goofball on a train

(I accidentally posted this a day early, so this is an "updated" version that includes today/Sunday. Whuuups) 

Thursday, just another day. After data entry and lunch I finally scrubbed the shower, my least favorite chore. Then memorized half of "Prince Ali."

Jameson expressed interest in shrimp po' boys, which I've made for us many times and am happy to make again, except it involves another 90-minute trip to Whole Paycheck for the best possible shrimp. Which I'm happy to do, just have to plan for it.

We had another lovely thunderstorm tonight. South Florida may be flooding currently, but Central Florida is not and we need the rain.

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Friday, no rain in the forecast for another week.

Data entry while Jameson was at the gym, then after lunch did my Whole Paycheck run. I try to make the most of these trips, so also bought their cornbread mix and puff pastry and a few other things for future dinners I've got pending in my brain.

Traffic was horrific, and for whatever reason Whole Paycheck didn't have hoagie rolls! I spent a stupid amount of time scouring the store, even the freezer section, for some. It took much longer to get home than expected, and then I had to put everything away and make the tartar sauce, then Jameson wanted to tell me about his work meeting...so by the time all of that was done it was nearly 4pm, and I did not get to practice trombone today.

It was one of those days where everything I did felt stymied. Inadequate. Not enough. All I can see is all the stuff I HAVEN'T done: the dead potted plants outside, the banana tree that needs to be trimmed, the overgrown palm out front, the fact that I haven't exercised yet this week, the dentist appointment that I need to reschedule, the bloodwork that I'm putting off again because needles scare me. The dust on the fan blades and light fixtures. Meanwhile I've caught up on the vacuuming, laundry, dusting, dishes, mopping, bathrooms, my own data entry work, and most Disney music. And I'm cooking dinner tonight. But it's not enough.

I don't know why these moods/mental states come on. Maybe it's my dad's ghost; my self, and the things I did, were never enough for him either.

Well. I made grilled shrimp po'boys, and these were local wild-harvested pink shrimp. I didn't think it would matter but was surprised that the flavor was very different than the farmed white shrimp I usually buy. These were sweeter, had kind of a more dense texture, and were more "fishy" in a good way. Glad Jameson suggested this for dinner.


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Saturday, up at 6am because I was still feeling inadequate. My work is not enough, I don't do enough, etc etc.

Did data entry and coffee until 7, then breakfast and cleanup, then more data entry.
Memorized all of "Prince Ali." Now the only one left is the Mary Poppins Medley, but we're getting a new Princess and the Frog piece that will probably come first.

For lunch, tomato and mayonnaise with everything bagel seasoning on rice cakes.
This is a nostalgia meal for me. My mom used to make us tomato mayonnaise sandwiches with similar seasoning every summer.


More data entry, then Jameson went to hang out with friends for dinner so I decided to get some of the yardwork out of my face. Trimmed up this annoying palm in the front yard.

Before and after!


Around back, finally threw out my finger lime which is 98% dead and has never once even flowered much less produced fruit. Probably going to chuck the meyer lemon and black sapote too, they have run their course and I've essentially killed them by being on tour all the time. To replace them I'd like a pineapple plant (will have to see if they can be grown in pots), definitely another meyer lemon...and maybe Jameson will have an opinion on what the third can be :)

As I was trimming the bananas I heard thunder in the distance. And as I was finishing up an errant bolt of lightning CRACKED across the sunny, clear sky! Scared the buhjeezus out of me! One of the hazards of living in a tropical environment: just because it's not raining where you are, doesn't mean you are safe.

I hustled inside and cleaned up, made a simple dinner, watched the storm.
You can watch, too. (CLICK HERE, recommend watching with volume on)

Once the storm was over and it was clear that it wouldn't be raining again tonight, I went for a neighborhood walk. The rain had made it intensely humid, but it was only 82°F which is the best I'm gonna get here in FL.

Soon Jameson was back with his pleasant buzz from drinking with friends, and we relaxed for the night.

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Sunday I didn't set an alarm but was still up at 8am. Guess my days of sleeping in until 10 are behind me.

After Jameson got up I put in a little data entry time (because I don't deserve a day off or a weekend!) and then he wanted to go for a walk so I went along too. It was a shockingly eventful walk because the following happened:

- We saw a little girl in a princess dress skip out the front door of a house and immediately hock a loogie onto the sidewalk like a 40-year-old man,

- A guy in a yellow sports car backing out of his driveway directly in front of us, and hit the gas so hard that he went flying into a bush, narrowly missed a mailbox, and landed in his neighbor's yard (We waited to see if he was ok...he was, so he was probably a moron trying to film a TikTok or something,)

- We were victims of a drive-by dad joke, from a guy with a white work van that said, "We fix what your husband broke" on the side. When he hit us with the punchline we both groaned and he cackled, I shouted, "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!" as we crawled away in defeat :p

Eventful walk!

We got cleaned up and had lunch, then we both practiced. Jameson is working on stuff for an American Martians gig coming up, and I played through "Prince Ali" a few more times and started on the Mary Poppins Medley. Then we decided to start the LEGO sets that Jameson's friend got for us using her employee discount.


My set is the "Tiny Plants Collection." It's nine different tiny plants with three plants in each of the following categories: Arid Plants, Tropical Plants, and Carnivorous Plants.


Jameson worked on a Venom-Groot set. He is an experienced LEGO builder, and has even completed the massive 9,000-piece Colosseum set!
I decided to start with the pincushion cactus (the carnivorous are my favorites so I am saving them for last.)

Here's the almost-completed pot. There was a small piece missing from the pot rim, we couldn't find it anywhere so Jameson dug through his box-o-extra-bricks and found me an excellent replacement! Or rather, a "customization." I think it makes my first LEGO set even more special :)


The cactus was a tiny little guy and didn't take long to make, but I stopped to do laundry and document my progress several times.
The finished cactus. How cute!


When all nine are done I'm gonna hide them all around the house. Muahahahaaaa.

For dinner Jameson wanted a juicy burger so we went to Adler's. It is locally owned and by far THE best burger place in our area, but we don't go often because we both try to eat healthy. Jameson got their specialty burger which was a monstrosity topped with jalapenos, peanut butter, and bleu cheese (sounds very odd but he said it was delicious!) I had a classic burger, which I love because it's just a damn good quality smashburger with a lot of crunchy fresh veggies on top. It really hit the spot.


Back home we relaxed for a while, then Jameson went out with his friend Lea who recently got back from China. I had a quiet night of watching anime and researching new plants for the pool patio.

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Next week is a little more active. I have to make caramels for the band, and there's a dentist appointment, and at the end of the week I'm scheduled for two back-to-back days at the Magic Kingdom.

On Monday my eyes popped open at 6am, partly because I remembered, "It's a day off!" and partly because I realized, "I should have shipped my trombone stand back home like EIGHT cities ago. Dammit!"

Shipping the trombone stand to Florida from Washington State or California costs more than the damned thing is worth. I've had it since college, and it's certainly not in the best shape any more...maybe it's time to leave it behind? Anyway, you don't care about all that :p

Today was a golden day..a true day off with no shows and no travel, the last one of the tour.
Let's see how much I got to check off my To-Do List.

First, breakfast and laundry. Since I was up so early and no one else was insane enough to be awake yet, I had the laundry room to myself and was done in no time. Then DCR modules and coursework. I didn't actually get to check off any modules, but did a big chunk of reading and videos for about 90 minutes. That done, I allowed myself thrifting.


No, I didn't buy those FABULOUS $4 golden pants. But I sent the picture to my siblings and was rewarded by my sister quipping, "I dare you to wear those during the eclipse. REPLACE THE SUN." Lol! What a goober.

Speaking of the eclipse, I didn't see a whit of it. Partly because it was cloudy but mostly because it was nowhere near Washington state. Everyone here went about business as usual; no eclipse parties or overpriced eclipse merch to be seen.

I did walk by the falls on last time, and didn't record it because I wanted to just look. For me. To keep in my heart.

From the thrift store to Cochinito, a relatively new taco spot downtown. My two tacos were (left to right): North African lamb sausage with Oregon hazelnut salsa, queso fresco, tomato, mint chutney, and herbs; and Oregon rockfish marinated in honey and chili, fried, with cabbage, radish, crema, cilantro, and chili mango gel.


Of the two, the lamb was my favorite. The sausage was full of rich spices, the salsa had a beautiful roasted flavor from the hazelnuts, the stewed tomatoes were sweet, and the queso brought every bite together with creamy goodness. The only thing missing was the asparagus, for the life of me I couldn't find it anywhere. The fish taco was also very good, but that one was more about texture. Light and crispy, not greasy at all, and the paper-thin radish was peppery, and the mango gel had such a cooling texture and made everything sweet-and-salty. This is another place where, if I lived here, I'd eat here once a week until I'd tried everything on the menu!

Next I got groceries to bring to Yakima, since grocery options there are extremely limited. I will be doing mostly nonperishables and smuggling food from the free hotel breakfast, but picked up yogurt, berries, water for the tea kettle, and eggs. On the way back I made sure to swing by Looff Carrousel in Spokane's Riverfront Park.


This carousel (or carrousel, as they spell it) is significant to me in a roundabout way.
Charles Looff was a master carver, who carved many carousel horses throughout his life, including the horses here.
He ran a shop employing apprentices, one of whom was Charles Carmel, an immigrant from Russia.
And Charles Carmel carved the horses for the Grand Carousel at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA.

Which happens to be where I had my very first job, at the age of fourteen.
And where I palmed this carousel ring, 26 years ago. And have carried it with me ever since.


It felt somehow full circle...to be holding this ring from a Looff/Carmel carousel on the east coast, and looking at a carousel by the same maker on the west coast.

For the uninitiated, many carousels in the late 1800s featured a "brass ring game" in which riders on the outer horses could grab iron rings from a mechanical arm as the ride spun past. They could then throw their collected rings at a cloth or wood target, usually an open-mouthed circus animal or clown. A single gold-colored brass ring was included among the iron ones. If a rider was lucky enough to grab the brass ring on their go 'round, they'd receive a small prize (at Knoebels it was a pack of ride tickets.) CLICK HERE to see a short video of what this is like.


As an employee of the park, of COURSE I rode the Grand Carousel many times, and of COURSE I palmed one of the rings to take home as a souvenir :) Never thought I'd get to see a sister carousel, on the opposite coast for that matter!

I didn't ride the carousel because I had groceries with me and that would have been awkward. Only watched for a bit and enjoyed some memories from my own childhood, before heading back to the hotel.

The lavender honey hard cider that I picked up at Huckleberry's last week. It was pretty good! Not overpoweringly floral. It made for a nice chill-out drink after all of my walking around (4 1/2 miles!)


And that was everything on my To-Do List, you guys!
Laundry, classwork, thrifting, groceries, tacos, the falls, day drinking, and the carousel.

While I was plugging away at more court reporting training, two things happened.

One was that I heard back from the transcription job that I tested with last week; they DID send a nightmare 3-hour transcript assessment AGAIN, and this time I flatly refused to do it. Clearly if it takes me three hours to transcribe a 10-page deposition because I'm THAT incredibly unfamiliar with the formatting, I am not qualified for this job. Surprisingly, the recruiter wrote back to say that she appreciated my honesty and hoped I'd reach out in the future once I felt I could tackle it. I'll save their info.

The other was a call from the manager of Disney's Main Street Philharmonic, letting me know he'd gotten approval to officially sublist me with the band! This means I'll be fitted for a costume, attend some rehearsals, and receive a copy of their set list to practice.

(Main Street Phil, stock image)

This does NOT guarantee me any actual performances in the park. It just means that if someone needs a day off, calls out sick, or takes a vacation, I am to be on call and ready to fill in as needed. BUT I will be paid for the fittings and rehearsals. And the odds of regulars needing a day off, for a variety of reasons, are going to be HIGH. I am optimistic that I might actually get to perform as Disney musician this summer!!

And remember: this all came about because I took a chance and sacrificed two weeks of work with My Fair Lady so that I could substitute for Candlelight this past Christmas. I'm reiterating this because at the time I got some raised eyebrows and gently-voiced concerns from musician friends around me, who thought I was nuts for giving up two weeks of pay. But the value that I saw, was that by accepting this one tiny, seasonal substitute job, I'd be added to Disney's employee roster for an entire year. Which could open so many doors. That's why I chose to play the long game. And it's working out!

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Tuesday (it feels weird to be traveling on a Tuesday!) I was up too early and used the time to do more court reporting stuff. There happened to be a live Zoom class, and I got to participate! There were about 30 people there, which was heartening.

It was a short bus ride to Yakima, so we didn't leave the Spokane hotel until 11. I watched out the window a lot because I've never been to this part of the country before. It's very interesting and weird scenery here. Like if you took the flat farmland of Texas, threw in patches of rolling hills and desert scrub brush from California, some marshes and wetland lakes from Florida, and random clumps of tall pines and mountains from Colorado. It came across as kind of a mish-mash...but maybe I've been to too many places. Oh, and these interesting plateau-like boulder formations, some big and towering and some so small that you could mistake them for a stone property fence.


Checking Google Maps while surrounded by "crop circles" :D


We saw very majestic scenery as well, valleys and mountains and lakes with big impressive bridges spanning them. No pics because pics from a bus suck. We stopped at a Love's partway there. I have a habit of making short Instagram stories to share the bizarre stuff I find at these rest stops. Today's weird things: tiny 2"-long knives shaped like keys, guns, bullets, and deer; and this hilarious trinket box shaped like a sow with BEDAZZLED TEATS!!


The pig was $20 unfortunately; had she been $10 or less I'd have bought it no question.

After dropping luggage at the hotel I went to my one and only special meal in Yakima: a Chinese buffet!
I am such an absolute sucker for a good Chinese buffet, and this was a REALLY good one. They had steamed buns, whole heads-on shrimp, a large sushi selection, and a huge dessert bar! Jameson can't eat at these because of his Meniere's Disease (he has a bad reaction to MSG) so this was my last change to enjoy this guilty pleasure.


I ate more than usual but not stuffed-to-the-gills levels. Afterward I walked around and explored surrounding shops until I felt less full, then came back to the hotel and unpacked and chilled.

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Wednesday after breakfast (in which I stole an English muffin, banana, and peanut butter) I worked on finishing court reporting module 1, which ended with a small quiz. I was annoyed to miss three whole questions (= 88%), I need to re-read the material and not rely so heavily on the mock quizzes and flash cards.

Took a break to pack dinner and do misc work on Foodie Finds and listening to Main Street Philharmonic music, then walked to a craft store for a foam cone for my trombone (to protect the bell from being crushed when it gets checked for the final flight home) and then to a mall hoping to find one last tiny travel candle, to make these last few hotel rooms smell nice. I discovered a little plant store that had adorable mini-Mason jar candles from a local maker. This kind of thing gives me a deep, bittersweet nostalgia for my childhood in Pennsylvania...the Amish shops and hardware stores always had hand-poured candles like these. The most nostalgic of all are the Christmas and fall scents.

I got a "Log Cabin" scent, and a "Latte" scent, and lit one as soon as I got back. It made me sad and happy at the same time, which is how I feel most of the time lately. Lighter pictured for scale.


We bused to the theatre. It's an older one, and is a little run down perhaps, but still beautiful.
The ceiling:


This guy up there looks like he has a migraine. I feel those feels, my dude.


To my delight, the stage was shallow and there was no overhang, meaning I'd FINALLY get to see most of the show!!!
So glad that this happened before the tour ended!!
I couldn't take footage of course, but there are several parts in the show where I'm not playing for between 5-8 minutes, and during all of those times I stood with my back pressed against the pit wall, staring up at the stage. Got to see a LOT, it was wonderful :)

Also of interest, because the pit is sort of the shape of a narrow orange segment, the drums have been remoted to a separate room and I am now where the drums would normally be. I have a lot of space to myself (ironic as it's such a small pit) and also, I'm next to these massive screw-like pillars, covered in oil, which are part of the mechanism that raises and lowers the orchestra pit to the desired height.


A short 15-second video so you can see how massive this piece of equipment is...and how far down the drop would be.
As far down as this is, believe it or not I've seen farther. (CLICK HERE to watch)

The show went well and was well attended. I had a pretty solid headache afterward from staring into the stage lights all night! But it was worth it. What a wonderful, unexpected treat to actually see the show I've been providing music for.

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Tomorrow is mostly free, with one more show in the evening and load out to Eugene, Oregon.
I will do lots of boring stuff like court reporting study, packing my suitcases, and perhaps a little thrifting.

I got up at 7am to have breakfast and be presentable for my friend Curtis's masterclass.

Curtis was our saxophonist on Tootsie, and he is now teaching some college-level courses in Jersey City. The class was via Zoom, and the topic was P.T. Barnum. I don't know a lot about good ol' PT myself, but Curtis wanted me to share what it was like to be a circus musician in modern times, and perhaps compare and contrast how that may have differed from the early years of the American circus.

As I have discussed these topics in exhaustive detail on Quora, plus lived it for five years, it was easy to describe what our schedules were like; what living on the train was like; the pros and cons; the drama and hierarchies of circus life; the animal treatment; and pretty much anything you could think of, really. It felt like I blabbered quite a bit, but Curtis was well pleased afterward and thanked me profusely. And this time there were more questions from students, really good questions about how I maintained mental health, what the modern circus hierarchy was like, how US animal law pertained to the circus, etc. I was happy to answer any questions (looove talking about my circus days!) and also provided a bunch of relevant links afterward, since in the moment it is difficult to provide references and details.

The whole thing seemed to go well. Afterward I took a little break, then walked to Inheritance for an early lunch. Inheritance is a local juice bar, juicing is not my thing but they had a lot of fun vegan menu items like a sweet potato grilled cheese and a beet Reuben sandwich!


Today I went with their Harmony Harvest bowl: wild rice, carrots, shredded lettuce, cucumber slices, pickled radish (Didn't see these anywhere tho), roasted beets, pomegranate seeds (mixed with the beets), miso tempeh, orange sauce, poppy seeds, cilantro.


It was healthy and filling, lots of different textures, and the orange sauce was a sweet contrast to all the savory things going on. The miso tempeh was especially good; I've never had tempeh because you have to grill/sear it and I only have my Itaki steamer handy on tour. I loved the texture of it.

After such a nice meal I decided to walk the two miles to Gathering Place, a popular local playground for kids AND adults. Tell me, what kid would NOT want to play in a space like this?



Short video of the "River Giants" section (CLICK HERE to watch)

There was a school group there while I was walking through, so lots of kids screaming and chasing each other and doing kid-things. I skirted around the main castle and explored some of the smaller areas, many of which highlight different types of play. There was a sandbox-type playground, with lots of built-in shovels and buckets; and a little "town" section so kids could play at being a gas station attendant or a grocery cashier, etc etc. There were a variety of swings that looked a lot like amusement park rides, and there was a whole water play area that was closed for the winter, but looked fantastic, with lots of waterfalls and interactive fill-and-dump water-powered spinners and wheels and such. I sent a lot of pictures to my sisters with kids so they could be jealous.

One area was especially for playing with sound. There was an echo tube, with ends located on opposite sides of the yard so kids could sort of "telephone" each other through it...and a huge xylophone-like structure that sounded like a wind chime when struck. There was also this mirror maze (not enclosed which is probably best for everyone) (CLICK HERE to watch)

Almost everything was large enough for adults to enjoy too! I could have easily gone through the big castle structure and also many of the smaller play areas. The walkways between play areas are meticulously kept and designed much like garden paths, so even if you just wanted to stroll like I was doing you'd have a lovely experience.


There was a big boathouse with kayaks and paddle boats hanging from it, closed for the season but with manmade "beaches" and seating areas and fire pits all around it. I could easily imagine families having wonderful summers here, paddling around the small pond and enjoying picnic lunches before running off to play in the playground. And in the center of it all, this beautiful building housing a cultural/activity center, cafe, huge outdoor fireplace, koi ponds, gelato stand...and probably more that I didn't see. But look at it.


What a beautiful place, here in Tulsa. Upon further research, it was finished in 2018 and there are still two more phases of construction to come. Very awesome!

When I had covered a lot of ground and felt fulfilled, I Ubered back downtown (hey, two mile walk + two miles exploring the park = four miles already) and went to Rose Rock Microcreamery. I was the only one there--is 50°F still too cold for ice cream?--and after consulting with the cashier, decided on midnight chocolate + honey cashew.


Both were amazing. The chocolate was fudgy and rich, so dense that it had a "chew" to it, which I loved.
The honey cashew was a limited time flavor that the cashier recommended (there were four limited flavors and I asked which he liked best) and after he gave me a sample I had to agree, it was damn good. The ice cream was mostly honey-flavored I think, but there were these swirls of crispy, crunchy, and chewy cashews and maybe crushed brittle running through the scoop. I felt like a miner following a vein of gold :D


( Tedious Details + Jameson Update )

The rest of the day was very chill, I had a blazing headache (probably from the wild temp swings here; it went from 75 to 35 and now it's 55) so just took it easy with tea and Motrin until showtime. The show went well, I played better than yesterday. Eliza had a little snafu and was late for an entrance on stage, so Mrs. Pierce had to cover for her with an improvised line. It was hilarious for us, I wonder if the audience had any clue that something was wrong.

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Saturday I was up at 7am because a room across the hall was having a party(!)
Like...I wanted to be mad...but if you're starting your party at 7am, isn't that kind of the way to do it for an all-day bash? Lol.

And since I was up anyway I did a load of laundry. Again, because of the one-nighters coming up. I don't want to be scrambling/fighting sixty other people for the only washer/dryer. So thank you, party people, for getting me up early enough to do that :p

Then breakfast and a tax appointment (oh joy) and working on upcoming Foodie Finds.
Then our afternoon matinee. Someone in Company Management brought in a huge 4,000 piece puzzle and put it in the green room, and there is a frantic effort to finish it before the weekend is over. We made good progress, if you ask me!


The show went well. At the top of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly," when Eliza is surrounded by a mob because she's been given a large handful of coins by Professor Higgins, one of the coins escaped someone's hands, flew down into the pit, and PIIINNNG-ED really loudly as it hit directly behind my chair! The MD looked at me and mouthed, "Are you OK?" and I was, the coin didn't hit me, but they are quite big so it would have stung to be hit by one! I only heard it hit once and then silence, so knew it must have flown into the big blackout curtain behind me. At intermission I scrounged around and quickly found it. Pretty sure this is a replica coin modeled after a real one, but it's made of solid metal so it's hefty. After taking these photos I gave it back to the Props department.



Between shows I made a simple dinner, then the evening show went well, nothing to report except that Michael (Assistant MD/Keys) conducted and did a great job.

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Sunday I woke a bit early so I could go for a walk (it was mid-60s and sunny) as we'll be on a bus all day tomorrow, literally ALL DAY. On the way back I picked up a rosemary biscuit from a cafe to add to my travel foods.

The first show went well, and afterward Joel (trumpet) Elen (cello) Victoria (flute) and I walked to Yokozuna for sushi!
Someone should've taken a group picture...or maybe not, maybe that would have made others jealous :p
It was Happy Hour so sushi rolls were a few dollars off, but the heart wants what the heart wants.


"Meesh Mash" sushi salad: marinated ahi tuna, salmon, and yellowtail chunks on a bed of sushi rice, seaweed salad, cucumber, and squid salad, topped with masago (fish eggs), sesame, and crispy garlic. It was so good and fresh! There is something about fish, especially salmon--the B vitamins or Omega 3's I guess--that makes me feel full in such a GOOD way after eating it. This was a delicious and satisfying last meal in Tulsa. We talked about everything from cost of living to orchestral auditions to whether or not we had coasters for our cups growing up. It was a good hang.

There was a bit of time to go back to the hotel and pack some more and shower, then the last show.

Do you think we finished that 4,000 piece puzzle?


We did :) Here are Michael and ??? with the last piece.

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Tomorrow is an all-day bus ride to Des Moines, which is only partway to our destination, Wausau WI.
I hope it'll be generally boring. I hope we make our estimated arrival time, which is early enough to at least go for a walk after an entire day on a bus.

Monday, I worked for six-ish hours and Jameson worked and went to the gym.

I had therapy at 1pm, and it was "The Cry Session", which I assume anyone who goes to therapy will have.

( The Cry Session )

In the evening Jameson and I went out to a comedy club where his friend Julie works.
For dinner we found a new place, I forget what it's called, "Urban Something-Or-Other".
We had salmon BLTs that were VERY good.

The comedy club is also a martini bar, so we got martinis.
This neon blacklight mural had at least nine martinis hidden in it!


Jameson's drink, a lemon meringue concoction that got flambeed:


My drink, which came with a bruleed peach:


Those were STRONG drinks, too!
We had a great time, some really good laughs, and got to visit with Julie a bit after the show.

I can tell that the twinge in my side is not serious, and may be entirely anxiety-induced, because when Jameson and I go out I don't experience any twinging at all. I ate a big fatty salmon sandwich, the whole thing, and had alcohol, with not the slightest feeling of pain or nausea. Yet tomorrow I know I'll be worried about it again. Stupid brain.

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Tuesday, I worked my six hours and promised myself not to touch or massage or think about my stupid twinge in my side if I could help it at all today. And you know what, it worked. No twinging. So whatever-it-is, even if it's real, is at least seeming to get better. I still feel a sore sensation if I squeeze my right size below my ribcage, but, so, like, don't do that Megan.

In addition to a full day of work I got in about an hour of trombone practice, and also got to swim in the pool for about 20 minutes while Jameson made dinner. I really needed that.

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Wednesday was boring so here is a detailed version of my work from home routine.

- 7am, wake up because I'm hypervigilant. Grab my phone and stuff it under my pillow because my alarm will go off at 7:30 and I don't want it to wake Jameson up. Fall back asleep and have stress dreams.

- 7:30am, alarm goes off, I shut it off and get up, plug in computer, hit the bathroom for peeing and face-washing, hair-brushing and birth control.

- Make breakfast, which is pretty much always oatmeal with Slate protein milk; some type of berry; Fage 0% Greek yogurt or lowfat cottage cheese; and coffee. Maybe some chocolate chips to get those endorphins.

- 7:50 to 8:30am, eat breakfast, check email, read my friends' blog posts and update my own, read or Google around or whatever. It's time I use to come fully awake and have a little "me time" before work starts, that's the whole purpose of getting up this early.

- 8:30 to about 10:30, work. Somewhere in there once my coffee is gone I'll wash my breakfast dishes, brush my teeth, and get dressed if I think I'm going out later...and if not, I'll be in my pjs pretty much all day.

- 10:30-noon work, with one small break for a snack.

- Noon to 12:30 or 45, lunch.

- 12:30 to 1:30, trombone practice time.

- 1:30 to 4:30pm, my "second shift" slog for which I'll make myself a cup of tea or decaf coffee, and eat a snack around 3pm, and plug away with as few breaks as possible.

- 4:30pm, find out if I'm the one making dinner tonight and if so, stop working and start meal prep. If I'm not making dinner I work for an additional half hour OR jump in the pool for 20 minutes.

- 5:30 to 6:30, eat dinner with Jameson and watch our show (right now it's "Only Murders In The Building").

- 6:45 to 7:30pm, neighborhood walk if it's cool enough; if it's not cool enough, this is when I'll shower and get ready for bed.

- 7:30pm to 10:30pm, an extra hour of work if I fell short during the day, then working on Foodie Finds for My Fair Lady or playing Spider while Jameson games.

- 10:30pm, we brush our teeth and whatnot and move to the bed, where we watch something on Netflix while playing games on our phones and chatting. We fall asleep between 11:30 and midnight (or I do, anyway.)

Wash, rinse, repeat.

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

Jameson just got his "schedule" for Candlelight, so hopefully I'll get mine sometime this week or next as well.
As substitutes, this is where they'll tell us if we're actually scheduled for any days at all so we can set those aside. They'll also tell us what to wear, maybe give a contact roster, little things like that. Jameson's email said they'll send most info out in mid-September.

Thursday is just another day of work as far as I know, then Friday I'm driving all the way to Warburton again so they can figure out my mouthpiece problem. I've decided to bring them peanut butter quick bread, which I've made before (CLICK HERE to see)

I woke up at 3:30am (argh) and rode with some coworkers to the airport.

After stumbling around and sucking down coffee for a bit, I found myself in front of another "frictionless shopping" i.e. "no checkout" i.e. "cashierless" store.


This one is called &GO. You can see the cameras in the ceiling, and this time I also looked for the weight sensors under the shelves.



There was a sign-up kiosk for Amazon One!


Amazon One is a biometric payment option. It uses your palm print as a form of identification, and links that to your payment methods (as many of us have already done with facial recognition.) All I had to do was insert a credit card already associated with my Amazon account, then hold my hand above the sensor at the right distance, and a scan was taken. You can do one or both hands. Then you agree to the terms and conditions.

Voila! I've been assimilated into the Borg.


Some people find this tech invasive. I find it fascinating and efficient.
Sure, someone could steal my identity. Tale as old as time. I'm one of eight billion people, I'll take those odds.

Anyway, that was the exciting part of the morning.
Both my flights were normal.

On the Uber ride home I noticed a LOT of new construction.
New apartments, hotels, and lots of cleared woodlands. Pretty wild!
Orlando is expanding and expanding.

At home Jameson was working, but I snuck in and squeezed him hard before unpacking a little and running out to see the banana tree.

Oh dear.


I can't say I was surprised. But I was sad, and disappointed.
On the ride in, I had seen that water levels in all the lakes we passed were VERY low. And I kinda knew.
We did not get enough rain for the bananas to sustain themselves.
And Jameson dumping a bucket of water at the foot of the tree, once per week, is not nearly enough.

So, no java bananas this year. But! I am SO grateful that the tree grew bananas at all!
And there are four more trees that also have the potential to grow some!
And come June, I'll be around to ACTUALLY garden. So, it's ok :) I can't help but feel sad, but it couldn't be helped.

Jameson felt awful about it when I told him (no he hadn't noticed, like I've said many times he's not a gardener and works full time plus gigs, and I was not going to burden him with "Did you check on my banana trees today?" after he's already done 60 hours of work). He seemed a bit defensive at first, but I strongly asserted that it was NOT his fault, they were not his responsibility, and they're just bananas. Without near-daily care, there's nothing to be done...and I never expected or asked him to become their caretaker.

My little Meyer lemon tree may also be dead, or at least it is unlikely to fruit again.
It has no leaves and is mostly brown and dry. In this case I'm not sure why because the soil was very wet (it's in a non-draining pot).
Maybe it's rootbound. I'll do an autopsy over the weekend.

The vanilla orchid also looks like crap, entirely due to the dry weather.
The pipevine has died back a lot too, but it's still very present and even has a flower!

Look how big it is! The flowers on this variety can get up to two feet long and a foot wide.
It looks like meat, and has a rancid meat smell, because it attracts flies to be it's pollinators.
A lot of tropical and prehistoric plants adopt this stinky strategy instead of sweet nectar :)



Here it is from the side. The green bulb is the seed pod.


Anyway, the rest of the night was unpacking and some light cleaning and dinner from our favorite Greek place down the street.
I went to bed with a massive headache, which I should have paid more attention to, because it was a warning.

( CLICK HERE for medical drama )

Back home I had breakfast and cleaned the bathrooms to work out some of my anxiety, and shared the saga of my wussiness with Jameson. While he was at the gym I did a little photoshoot with the new phone case that I ordered from Japan several months ago.

I am such a huge food nerd, so when I saw this phone case I just HAD to have it!


Hyper-realistic buttered toast!
I mean look at that butter! Seems like it would be wet to the touch!


The extra-crispy crust!


This was made by a shop called Fairy and You in Japan, and sold on the site Minne, which is like the Japanese version of Etsy.
This type of "art" involving hyper-realistic food is called "shokuhin sampuru" and is very popular in Japan.
This person takes about a month to make the cases, and then it's another month to ship.
Since I'm getting a new phone which I'll hope to have for at least four years (hopefully more) I felt it was worth getting such a fun and wacky case!

After enjoying that, I cleaned both bathrooms (but not the shower, my arch nemesis. I'll get to that special hell later.)

After lunch I had an interview for Courtroom Clerk with Osceola County.
It started with a typing test, which made me nervous because it was via Zoom and the interviewer literally watched me typing via my shared screen. I've tested my speed many times but have never taken an actual test in front of someone before. My hands were shaking like mad, but I still managed 78wpm and 97% accuracy (I usually have 98% but nerves). The interviewer was very pleased with that, and we moved on to the other parts which were standard interview stuff. I felt like it went well, and they said I should hear something back by the end of the week.

After that I kind of splatted for the rest of the day.
My nerves were just destroyed because of the blood draw incident. I couldn't nap but felt exhausted in so many ways.
It was nice to just chill with my Jameson and do quiet things, and eat dinner together.

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

Wednesday I got to sleep in until about 9 which was glorious and much needed.

After breakfast I went to Target to buy a new phone, bringing my buttered toast case to make sure it would fit.
Jameson's friend Paul works at Target, and we've both bought our phones through him before because he gets commission.
It went pretty smoothly but the phone will need to be mailed to me for some unknown reason.

The whole process took longer than expected, so I ended up doing a scheduled phone interview for a remote data entry position in the car. IMO it went really well, and they sent the application materials after we were finished. I'll be very excited if I make it through the application process!

Back home I had just enough time to scarf down lunch before an in-person interview with Sprouts 40 minutes away.
But just as I was done eating my phone rang, and it was Disney to give me more information about the Candlelight Processional gig.
Yay! Now I feel that it's official.

Drove to Sprouts and got there early, so did a little shopping :)
There was a new flavor of Olipop, and a root beer-flavored canned coffee, and a plant-based strawberry milk that I wanted to try!
The interview went well, but I'm not sure I'd be a good fit because they're mostly looking for someone to work nights.

I popped over to Whole Paycheck across the street to get sushi for dinner and wings to make on Friday.
Driving home was awful because it's I-4, it was 4:30pm on a weekday, and it was raining so people were fleeing the theme parks. What is normally a 40-minute drive took an hour.

Jameson and I ate dinner together, then he left for rehearsal and I did my paperwork for the data entry application, then dusted the house. I had wanted to do the shower too but was too tired.

Oh, and I got a funny ridiculous accessory for my buttered toast case!


That's a 3D-printed, true-to-size, single-serving Smuckers jam!


Someone made it for me on Etsy.
It's going to be a phone charm, attached to the toast at the bottom right corner with a looped cord.
I'll be able to remove it pretty easily when I'm going out somewhere, but on days when my phone is out on a table or desk it's going to crack me up to have my "buttered toast and jam" lol. Listen, life is short, and little dumb things like this make it worthwhile.

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Tomorrow is Thursday already.
It's been a whirlwind layoff for me, but I'm hoping the next few days will be more calm.

Plans for Thursday include attacking the shower filth, setting up my new phone if it arrives, and going out to dinner with Jameson.
For the weekend, I need to repack my suitcases and complete the remaining Megan's Foodie Finds sheets.
I'd also like to cook one meal for us before I leave again.

This post starts from Tuesday, the day after our Golden Day (two days earlier than usual).

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Tuesday, I slept in for as long as I could, very tired from the Golden Day shenanigans.
I walked close to 8 miles! Plus all the driving.

The leaky toilet in my room started REALLY leaking, as in water pouring onto the floor, so I frantically called maintenance and kind of lost it at our tour manager. She came to my room to sit with my while maintenance worked on the plumbing, and listened while I essentially told her how frustrating and stressful it's been to have scarcely a day during this entire stay without something breaking (in two different rooms!) or my key cards not working three different times, or hotel staff walking in multiple times, or the loud and violent party that happened on my floor the night I was moved to a new room. I know this is all highly unusual, and that most people are having a normal stay here, but I certainly am not. She asked if I'd like a voucher for the hotel's convenience shop downstairs, and the maintenance guys asked if there was anything that they could do.

"I just want to stay in a hotel room," I sniffled. "I don't want free stuff. All I want is a normal stay."

I don't know if I'm being a Karen, or excessively whiny or demanding here, but they asked and it's the truth.
As weird as it is that all of these breakages and disruptions are happening to me specifically, all at once, I'm not MAKING them happen.
It's completely bizarre, and it's no one person's fault and I don't blame anyone (except possibly hotel management).
But ultimately free breakfast or convenience store candy are not going to fix the toilet.
Spend that money instead on maintaining your hotel! Or how about paying your staff a living wage!

Anyway, they were able to fix the toilet, and everyone left. I was very grateful.
I organized the Italian souvenirs for shipping, and got things ready for the show, and my friend Brandon came to pick me up for dinner.
Brandon is a local drummer who also has gigs in Dallas this week, so he was dressed in concert black too.

At Velvet Taco, he got the WTF special flavor (which was 4-20 themed) and a veggie taco, and I had the flank steak taco.


Super delicious!
We chatted and got caught up while we ate, then went for a walk around Deep Ellum to kill time.
Loads and loads of street art and murals here.



We finished earlier than I anticipated, but frankly I was still very stressed about the toilet thing and needed the time to be calm and prep for the show. I brought some fancy Italian chocolates to the theatre for the band guys. Kathy (tour management) called me to the office where she gave me a voucher for the hotel convenience store and a lemon bar that she picked up somewhere (because "when life gives you lemons" I guess lolol). That was very thoughtful and above-beyond of her; the room is livable, and this whole time that's all I've been after.

The show went well, and afterward Brandon offered me a ride home.
Mostly so we could get the selfie we both forgot to take earlier!


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

Wednesday I had NOTHING planned, much-needed nothing.
It was storming for most of the day so I got to stay in PJs and just splat.
During a lull in the rain I got to FedEx and sent off all of the souvenirs.

The show went pretty well.

Brianna, our Assistant CM, wants to have a pot luck on Friday.
Paul (drummer) is making carnitas and guac; Ashley (who plays Julie) is bringing the taco shells, rice, and salsa; Brianna will provide a side of beans and dishware; so I decided to do an elote salad and also bring some lettuce and tomato in case people want to make a taco salad/use something other than the shells.

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

Thursday I got up early for breakfast at San Martin!
It's a Guatemalan chain restaurant and bakery, and this one here in Dallas is their only US location.
Meaning now might be my ONLY chance to visit it!

( CLICK HERE for Breakfast )

I found a box of alfajores (caramel sandwich cookies) wrapped with a nice bow, and decided to bring them to the pot luck. For myself, after much indecision, I got a chocolate croissant.

From there to Whole Paycheck for the elote salad ingredients.
I was annoyed to have to buy a whole jar of mayonnaise because they didn't have packets. Also had to buy full jars of cumin and paprika. The paprika I can travel but I'll never use that cumin...I'll bring it to the pot luck and maybe someone will want it.

Then to CVS for a large tupperware, because I don't have any containers big enough to hold four-peoples' worth of food!

Back at the hotel, clearing some counter space and chop-chop-chopping veggies.
It was roasted corn (frozen), red pepper, red onion, jalapeno, green onion, avocado, cilantro, mayo, Greek yogurt, cotija cheese, lime juice, and spices all blended together.


I should have taken a picture of the chaotic mess in my room. Cilantro and onion bits everywhere, gobs of paper towels and dirty bowls (I had to use almost every container that I had on hand in the process of prepping and mixing.) It's tough to prep when you live in a hotel room! But I think it turned out well, and because I've made it a day in advance the flavors will have time to really merge and become awesome.

When that was finished I finally got to chill for a bit.

Walked to the theatre because the weather was lovely.
Had a decent show.

I'm sorry I'm not sharing more "backstage stuff", but...what could I show you?
The pit, again? The locker room that is my dressing room, again?
I will think on it and see if there are new areas that I can share without rubbing up against personal image use or "restricted area" issues.

I mean...here's inflatable Buc-ee. He has eyebrows now.


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

Friday, I was thrilled because there was nothing on the agenda.

I worked on Foodie Finds, which is a bit complicated because all of next week is rapid-fire load-and-go's, where we travel by bus from one city to the next and perform in four cities in about as many days. So I need to have all of the sheets for each city ready to go.

I also repacked my luggage so that I'll only need to bring my small suitcase, backpack, and tote bag inside each hotel.
The bus will be traveling with us, so we can leave some luggage on the bus overnight.

At dinnertime I brought my elote salad to Bee's room, where Ashley was cooking up some chicken stir fry and Paul was plugging in his crock pot full of delicious pork shoulder and setting out a big bowl of guac. We were joined later by Brian and Whitney, who brought misc snacks. The food was delicious, and we all had fun chatting and eating.



I should have taken more pictures, but I was socially nervous, plus only a small group had been invited to this event.
Plus it was storming pretty wildly outside, so we were all distracted by watching the Dallas skyline disappear into a wall of heavy rain and dark clouds. For dessert we had the alfajores that I'd brought, I think people liked them but I got more compliments on the corn salad. Everybody did an AMAZING job with food considering we're all working out of hotel rooms here!

Eventually we had to pack it up and get ready for the show.
I'm so glad that Bee organized this! It was fun, and we're thinking about doing another one in Thousand Oaks after the layoff.

It stopped raining long enough for me to walk to the theatre.
The show was fine, nothing to report except that our bassist, Brandon, will be leaving us before the end of tour to focus on his family. His replacement was in the pit today to audit the show. We will miss Brandon :(

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

Saturday, my stepmom called and we got caught up, that was really nice :)
I had a normal morning, and went downstairs at one point to use my convenience store credit (it was forced on me after the plumbing disasters in my rooms this week.) I used it to get four of my usual protein shakes, which will save me the time of finding them as we bounce around between cities next week. Other than that it was just meal planning and packing to bring dinner and my computer to the theatre.

The first show was fine with Sam (key 1) conducting.
The break was quiet and relaxing. I watched Sweet Tooth, which is not great dialogue- and plot-wise, but is at least entertaining in a mindless sort of "what happens next" way.

The second show was also just fine, with an appreciative audience.

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

Sunday, kind of a repeat of Saturday but with packing to leave.
I'm glad to get out of this hotel!!!

Though I will miss "Mine Own Dressing Room", lol.
If there was one thing that made me feel like a princess here in Dallas, that was it.


First show went well, afterward I walked to Whole Paycheck for some Mezcla bars as they may come in handy next week.
Also got dinner from the hot bar. Lots of other tour cast and crew were there stocking up for the week as well.
Our tour management is kindly making all of our travel stops at grocery stores instead of gas stations, which will also help.

Second show was just fine, a very energetic crowd who seemed to have a lot of fun :)

Aside from the hotel insanity for me personally, Dallas has been a lot of fun.
Do NOT stay at the Crowne Plaza, y'all.

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

Now we begin the most difficult week of this tour.
The schedule is

Monday: Travel to Orange and play a show
Tuesday: Travel to San Antonio and play a show
Wednesday: 2nd show in San Antonio + load out
Thursday: Travel to Tyler and play a show
Friday: Travel to Columbus GA and play a show
Saturday & Sunday: Shows in Columbus before traveling to Fort Worth

I won't have time for exploring anywhere except San Antonio, where I hope to visit Mi Tierra for their house-made candied fruits and La Panaderia for a bangin' croissant sandwich.

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

Random Dallas photos:

Our wall tag (it's actually a ceiling tile). "Like a hippo protecting her young" is a line from a song in the show.


The chandelier one last time.
It started out red/orange/yellow, and by the end of our stay they had it pink/blue/purplish, and also in a different pattern.


An art installation that I saw every night while walking home.
The sign/sculpture, by Alicia Eggert, alternated between "Now is only for the time being" and "Now is always the time for becoming".

Thursday was basically a wash.

I felt very tired, perhaps because of the weather or maybe I was fighting the cold that's going around from entering my body.
Either way, I had a lovely indoor day of doing laundry, watching Ousama Ranking, researching jobs, updating Foodie Finds, and sharing Jameson's excitement as he flew to Chicago to MEET DARREN HAYES!!!!


Eeeeeeee!!!

If you don't know, Darren Hayes was the vocalist for Savage Garden, a popular 90s-2000s band.
You'd probably recognize the song "I Knew I Loved You", among others.

Jameson and Darren became internet friends somewhere in the late 2010s, and somewhere in there Darren asked Jameson to arrange some of his classic works to rejuvenate them for his albums and upcoming tour.

Darren is now on tour, and Jameson was able to finally meet Darren in person and hear his own arrangements performed live, in front of an audience of thousands, by his friend and pop idol. I mean HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT!!!


To say I'm proud, happy, and excited for him would be the understatement of the year.
Jameson has worked very hard for musical recognition throughout his life, and often hasn't received it.
I hope that today was very rewarding for him, and fun, and a great experience.
His dad was there with him for all of it, which is absolutely wonderful.
It's got to be an amazing thing to be a proud parent watching your son hug a pop star, and listen to music your son wrote for said pop star, live to an arena full of people singing along. Just, amazing :)

Anyway, that's mostly what Thursday was for me.

Then we had a show which went well, but the band did get a note that we need to step up our game and stay focused, so I will try very hard to meet those expectations. I think that after playing a show 400+ times, perhaps we (I) can go into autopilot too much. I want to stay engaged and give the best possible performance each night!

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

Friday started off with disappointment: once again my sink was fully clogged.
I don't know why or how this is happening...all I've done is brush my teeth and wash my dishes (no I am NOT putting food in the drain either!). The hotel offered to have me switch rooms but then didn't have any rooms available, so I packed everything up anyway.

I waited around to see if maybe they'd move me in the next hour but it didn't happen, so walked to a convenience store for some fruit.

Along the way, this giant eyeball:


I wanted to get close but it was in a fenced-off area and it looked like you needed tickets (had I been in a better frame of mind I ABSOLUTELY would have. Maybe next week.)

I canceled lunch with my friend Brandon (the drummer who came to our show a few nights ago). It was just stressing me out to be waiting around when the hotel could call any minute to have me move and we might be out somewhere, plus Brandon revealed that he wouldn't be ready until 2pm which is WAY too late for lunch for me personally (my body still thinks it's east coast time, remember). I'll try to catch him again next week.

Around lunchtime I got the ok to move to another room, so off I went, riding elevators up and down, dragging luggage, unpacking everything, stealing the microwave in the old room because the new room didn't have one and I'm rude like that. By the time I was all moved in and unpacked it was close to 2:30, so I was glad I'd canceled on Brandon though I felt bad about it.

It was a lovely sunny day out, but as I only had 2-3 hours until dinnertime/show prep I wasted it searching for jobs and researching activities for next week. The show went well. Back at the hotel the lobby was packed, some sort of conference in town coinciding with prom festivities. It took a long time to get the elevator to our rooms...and then my key cards didn't work. Alllllll the way back down to have them re-keyed. Straight to bed.

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

It seems the prom night festivities got out of hand last night.
There was an absolutely WILD party happening on my floor, it sounded like WAY too many people for one room, a lot of screaming and general party noises, but around 3-4am it all dissolved into a fight of some sort. Someone had brought young children who were screaming bloody murder, angry adult voices raised, etc etc.

Someone (hopefully the hotel) called the cops, so this morning when I finally dragged myself out of bed after minimal sleep there were many cop cars parked outside, and the elevators were kept busy with cops coming up and down shuttling zip-tied youth out to the waiting patrol cars.


Yowza.

Not going to lie: because of the room issues experienced thus far + this incident, my nerves are kind of shot.

I had breakfast and tried to relax a bit, but housekeeping knocked and as I came to answer the door the woman OPENED it.
She apologized profusely of course...they had the room marked as unoccupied.

But then about an hour later, same thing happened again. This time it was a maintenance or facilities person.
I called down to the front desk to say, "This room is occupied, could you PLEASE update your staff", and was assured that it had been done.

So I went for a walk to kind of lower my blood pressure and find some peace somewhere.

A few blocks away is something called "Thanks-giving Square".
It's a park that came about due to a rare private-public sector partnership; both the City of Dallas and the public raised funds for its construction in the 70s. The garden portion of the square (the gates of which were still locked this early) is 15 feet below ground to isolate it from traffic and create a more serene space. Since it was locked I didn't go in (could have easily slipped the gaps in the fence, but trying to be a "good citizen" here.) I will probably go back again next week.

There are misc sculptures and monuments inside the garden, and scripture quotes scattered about the walls and walkways which convey religious symbolism and ideas without pinpointing one specific religion (supposedly). It's meant to be a nondenominational space of peace and contemplation...and thanksgiving.

Towering 90ft above the sunken garden is a tight spiral structure, unmarked.


This is the Thanks-giving Chapel. It's open for a set time each day, and again, is meant to be a non-denominational place of peaceful thought and thanks. I had known of it while in Dallas with the circus, but had not been able to go inside at the time (possibly due to repairs).

Considering the way things have been going, I figured now was the time to manifest some serenity and thankfulness.

I climbed the spiraling ramp up the side of the tower.


At the entrance was this sign describing the design and purpose of the chapel.


It was completely silent inside except for the low hum of the ventilation system.
See for yourself what it was like to enter the chapel for the first time:


I was awed, and stood gaping for a moment.
A purplish-white, lilac light enveloped the round sanctuary, which was flanked by a circle of plain chairs.
It felt a little creepy at first, like walking into some sort of inquisition space. But it WAS peaceful, and somehow, approachable.

I went up to the big marble cube and touched it.


And of course I stood as close to center as I could get and stared straight up at the gorgeous 73-panel stained glass spiral.


And spun in a circle like an idiot. YOLO, amirite?

Around then someone else came in so I quickly stepped off to the side so as not to mar their experience.
I left without filling out a "gratitude card" at the little station encouraging visitors to leave a note.
I'll come back and write something before we leave.

After such a lovely experience I felt a little better.
I walked back to the hotel but not before stopping at Clean Juice for a "carrot cake" acai bowl.
Blended carrots, banana, almond butter, cacao, almond milk, cinnamon, granola, and dates.
It was supposed to have maple syrup too but I left it out; dates and banana and are sweet enough.


It was very good, and seems easy enough to make at home too.

Unfortunately my improved sense of serenity was immediately broken by ANOTHER person trying to walk into my hotel room :(
I got ready for the show and went downstairs, stopping at the front desk to reiterate, again, that people should not be coming into my room, and would someone please update their records, pleasepleaseplease.

Walked to the theatre, bringing my computer and dinner because the last thing I want to do is go back to that hotel unless I have to.

The first show went well.
I typed up this post and watched some anime in the dressing room during the break.
Jameson flew back to Orlando and arrived safely, and sent me a nice summary of his experience with Darren Hayes.
It's been a whirlwind week for him and it'll take a while for it to sink in that he got to HUG DARREN HAYES and hear his music performed live in an arena! But once it all hits him, I hope he's just as glowing and happy about it as I am!! :D

The second show also went well, and afterward our MD was dishing out "snots" which is a post-show shot of some sort, but I wanted to hustle back to the hotel to wait in line to have my key cards reactivated, and to empty the bucket under the leaking toilet because it fills quickly and needs to be emptied twice a day.


Oh, did I not mention that?
Yeah, in the new room I've been assigned, instead of a clogged sink I get a leaky toilet.
When I tell people this they ask, "Well why don't you just ask them to move you again?"
Because I've just been moved from a room with a clogged sink, to one with a leaking toilet.
Neither of which hotel maintenance noticed at all before I moved in.
So if I switch rooms again...what's going to be broken in the NEXT room? Am I gonna have to do electrical work there? Or take sponge baths in the sink because the tub's clogged?

No thanks. I'm cutting my losses now and emptying a toilet bucket twice daily for the rest of the stay.
That's far preferable to canceling plans with friends, being walked in on by hotel staff or maintenance, or making another disruptive move to a room where it's likely things still won't be right.

Maybe I'll draw a face on my toilet bucket and give it a name.
Gotta laugh or you'll cry, isn't that right?

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

Sunday, a rainy chilly morning.

I did my usual things, breakfast and coffee and anime, and thankfully there was not one incident or interruption.
I walked to the theatre with my computer and a packed dinner and an umbrella.
The show was good, the break spent in my dressing room was relaxing and quiet.
Dinner was chicken soup with tofu chunks, baru nuts, lemon rosemary bread, dark chocolate and coconut turmeric tea for dessert.
The second show was also good, nothing to report except our key 1 Sam was conducting and did a great job :)

I felt very tired, so took a company Uber home with the band guys instead of walking as usual.
It also saved me about 15 minutes of time, which I used to shower and prep things for tomorrow's fun.

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

Monday is our much-anticipated Golden Day!

I am going ALL-OUT. Partly because this week has been stressful, and partly because this tour is coming to an end and it's all part of my mid-life pre-40s crisis :D

The plan is Dallas Arboretum in the morning,
Eataly for lunch and family souvenirs in the afternoon,
H-Mart and 99 Ranch in the late afternoon,
and Billy Can Can for a light dinner and a much-needed glass of wine!

Random things that I forgot to mention from last week:

There was a restaurant down the street that made an entire TOOTSIE-themed menu! How cool is that!
A few people tried some dishes and said they were delicious.


I also uploaded a recording that I made of myself playing some circus music.
This is part of my portfolio that I send out when auditioning and such, but I felt it might be interesting for people to kind of visualize how the cuts, vamps, and jumps in the music work according to what's happening on the arena floor, and in each act. So I added little captions explaining what's happening or who's performing (and why they are awesome)

CLICK HERE to watch

And then a little sad news: I've decided to let go of my nursing home data entry job for the remainder of the tour.
There are two reasons.

Reason One is that for the entire two weeks in Cincinnati I was unable to do my work for more than a few minutes at a time. I spent HOURS on the phone with tech support every day for the first EIGHT DAYS of our stay, wiping my caches and running virus/malware/disk scans, reinstalling VPN and support software, and fighting with the hotel front desk to the point where an engineer had to come up and see for himself that internet truly was not working in my room, even for him, and then I ended up switching rooms at 1am which gave me a poor connection but STILL did not resolve the core issue.

Reason Two was that according to hotel staff I was the only one experiencing this issue, and after one of the many scans and updates things did sort-of go back to normal, which tells me that in addition to the poor internet I could have had a virus or something that compromised the information on my machine. I'm talking about a nursing home resident personal information. That is NOT OK. I have done everything that I can to protect the sensitive data that I work with as I travel, but the bottom line is that every week (and sometimes every few days) we are in a different city at a hotel with a different IP address and different security protocols, and ultimately ALWAYS on a public network.

This whole ordeal was incredibly stressful, demeaning, and ultimately did not resolve the problem, so I got no work done for two weeks. This is not the first time that this has happened, just the longest period of it. It's not fair to the employer, and it's become way too much stress for me to struggle with on top of travel and looking for full time post-tour work.

I've sent a letter asking to either be "put on hold" until June if for some reason they still want to keep me on, or if not, to consider it my two weeks notice and big thanks for letting me work with them this far. I feel sad, it's not how I wanted this to end, but we will see what happens.

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On Monday we had an uneventful travel day, which is the best kind of travel day!

We got to the hotel as scheduled. This hotel is one of those "artsy" ones with a "theme", which is "art", and so the "entryway" is an "art gallery". Lol.



In addition to paintings on the wall, there was a functional piece of art involving little doors that you could open to reveal misc abstract artistic statements (I suppose?). I've seen other folks playing with it and will take my turn with it eventually :)

Each floor of the hotel also has color-themed rooms, which is kinda cool.
The colors are red, yellow, green, and blue.
It looks like one of us is staying in rooms of every color except blue (or the blue room ppl ain't sharing haha)



The blue image is stock from the hotel's website.

The red room is the room I initially had, but unfortunately there was food in the fridge and something nasty in the trash, so I was quickly relocated to a smaller room that, ironically, has exactly the same layout as the room I had in Cincinnati. Once again there is limited counter space, so I'll be using the ironing board as a table. The ironing board is NOT red, if you were wondering ;)

After getting settled in I walked to the nearest grocery which was called Fresh Thyme Market.
Located in an old foundry near a college, I figured it had to be some hipster co-op or something.

But once I saw the logo I knew exactly what this was.


Does it look familiar to you? When we were in Grand Rapids earlier this year, there was a grocery called Bridge Street Market.
Which turned out to be a Meijer in disguise as a hipster co-op:


That's right, Fresh Thyme is another disguised Meijer.
So I was not surprised to see Meijer-branded products on the shelves.
It was a bit pricey, but the quality was good and they had a mix of everyday products and unique local finds.
I got some interesting things to try which I'll detail later.

Back at the hotel I unpacked and spent the rest of the night resting.

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Tuesday, I woke up too early because Central Time.
I used a laundry service because I am feeling flustered and stressed this week, and really wanted to use today for cooking and job applications. Once the laundry was sent off I fired up the Itaki and made the dried herb and tomato risotto that I'd picked up at Jungle Jim's, cooking it with chicken broth and cracked black pepper. It turned out fantastic, creamy and delicious despite the lack of cheese.


Then I did two tilapia filets, which cooked up perfectly in just 15 minutes and were flaky and tasty with the risotto and some green beans.


Then it was job applications for a while, and chores like finding a dry cleaners nearby for my coat, working on Foodie Finds for upcoming cities, trying to find a PCP back in Florida, and making plans with my friend Elliana for Wednesday.

The Fabulous Fox here in STL is right next to our hotel, so it was a short walk to get backstage.
This theatre is amazing.

(stock image)




These photos don't do it justice...there is so much going on. So much filigree, decor, history, etc.
Not to mention every square inch of the backstage is covered in signatures and wall tags from both famous and unknown bands, shows, and artists.

We are getting a tour of the entire theatre next Thursday, so I'm going to hold off on more pictures until then.
I'm very excited to learn more about this historic and incredibly beautiful theatre!

And, I'm going to be recording some portfolio materials here.
The sound isn't "the best" for that sort of thing, it's a big gaping space that feels kind of like playing in a barn.
But the timing seems right.

Anyway, our opening night show went well I think. Good crowd, and it was good to get used to the space.

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Wednesday, adventures with my friend Elliana!

Here she is:

(photo from NPR)

Elliana is circus-born; that is, she was one of those children literally born into the circus, on the road, and made her stage premiere before the age of three, riding into the ring on the back of an elephant. When I worked for Ringling, she was a Human Cannonball (that should tell you something about her bravery levels!) and now she's a circus arts instructor for several facilities here in St. Louis.

She expressed interest in having a foodie adventure together, so off we went to The Foundry Bakery!

( CLICK HERE for Foodie Adventures )

Thus ended our foodie adventure! We hugged and parted ways for now.

Back at the hotel I put my exciting food finds away and gave the duck a try. It was salty and sweet, the skin was not as crunchy as I expected but the flavor was amazing and I can see why duck cooked this way is so prized. I'll definitely enjoy eating this for the rest of the week!
I tried to look up nutrition info for my other food items as well, and think I got some pretty good estimates so I can do my calorie counting.

At the theatre, Elliana came to say hello at the edge of the pit :)


We had a good show. It was our 400th! A company photo was taken which hasn't been shared yet, I'll put it up in the next post.

Paul (our drummer) helped me to set up some recording equipment, so I messed around with that throughout the show and will be interested to see how my footage and audio came out.

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It's Thursday morning, and I just finished a podcast interview with Heidi Herriott for her "Animal Tales" podcast.
She interviews animal specialists, or just people like me with experience alongside animals, to try and get different perspectives on animal care, welfare, husbandry, etc. The interview was fun and engaging, so hopefully it will be a helpful addition to her content.

I got up very early for that, so now I'm going to take a look at my footage from last night and make notes on any changes for the next recording. Then I hope to check out a nearby Goodwill, pick up a jug of water and some oatmeal from the grocery, and enjoy some of my tasty Asian treats for lunch and dinner!

The plan for Friday is to eat at Fountain on Locust before watching Elliana perform at City Museum.
Saturday and Sunday, no plans because they're two show days.
Monday is a Golden Day, so I'd like to visit the art museum and adjacent park, then have lunch in Little Italy/The Hill.

TL;DR TikTok: CLICK HERE to watch


I tried to cram as many of my planned activities as possible into Wednesday and Thursday because the weather is supposed to take a turn starting Friday and into the weekend.

While working I steamed some eggs in the Itaki, and I finally did get the cook time right, but then the eggs peeled so poorly that half the whites were lost. GAWD that makes me mad. At this point I'm probably not going to cook eggs in shell with the Itaki unless I can guarantee that the eggs are older (that's supposed to help with peeling).

Before y'all say anything, this is a STEAMER so I can't do the usual trick of adding baking soda and vinegar to the water, there IS no water, I'm not boiling the eggs on the stovetop. Thank you.

Around noon I got an Uber to the pierogi place because the walking route wasn't safe (long stretches of having to walk on the shoulder).
But I resolved to make up for it with a walk from there to the mall, and then walking around inside the mall, plus the walk the theater.

The restaurant is Eva's European Sweets, and it's all alone in a random run-down suburb.
Their vibrant wall art stood out from the surrounding drab houses like a flower growing from a crack in the sidewalk.


Inside was a tiny cafe, perhaps 10 tables plus a small bar area.
The hostess invited me to sit wherever, and I picked a very small corner table since it was lunch time.


I knew I wanted borscht, but it wasn't on the menu.
( Read more... )

Today is our travel day.
9am bus to the airport, then two flights with a layover between to get to OKC.
I'm grateful that we have a significant layover so that we can get something to eat between flights (this has not been the case the last several times we've flown). It's also supposed to be snowing when we land, so we'll see if flights get delayed or what.

In OKC I have more foodie adventures lined up for myself, and also hopefully visiting a museum or botanical garden :)


Other things:

The golden ginkgo tree that I found while walking through a park in Syracuse.



On the way to the theater on Saturday night, it was dark and rainy.
I was almost at the stage door when something small and white ran in front of me.
I had just enough time to see a black-tipped tail disappearing under a parked car.

Thinking it was a kitten, I stepped into the side-street to look under the car.

It dashed out again...a white ermine with a black-tipped tail.
It ran into a construction zone across the street, and was gone.

(stock photo)