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taz_39Monday: Travel to Orlando for Candlelight
I only got 2-3 hours of sleep at the airport hotel before my alarm went off at 3am. Urrrrgh.
Funnily enough, Jameson's Candlelight rehearsal was that night, so he was just driving home at 3am while I was getting up. We are both getting our asses handed to us this weekend sleep-wise.
He had Jollywood, Candlelight, Jollywood, and flying to Milwaukee for Thankgiving with his parents (keeping in mind that Jollywood performances end after midnight, and his Candlelight rehearsal went until 3am!) and I have Elf, Candlelight until 2:30am, flying to Milwaukee at 5am, another Elf performance there, and Thanksgiving with Jameson's family.
But you know, considering that we are childless and therefore get to sleep a lot more than anyone who's a parent, we shouldn't complain :p
I took a shuttle to the airport, but to my annoyance it would only drop off at the parking terminal instead of the airport.
Newark International has been massively renovated since I last flew there. Knowing this, I had gotten up earlier than initially planned, and that was right to do because after the shuttle drop off I had to take two different trains to Terminal A.
And even then the final train didn't go straight to the terminal, we had to take a bus! If this is how you get around this airport now, gotta say I'm not impressed :/ But I made it and got my luggage dropped and through security by about 4:20am (so it took between 30-40 minutes to get to the terminal even at that early hour! Jeez.)
The new terminal, though, is lovely. Everything's modern and new, bottle fillers and a new open floor plan and cashierless checkouts all over. I found this free phone sanitizer and used it, why not!
The flight was nice and calm and on time. There were two people coughing CONSTANTLY for the entire 2.5 hour flight, so I was glad for my mask even if it doesn't save me in the end...at least I tried. Picked up my luggage in Orlando, got a rental car, and by 10am I was sneaking quietly into the house so as not to wake Jameson. Late breakfast and then got to work doing as much as I could at home, including
- laundry
- repacking clothing
- setting out clothes for Candlelight (they want us to wear concert blacks and the stage is outdoors so it will be chilly)
- swapping stuff in/out of my luggage
- quick trip to Publix for dinner for later
- watering the plants
- light cleaning, mostly counter-wiping
- trying out a bass trombone that a friend sent to me (it's not a good fit unfortunately)
- lunch
- attempting to take a nap (I dozed a bit at least)
- wrapping some of Jameson's presents that have showed up
- sorting my mail
...I think that's about it.
Jameson had work all afternoon (this after having gotten home at 3am this morning!) and Jollywood at night. I was eating dinner while he was packing up and out the door at 6:30, then I was out the door a few hours later at 9, bringing everything with me because I won't be coming back until Christmas.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Disney's EPCOT Candlelight Processional Rehearsal
As usual, I cannot take pictures of backstage super-secret Disney stuffs. Sorry.
However here's a short clip of me driving into the park, toward Health Services.
(Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go)
Believe it or not, nearly half of this "rehearsal" is paperwork.
First there's a hearing test at Health Services. Thankfully my hearing has stayed the same since the last test a year ago.
Then there are mostly safety reviews and data protection/intellectual property training videos.
i.e., "Don't share Disney secrets or The Mouse will come break your kneecaps. Wear earplugs in loud places. Remember to lift with your knees. Ok run along to rehearsal now, and have fun!"
These video modules take about 2 hours to complete.
Then I drive to “backstage” EPCOT, because a trombone is considered a large instrument and so I am given "drive-on clearance." I go to a gatehouse and show my blue Castmember ID, tell them why I'm there, and they check to see I'm authorized and let me through. Meanwhile people with smaller instruments and members of the choir have to take a shuttle bus to and from the parking lot.
Probably the coolest think about driving around “backstage Disney” is getting to see little bits and pieces of how the magic happens ;)
Which of course I can't share ;) ;)
Then…waiting. I said hi to musicians I knew, had a snack in the Trap Room (a green room basically,) and checked the call board. Group A was still rehearsing at midnight; I was in Group B this time so wouldn’t go on stage until 1am. But we are getting paid, and we had a nice room to wait in with hot drinks and comfy chairs. I felt surprisingly GOOD this time despite the lack of sleep, and realized that it’s because A) the last time I did this I had to cross two time zones, B) last time my flights were later with less time to rest before the rehearsal, and C) last time I had to do groups A, B, and C rehearsals, which is about 4 hours of playing. This time I had no time zone change, earlier flights, and only had to do one rehearsal set. Thank god!!
And while we were waiting, our stage manager came around to give each of us a commemorative Candlelight enamel pin! How cool!! A lot of Disney fanatics and collectors would KILL for an event-exclusive, Castmember-only item like this.
Finally at 1am we were lined up outside the stage, and scheduled to go on at 1:20.
But 1:20 came and went. For some reason they held us backstage for 20 minutes.
This made me INCREDIBLY nervous...remember, I had a flight to catch a 20-minute drive away, that boarded at 4:20am, and here it was almost 2am and we weren't rehearsing yet :(
We finally went on around 1:50, and I was so nervous about catching my flight that I could hardly focus on the music. The rehearsal was beautiful and everything went smoothly, I was very grateful to be there. Even in that worried mindset I was able to appreciate that my participation in Candlelight was the SOLE reason why I've gotten to play with the Main Street Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and the Orlando Philharmonic this year. Going out of my way to continue to be a part of this special, once-a-year Disney tradition doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Even if it stresses me out :p
(stock image from a previous year)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight to MKE
We played our final notes at 2:40am, and I RAN off the stage, ran to the trap room and threw my horn in the case, ran to the car, drove as fast as I could to the airport. I didn't have time to stop for gas so will probably get charged for that later, oh well. Dropping my baggage turned out to be an ORDEAL because there were no Delta attendants when I got there, and a massive queue had built up, so it took 15-20 minutes to get through that. Security also was delayed because they ran out of trays for personal items and we had to wait while someone went to get them. Aren't we about to start the BUSIEST flying week of the year, and THIS is how things are going at MCO? It was like the airport was creating problems for itself.
But anyway, TL;DR I made it to my gate about 15 minutes before boarding time. By this point I was starting to feel the exhaustion of being awake for nearly a day and a half straight. Here I am brushing my teeth in the restroom at 4am before boarding the flight.
I dozed on the flight and ate breakfast on the Atlanta layover, then dozed again on the flight to Milwaukee.
I can never fully sleep on planes, and also we ended up having a medical emergency on our flight :( I couldn't see well but it seemed to be a woman, and she was conscious but must have been having heart trouble because that defib box was brought out. Not to be corny but it went just like in the movies: a flight attendant got on the PA system and asked if there was a doctor or nurse on the plane. A woman got up to go and help. The plane was dead silent and tense, but we were close to landing and we definitely landed more quickly than scheduled (this happened about 40 minutes from landing and we were on the ground in 20.) There were ambulances on the tarmac to meet us, and we were all told to sit and wait until the woman could be taken to them (medical personnel with a foldy-stretcher came and got her.) As we were deplaning I saw the wrappings from the defib sticky pads on the ground so knew they'd been used in some capacity :/
Anyway that was that. There was nothing to do but empathize and hope that she would be all right.
On the way to collect luggage, even though I was very tired, I did remember to ask any Delta pilots I saw for trading cards. I got four, but all were duplicates so I will offer them to my tour companions.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening Elf in Milwaukee
Got my luggage, got an Uber, got to the hotel. It's a fancy Hyatt downtown. I'm on the 14th floor.
View from my room is nice.
I ordered Instacart groceries which turned out to be a mistake because the person shopping for me was inattentive/very careless. I ended up with the wrong type of yogurt (even though I'd sent her a substitution option), wrinkly old apples, and too many protein shakes (which would normally not be a problem but when you travel for a living, it is.) I had to throw most of the apples out after cutting two open and finding them browning inside, and ultimately had to write her a crappy review.
Still, it did save me having to go shopping myself after nearly 48 hours awake. I barely managed to unpack...you know how when you're tired, you kind of can't focus? I was just sort of setting items down and moving them around, not putting them where they were supposed to go haha. Finally I made myself lie down and slept like a dead person for two hours, waking up only when my alarm went off, drool all over my pillow!
Then I had to eat dinner, get dressed, and go do a sound check and a show. Because this 48-hour day isn't over yet!
We are playing the Marcus Center. I was just here with Tootsie in June 2023.
The ceiling:
This pit is nice and spacious, a relief after the dirty hole that we had to work in in New Jersey.
Sound check was "ok" but this is our first time playing in a modern hall, so the acoustics were very different and half our band members (who have never toured before) didn't know what to do with all the reverb. We had some tempo issues, but people are smart and figured out that they'd just need to listen differently and interact with this space differently. (TBH I will probably write a little friends-only rant about this later haha)
I have my own dressing room again! It's just a little practice room, but it's soundproofed and that is WONDERFUL because sometimes I need quiet after being next to trumpets all the time.
The show went just fine, we may have had some small tempo issues but they will certainly work themselves out.
Afterward I walked back to the hotel and saw this beautiful park decorated for Christmas across the river (it's just blocks from the hotel.) I hope to visit it or walk through one night :)
And then....finally.....blessed, blessed sleep.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the time change and despite being exhausted I still woke up at 8am (9am EST).
But feeling MUCH better after getting what my body needed :)
I am so grateful to have Wednesday to mostly recover.
I had a slow morning, just breakfast and typing this up and packing an overnight bag for Jameson's parents' house.
Before lunch I walked to a grocery to replace the bad fruit I'd had to throw out, and just to get cardio after all that time sitting on planes or in rehearsals or shows. It's very cold here, definitely winter temps ranging from 20-35F, and I'm glad to have packed my down jacket and earmuffs for this second leg of tour. I was glad for the walk but felt crappy when I got back (not unusual after a lot of air travel) and so had a snack then a nap.
———————
I’m typing the rest of this from the pit because I forgot to post this before leaving the hotel! Jameson and his parents are attending the show tonight, and afterwards I’m spending Thanksgiving with them!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday: Thanksgiving with Jameson and his family :)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Two shows each day. I won't have time for much, but will appreciate a weekend in Milwaukee anyway.
I only got 2-3 hours of sleep at the airport hotel before my alarm went off at 3am. Urrrrgh.
Funnily enough, Jameson's Candlelight rehearsal was that night, so he was just driving home at 3am while I was getting up. We are both getting our asses handed to us this weekend sleep-wise.
He had Jollywood, Candlelight, Jollywood, and flying to Milwaukee for Thankgiving with his parents (keeping in mind that Jollywood performances end after midnight, and his Candlelight rehearsal went until 3am!) and I have Elf, Candlelight until 2:30am, flying to Milwaukee at 5am, another Elf performance there, and Thanksgiving with Jameson's family.
But you know, considering that we are childless and therefore get to sleep a lot more than anyone who's a parent, we shouldn't complain :p
I took a shuttle to the airport, but to my annoyance it would only drop off at the parking terminal instead of the airport.
Newark International has been massively renovated since I last flew there. Knowing this, I had gotten up earlier than initially planned, and that was right to do because after the shuttle drop off I had to take two different trains to Terminal A.
And even then the final train didn't go straight to the terminal, we had to take a bus! If this is how you get around this airport now, gotta say I'm not impressed :/ But I made it and got my luggage dropped and through security by about 4:20am (so it took between 30-40 minutes to get to the terminal even at that early hour! Jeez.)
The new terminal, though, is lovely. Everything's modern and new, bottle fillers and a new open floor plan and cashierless checkouts all over. I found this free phone sanitizer and used it, why not!
The flight was nice and calm and on time. There were two people coughing CONSTANTLY for the entire 2.5 hour flight, so I was glad for my mask even if it doesn't save me in the end...at least I tried. Picked up my luggage in Orlando, got a rental car, and by 10am I was sneaking quietly into the house so as not to wake Jameson. Late breakfast and then got to work doing as much as I could at home, including
- laundry
- repacking clothing
- setting out clothes for Candlelight (they want us to wear concert blacks and the stage is outdoors so it will be chilly)
- swapping stuff in/out of my luggage
- quick trip to Publix for dinner for later
- watering the plants
- light cleaning, mostly counter-wiping
- trying out a bass trombone that a friend sent to me (it's not a good fit unfortunately)
- lunch
- attempting to take a nap (I dozed a bit at least)
- wrapping some of Jameson's presents that have showed up
- sorting my mail
...I think that's about it.
Jameson had work all afternoon (this after having gotten home at 3am this morning!) and Jollywood at night. I was eating dinner while he was packing up and out the door at 6:30, then I was out the door a few hours later at 9, bringing everything with me because I won't be coming back until Christmas.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Disney's EPCOT Candlelight Processional Rehearsal
As usual, I cannot take pictures of backstage super-secret Disney stuffs. Sorry.
However here's a short clip of me driving into the park, toward Health Services.
(Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go)
Believe it or not, nearly half of this "rehearsal" is paperwork.
First there's a hearing test at Health Services. Thankfully my hearing has stayed the same since the last test a year ago.
Then there are mostly safety reviews and data protection/intellectual property training videos.
i.e., "Don't share Disney secrets or The Mouse will come break your kneecaps. Wear earplugs in loud places. Remember to lift with your knees. Ok run along to rehearsal now, and have fun!"
These video modules take about 2 hours to complete.
Then I drive to “backstage” EPCOT, because a trombone is considered a large instrument and so I am given "drive-on clearance." I go to a gatehouse and show my blue Castmember ID, tell them why I'm there, and they check to see I'm authorized and let me through. Meanwhile people with smaller instruments and members of the choir have to take a shuttle bus to and from the parking lot.
Probably the coolest think about driving around “backstage Disney” is getting to see little bits and pieces of how the magic happens ;)
Which of course I can't share ;) ;)
Then…waiting. I said hi to musicians I knew, had a snack in the Trap Room (a green room basically,) and checked the call board. Group A was still rehearsing at midnight; I was in Group B this time so wouldn’t go on stage until 1am. But we are getting paid, and we had a nice room to wait in with hot drinks and comfy chairs. I felt surprisingly GOOD this time despite the lack of sleep, and realized that it’s because A) the last time I did this I had to cross two time zones, B) last time my flights were later with less time to rest before the rehearsal, and C) last time I had to do groups A, B, and C rehearsals, which is about 4 hours of playing. This time I had no time zone change, earlier flights, and only had to do one rehearsal set. Thank god!!
And while we were waiting, our stage manager came around to give each of us a commemorative Candlelight enamel pin! How cool!! A lot of Disney fanatics and collectors would KILL for an event-exclusive, Castmember-only item like this.
Finally at 1am we were lined up outside the stage, and scheduled to go on at 1:20.
But 1:20 came and went. For some reason they held us backstage for 20 minutes.
This made me INCREDIBLY nervous...remember, I had a flight to catch a 20-minute drive away, that boarded at 4:20am, and here it was almost 2am and we weren't rehearsing yet :(
We finally went on around 1:50, and I was so nervous about catching my flight that I could hardly focus on the music. The rehearsal was beautiful and everything went smoothly, I was very grateful to be there. Even in that worried mindset I was able to appreciate that my participation in Candlelight was the SOLE reason why I've gotten to play with the Main Street Philharmonic, The Florida Orchestra, and the Orlando Philharmonic this year. Going out of my way to continue to be a part of this special, once-a-year Disney tradition doesn't seem unreasonable at all. Even if it stresses me out :p
(stock image from a previous year)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight to MKE
We played our final notes at 2:40am, and I RAN off the stage, ran to the trap room and threw my horn in the case, ran to the car, drove as fast as I could to the airport. I didn't have time to stop for gas so will probably get charged for that later, oh well. Dropping my baggage turned out to be an ORDEAL because there were no Delta attendants when I got there, and a massive queue had built up, so it took 15-20 minutes to get through that. Security also was delayed because they ran out of trays for personal items and we had to wait while someone went to get them. Aren't we about to start the BUSIEST flying week of the year, and THIS is how things are going at MCO? It was like the airport was creating problems for itself.
But anyway, TL;DR I made it to my gate about 15 minutes before boarding time. By this point I was starting to feel the exhaustion of being awake for nearly a day and a half straight. Here I am brushing my teeth in the restroom at 4am before boarding the flight.
I dozed on the flight and ate breakfast on the Atlanta layover, then dozed again on the flight to Milwaukee.
I can never fully sleep on planes, and also we ended up having a medical emergency on our flight :( I couldn't see well but it seemed to be a woman, and she was conscious but must have been having heart trouble because that defib box was brought out. Not to be corny but it went just like in the movies: a flight attendant got on the PA system and asked if there was a doctor or nurse on the plane. A woman got up to go and help. The plane was dead silent and tense, but we were close to landing and we definitely landed more quickly than scheduled (this happened about 40 minutes from landing and we were on the ground in 20.) There were ambulances on the tarmac to meet us, and we were all told to sit and wait until the woman could be taken to them (medical personnel with a foldy-stretcher came and got her.) As we were deplaning I saw the wrappings from the defib sticky pads on the ground so knew they'd been used in some capacity :/
Anyway that was that. There was nothing to do but empathize and hope that she would be all right.
On the way to collect luggage, even though I was very tired, I did remember to ask any Delta pilots I saw for trading cards. I got four, but all were duplicates so I will offer them to my tour companions.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening Elf in Milwaukee
Got my luggage, got an Uber, got to the hotel. It's a fancy Hyatt downtown. I'm on the 14th floor.
View from my room is nice.
I ordered Instacart groceries which turned out to be a mistake because the person shopping for me was inattentive/very careless. I ended up with the wrong type of yogurt (even though I'd sent her a substitution option), wrinkly old apples, and too many protein shakes (which would normally not be a problem but when you travel for a living, it is.) I had to throw most of the apples out after cutting two open and finding them browning inside, and ultimately had to write her a crappy review.
Still, it did save me having to go shopping myself after nearly 48 hours awake. I barely managed to unpack...you know how when you're tired, you kind of can't focus? I was just sort of setting items down and moving them around, not putting them where they were supposed to go haha. Finally I made myself lie down and slept like a dead person for two hours, waking up only when my alarm went off, drool all over my pillow!
Then I had to eat dinner, get dressed, and go do a sound check and a show. Because this 48-hour day isn't over yet!
We are playing the Marcus Center. I was just here with Tootsie in June 2023.
The ceiling:
This pit is nice and spacious, a relief after the dirty hole that we had to work in in New Jersey.
Sound check was "ok" but this is our first time playing in a modern hall, so the acoustics were very different and half our band members (who have never toured before) didn't know what to do with all the reverb. We had some tempo issues, but people are smart and figured out that they'd just need to listen differently and interact with this space differently. (TBH I will probably write a little friends-only rant about this later haha)
I have my own dressing room again! It's just a little practice room, but it's soundproofed and that is WONDERFUL because sometimes I need quiet after being next to trumpets all the time.
The show went just fine, we may have had some small tempo issues but they will certainly work themselves out.
Afterward I walked back to the hotel and saw this beautiful park decorated for Christmas across the river (it's just blocks from the hotel.) I hope to visit it or walk through one night :)
And then....finally.....blessed, blessed sleep.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite the time change and despite being exhausted I still woke up at 8am (9am EST).
But feeling MUCH better after getting what my body needed :)
I am so grateful to have Wednesday to mostly recover.
I had a slow morning, just breakfast and typing this up and packing an overnight bag for Jameson's parents' house.
Before lunch I walked to a grocery to replace the bad fruit I'd had to throw out, and just to get cardio after all that time sitting on planes or in rehearsals or shows. It's very cold here, definitely winter temps ranging from 20-35F, and I'm glad to have packed my down jacket and earmuffs for this second leg of tour. I was glad for the walk but felt crappy when I got back (not unusual after a lot of air travel) and so had a snack then a nap.
———————
I’m typing the rest of this from the pit because I forgot to post this before leaving the hotel! Jameson and his parents are attending the show tonight, and afterwards I’m spending Thanksgiving with them!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday: Thanksgiving with Jameson and his family :)
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Two shows each day. I won't have time for much, but will appreciate a weekend in Milwaukee anyway.
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Date: 2024-11-29 05:44 pm (UTC)