Tulsa, OK 2026 part 3: Productivity
Feb. 1st, 2026 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers the weekend.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
FRIDAY
I had a rather productive Friday morning.
Up to this point, my masterclass has been designed around college-age students pursuing degrees in music. These studio kids are YOUNGER...middle school and high school-aged. I looked at my PowerPoint and was like...yeah, no, none of this applies. And that is why I spent the entire rest of the afternoon building a new PowerPoint for a younger age group! This one will not be about career moves; it's centered around "What's it Like" to perform in all the different types of gigs. It's designed to showcase all the fun options out there besides the "band and orchestra" programs that these kids are offered in school. Theme parks! Circus! Cruise ships! Broadway tours! With lots of pictures, videos, fun facts, and a few surprise questions to keep them involved. At the end there is ONE slide that suggests students can work toward playing these fun gigs themselves (i.e. "Keep practicing!" "Follow your dreams!")
It took several hours to build, but when it was mostly done I sent it off to the studio owner and she seemed to genuinely love it! We're on for an early March presentation. I think it'll be a lot of fun for both me AND her kids!
Meanwhile, the new couch (or whatever you call this thing) that Jameson and I picked out together has arrived! One of Jameson's friends helped him move the old couch to the curb. The new couch-thing looks great and Jameson is enjoying it very much :)
(Also let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that the reason Jameson FINALLY got rid of his 30-year-old, filthy, sagging couch, and is enjoying this nice new couch, is because I tripped over a ladder and put a hole through the back of the old one. Suddenly I am rather pleased about having done this :p )
It is obnoxiously cold again, single digits with that Oklahoma signature wind. After dinner I bundled up and quick-walked to the theater. Connor was conducting again and did a great job, but I made some weird mistakes and was unhappy with my playing. When I don't play as well as I'd like, I always consider (in real time and afterward) why it's happening and whether there's anything I can do about it. Sometimes it's just that I'm tired or distracted, but often it's a combination of factors--mental state, the cold (which makes me more tense in my body), and sitting in front of a computer unmoving all day today--that impact how I play whether I realize it or not. So tomorrow, even if it's cold, I'm at least going for a short walk.
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SATURDAY
Woke up to 8°F (-13.3°C) plus windchill. Big words about going for a walk yesterday!! Will I still do it??
Meanwhile, coffee and keeping my shades drawn because the hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows that are uninsulated and are letting cold air in. I have to set my thermostat to 73 for the room to be 68. Breakfast, working on Pittsburgh Foodie Finds now, and I managed to squeeze in a run-through of my masterclass before a non-mandatory Disney safety meeting. It was very brief, they just wanted to refresh on some things. After that I could have gone for that walk. I could have! But did I? NO! It is VERY COLD! And I refuse to hold it against myself either! :P
Lunch, adding more fun circus pictures and facts to the kiddie PowerPoint, and now I think that one really is done. Walking to the theater with all of my trunk stuff and putting it away, warming up just a little, then the matinee. It was well attended, and Josh (Key 2) conducted and did a great job. Back to the hotel to catch up on reading blog posts and drink some nice hot tea, then dinner and walking back for the evening show.
Everything went fine but it looks like we're gonna have a clarinet sub for a day, as our clarinetist has had something unexpected come up. This kind of thing is going to happen for each of us throughout the tour, and I'm grateful that this group of musicians are empathetic and understanding about it. I'm glad we were able to find a sub! He sat with us in the pit and audited the show, and should hopefully be playing it tomorrow.
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SUNDAY
I had trouble sleeping...my brain would not shut off, it was noisy in the hallway starting around 5am, and I was also hungry and unable to fall back asleep because of all those things combined. Oh well.
Breakfast and preliminary packing, Foodie Finds work, watching the final episode of Vox Machina Season 3. Whew, what a crazy and fun show. I suppose next up will be The Mighty Nein, then by the time I finish that some of the anime series that I watch should have enough new episodes out to binge.
When 10am hit I did a run-through of my masterclass. 46 minutes, which is just fine. Lunch and then walking to the theater (with fewer layers on because it was a whole 30°F/-1.11°C! Hooray!) The matinee was fine, DAR is back from conducting the Oklahoma Philharmonic, and our substitute clarinetist did very well especially considering that he had less than 24 hours to review the music. I'd be scared out of my wits to read a book like ours on short notice, but he was cool as a cucumber. Jealous of that!
Oh, we did have something kinda funny happen! During "Belle," Gaston shoots a duck out of the sky with his blunderbuss.
Here's the scene from the animated movie:
We do the same scene, using a prop blunderbuss with pyro and a stuffed duck prop that falls from somewhere above the stage.
Well the duck fell like it was supposed to, and LeFou missed it like he's supposed to...and it hit the stage and exploded open, scattering stuffing and feathers everywhere! The actors and ensemble got through Belle to the next dialogue scene, but before Maurice makes his entrance they had to stop the show to sweep up all of the fluff!
The weirdest stuff happens in live theater shows!
During the break the usual thing of going back to the hotel for dinner, more packing, and researching which anime to binge next.
Back at the theater, and several of you were curious about the "Please Don't" sign in the pit, so I went back to have a better look and show you what's going on with that. Here's the original picture that I took, and here's what is underneath the "Please Don't" sign.
I have no idea what it is but you can see a key/lever of some sort, a hole presumably for the key, and also a sort of wrench-tool. Generally when you find things like this in the pit it's a REALLY good idea to leave them alone...it could be the mechanism that raises and lowers the entire pit, or an emergency lockdown function that seals the doors to the pit. Yes, such things very much do exist and I've seen them in other theaters. NO TOUCHIE.
The show was "ok." DAR is back but I think he was pretty tired, plus we had the sub on clarinet who did a great job but did miss a few things this time. Again, he is essentially sightreading so that is still an absolutely amazing job. We all made sure to shake hands with him and thank him for filling in. I do hope that our clarinetist David feels better soon, though!
Random pic of this stage, from the pit.
As always I was The Fastest to load out of the pit, and escaped quickly back to the hotel to type up this post.
Thus concludes our Oklahoma run. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us, so it was a lot of holing up to avoid cold and snow. Next up is Fayetteville. I have been there before with Tootsie and will link back to that post. There is not a lot to DO in Fayetteville, but it's a college town so there's a campus that we can walk around and lots of fun restaurants.
Sarah (French horn) and I BOTH have birthdays this week too, back to back! Hers is Tuesday and mine is Wednesday. I've ordered a nice charcuterie to bring to our band room to celebrate (gosh, I hope we'll have a fridge...)
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Monday: Afternoon bus ride to Fayetteville, AR. This time I have an airbnb, so I will ride the company bus to the hotel and then Uber downtown and get settled in with the usual grocery routine.
Tuesday: Opening day in Fayetteville.
This post covers the weekend.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
FRIDAY
I had a rather productive Friday morning.
- Laundry. I'm on the 10th floor and it's on the 3rd so a lot of back and forth.
- Reposting on the socials about masterclass opportunities. This does take some time as I have to look up the available dates over the next 4 months, create the post, make sure I'm not violating Group rules (some groups ban "self-promotion") and share the post across multiple platforms.
- Sharing the Fayetteville Foodie Finds to our tour chat, both as a Google Docs link and a PDF.
- Working on Philadelphia Foodie Finds. I'm about finished, but enlisted the help of some locals to get further recommendations.
- Texted my brother and his fiancee to coordinate a meet-up while I'm in Philly.
- Folded the laundry.
- Meal planning for coming days.
- Packing things to go back in my trunk.
- Full run-through of my masterclass presentation. I wait until after 10am to do this, but the people staying in rooms adjacent to mine probably still hate me.
Up to this point, my masterclass has been designed around college-age students pursuing degrees in music. These studio kids are YOUNGER...middle school and high school-aged. I looked at my PowerPoint and was like...yeah, no, none of this applies. And that is why I spent the entire rest of the afternoon building a new PowerPoint for a younger age group! This one will not be about career moves; it's centered around "What's it Like" to perform in all the different types of gigs. It's designed to showcase all the fun options out there besides the "band and orchestra" programs that these kids are offered in school. Theme parks! Circus! Cruise ships! Broadway tours! With lots of pictures, videos, fun facts, and a few surprise questions to keep them involved. At the end there is ONE slide that suggests students can work toward playing these fun gigs themselves (i.e. "Keep practicing!" "Follow your dreams!")
It took several hours to build, but when it was mostly done I sent it off to the studio owner and she seemed to genuinely love it! We're on for an early March presentation. I think it'll be a lot of fun for both me AND her kids!
Meanwhile, the new couch (or whatever you call this thing) that Jameson and I picked out together has arrived! One of Jameson's friends helped him move the old couch to the curb. The new couch-thing looks great and Jameson is enjoying it very much :)
(Also let's take a moment to reflect on the fact that the reason Jameson FINALLY got rid of his 30-year-old, filthy, sagging couch, and is enjoying this nice new couch, is because I tripped over a ladder and put a hole through the back of the old one. Suddenly I am rather pleased about having done this :p )
It is obnoxiously cold again, single digits with that Oklahoma signature wind. After dinner I bundled up and quick-walked to the theater. Connor was conducting again and did a great job, but I made some weird mistakes and was unhappy with my playing. When I don't play as well as I'd like, I always consider (in real time and afterward) why it's happening and whether there's anything I can do about it. Sometimes it's just that I'm tired or distracted, but often it's a combination of factors--mental state, the cold (which makes me more tense in my body), and sitting in front of a computer unmoving all day today--that impact how I play whether I realize it or not. So tomorrow, even if it's cold, I'm at least going for a short walk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
Woke up to 8°F (-13.3°C) plus windchill. Big words about going for a walk yesterday!! Will I still do it??
Meanwhile, coffee and keeping my shades drawn because the hotel has floor-to-ceiling windows that are uninsulated and are letting cold air in. I have to set my thermostat to 73 for the room to be 68. Breakfast, working on Pittsburgh Foodie Finds now, and I managed to squeeze in a run-through of my masterclass before a non-mandatory Disney safety meeting. It was very brief, they just wanted to refresh on some things. After that I could have gone for that walk. I could have! But did I? NO! It is VERY COLD! And I refuse to hold it against myself either! :P
Lunch, adding more fun circus pictures and facts to the kiddie PowerPoint, and now I think that one really is done. Walking to the theater with all of my trunk stuff and putting it away, warming up just a little, then the matinee. It was well attended, and Josh (Key 2) conducted and did a great job. Back to the hotel to catch up on reading blog posts and drink some nice hot tea, then dinner and walking back for the evening show.
Everything went fine but it looks like we're gonna have a clarinet sub for a day, as our clarinetist has had something unexpected come up. This kind of thing is going to happen for each of us throughout the tour, and I'm grateful that this group of musicians are empathetic and understanding about it. I'm glad we were able to find a sub! He sat with us in the pit and audited the show, and should hopefully be playing it tomorrow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
I had trouble sleeping...my brain would not shut off, it was noisy in the hallway starting around 5am, and I was also hungry and unable to fall back asleep because of all those things combined. Oh well.
Breakfast and preliminary packing, Foodie Finds work, watching the final episode of Vox Machina Season 3. Whew, what a crazy and fun show. I suppose next up will be The Mighty Nein, then by the time I finish that some of the anime series that I watch should have enough new episodes out to binge.
When 10am hit I did a run-through of my masterclass. 46 minutes, which is just fine. Lunch and then walking to the theater (with fewer layers on because it was a whole 30°F/-1.11°C! Hooray!) The matinee was fine, DAR is back from conducting the Oklahoma Philharmonic, and our substitute clarinetist did very well especially considering that he had less than 24 hours to review the music. I'd be scared out of my wits to read a book like ours on short notice, but he was cool as a cucumber. Jealous of that!
Oh, we did have something kinda funny happen! During "Belle," Gaston shoots a duck out of the sky with his blunderbuss.
Here's the scene from the animated movie:
We do the same scene, using a prop blunderbuss with pyro and a stuffed duck prop that falls from somewhere above the stage.
Well the duck fell like it was supposed to, and LeFou missed it like he's supposed to...and it hit the stage and exploded open, scattering stuffing and feathers everywhere! The actors and ensemble got through Belle to the next dialogue scene, but before Maurice makes his entrance they had to stop the show to sweep up all of the fluff!
The weirdest stuff happens in live theater shows!
During the break the usual thing of going back to the hotel for dinner, more packing, and researching which anime to binge next.
Back at the theater, and several of you were curious about the "Please Don't" sign in the pit, so I went back to have a better look and show you what's going on with that. Here's the original picture that I took, and here's what is underneath the "Please Don't" sign.
I have no idea what it is but you can see a key/lever of some sort, a hole presumably for the key, and also a sort of wrench-tool. Generally when you find things like this in the pit it's a REALLY good idea to leave them alone...it could be the mechanism that raises and lowers the entire pit, or an emergency lockdown function that seals the doors to the pit. Yes, such things very much do exist and I've seen them in other theaters. NO TOUCHIE.
The show was "ok." DAR is back but I think he was pretty tired, plus we had the sub on clarinet who did a great job but did miss a few things this time. Again, he is essentially sightreading so that is still an absolutely amazing job. We all made sure to shake hands with him and thank him for filling in. I do hope that our clarinetist David feels better soon, though!
Random pic of this stage, from the pit.
As always I was The Fastest to load out of the pit, and escaped quickly back to the hotel to type up this post.
Thus concludes our Oklahoma run. Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us, so it was a lot of holing up to avoid cold and snow. Next up is Fayetteville. I have been there before with Tootsie and will link back to that post. There is not a lot to DO in Fayetteville, but it's a college town so there's a campus that we can walk around and lots of fun restaurants.
Sarah (French horn) and I BOTH have birthdays this week too, back to back! Hers is Tuesday and mine is Wednesday. I've ordered a nice charcuterie to bring to our band room to celebrate (gosh, I hope we'll have a fridge...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Afternoon bus ride to Fayetteville, AR. This time I have an airbnb, so I will ride the company bus to the hotel and then Uber downtown and get settled in with the usual grocery routine.
Tuesday: Opening day in Fayetteville.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-02 02:22 pm (UTC)Pre-happy birthday!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-02 03:07 pm (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-02 07:55 pm (UTC)Have fun in Fayetteville! One of my besties moved there recently.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-02 08:28 pm (UTC)Basically, company management books a hotel for us for the duration of our stay in a given city. A few weeks before we get there, a form is sent out that gives us the following options:
- Stay in the company hotel. Sub-options are to have your own room (they’ll take more from your per diem to cover this), have a roommate (the cheapest option) or upgrade to a suite (they’ll cover the cost of a regular room and you’ll pay the extra.)
- Take the “buyout” and book your own accommodations. The company will cover any housing you choose for yourself up to the cost that they WOULD HAVE spent on your company-provided housing. So if I want an airbnb, and the buyout is $200 per night, I try to find an Airbnb that is close to or less than that cost, book and pay for it myself, then submit the receipt to Disney for reimbursement. This can be a good way to save money if you get a group together to split an airbnb. Or if you have family coming to visit, etc
In this case, I just don’t want a 20-minute carpool to and from work every single day. I’m willing to pay a little extra per night to stay downtown.
Hope that makes sense!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-03 03:24 am (UTC)Happy early birthday!
no subject
Date: 2026-02-03 04:43 am (UTC)Thank you! So far it's off to a nice start with my own airbnb downtown, and I'm bringing a charcuterie to work on Wednesday to celebrate :)
no subject
Date: 2026-02-04 11:58 pm (UTC)Yay for birthday charcuterie!