doing, how my siblings are doing...except for my sister Raven none of my siblings keep in touch with our aunt regularly, which I can't understand because A) she IS our coolest relative, and B) she's our last living relative on our mother's side. We always touch on the possible "whys" behind her seeming exclusion from their lives, but it's a sad and baffling topic so we never rest on it for long.
She and my uncle look well, although they didn't seem to want to talk about themselves much (I promise, I was a good little socializer and made sure to pelt them with questions too!) My aunt showed me pictures of a bus trip they took recently to Ireland, that was pretty cool! They saw lots of beautiful old castles, forts, and churches, and got to do a self-guided tour of the Guinness factory. Unfortunately it absolutely poured while they were there so several of their promised tour stops were skipped, plus the sightseeing they DID do involved getting soaked to the bone and not having the best views. Still, it looked like a fun time. I am jealous because she and my uncle have been overseas many times...I want to go! But it is so hard to plan vacations with the type of work that Jameson and I do. I expressed hope that I'd get to do an international tour at some point...but also, if that doesn't happen, I've GOT to plan an overseas vacation.
After lunch my uncle took a picture of us :)
I love my aunt. She's my very favorite relative, one of few people on this earth whom I truly cherish.
From there we moved the car to a different parking spot, then walked to the theatre.
I left them at the box office to pick up the tickets I'd gotten for them, and got warmed up and ready for the show.
It was a packed house again. The show went well, but I got a note afterward about dragging in a certain section and felt pretty wilted about it for a while (I am glad to know when I'm doing something wrong so that I can fix it, but because of my upbringing I do tend to take EVERYTHING as criticism initially before coming around.)
I met up with Aunt and Uncle again, but it was pouring rain. We got them checked into their hotel, then tried to go get dinner but everywhere was packed with a 30-minute wait and I didn't have that kind of time. After scrambling around and getting wet we finally gave up and went to Jimmy John's...which is FINE, because I don't care about the food! I cared about being with my family. We got to talk some more and spend time with each other.
They gave me a birthday present, too. My aunt made this card herself!! I keep telling her that she should consider starting an Etsy shop.
Inside was a gift card to Whole Paycheck!! She knows me so well lol.
They dropped me off at the theatre where I had to run through the rain to get to the stage door on the other side of a big fence. I was early so had time to become less soggy before the last show of the night. I paid SUCH careful attention to the conductor and my tempos, and it seemed that the section I'd gotten a note about was better, so I'll have to re-teach myself to look up at the MD more often and I think that will fix it. It's not that I wasn't looking at him, but I was probably relying too heavily on my ears/hearing the drums, and also watching the MD using peripheral vision meant I may have been seeing more of his UPBEATS than downbeats, and getting off that way. Anyway, the technicalities of professional musicianship. The important thing is that you take steps to correct; then things will work out :)
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, I got up early because I wanted to hit a co-op downtown (since the Asian grocery hadn't been quite what I wanted.) I did as much as I could at the hotel--showered, partial-packed, packed one meal to bring to the theatre, stole some food items from Free Breakfast to supplement my travel food and the packed lunch. Tour tip: if there's a free breakfast, steal stuff. Bagels, boiled eggs, single-serve packs of peanut butter, plasticware, fruit, etc are all useful for travel or a tight show schedule.
I took the earliest bus to the theatre (10:40) and walked to the co-op.
It was a cute little one, small but mighty.
I got a curry chicken salad sandwich for dinner, a yogurt for breakfast, a local canned coffee, some fruit, and a few small things to snack on for the 9-hour bus ride to Pittsburgh. Then back to the theatre for our first show. It went pretty well, we're still not quite all on the same page musically (we talked about it and agreed) but hopefully it's just a rut of overthinking. Between shows, back to the hotel for light packing and prepping for the bus ride (the curry sandwich was very good!) and then our final show in Greensboro.
Before going down to the pit I signed the wall tag, and Victoria (flute) kindly offered to take a pic of me with it.
The show went well, and before we knew it it was time to pack up once again.
Next stop, Pittsburgh!
----------------------------------------------------------
Our luggage call tomorrow is at 7:30am. We'll have two rest stops and one lunch stop before reaching P-burgh around 5pm hopefully.
It's a shame there wasn't time for sightseeing in Greensboro, but we had good audiences here and it was a nice run overall.
We will be in Pittsburgh for a whole week so I'm hoping to catch up on some rest, it would also be nice to visit a museum or see some sights. My stepmom and sister will be coming to see a show and I'm looking forward to spending time with them. And Sunday will be my 40th birthday!
