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taz_39What a thing, to wake up and realize you have the entire day to yourself!
I could stay in bed all day if I wanted to.
And this is why I shouldn't complain that next week there won't be a moment to myself.
Yet I'll complain anyway :p Ungracious of me. But frankly, I've spent my entire life working to avoid forced social interactions, and interactions in general, and that doesn't change just because of the situation.
Anyway, I rolled out of bed at 8:30am CT...which is 9:30am ET, which is therefore pretty late for ME.
Breakfast, computer time, a little packing because tomorrow we fly to Amarillo for a one-nighter.
And otherwise had a very lazy afternoon. Was supposed to carpool with two others to do laundry, but they backed out. I used a laundry service earlier in the week so wasn't in a super-bad fix, but there will be zero time to do laundry next week even if a washer/dryer are available. Taking an Uber by myself in Chicago would be $30 round trip. A laundry service would be $40 for same-day turnaround. I could walk four miles round trip in the cold and wind to the nearest laundromat. I could take the subway, which only gets me partway there and the stinkiness of which is ironically partly why I have laundry to do today, lol. Or I could wait until we get to Amarillo and fight with at least 30 other people in our cast for the single washer and dryer in the one-nighter hotel.
When there is no apparent "right" option, I like to turn up the heat in the ol' brain pan.
I figured, "It's the Monday after St. Patrick's...it's probably pretty slow today for a lot of hotels. Why don't I just call around and see who will let me use their laundry room?"
Scored on the very first call. A Hyatt just two blocks away said I could come use their laundry room if I showed up in the next 30 minutes! I packed my bag and walked over, and the kind woman at the front desk let me in with her key. So I spent 90 minutes quietly reading Dune and getting a chore out of my face. Not bad! Walked to Target afterward for a yogurt and to get some steps in.
Back at the hotel I packed some and filled out several job applications. Was it an exciting Chicago adventure, no, but it was a quiet day and I appreciated it. I tried the soy milk banana bubble tea from 88 Marketplace.
It had a lovely creamy yellow color, and the banana flavor was gentle and not too artificial. It wasn't as rich as dairy milk, but was yummy anyway. The "boba" was made from konjac which is not nearly as chewy, satisfying, or flavorful as traditional tapioca boba. I know why they used konjac: it adds virtually no calories (a single tapioca pearl can have up to 14 calories.) But the texture was lame and they're visually kinda blech too.
(If those were tapioca pearls there would be 114 calories in that spoon.)
Still, grateful that I got to try it!
Speaking of trying things, by the time I got back to the hotel and had my laundry put away it was time to walk to Kyuramen with our drummer, Laura, for our last meal in Chicago!
Kyuramen is a chain, mostly located in Asia but with a few locations in US cities. In fact there's one in Orlando, and I hope to take Jameson there after tour is over! The restaurant has a "trendy" and very "Instagrammable" design, most notably a tiered honeycomb system of dining booths which opens up more floor space.
(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)
We were seated in a different area with screened and curtained booths.
(I think some Japanese restaurants have booths like this, and they're recreating that?)
(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)
Laura and I both got Thai tea (I had to get mine without cream, sigh) and sipped and chatted, just about generic stuff like audio issues in the pit and plans post-tour and what our families are up to. We both ordered the omurice, hers topped with a pork cutlet.
Omurice is a traditional Japanese dish consisting of fried rice topped with an omelette. When Japanese people eat it at home it is not complicated...you can use leftover fried rice, make a basic egg omelette, put the omelette on top of the rice, and put some ketchup on top. Sometimes the rice is wrapped up inside the omelette. It's a sort of homey economy dish, equivalent to the American Hamburger Helper or tuna casserole.
But omurice can also be made in a very special (and difficult) way. CLICK HERE to see a short video of someone making an omurice. Basically you have to cook the outside of the omelette so that it's thin and delicate, while keeping the inside par-cooked, soft, and runny. You do this by working rapidly with chopsticks while carefully controlling the heat on the egg, especially at the point where you have to flip and seal the omelette, enclosing the runny center.
Once you have your omelette the difficulty isn't over; you then have to place it ever-so-carefully on top of the fried rice, so as not to rip the thin outer egg. Then the egg is dramatically cut open for serving, revealing the perfect interior. The whole thing is doused in curry sauce or demi glace (or you can just put ketchup on it.)
Here's my omelette getting cut open and drowned in beef demi glace, then sprinkled with nori flakes.
(CLICK HERE to watch)
Here's the omelette afterward. It may not be the prettiest thing, but MAN is it good. Warm and salty-sweet, giving that same soothing and nostalgic feeling you'd get from a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup. I can see why this is a popular comfort food in Japan.
The egg was incredible for texture. It was SO thin and silky, like...well, silk! The par-cooked inside was cooked a bit further from the heat of the sauce, but was still incredibly smooth and soft. It went nicely with the hard-cooked rice and veggies underneath. The rice also had an amazing flavor that we both exclaimed over; it's only fried rice cooked with ketchup, Worcestershire, and veggies, but they also added finely chopped mushrooms that I think added a lot of earthy flavor, and the chicken pieces were strongly marinated and really savory.
The whole thing tasted way better than I had expected. Honestly I thought this was going to be about appreciating the technique that goes into making the dish, and then eating a basic fried rice with eggs on top. But no, in addition to the technique involved it was also very delicious and special. I'm glad we made time to try it!
We walked back, hurrying because it was windy and cold.
The rest of my night was packing, typing up this post, and reading more Dune.
It's been a VERY long time since a book held my interest as strongly as this :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning, was up early to have breakfast and finish packing.
Loaded onto the bus for the airport around 10am. Bye, Chicago. Thanks for everything.
(the river is still green!)
The flights were on time and nothing to report except that I had to buy airport food for lunch (but for the other meal I did my nonperishables.) We got to Amarillo around 7:30, and I Ubered to a grocery. It's not ideal but we have a five-hour bus ride to Albuquerque, and the only possible rest stop is a TA with a Subway and NOTHING else, and there are SIXTY of us. The grocery stores in Amarillo are disappointing at best, but I got basic nonperishables.
Today, Jameson found out that he did not get the job with Disney.
I can't fathom how devastated he must feel. I wish I were there to distract him...to take him bar hopping, or out with some of his friends, or to a show...SOMETHING. But I also know from personal experience that he needs to work through the hurt of rejection, and have a lot of feelings, before he can start thinking positively about what comes next. I'm glad there's a layoff coming up so I can be home and we can talk about things, or I can cook some nice meals for him or get him out of the house. But I don't know if that'll be enough to keep him from falling into a depression or a funk over this.
It was not a small thing. He's worked so hard. And he's been rejected by them again, and again, and again.
I suspect that after this, he'll finally start looking away from Disney. It was a big hope for him, a dream job. But frankly there are so many other employers, other companies out there across the US, that would absolutely see value in Jameson's skills sets and be able to put them to good use (for good pay.) We will see what happens next, but for today it's working through disappointment and very difficult feelings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday I was up around 8 and had breakfast, did meal planning, made overnight oats for tomorrow's breakfast, applied for jobs. Partway through the morning I picked up two bagels from a local shop called The Bagle Place.
These will be my Travel Bagels. One on the left is butterscotch, one on the right is honey almond.
Although it was sunny and 70°F out I stayed inside. I was in a bad mood, on Jameson's behalf and on my own behalf, for having to hunt for low-paying work again. It's important to remind myself that if I had a high-paying, full time job I probably wouldn't be able to have tour adventures. That's the trade off.
When it was time I packed dinner and walked to the theatre. Sunny and warm, I was almost sweating by the time I got there.
The building is a convention center complex which reminded me a lot of the ice hockey arenas where the circus used to play. The acoustics were like an ice hockey arena too: boomy and loud. But we made do. It was a decent audience and the show went quickly.
And that’s one night in Amarillo.
—————————————————————-
Thursday we leave very early, but we also get to Albuquerque in the early afternoon. With any luck our rooms will be ready so I can see if mine will be ok for Raven and I to share, or if I’ll need to get her her own. And we have a show that night. And I have to check on Kayle’s tickets for Saturday. And bring an extra set of work clothes and deodorant to the theatre in case I get trapped on an outing and can’t make it back to the hotel before a show. And remember not to fully unpack because I need to make sure Raven has enough room. And we have a show tomorrow night. And I need to leave a key at the front desk for Raven. And see if the hotel has an airport shuttle. And, and…
(…and my selfish Albuquerque adventure--if our rooms are ready when we arrive tomorrow--will be to visit La Montana co-op!)
I could stay in bed all day if I wanted to.
And this is why I shouldn't complain that next week there won't be a moment to myself.
Yet I'll complain anyway :p Ungracious of me. But frankly, I've spent my entire life working to avoid forced social interactions, and interactions in general, and that doesn't change just because of the situation.
Anyway, I rolled out of bed at 8:30am CT...which is 9:30am ET, which is therefore pretty late for ME.
Breakfast, computer time, a little packing because tomorrow we fly to Amarillo for a one-nighter.
And otherwise had a very lazy afternoon. Was supposed to carpool with two others to do laundry, but they backed out. I used a laundry service earlier in the week so wasn't in a super-bad fix, but there will be zero time to do laundry next week even if a washer/dryer are available. Taking an Uber by myself in Chicago would be $30 round trip. A laundry service would be $40 for same-day turnaround. I could walk four miles round trip in the cold and wind to the nearest laundromat. I could take the subway, which only gets me partway there and the stinkiness of which is ironically partly why I have laundry to do today, lol. Or I could wait until we get to Amarillo and fight with at least 30 other people in our cast for the single washer and dryer in the one-nighter hotel.
When there is no apparent "right" option, I like to turn up the heat in the ol' brain pan.
I figured, "It's the Monday after St. Patrick's...it's probably pretty slow today for a lot of hotels. Why don't I just call around and see who will let me use their laundry room?"
Scored on the very first call. A Hyatt just two blocks away said I could come use their laundry room if I showed up in the next 30 minutes! I packed my bag and walked over, and the kind woman at the front desk let me in with her key. So I spent 90 minutes quietly reading Dune and getting a chore out of my face. Not bad! Walked to Target afterward for a yogurt and to get some steps in.
Back at the hotel I packed some and filled out several job applications. Was it an exciting Chicago adventure, no, but it was a quiet day and I appreciated it. I tried the soy milk banana bubble tea from 88 Marketplace.
It had a lovely creamy yellow color, and the banana flavor was gentle and not too artificial. It wasn't as rich as dairy milk, but was yummy anyway. The "boba" was made from konjac which is not nearly as chewy, satisfying, or flavorful as traditional tapioca boba. I know why they used konjac: it adds virtually no calories (a single tapioca pearl can have up to 14 calories.) But the texture was lame and they're visually kinda blech too.
(If those were tapioca pearls there would be 114 calories in that spoon.)
Still, grateful that I got to try it!
Speaking of trying things, by the time I got back to the hotel and had my laundry put away it was time to walk to Kyuramen with our drummer, Laura, for our last meal in Chicago!
Kyuramen is a chain, mostly located in Asia but with a few locations in US cities. In fact there's one in Orlando, and I hope to take Jameson there after tour is over! The restaurant has a "trendy" and very "Instagrammable" design, most notably a tiered honeycomb system of dining booths which opens up more floor space.
(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)
We were seated in a different area with screened and curtained booths.
(I think some Japanese restaurants have booths like this, and they're recreating that?)
(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)
Laura and I both got Thai tea (I had to get mine without cream, sigh) and sipped and chatted, just about generic stuff like audio issues in the pit and plans post-tour and what our families are up to. We both ordered the omurice, hers topped with a pork cutlet.
Omurice is a traditional Japanese dish consisting of fried rice topped with an omelette. When Japanese people eat it at home it is not complicated...you can use leftover fried rice, make a basic egg omelette, put the omelette on top of the rice, and put some ketchup on top. Sometimes the rice is wrapped up inside the omelette. It's a sort of homey economy dish, equivalent to the American Hamburger Helper or tuna casserole.
But omurice can also be made in a very special (and difficult) way. CLICK HERE to see a short video of someone making an omurice. Basically you have to cook the outside of the omelette so that it's thin and delicate, while keeping the inside par-cooked, soft, and runny. You do this by working rapidly with chopsticks while carefully controlling the heat on the egg, especially at the point where you have to flip and seal the omelette, enclosing the runny center.
Once you have your omelette the difficulty isn't over; you then have to place it ever-so-carefully on top of the fried rice, so as not to rip the thin outer egg. Then the egg is dramatically cut open for serving, revealing the perfect interior. The whole thing is doused in curry sauce or demi glace (or you can just put ketchup on it.)
Here's my omelette getting cut open and drowned in beef demi glace, then sprinkled with nori flakes.
(CLICK HERE to watch)
Here's the omelette afterward. It may not be the prettiest thing, but MAN is it good. Warm and salty-sweet, giving that same soothing and nostalgic feeling you'd get from a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup. I can see why this is a popular comfort food in Japan.
The egg was incredible for texture. It was SO thin and silky, like...well, silk! The par-cooked inside was cooked a bit further from the heat of the sauce, but was still incredibly smooth and soft. It went nicely with the hard-cooked rice and veggies underneath. The rice also had an amazing flavor that we both exclaimed over; it's only fried rice cooked with ketchup, Worcestershire, and veggies, but they also added finely chopped mushrooms that I think added a lot of earthy flavor, and the chicken pieces were strongly marinated and really savory.
The whole thing tasted way better than I had expected. Honestly I thought this was going to be about appreciating the technique that goes into making the dish, and then eating a basic fried rice with eggs on top. But no, in addition to the technique involved it was also very delicious and special. I'm glad we made time to try it!
We walked back, hurrying because it was windy and cold.
The rest of my night was packing, typing up this post, and reading more Dune.
It's been a VERY long time since a book held my interest as strongly as this :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning, was up early to have breakfast and finish packing.
Loaded onto the bus for the airport around 10am. Bye, Chicago. Thanks for everything.
(the river is still green!)
The flights were on time and nothing to report except that I had to buy airport food for lunch (but for the other meal I did my nonperishables.) We got to Amarillo around 7:30, and I Ubered to a grocery. It's not ideal but we have a five-hour bus ride to Albuquerque, and the only possible rest stop is a TA with a Subway and NOTHING else, and there are SIXTY of us. The grocery stores in Amarillo are disappointing at best, but I got basic nonperishables.
Today, Jameson found out that he did not get the job with Disney.
I can't fathom how devastated he must feel. I wish I were there to distract him...to take him bar hopping, or out with some of his friends, or to a show...SOMETHING. But I also know from personal experience that he needs to work through the hurt of rejection, and have a lot of feelings, before he can start thinking positively about what comes next. I'm glad there's a layoff coming up so I can be home and we can talk about things, or I can cook some nice meals for him or get him out of the house. But I don't know if that'll be enough to keep him from falling into a depression or a funk over this.
It was not a small thing. He's worked so hard. And he's been rejected by them again, and again, and again.
I suspect that after this, he'll finally start looking away from Disney. It was a big hope for him, a dream job. But frankly there are so many other employers, other companies out there across the US, that would absolutely see value in Jameson's skills sets and be able to put them to good use (for good pay.) We will see what happens next, but for today it's working through disappointment and very difficult feelings.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday I was up around 8 and had breakfast, did meal planning, made overnight oats for tomorrow's breakfast, applied for jobs. Partway through the morning I picked up two bagels from a local shop called The Bagle Place.
These will be my Travel Bagels. One on the left is butterscotch, one on the right is honey almond.
Although it was sunny and 70°F out I stayed inside. I was in a bad mood, on Jameson's behalf and on my own behalf, for having to hunt for low-paying work again. It's important to remind myself that if I had a high-paying, full time job I probably wouldn't be able to have tour adventures. That's the trade off.
When it was time I packed dinner and walked to the theatre. Sunny and warm, I was almost sweating by the time I got there.
The building is a convention center complex which reminded me a lot of the ice hockey arenas where the circus used to play. The acoustics were like an ice hockey arena too: boomy and loud. But we made do. It was a decent audience and the show went quickly.
And that’s one night in Amarillo.
—————————————————————-
Thursday we leave very early, but we also get to Albuquerque in the early afternoon. With any luck our rooms will be ready so I can see if mine will be ok for Raven and I to share, or if I’ll need to get her her own. And we have a show that night. And I have to check on Kayle’s tickets for Saturday. And bring an extra set of work clothes and deodorant to the theatre in case I get trapped on an outing and can’t make it back to the hotel before a show. And remember not to fully unpack because I need to make sure Raven has enough room. And we have a show tomorrow night. And I need to leave a key at the front desk for Raven. And see if the hotel has an airport shuttle. And, and…
(…and my selfish Albuquerque adventure--if our rooms are ready when we arrive tomorrow--will be to visit La Montana co-op!)
