goofball on a train

Thursday, another straightforward rehearsal day.

Nothing special happened that I can recall, we did multiple run throughs and stayed hydrated and all that.
We are all rather tired--this is our fourth week--but it is satisfying to see the show coming together.

Back home the wash-rinse-repeat of packing breakfast and lunch, practicing bass, and having some crash time with Jameson.

A Japanese cookbook arrived from my sister Kate, for my birthday. I hope to be able to make something from it, once I have more than an hour to myself each day.

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Friday and as usual I am SO GLAD for my singular day off tomorrow.

It was a bit slow for us because other groups are now rehearsing in the park, and sometimes they need to be able to do that without nine musicians making a huge racket. So we killed an hour just talking about show-related things in the breakroom, then slammed through one or two run throughs before lunch.

After lunch we took a field trip to Dark Universe!



Obviously and as usual, I can't share anything that isn't already public.

We rode a bus from Ministry of Magic to Dark Universe and slipped in through a standard employee gate.
This "world" is themed around Universal's classic horror monsters, such as Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, misc vampires, and more. It is a smaller world than ours and low-lying, so we could see the whole of it from the burning windmill all the way to the portal.

The most obvious features are the windmill and Frankenstein's castle.
The windmill has a fire effect (and a restaurant underneath called The Burning Blades):



The castle has a lightning effect, because you know, the doctor harnessed lightning to bring Frankenstein to life.
(yes the windmill is in this clip too but ignore it lol)



The windmill was not running while we were there but we did get to see the castle go off at one point which was very cool. We also explored some of the ride offerings though none of them are available for testing yet. And we walked through the STAKEhouse (get it?) which had great theming and I suspect will be very popular if for no other reason than it's dark and cool, and people will flock there to escape the Florida heat.

(photo directly from Epic Universe site)

Anyway, the main reason we were there was to act as an audience for performers in that world, just as they have already done for us several times. I can't go into detail about these entertainer experiences, but will say that they're intended to make the park more immersive, and that all of the performers that we interacted with were great and/or doing their absolute best, many of them having just started rehearsing this week.

I do want to mention how great it is that Universal has provided a "safe space" for performers to mess up without getting screamed at or glared at. There is a lot of pressure to learn quickly, and everyone is hustling to get the park completed, but it's overall a really supportive environment for us and that hasn't gone unnoticed.

We saw a few other sights, then bused back to the main hub where we could walk to our own "world." Ministry of Magic has lucked out, we are right next to the employee entrance whereas employees of other "worlds" have to take buses.

Upon returning, I felt renewed appreciation for the emotions that our "world" evokes due to the foundation of books, movies, characters, and soundtracks. Dark Universe doesn't really have that. People are going to CRY when they see the Ministry of Magic for the first time. There is a generation that grew up with the "wizarding world," and they will be awestruck when they enter. In that way, it truly is magical.

We'd intended to rehearse some more after our field trip, but the paint fumes in the park were so bad that our show director immediately cut us loose early. Sweet! Traffic was hideous perhaps because of the Super Bowl(?) so I still arrived home at the same time. I was so tired, from rehearsal and being out in the heat all day, that I decided not to practice and just relax for the evening. Jameson was out with friends so I had a quiet night.

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Saturday, My One Blessed Day Off.

My fitness tracker has informed me that over the past four weeks (i.e. once rehearsals started) I have averaged an extra mile per day at least, and between 8000-10,000 steps. I will be interested to see how this compares to my steps at the Magic Kingdom with the Philharmonic.


( Introspection )

I got about 7 hours of sleep, had breakfast, typed this up, and swept and mopped the tile floors before Jameson was up. Once he'd gone to the gym I scrubbed the shower, went out to get some bagels and groceries, packed my lunch and a bag for Disney tomorrow, then crashed through lunch and part of the afternoon. Shopped some samples from my favorite perfume shop on Etsy, and tried to make a hat band from a ribbon and failed so bookmarked some of those for possible later purchase as well.

Dinner was from our favorite Greek place, and I did laundry and Jameson gamed.

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Sunday, off to Disney.

The band’s schedule has changed, it’s now two parades and two sets instead of three sets and one parade. I prefer this as I enjoy the walking but some guys don’t care for it. Anyway, Parade One was just fine, and between that and the set I ate a packed lunch.

Got caught up with the guys throughout the day and it turns out one of the trombones is having surgery on his arm and will be out for at least a month starting in March. I think that I’ll challenge myself to learn his part so that I can help cover (and not to be callous, but to get more work as well.) Memorizing 20 more pieces of music will be a lot on top of Epic Universe performances, learning the bass trombone, and transcription work, but there are other (male) musicians here who do just as much, so I have to at least try. 

A photo that someone took of us today (a friend of the sousaphonist hamming for the camera.)
I put a pink arrow to help show which one's me.


After work, checking my fitness tracker shows that I got close to 17,000 steps and 7 miles. So, 5000-7000 more steps than I get at Universal. But I may end up at Universal more often, which will mean more steps there, just spread out over more time. An interesting comparison.


Back home I packed breakfast-lunch-dinner for tomorrow, re-packed my bag for Universal, caught up with Jameson, and we watched the Super Bowl together, neither of us caring who'd win.

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Monday through Wednesday: More Universal rehearsal and bass practice.

Thursday: Working the Magic Kingdom.

Posting a day early again, but after this I should be able to get back on the regular Monday/Thursday schedule.

Very early in the morning, I was up to drive the 40 minutes to the car dealership. There was already a queue of cars waiting at 6:55. Checked in and waited for about two hours, and then the Toyota associate came back with BAD news.

It was definitely rodents. They had definitely chewed through my AC wiring, as well as the air filter and the straps holding....the AC unit?....in place. The worst part of all was that the mechanics couldn't find the dead mouse either. They suspected it was actually INSIDE the AC mechanism. Which meant they were going to have to pull the entire AC unit out. $$$$

In addition to all of that, my back rotors were basically metal rubbing metal (I had known that they were low but I literally JUST had the car at Firestone and they didn't say anything.)

The total estimate:     a whopping $5300.


( Car and Mouse )
Continuing my walk, I came across this sweet little water snake on the sidewalk, absorbing the warmth of the sun.


I thought she might be dead at first, but then saw her little tongue going blep-blep. Adorable!
(CLICK HERE to see)

She was very small, only a little longer than my hand. She moved away nervously when I put my finger close.


As I continued on my way it occurred to me: 2025 is the Year of the Snake!
How lucky am I, to have seen this year's token animal!

How lucky am I. It is not lost on me.

Back home Jameson and I had Panda Express and relaxed together until bedtime.

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Friday. Up somewhat-early for the 90-minute drive to Warburton.
Breakfast and clearing the table so that Jameson could work on a puzzle if he liked (he's getting very bored, poor guy.) Loaded up the bass trombone and off we went.


Warburton is always in a state of chaos. Boxes everywhere, random pianos, a shelf full of random method books, pieces of heavy machinery, brass shavings, and of course the big black mouthpiece display boxes for trumpet, cornet, French horn, trombone, baritone, tuba, etc etc. Warburton is known for their mouthpieces and their ability to fabricate custom mouthpieces. I'm lucky that they're Florida-based and close enough to visit. At this point all of my mouthpieces are Warburton except my large tenor, for which I use a Hammond (also very good.)

Today I needed a mouthpiece for my new bass. Kimberly, who runs the shop most of the time and plays the trumpet and has a pet squirrel, was there to greet me and we chatted it up, catching up on each others' lives. I think we'd be good friends if only we lived closer. While chatting I tried several mouthpieces, starting with a 1-1/2 standard and then a few custom versions of the same, and also a 2-cup (I know that all of this means nothing to you.)

Note that today was my VERY first time playing this bass trombone, and I am WELL pleased with it. The slide is unlubricated currently so started off a little jerky, but as I played and the brass warmed it got nice and smooth indeed. The Minick-worked rotors also were a pleasure. I had a hard time filling up the horn and got dizzy/lightheaded a few times, but that is something that will go away with time and persistent practice. As mentioned in other posts, I am not a "monster" musician or a power-focused player...but I will have to become one for this gig. Or at least as close as I can get.

I pretty quickly decided on the standard 1-1/2, and Kim threw in some awesome merch! A Warburton 50th anniversary shirt (don't ask why it has sharks and fish, I've no clue) and a Quality Control sticker featuring Meeny, her pet squirrel!


We hugged goodbye and as I was about to leave, a family of raccoons showed up to snack on some kibble that had been laid out for them! A mama and two babies. Kim says there are usually two other babies and wondered where they were.
(CLICK HERE for raccoons!)

I tiptoed around the family and took off with my goodies.
Back home I got an update on my car. Still torn apart. It won't be done today, but I'm hoping for tomorrow.


I practiced my Main Street Philharmonic music because there's a rehearsal on Tuesday. This was the first time I've played my Williams since going on tour with Elf. It went rough but that's ok. Patience and practice :)

We got Pub Subs for dinner, and that seems to have been a poor choice because Jameson threw his up a few hours later :/
I felt fine, so not sure what happened or if maybe it's because his stomach is hurting from all the meds lately.

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Saturday, I was up later than usual and feeling unmotivated.
This is probably my last "chill day" for quite a while.

Breakfast and finished watching Wolf's Rain, and the dealership called to say that my car was finished! YAY!
They'd found even MORE damage to the drive belt and other parts, so my insurance is now covering something ungodly like $8000 worth of work. I would never have recovered from that financial hit. So on the way to the dealership I stopped at Dunkin' and got a gift card for my associate, who had been kind and helpful and waived all of my rental car costs. When I got there we settled up...my bill for the rotors and non-rodent work came to $1080, still not cheap but manageable. Then he showed me my car, all reassembled and smelling fresh and clean, all the feces and acorn shells removed from under the hood. He showed me where I should put blocks of Tomcat bait (I don't want to do it but he says they may come back, as he never found a dead animal + their scent is still in the car.) We shook hands, I gave him the Dunkin' card, and that was that. Hopefully my insurance deals with the rest.

For anyone who's interested, my insurance is GEICO and they have been wonderful, now and in the past when I was in an accident and my car was totaled. Highly recommend them.

On the way home, picked up my coat from the dry cleaners and got a bag of Tomcat bait. Did laundry, chatted with Jameson, ate lunch, installed the bait in my car, and practiced my Universal audition music which had FINALLY come in the day before the audition. Argh, whatever.

At 5pm there was a free acting/dialect clinic for auditionees in Winter Park, so I drove up there to attend. There were 17 people there, 7 of whom were trombonists. Of the 17 only 4 were women, one on each instrument...but TWO of us ladies on trombone! The other female trombonist is Andrea, who I knew was local but didn't think she'd be interested in theme park stuff. It was a pleasure to finally meet her in person!

The dialect coach running the clinic was very cool, and she gave us partial scripts to work with which gave us a glimpse at what we might be expected to do for this role (hush-hush of course.) And from talking with each other we were able to figure out that auditions were roughly 12 minutes apart/going to be 12 minutes long, and that the trombones would be heard first (we all had morning audition times.) And that's pretty much it...the French was fun to practice, but honestly, there's no way most of us will remember this in front of an audition panel. If I retain any of it it'll be a miracle! But it was nice to meet people and get a little more info on what to expect tomorrow.

I drove home and told Jameson of my doings, made sure my horn and music and clothes were all laid out for the audition, then we chilled.

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Sunday: Auditioning for Universal. Jameson gets to remove his cast! I should also get a transcription job.

Monday: Transcription and practicing, possibly making dinner for us.

Tuesday: A day at Disney for Main Street Philharmonic rehearsal.

Wednesday: Taking Jameson to two doctors appointments, more transcription and practicing. I should find out by Weds whether or not I'll be involved in the Universal gig.

I was able to ride the company charter bus to the airport on Monday. Flights were normal, in Charlotte the tour stopped and stayed because that’s our last city, but many people traveled home for Christmas from there. I had a flight to Orlando which went just fine, and Jameson picked me up from the airport.

I can tell he’s not feeling great mentally, from his body language and such. I asked how his arm is, and he says it doesn’t hurt but he can’t feel his thumb or pinky finger normally, they’re constantly tingling or numb. His surgery will be on New Year’s Eve Day. He is very nervous about it, naturally. This will either help him, or end his career as a pianist. I am terrified for him, but also determined to support him in any way that I can.

Anyway. We talked about that, and how his work is going, and games he’s into and shows he’s watching. I avoided the subject of my new and exciting gig, because I know he’s got feelings to work through about it and I know (from personal experience) how difficult it is to talk about something, that someone else got, that you maybe wanted for yourself. I get that.

Back home, Jameson has decorated the house for Christmas! We have new lights and they are awesome!
You can do all different colors and patterns. CLICK HERE to see!

I cringed a bit at how dusty the house is, and the state of the bathrooms, but I’ll do my best to get things clean before Jameson’s surgery. I won’t be cleaning for Christmas, though. No time.

We ordered taco salads for dinner, then I did a load of laundry, washed our bedsheets, and went out to brave the last-minute shopping crowds for Christmas dinner ingredients and stocking stuffers for Jameson. It took WAY longer than usual…traffic was horrific. But I got everything more or less.

Back home, our neighbors came over to drop off cookies (woot!) so we each had one and then relaxed for the rest of the night. Well, he relaxed and I wrapped presents and assembled stockings. Also, while out driving I’d noticed that my climate control panel in my car was not working.

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Tuesday, Christmas Eve Day, turned out to be unfortunately anything but relaxing.

I was up at 6:30am to take my car to Firestone…and of course they opened an hour later than usual for the holiday. So I dozed in my car with a Wawa coffee until they opened. An additional 30 minutes of sitting in this waiting room, only to be told that the problem is with my car's BRAIN, meaning I'd need to take it to a dealership. Called the two closest to me (30-40 minute drives) and both unsurprisingly had no openings on a holiday.


Initially I thought maybe I could still drive up to Charlotte with my car--everything else seems to be working, right?--but both the mechanic and Jameson seemed to think that was a Bad Idea. Apparently if your car's computer (PCM) goes bad, your car could just...stop? Lose power? The problem is, it's unclear whether it's the brain (PCM) or the AC control module malfunctioning. But Jameson was adamant that I not drive my own car, to the point of offering to pay for the rental car for me. So...f*ck. Now I needed to find a rental car on Christmas Eve Day. Sigh.

But one thing at a time. I got home and made us Christmas breakfast. We had basic shake-n-bake pancakes, with a blueberry compote that my sister made and egg nog whipped cream. I also added Greek yogurt so I could pretend I'm healthy. It was simple but very good.


We then opened Christmas presents and stockings together.
Jameson's parents got me the latest Half-Baked Harvest cookbook, and Jameson got me a Japanese Classics cookbook! I've already dog-eared a bunch of new recipes to try (when I'm home...I might make some things and freeze them for Jameson.) Conveniently, one of Jameson's presents was salicornia "salt." Jameson has Meniere's, which means too much sodium causes him to have vertigo and nausea. Salicornia tastes just like salt but actually contains only half the sodium of regular salt. So theoretically he should be able to eat more of it with less ill effect. And THAT means that I could probably try making the ramen in the cookbook he got me!

Anyway, another lovely present was from my sister Kate. She made all of her own gifts this year. Pistachio butter, peanut butter, brown sugar syrup, homemade granola, garlic salt, a clove-scented candle, and a lovely decoration. Homemade gifts really are the best. I used to do this too, but haven't had time any more.


Jameson's presents to me were very thoughtful, as usual!
Look at these hilarious bread-themed computer cushions! Baguette for wrists, croissant for mouse hand/wrist.


And these adorable alligator socks! There will probably be more pictures of these, for now I want to protect them so will only wear them once tour is over.


His big gift to me this year was an Apple Watch!!! He REALLY shouldn't have done that, argh.
I spent a lot of time this afternoon getting used to it. It's shockingly comfortable...twice today I almost submerged my hand with the watch on! (It's waterproof but still.) Probably the most useful part of it is going to be accurate fitness tracking. With an accurate BPM and other vital signs, I'll be able to see how many calories I really burn instead of having to guess. Convenient!

In the afternoon he drove me to the nearest Avis for a rental car. I felt very stressed about this...that's hundreds more dollars that I didn't plan on spending, all because I stupidly thought I could just grab my car out of storage and shoot up the coast with it. The cost of this added to Jameson's tension and I think made him feel guilty for insisting, but I also do see his point about my car's computer being a risk, especially for a long-distance drive on a holiday when I may not be able to get help if something goes wrong. And money aside, I am abashed and very touched that he is worried for me.

Back home was another shock.
My bass trombone arrived!! FOUR DAYS early!!
How that's even possible, coming from California, I have no idea. But I was amazed and excited.
That was the good news.

The bad news: I opened the case and the bell was CRUSHED.


This 100% happened because the guy who packed it didn't do it properly. And that made me REALLY mad.
I LITERALLY texted him a week ago describing how I wanted him to pack it...and describing exactly what ended up happening to this horn because he didn't do ask I asked.


Like...are you kidding me??? Why???
Probably because it's a busy time of year and he just threw it in the case with some loose bubble wrap and thought it would be fine. But dude, that is so not enough. I didn't want to be a Karen on Christmas, but couldn't help but send him pictures and express how disappointed I was that it had showed up in this condition entirely because he didn't do what I asked. He apologized profusely, I huffed a bit more but accepted that what's done is done, and he found a buddy in Florida who says it can be repaired (it probably can be, crushed bells are shockingly common.) In fact, this person's house is on my route to Charlotte, so he agreed that I could drop the horn off on Christmas day and pick it up on the way back down. Considering that I didn't even expect to get the horn until the new year anyway, this is perfect and the best I could hope for.

And yes of course the guy who sent the horn will pay for the repairs. Butthead!

Otherwise, the slide and rotors are quite good. So as long as the bell can be repaired I'll be satisfied. It was just very stressful and disappointing to receive it damaged like this after I SPECIFICALLY SAID...argh. Well, you know.

The trombone arriving damaged compounded the stress of unexpectedly renting a car, and the stress-guilt that Jameson was feeling for insisting on that cost. If you've kept up, I've bought a bass trombone that's damaged and now needs repairs, my car needs repairs as soon as tour is over, and I have to rent a car unexpectedly for this last leg of tour. FUUUUUUUUUUUU

Also, here is what the first week of 2025 looks like for me:

     - Dec. 30: Drive 10 hours to Orlando, picking up repaired bass trombone on the way
     - Dec. 31: Jameson has hand surgery
     - Jan. 1: I expect to spend the day cleaning and taking care of Jameson post-surgery but also need to practice for an audition
     - Jan. 2: Appointment to have car repaired (will probably take between 4-6 hours + the commute)
     - Jan. 3: Driving 4 hours round trip to Warburton for a bass trombone mouthpiece (this one didn't come with one)
     - Jan. 3: Supposed to start receiving transcription jobs again, including urgent/express jobs
     - Jan. 4: Acting coaching class for my audition for Universal
     - Jan. 5: Audition for Universal
     - Jan. 6 thru 8: Oh my god, could I possibly finally unpack from tour?

I really doubt that all of this will actually happen...like, I'll probably have to delay getting a mouthpiece for the bass, which means delaying practicing it. And I might need to delay transcription too. And I don't know what Jameson's needs will be during this time either. It feels like a lot. It'll probably be ok, but it feels like 2025 has grabbed me by the collar and is THROTTLING me.

Anyway, we relaxed for the afternoon, I packed a bit and made all of the arrangements for the bass repair and car service, then for dinner we tried out the new grill that Jameson's parents got us! Jameson fired it up while I did prep on the veggies and sides. The burgers turned out great! Jameson said he'd have wanted maybe 3 minutes more as they turned out medium-rare, but they were still restaurant-quality. I also tried grilling some zucchini slices that turned out delicious. Can't wait to grill more!


More relaxation after that, eating Christmas cookies and trying to lower our stress levels.

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This post was heckin' longer than intended. I thought it would be a nice quiet Christmas Eve Day, but it turned into quite the stress-fest. Oh well, the world doesn't stop turning just because it's a holiday. Merry Christmas everyone!

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Wednesday: 10 hour drive to Charlotte

Thursday: two shows and an afterparty hosted by the theatre

Friday, Saturday, & Sunday: last six shows of Elf the Musical on tour.

Starting this one off with a bit of TMI (it's not that bad but if reading about birth control pills makes you uncomfortable, scroll past the dotted lines:

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I woke with a start this morning, realizing that I haven't taken ANY birth control pills since coming to Greensboro!!!
This is unheard of for me, in fact it's never happened in the 10+ years that I've been on the pill. I've forgotten single days before, a few times, but never multiple days in a row. Am I really THAT distracted lately? Surprised at myself, I took two this morning and will take two tomorrow and that will have me caught up. But it was a disconcerting thing to realize, and it's going to cause some distracting symptoms (usually spotting, bloating, weird emotions for a while)

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Thursday was breakfast, giving my trombone a bath, and enjoying one gloriously transcription-free day. I like transcription, but having jobs sent back-to-back means not a single day without it, and right now I could use a small break. Watched a little Business Insider (they have really cool educational videos on YouTube) and halfheartedly poked at some job applications.

I shared this in a Friends Only post recently: Jameson and I both experienced pretty crushing job application rejections this week. His was for a job where he had internal references and was well qualified...and he got a rejection letter within days of applying. Not even an offer of an interview.
Mine was an audition, and the rejection came very publicly in the form of a new audition notice...for the same gig...posted after I sent my materials...specifically asking for female trombonists to apply. Meaning I'm now being tagged by fellow trombonists in the comments of the listing, because I'm essentially The Only Professional Female Trombonist In Orlando, so to a lot of people I'm the obvious choice.

This has left me with the humiliating task of having to publicly respond to the tags with, "Sorry...I've already applied, so I think they must be looking for someone else..."

Anyway, I had a calm and quiet morning regardless, and was grateful for it.
For lunch I joined Todd (trumpet) and Kenny (Reed 1) for the Chinese Buffet next to our hotel. Americanized Chinese is one of my favorites! We had a nice convo and decent meal. Afterward I walked to the thrift store a little over a mile away, didn't really find anything, but there was an Asian grocery just a block over!

( Asian Grocery )

When I'd had my fun I got back to the hotel and started to rest, but then received a transcription review from my supervisors/a proofreader. It was quite long, with lots of corrections, which made me feel inadequate (i.e. BUTTHURT.) But I am glad that I've held that last transcription job back, because now I can apply these corrections to that job before submitting it. I read as many corrections as I could before it was showtime, but will have to spend part of Friday really diving in and giving it my full attention.

The show went "okay," I could have done better.

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Friday, after breakfast I really buckled down on the transcription review. No matter how butthurt I feel that my work wasn't "perfect," the only way it's going to get better is if I set that aside and apply the corrections.

To my surprise, shortly after sending an email thanking my boss and the proofer for their corrections, I got another email from them praising me for having great verbatim/formatting skills and offering me the chance to complete "urgent jobs," which pay twice as much as normal jobs but must be turned around very quickly. I said yes to the urgent jobs, but also that I could only accept them starting in the new year after I'm done touring.

Yay! This definitely helped my mood.

After that I practiced my Disney stuff (brought trombone back to the hotel again) and ate lunch, then went for a walk through the residential behind the hotel. About that time Jameson messaged to say his surgery will be on New Year's Eve. Good lord. That means I'm going to come back from tour and immediately the next day he's got surgery. Ugh, well...I understand that he wants to get it over with, and I of course want to be there when it happens. But I would've liked to unpack first!!!

The evening show was fine except the MIDI crashed (all of our sound effects.) The drummer got to cover a few doorbell/elevator sounds, and there were some voiceovers, but it was fixed 30 minutes into the show.

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Friday, I did laundry again and started transcription. We had two shows at 2pm and 8pm.

When I got to the theater I was surprised to see the kids (actor kids) waiting for me. They handed me this nerf gun with instructions to “Shoot C (drummer) on sight!” Well okay!


And who came up the stairs just then but C! Who also had a “gun!” We had a raging nerf battle and before I knew it actors with nerf guns had joined in, foam bullets flying everywhere and theater employees running akimbo through the crossfire. It was great fun :)

My aunt came to this show so I had to call a truce in the firefight so I could go hug her. She looks good! After the show we went for chicken and waffles at a local place. It had really good reviews and the flavors were good, but unfortunately our food came out cold. Still, we caught up a little bit on each others’ lives. I would’ve liked several days with her, but we take what we can get.


Afterward they dropped me off at the theater with a box of cookies from my sister Raven, and a card hand-painted by my aunt!


I am so grateful for my small but mighty family. My aunt is my favorite person in the world, and I was so happy to see her today :)

The 8pm show was all right...we have a trumpet player who is struggling right now so musically it wasn't great. But maybe tomorrow will be better.

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Sunday I was up at 6:30am, for an hour of "me time" and breakfast before starting transcription. The deadline isn't until next Saturday but if I get it done quickly I can enjoy a bit of Indianapolis.

I took a Lyft to Deep Roots Market, which is just down the block from the theater, and picked up some prepackaged tuna and a salad for lunch and dinner (only $9 for both meals + bringing snacks from the hotel.) Our 2pm show went just fine.

Between shows I stayed at the theater since I have my own dressing room, and plugged away at transcription some more with a hot cup of ginger tea. By dinnertime I was pleased to have completed two of my three audio hours, which is very good progress. The evening show was fine...unfortunately not better than previous shows, so I guess we musicians are going to be crawling across the figurative finish line for these last two weeks of tour. Whatever, I can only do MY best on MY music; I can't control what others do or do not invest in putting on a good show.

After the show and while waiting for my carpool, I signed our wall tag (yes, we FINALLY got one!)
It is a very beautiful wall tag, too!

Photo:


Video showing more details is HERE.

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Monday: Travel day to Indianapolis, groceries, transcription.

Tuesday & Wednesday: More transcription and probably laundry.

Thursday & Friday: Maybe I'll have time to explore!

After Wednesday's show I was kidnapped by the Boyces!

Here is Jameson waiting for me by the pit, and being a goober :p
(CLICK HERE to see)

Yes, he flew up to join us for the holiday. His family enjoyed the show and had nothing but good things to say about it. We all drove back to their house which is an hour outside the city, so we didn't get there until midnight and then just went right to bed.

The next morning we were treated to a pumpkin "kringle" for breakfast, which is like a giant Danish pastry filled with pumpkin pie filling and is apparently a Wisconsin specialty. It was very good! The rest of the day was very chill, Mr. Boyce took Addison (their Bernese mountain dog) for a walk, I helped Ms. Boyce with small tasks like peeling potatoes and gathering ingredients, and we watched the Thanksgiving Day parade and munched on charcuterie until it was time for dinner.


Addison being a goof. She is 11 years old which is quite old for a Berner, and is slowing down. But she's still very sweet and playful.


Dinner was a lovely turkey with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, slaw, cheesy sweet potatoes, from-scratch dinner rolls, and Ms. Boyce's cranberry sauce which is my favorite thing ever, she serves it every year. Everything was delicious, and I was grateful to enjoy a real home-cooked meal and a family setting while on tour. It's amazing that things lined up where we could all be there together :)

Unfortunately as the day went on I started feeling under the weather, and by evening it was clear that I'd caught something. It seems to be just a cold, and it is not at all surprising considering how challenging the last 48 hours have been for me, and that half the tour is ALSO sick with colds, flu, or covid. I'd MUCH rather have a cold than the other two!!

Mr. Boyce had gotten us tickets to go see Wicked, so we piled into the car and got there for the 7:30 showing. It's been a long time since I've been to the movies, so long that it felt nostalgic.


I know that Wicked has been over-hyped...but it really IS a good movie. A lot of time and attention was put into sticking to the original story line, and the costuming and dance numbers were absolutely incredible. The visual effects were of course stunning as well. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a 2.5 hour movie so I was sure I'd have to get up to pee at some point, but was so enthralled with the story that I didn't want to miss a single thing!

Back home we each had a slice of Ms. Boyce's from-scratch pumpkin pie, then went to bed :)

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Friday I woke up at 8 to pack up to go back to the hotel.
Ms. Boyce had made scrambled eggs and locally-produced sausage, both very good with a nice strong cup of coffee.

I was feeling slightly better, but playing six shows with a cold this weekend is not going to be fun. Hoping to get it out of my body before we fly to NOLA.

Mr. Boyce drove me back and we chatted along the way. He's a musician and amateur actor as well, so we had a lot of entertainment stuffs to share opinions about. The hour drive seemed to go by very quickly, and before I knew it I was back at the hotel and unpacking.

Typed this blog up and then got showered and dressed for our two shows. Both went just fine, nothing to report. It is bitter cold here right now, low 20s with a windchill so awful that the "real feel" is 6°F (-14.44°C) so I hustled back to the hotel as quickly as possible. It's so cold that it HURTS. Tomorrow I may pack a dinner and just stay at the theatre tbh.

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Saturday I was up early because I badly need to do laundry. Addison's fur is long and thick and black and gets on everything I own and smells like dog. I love Addison very much but absolutely can't STAND smelling bad at work or having pet dander on my clothing.

So, breakfast and an Uber to a laundromat as it was only 15 degrees out and I was not up for lugging my laundry a mile, uphill, with a cold, in those temps. There was a grocery next to the laundromat so I popped in there for end-of-week groceries too. Back at the hotel I rested and ate lunch, then it was showtime. Both shows went well, although we had to stop the second show only ten minutes in because of a "technical problem." This usually means the automated curtain got stuck.

Between shows I came back to the hotel to eat dinner and goof off. Monday starts another round of transcription plus we have TEN shows in New Orleans (normally eight) so I gotta enjoy my down time while it's here.

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Sunday, breakfast and packing for our travel day tomorrow, and also making myself some overnight oats and cold coffee to eat on the bus on the way to the airport (we are flying out of Chicago and it's a 1.5 hour bus ride to get there.)

Managed to apply for a few jobs, set up my two new transcription jobs, and enjoy relaxing a bit before the shows of the day, both of which were uneventful.

On the way back to the theatre for the last show, I took a detour into the lovely little riverfront park all decorated for the holidays. It was only 15°F with a "realfeel" of 5° (-15°C) but there were children running around and playing, couples strolling through, and people walking their dogs. All of this, plus the lights reflecting off of the shining frozen river, made for a beautiful holiday ambiance.
(CLICK HERE to see)

Tomorrow is a long travel day starting with a 1.5 hour bus ride to Chicago, a 2.5 hour flight, and another ride to our hotel in New Orleans. Between transcription and the extra shows in NOLA I don't expect to get a lot of time for fun, but will try to squeeze in whatever I can.

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Monday: Travel, groceries, transcription

Tuesday: Transcription and opening night in NOLA

Wednesday: Transcription, hoping to at least go for a walk.

Thursday: Two shows.

Although the bus load wasn't until 11, I was up around 7 because I'd gotten a new transcription project.
Remembering how stressed I'd gotten over the previous one, I wanted to get this one started ASAP.

Breakfast and worked on it from 8am-11am. The problem this week is going to be audio distortion, apparently. Sigh. At least there's nothing I can do about that except notate it.

We loaded onto the bus and drove to a shopping mall in New Jersey, and because I'm not a herd animal I did not go inside but instead took "the road less traveled" to a Wegmans just a few blocks over.


I didn't want to get much here, not knowing the hotel fridge situation, but did find some of my favorite nonperishables and enjoyed the time there much more than I would have at a mall. Back on the bus and we were at the hotel very quickly. I'm on the first floor which is rare.

Took an Uber to a Green's Natural Market, which I think is a NJ/NY-only store. They did indeed have lots of interesting things for sale, plus they were next to a World Market so I got to pop in there too (could have done SO much Christmas shopping but will just have to wait.) I wanted many things, but in the end walked out with these:


Blackbird seitan: I've had this many times and it's delicious, I always keep an eye out for it.

Drybox Turkish figs: from World Market, they have a lot of travel-sized snack foods and this was one. Haven't tried it yet.

Surfsnax salmon jerky: The only salmon jerky I've had is the Epic brand strips, and some refrigerated "salmon candy" that I got in Wisconsin once. By comparison, this one was unfortunately very stinky and also too oily to handle with one's hands, unless one wanted to smell like stinky fish all day. So I used a fork to eat it, and it was tasty, but because of the smell and messiness, would not buy again.

Righteous Felon Basil-Infused turkey jerky: small package + interesting. Haven't tried it yet.

Gopel's cheesy sprouted pumpkin seeds: Vegan, using the flavor of nutritional yeast to simulate cheese. They're quite good though a bit stinky :p

Sail Away nitro Maple Vanilla coffee: A coffee shop out of NY, and this is their seasonal flavor. Haven't tried it yet.

Salysol "Gomitas": gummy candy in a can! From World Market, bought this solely because it's in a can lol. They also had peanuts, pickles, and other "airplane snacks" in cans like this.

Culina dairy-free Bourbon Vanilla yogurt: I've actually never had dairy-free yogurt. This flavor called to me. Haven't tried it yet.

Dijas Pumpkin Spice biscotti: Not real biscotti, this has a texture like Melba toast and is quite delicious for being a low-calorie food. They had a banana bread flavor as well that I'd love to try. Not very nutritious but good for killing a snack craving without ruining your dinner.

I don't expect to enjoy much exploration time here in New Jersey due to transcription, practicing for Disney rehearsal, and the 20-minute commute to and from the theatre (sigh.) So I figured to get myself nice groceries, at least.

My evening ended with unpacking, eating a tempeh BLT wrap for dinner, and doing a few hours of transcription with a cup of tea.

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I accidentally slept an hour later than planned (8 instead of 7) because I'd put earplugs in and hadn't heard my alarm.

Ah well, I had breakfast and got to work on transcription, pretty much doing that all day with only a few breaks for lunch, packing dinner, getting ready for work, and establishing a carpool time with the guys.

It took 30 minutes to fight rush hour traffic to the theatre, find the garage and park, and then find the stage door (there isn't one and I still don't know how we're supposed to enter the building.) This is the Count Basie Center for the Arts, and it's TINY and cramped so much that we cannot use half the set pieces and the actors are having to make lots of changes to how they enter and exit so they don't collide backstage.

The pit is no better unfortunately. Incredibly cramped and basically a hole in the ground complete with plaster dust, chipping paint, and dangling wires. The glamorous lifestyle of a tour musician, folks! Here is my spot. I'm like the Trombone Troll under the bridge...er, stage.


Notice the halogen bulb in a cage over my head. Crawling into that corner packed with equipment and mutes is easier said than done, and after the second time that I whacked the bulb cage it broke off and came down onto my head. Luckily some stagehands were able to remove both cage and bulb, so now it's a DARK corner but at least I won't accidentally cause a ruckus during a show.

My slide also extends a good 1/3rd of the way across the pit stairwell. I joked with the guys that my slide is the pit toll gate, and you gotta pay to get in or out :p


The show was supposed to start at 7, but "for reasons" including the cramped space and a slow/incomplete load in, we were rescheduled to 7:30, and then to 7:45. This was annoying, but imagine how the audience feels. The show did go pretty well with only some minor hitches due to the huge list of changes that the actors and crew have to remember. It seemed like the audience had fun, and that was the goal.

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Wednesday I was up early to review one transcription job and start another.

During a break I cracked open the can of gummy candies.
They are very cute! I love the itty bitty egg. The little teeth are a weird addition, though...


They mostly taste the same regardless of shape/color, but the banana one did taste like banana!

After lunch I practiced trombone, went for a short no-reason walk to a dollar store just to get out of the hotel room, then buckled down to more transcription. Later on the evening show went well, our Director was there and had nice things to say so that was rewarding.

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Thursday: It's supposed to rain all day (NJ has been in a drought so I'm happy for them!) We have a mandatory HR meeting via Zoom, and I'll be doing transcription, and the evening show.

Friday: Hopefully finishing transcription, doing laundry, and taking a walk somewhere.

Saturday and Sunday: Double shows both days. And on Sunday night I'll have to head over to the airport for my crazy Disney Candlelight rehearsal escapade!

We spent Monday mostly on a charter bus to Erie.

NETworks charters only one bus, so the majority of us have to share seats. I got lucky because one of our trumpet players is traveling with his girlfriend this city, so I ended up seated by myself. Spent the first half of the ride air-tromboning through a show that I'm hoping to do next year.

The rest stop was in Cleveland, at a mall that was really more of a business/transit center. So instead of following the herd inside, I walked a few blocks to a Constantino's Grocery. This is a family-owned chain, I've been to the one in KCMO and it's quite good. This one was small but had a hot bar, so I got to enjoy Italian sausage with peppers and onions for lunch.

Back on the bus and about two hours later we arrived at our hotel, about four miles from the theatre but conveniently close to a shopping area including a Giant Eagle grocery store. I was surprised to find new flavors of some of my favorite products here!


Also, since we're in PA, there are big jars of pickled eggs on the shelves.
If you haven't experienced these, it probably sounds weird, but they are SO GOOD. IYKYK.
The beet eggs are my absolute favorite. I've never had the mustard ones and want to try them someday.


Got my goodies back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night desperately trying to finish this transcription.
I'm on the last hour of audio, and hope to be done by tomorrow. Then begins the edit/review process.

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Up early on Tuesday to have the free hotel breakfast and work on transcription.
There was lots of good stuff to steal at this breakfast including bagels, Nutella, peanut butter, and chocolate chips. They also had a chocolate raspberry coffee, which was very good and strangely nostalgic to drink (my stepmom was into flavored coffees so that's what I drank when home for Christmas. Back when, you know, everyone was alive.)

I got to lunchtime and STILL was not done with transcribing this godforsaken case.
( Gotta rant )

TL;DR I finished the transcription around 1:30pm.

Walked around outside a bit even though it was quite cold, just to clear my head and move a bit after sitting in an uncomfortable chair all morning. Soon enough it was time to ride the bus to the theatre (we are about 6 miles away here.)

It's a pretty old theatre.


Here is Neil with an absolute HEDGE of woodwinds. There are ELEVEN (11) instruments in this photo. (To be fair, the oboe is not used in the show, he brought it for personal practice.)


I'm always blown away at how versatile and skilled woodwind players are for being able to switch between so many instruments (in this case it's 5 instruments each.) But also, this makes me sad because there should simply be more musicians in the pit to play all of these. But, you know, then you'd have to PAY them.

The backstage area at this theatre is renovated, so there were nice bottle fillers and modern facilities ("renovation" is always the preferred word to hear over "restoration" haha.) And once again this week I had my own dressing room!!


In all my years of touring and performing, I've had my own dressing room less than ten times.
Usually I'm either forgotten about and left with the male band, or I am put in the female ensemble dressing room (both of these options are completely fine with me, btw.) Having my own little space for the duration is a luxury, but also makes me feel a bit lonely, like I'm my own species or something. It doesn't much matter because I rarely use dressing rooms anyway.

The sound check and show went well. The drums were remoted (in a separate room and watching the MD via a video feed) so we were all worried about the tempos, but everything was surprisingly all right. After the show I packed up my trombone and practice mute and brought them to the hotel so I can run Disney music tomorrow.

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Wednesday I was up at 7 to do laundry, eat breakfast, and buckle down on finally getting this transcription project out of my face.

It took until 2pm to finish transcription review. God DAMN. I hope to never get a case like that again (but I probably will.)

Absolutely had to lie down and take a nap after that. There was no avoiding it.
Then got ready for the show and practiced my Disney music, only getting through half of it before dinnertime.
At the theatre, gave my trombone a bath since I've got this nice dressing room at my disposal and it has hot water.

Here's a random picture of the "remoted" drum setup this week.
The drummer can see the conductor via that little monitor, and hear us through his Aviom.


Someone put a candy cane at each of our spots tonight...perhaps Production again?
It was a kind thing to do. I decorated my mic with it.


The show went well, no shenanigans. That's a wrap in Erie, PA.

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Thursday: All-day bus ride from Erie, PA to Stamford, CT. There is a Japanese grocery close to the hotel/theatre and I hope to get dinner there!

Friday: Hopefully a day to just take a walk and decompress. I need it.

Saturday and Sunday: Two shows each. My sister is supposed to come out for a matinee but we will see.

Popped awake Monday morning, ate breakfast, finished packing, and was ready to go by the time Jameson got up.

He drove me to the airport, helped me check in my luggage, and walked me to the gate where we hugged goodbye.
I squeezed him too hard, and felt some kind of way.
This is a short tour but that doesn't make being apart any easier.

This was the fastest I've ever gone through TSA. I think it took three minutes. Unheard of in Orlando!

The flight to Chicago was three hours long and was insignificant. I ate nonperishables and chatted with my seat-mates.
For the second flight our Reed 1 and Trumpet 2 were on the same flight, so we got to know each other a bit.

Neither of them has been on a tour before...Todd (trumpet) has done primarily cruise ships and is interested in doing more "land stuff," and Neil (Reed 1) seems to be doing this for the pay. Neither of them illicitly sourced their music in advance like I did, but have only seen it for the first time when the reorchestrated parts were sent a week ago.

Which is all to say that I'm probably well prepared, having had a part for much longer than that, but we'll see.

We landed in Lexington and had a 40-minute drive to the hotel in Richmond.
I did my thing where I drop my bags, make sure the fridge works, then go get groceries. Nothing special except some locally roasted coffee. Back at the hotel, unpacked and tried to remember what-goes-where when I'm on tour. Prepped as much as I could for tomorrow before falling asleep.

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Tuesday. I always feel like I've been hit by a bus the day after flying. Getting up early was hard.


We had a "Touring 101" orientation from 10-11, for which we were given "breakfast" which was bagels and cut fruit and coffee. I stole bagels because that's bread I don't have to buy. The info was pretty standard, good-to-know stuff, and I got to meet the band and pick up some Elf swag while we were at it! My music of course; my backstage pass; a nice water bottle; and the ubiquitous luggage tag. I've now got luggage tags from three different tours, which is a big flex :p


There are also some props stored where we’re rehearsing (DO NOT SHARE this photo please, super secret!!)


After lunch we got right to work.

This orchestra is interesting because there’s no bass or guitar, and there’s only one keyboard. To fill in all the missing instruments we have a dude with a laptop and mini-keyboard, using a program called Notion.

Notion is some sort of composition and performance software that uses London Symphony Orchestra samples to be lots of instruments. Throughout the rehearsal I played along with a ghost-trombone and ghost-tuba, and any number of other not-really-there instruments. You can definitely still tell it’s synthetic audio, but I guess it helps fill out the sound? Idk.

Rehearsal went way better than I expected. Everyone did a great job considering we only got the music a week ago. During breaks I got to chat with the guys and get to know people better.

Yes, the guys. The entire band, and the entire music production team, are all men. Same old story, different show. Where my ladies at??

During the dinner break I walked around the campus a little bit. It is fall here but still quite warm. The art building is very nice and a good place to rehearse this show.


I sat outside to eat lunch, a thing you can't really do in Florida without ruining your clothing with sweat for the day.
It felt good :)

Rehearsal went until 10pm (a 12-hour day) and I was dead tired by the end of it.

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Wednesday, I was supposed to go visit an American chestnut tree orchard this morning on the campus of EKU. I'd planned it knowing that rehearsal wasn't until 1pm. BUT at 11:30 last night a frantic email was sent out asking us to come in at 10am instead. Something about having to move the drums to the pit without losing rehearsal time? Whatever, I'm disappointed but not surprised. Chestnut visit canceled.

Instead, breakfast and a trip to Meijer for some things that I forgot, like a lint roller and chapstick.

Rehearsal was fine again, though we were all very tired and perhaps a bit frustrated with the acoustics in the rehearsal room. It's a large room with no carpeting, very boomy, lots of reverb making us sound mushy. But at the end of the night we picked up all of our things and moved to the pit. Starting tomorrow we'll have in-ears and Avoim mixes, so we'll be able to hear each other much more clearly. I'll be interested to see how Notion fits into the mix, being a blend of multiple instruments.

As soon as we got to the pit I set my stand and mic how I like them, laid out my mutes, poked my Aviom to make sure it's blank, and configured my conductor cam. When I was satisfied I looked up and realized that it was easy to tell who was a tour newbie: the musicians who hadn't been on tour before were standing awkwardly behind their chairs, staring and looking afraid to touch anything. Ah...I was like that, once. It felt strange to realize that I'm the seasoned veteran now!

I forgot to take pictures in the pit, so instead have this picture of the stage. I snuck in during the lunch break, and they were in the middle of fixing a lighting rig. But you can see the Rockefeller Center ice skating scene is set up. (Again again again, NO SHARING PLEASE.)


Other cool things that happened today:

- During a rehearsal break, Michael (AMD over on Peter Pan, currently giving musical guidance for Elf) came up to me. "I have a present for you from Kevin Vu," he said. "KEVIN!!" I exclaimed. Kevin and I performed together on Tootsie, and he was a big fan of my Foodie Finds! The shirt, it turns out, was from Three Fold Noodles, a restaurant in Little Rock that serves handmade noodles and other delicious Asian goodies. You can CLICK HERE to read about the time I got to eat there (TL;DR it was amazing.) Peter Pan went back through Little Rock, and Kevin thoughtfully bought me this souvenir! I quickly texted to thank him, and will send him a picture when I wear it :)

- After we had loaded into the pit I hustled up to the Green Room to retrieve my dinner. On the way I passed an important-looking guy in a suit, who stopped me by saying, "Hey, are you Megan?" His name is Sam Scalamoni, he's our Director for Elf, and we have a mutual friend! We both know Tom, a pianist whom I worked with on the circus (I don't yet know how Tom and Sam met.) Tom had asked Sam to say hello to me if we crossed paths. How cool, how lucky! And how small the entertainment world is!

We were thankfully done at 7pm today, and I went right home for dinner, a shower, hot tea, and pajamas.

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Thursday: I guess it's Halloween! A 15-hour day with sound checks starting at 8am, then Wandelprobe until 11pm. Kill me now (but it still beats working in a hat shop)

Friday: More rehearsal but I think it'll be just run throughs and a shorter day, thank God.

Saturday: Preview show at 2pm, then load out

Sunday: Travel to Detroit. It's really weird to travel on a Sunday but whatevs, I don't make the rules (plus I think we'll get Monday off?? A girl can dream!)

On Sunday night Jameson and I went to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights!


A good time was had. We started with dinner at Cowfish Grill. Jameson got his usual bento box and I tried the cold sweet potato noodle salad. It was very good but I would've liked a hot sauce option for it.

We both had one boozy drink, and splurged on boozy milkshakes (I'm lactose intolerant so this is HIGHLY unusual for me, but YOLO) He got a banana peanut butter one, I went with a moonshine mudslide. They were wonderful :)


Now it's gonna be hard to ever go to Cowfish again without getting a shake!

From there we entered the park. I didn't take pictures.

It was absolutely PACKED in there. Jameson was terribly annoyed because there were SO many high school kids! Probably because it was a holiday weekend they were out in droves. We only had one bad experience, a gaggle of young boys who were play-fighting in front of us in an 80-minute queue for a haunted house. They were extremely loud, rowdy, jostling everyone around them, farting and making loud gagging/heaving noises...adolescent boy stuff. Tolerating 80 minutes of that would be hard on anyone. After that no one bothered us...but Jameson continued to be annoyed by the mere presence of so many kids. I figure this is a sign that we are getting old and cantankerous.

We were able to do three haunted houses: the Quiet Place house, the Eternal Bloodlines house, and a candy-themed house. The Quiet Place house was of course based on the scary movie series; we haven't kept up on it and only saw the first movie, so this was our first time seeing the actual monsters (they were revealed in later movies.) The jump scares and staging were very high quality in this house; in our experience the "branded" houses often have a larger budget for creating accurate scenes and such.

Eternal Bloodlines was interesting; the plot was that Van Helsing's sister was out to avenge her brother by killing the vampires who killed him, and she enlisted the help of other monsters to do it! Bride-Of-Frankenstein, for example, popped out at one point with a stake screaming about vengeance :D We weren't told the plot, it was given through the acting in the haunted house, and if we could figure it out just from that they did an amazing job! We couldn't figure out why there were so many mummies in that house though lol. There was one in almost every room and no real reason given.

The candy-themed house was just plain fun. Taffy made of human entrails, people dissolving in vats of sugar, insane candymakers and murderous factory workers, stuff like that. They were also pumping candy smells into the house. This wasn't really "scary" but it was very much fun, and we enjoyed the creativity of it :)

We walked through several scare zones on the street, including the obligatory "Chainsaw Gang" and "Zombie Hordes," all well done. Our favorite was a medieval torture scare zone, featuring plague doctors coming at you with scalpels; people entrapped in iron maidens and breaking wheels; and even a stage show where someone got "beheaded" in front of an audience!

Before leaving we walked through a souvenir shop but didn't buy anything.
Fun spooky night :)

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Monday was Labor Day so Jameson spend most of it chilling out and playing games with his friends.

I also took it easy but practiced Elf up until the entr'acte, then worked on Foodie Finds.
Since this will be for my personal use, you can see it HERE. I'm still working on it and there are parts copy/pasted just to keep the formatting, if that makes sense. But it should be finished by the end of this week.

I haven't been given a real contract yet so maybe it's too optimistic to plan, but I'm doing it anyway because it gives me something to feel excited and motivated about.

Today's hat:


Jameson says it looks like Lady Dimitrescu's hat from Resident Evil lol. Though hers is not red, and though I'm not 12ft tall with massive bewbs, I can see what he means! I had to take the photo at a sharp angle like that because the brim was putting my whole face in shadow under the one weak bulb back there.

It was a pretty normal shift, not as busy as expected for Labor Day but first of all people have work/school tomorrow, and secondly the main crowd for the drone show happened to be across the lake instead of on our side so we didn't get the post-show rush. Oh well.

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Tuesday, still tired but I let myself sleep in until 8:30.

Worked on Foodie Finds and practiced Elf and Disney stuff, had lunch, went to Target for cheap sushi and random household things, chilled out until it was time for work.

Today's hat (yes I'm making a stupid face, so what):


It's a steampunk novelty hat with goggles, feathers, a faux stopwatch, clock gears, chains, and a sort of trailing veil attached. We also have these in black and grey/silver, and in a "marlow" top hat shape. Since they're novelties they fit rather poorly, and I had to take it off several times as it was squeezing my forehead pretty hard and giving me a headache.

It was a rainy day, but despite that we met our sales goal which is nice as we get a little bonus. I also got to spend about two hours running the sock kiosk at the end of the night. The kiosk is fully outdoors and very humid at night, but much more relaxing than the hat shop. I appreciated the change of pace. And also used my employee discount to buy six pairs of socks (there's a "buy 5 get 1 free" promo right now) for birthday and Christmas presents for people.

We got a new shipment of Kathy Jeanne cloche hats. A lot of them are rather strange colors, and put me in mind of Dr. Seuss. I want to wear all of these except that pea-soup-and-mustard one, I find those colors hideous and can't image what I could wear that could make that look good lol. But the others are nice! If nothing else, I'll bet an off-white shirt would work with most of them...a black shirt for the "ladybug" one.




We were a bit shorthanded and ended up closing late, so I didn't get home until after midnight. That's retail for you.

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Wednesday I was very tired, barely slept.
Packed myself a dinner to bring to work, was unproductive for most of the morning, and chose not to practice in order to conserve energy. Eventually ate lunch and got ready for work.

Today's hat:


It's the cranberry-colored cloche pictured above. Yes I know I promised to give the cloche hats a break, but then we got five new HANDMADE ones :p It was an extremely slow sales day, the slowest day since I've started working here. When the store was empty we restocked, organized hats, cleaned, polished sunglasses, etc., but after a while there really was nothing left to do, so we stood around and chatted to kill time. There were a few small rushes and I managed to sell a leather cowboy hat and a Panama, but nothing else of note.

On the way home I stopped for groceries. Jameson was at Universal again with friends, and he should be able to get into the Insidious haunted house so I'm looking forward to his critique of it. The rest of my night was doing some basic chores and then relaxing with a cup of tea.

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Thursday: a day off. I'll practice, make dinner, and maybe clean/garden.

Friday: night shift at the hat shop.

Saturday: a day off, more tedium.

Sunday: Going to see a friend at a Queen tribute show in Melbourne.

A surprising lot happened on Monday.

Uber Eats:

I decided to try being an Uber Eats driver for the first time. On the way to my start point I realized, I don't have a thermal bag! You can get away without one but often the customer is there for the food handoff, and can see how you've transported their food. It's been recommended that you have a thermal bag to show that you handled their food safely or kept it warm/cold for them.

So I drove to the nearest store that had one, which was QUITE far away, but now I have a really good thermal bag which frankly I should have for myself in the excessive heat of Florida anyway.

By the time that was done I only had time for two delivery requests and both were to the same location, Flamingo Crossings. It's a mixed-usage village for Disney's college program. I learned two things from this: one, that Flamingo Crossings is likely the closest cash cow if I want to stick close to home; and two, that Uber Eats reimburses you for tolls (I had to take toll roads to get there totaling $3, which was returned to me after each trip.)

The first delivery was from Chipotle. It was just like picking up your own food, you give the cashier a name/order number and they hand it to you. You confirm that you've got it in the app, then follow the GPS to the delivery spot. Then follow whatever instructions the customer has given ("meet in lobby," "leave at door," etc.)

The second delivery was from Panda Express and was a bit troublesome because there were three large sodas and the restaurant was out of beverage caddies. Looks like I'll have to get one of those too (I've sourced one for just $3 at Michael's craft store, thanks to Uber Drivers Reddit.) For both deliveries the handoff was fine and both times the customer saw me pull their food out of my giant thermal bag. This is important because later on I received additional tip money. Extra tip money comes from good service and hot food!

I had meant to work for 2-3 hours but because of the trip for the thermal bag, only got about 1.5 hours. However with just the two trips I made $10. If you consider that a basic tip is usually $3 I'll need to do at least four deliveries per hour to make this worthwhile.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --

Dinner:

For dinner I made us carbonara. I've been nervous about it because I'm using the farm-fresh eggs that Pat gave me, they're unpasteurized and carbonara is essentially pasta with undercooked egg yolks. But I decided to trust, and go ahead with it.

I used the real Italian bucatini that I'd bought from Eataly in Houston so long ago. Then the whole duck egg that Pat gave me plus two chicken egg yolks. Grated some fresh parmigiano reggiano, crisped up some pancetta, cracked fresh pepper on top, and stirred the whole thing together with a wooden spoon. It came out beautifully. Served with arugula and toasted pine nut salad with lemon vinaigrette.


I don't eat enough duck eggs to know a flavor difference, especially in this format, but can say that the sauce was rich and delicious and I'd totally make this again.

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Firefly Petunia:

After dinner I received an Amazon box with a grow light and a tub of petunia fertilizer. I feel a bit guilty for the expense, but it's probably true that anyone who gardens should have ONE grow light, and the fertilizer may help this rare and special plant take off. The thing is, the company that developed it has given permission to propagate!! That means I can clone the plant via cuttings or grow them from seed. So if I can get the petunia large and healthy, I can grow MORE of them! Not for sale of course, but I thought a bioluminescent flower would be a wonderful gift for family this Christmas. Not to mention simply having more glowing plants of my own!

The plant has started producing flower buds again, and they are the brightest part, like little LEDs in the dark.


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Jobs:

I got onboarding paperwork for my new hat job, which I completed and returned.
Then I got a surprise message from the transcription company that I onboarded with months ago, saying they'd like to go ahead with a background check (again) for contract work this fall. Sure, why not. Will be interested to see if I ever actually get to do work with them, or if it just keeps getting put off indefinitely until I'm in the nursing home.

Then I got a zip folder full of Disney's Candlelight music! This means I'm still on the sub list for that event come Christmas. Yay!

And THEN I was offered an interview for a library job, to take place via Teams on Tuesday morning.

Now before anyone tells me what to do about this, LISTEN because there are some factors to consider.

1) The library job is a 45-minute drive away.
2) The library job is temporary, the contract is only for six weeks.
3) Although it is full time and pays more than the hat shop, the library is very unlikely to be flexible with hours, especially since it's contract work. This increases the likelihood that I'd have to turn down trombone gigs if I accept this job. In addition to being out of a job again after the six weeks is up.

The pros are that it pays more, it's full time, and I've always wanted to work in a library! I'd really like to get the experience, which could help me get library jobs in the future. But the question is, how much am I willing to sacrifice in my musical professional life for that opportunity? Mainly I need to know how flexible they could be with my schedule, and whether there is any chance that the position could extend beyond six weeks (highly doubtful, it's a TINY library.)

Well the interview is tomorrow so let's see what happens.

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Up early for breakfast and to get dressed, then interview at 9am.
It was short, only about 15 minutes, and inconclusive. The hiring folks seemed nice but couldn't tell me whether the temp contract has any possibility of extending past 6 weeks (it depends on getting government funding and approvals for said funding.) On the upside they said I could have work hours flexibility if I was able to give 48 hours notice for gigs/Disney stuff, which I think is very reasonable.

Still, I'll probably end up sticking with the hat shop. It's a lot closer, a lot more flexible, and even if it doesn't pay as well it's not temporary.

After that Jameson went to the gym so I vacuumed, then tried Uber Eats again. I was less successful today, and waited nearly 45 minutes before getting an order. It was a "drop at door" so I got to do the thing where you take a photo of the food before leaving. Then I got a grocery delivery order, which I enjoyed; just walking around Target and finding the items, scanning the barcodes, and delivering them. Easy.

But between 10:30am-1pm I only got those two orders, for a total of $8.50. Not worth it.
I'm still considering this a "training period," but want to figure out how people actually make money doing this.

Tomorrow I'm going to try a flat rate opportunity. If you sign up for these, they require you to drive to and stay in a specific area for a set number of hours. During that time any jobs that you pick up and any time spent working are paid out at $12.50 per hour, plus tips. The time slot is from 11am-2pm, and it's in Winter Park which is an hour away but I'm willing to try this once and see what the payout is like.

Back home I ate lunch, cleaned the inside of my car because it's getting dusty, and practiced trombone.
I put the firefly petunia under the new glow light for about four hours and it seemed happy with that.

For dinner we went to Skyline Chili because Jameson was craving a hot dog. I've never in my life had Skyline! It was surprisingly good; the chili looks like poop on a plate but the flavor was more complex than expected. The red cream soda really hit the spot too :)


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Wednesday I drove all the way out to Winter Park to try Uber Eats fixed rate driving.
This experience finally solidified for me that driving for Uber Eats is not financially beneficial.




Problem 1: As it turns out, just because Uber Eats wants you to START in a particular area, doesn't mean you get to STAY there. The second order I got took 50 minutes to complete, and took me all the way to downtown Orlando, then halfway to Kissimmee before I could turn around and get back to Winter Park.

Problem 2: While working a flat rate time slot, you cannot turn down more than one order per hour. If you do, you will lose your flat rate. That's why I HAD to accept that order that took me all the way to Kissimmee and took 50 minutes to complete. What if I had rejected it, and another EVEN WORSE order had come up? I'd HAVE to accept it or risk losing the pay I'd driven all the way out to Winter Park for in the first place.

Problem 3: You are only paid the flat $12.50 per hour rate while ACTIVE. This means while actively accepting, picking up, and delivering an order. So for example if it takes me 10 minutes to get the food and another 20 to get to the person and drop it off, I only get paid $6.25 plus the tip. I'd have to get literal back-to-back orders to earn an actual $12.50 per hour.


The end result was that after spending three hours actively driving for Uber Eats, I had only completed three orders and earned $20. By contrast, working just ONE hour for Papa Pal gets me $17 an hour plus travel reimbursement. Needless to say I'm switching back to Papa Pal IMMEDIATELY.

Other driving/delivery services pay more...which is why they have wait lists. I should have known that there must be a reason it was so easy to get into the Uber Eats loop.

Well I learned my lesson, and it wasn't such a bad day, I didn't LOSE money (unless you count grocery shopping afterward) and I learned something new :) Also, I think it's good to keep Uber Eats as a way to earn a little extra money between jobs or gigs. For example if I'm scheduled to work at the hat shop until 5pm, I could turn Uber Eats on for the commute home and complete an order or two for some extra cash, since I'm on the road anyway.

Back at home I put away the groceries and told Jameson of my discoveries. We had Whole Paycheck sushi for dinner. I mixed up the first batch of fertilizer for my petunia in a 1/2 gallon Motts apple juice jug.


Three of the flowers are formed and will probably open tomorrow or the next day.
I'm very glad that it's bounced back so well from shipping.


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Tomorrow I haven't scheduled anything, the plan is to have a morning walk, practice the trombone, and make cocktail meatballs in the crock pot for dinner.

Friday and Saturday I've scheduled three Papa Pal visits totaling about 4 hours, we will see how that goes. Might do more on Sunday. I've emailed the hat shop to see when my first day will be...hopefully next week.

Oh and also...I was offered the library job, and had to turn it down. Why? Because they lowballed me. Same pay as the hat shop but it's temp work and 40 minutes away. It wasn't meant to be.