taz_39 | Entries tagged with exploring: restaurants and businesses

Posting early because Friday was very exciting and made for a long post.

My journal is ultimately for me and my memories, so don't feel obligated to like, READ.
There are some pretty pictures for you to scroll past. Enjoy.

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Friday May 16, 2025.
A day that will live in our hearts.
It was a "karma wave"...and boy did we ride it. You'll see what I mean.

We got up early, excited for our celebratory day at Hollywood Studios!
We got to the park around 9:10am, thinking that it had opened at 8, but it was actually 9, so we got better-than-usual parking! Didn't even have to ride the tram.

Walked right through the gates because we are fancy-schmancy Cast Members.
The first thing we did was to go to Guest Services to ask for Celebration Buttons.
Jameson has worked for Disney for YEARS and has never worn one, and of course I haven't either. But today was special. He got one that said, "Music Producer DEG!" and mine said "BNB National Tour!"

(BNB is the acronym for Beauty and the Beast used in the theme parks. On tour it's BATB. I went with theme park version today.)

We paused to take photos of the pins, and Jameson used the photo to finally announce to friends and colleagues that he's accepted the Producer role.

I am so proud of him!!!
And we were both just in awe, all day today, that we were getting to celebrate these life-wins TOGETHER.
We know how rare and special that is.

Next, we walked to Galaxy's Edge to try and queue for Rise of the Resistance. It was down, so we rode Mickey's Runaway Railway instead. I've ridden it before but Jameson hadn't, and I really wanted him to experience it. The tech used in the ride is very cool, and the 2-D aesthetic is fun and cute. We enjoyed it very much!

We used our Cast Member snack coupons to each get a free Mickey pretzel and bottled drink, then decided to see what wait times for Smuggler's Run were like. On the way there we had to pass the queue for Rise of the Resistance again, and we saw some people start to run toward it ahead of us and wondered why. They entered the queue...the ride had JUST opened back up! We rushed over and were able to walk the whole queue and board the ride with only a 10 minute wait!! On a Friday in May! A miracle!! (The average wait time for this ride is 1 hour!)

Neither of us had ridden it before, and once again we were blown away by the tech and visuals and overall ride experience. In fact we would have been willing to ride it again if the queue hadn't filled up!

From there we wandered a bit and window shopped. As we passed Oga's Cantina, Jameson noticed that the queue was lower than usual (it's a very popular bar and can be difficult to get in without a reservation.) We asked the hostess about the wait and were told 15 minutes, so we decided to go for it.

We had waited a grand total of just 60 seconds before our names were called and we were ushered inside!

I can see why this bar is so popular. It's incredibly, intensively themed, the bartenders are extremely in-character, and drinking there is really an experience. Each drink that we saw looked unique and exotic; there were some that bubbled with dry ice, others with black ooze dripping down the lip or strange foams frothing over the top.

Jameson got the Fuzzy TaunTaun: Ketel One Botanical Peach & Orange Vodka, Bols Peach Schnapps Liqueur, Orange Juice with Tangerine, Pure Cane Sugar, and ‘Buzz Button Tingling Foam.
I got the Nysillin and Bubbles with Brub Berry Essence: Empress 1908 Gin, St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Blueberry-Lime Juice topped with Tonic Water and garnished with an Edible Hibiscus Flower.

Both drinks were amazing, with Jameson's having some very strange foam that caused one's lips to tingle and then go a bit numb! He let me try it and it was a very fun sensation. We wrapped the experience up with a Rodian Ration jell-O shot: Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Dekuyper Pucker Sour Apple, Green Apple, Sprite, and Boba Balls with a Pop! This was really cool and a lot bigger than we expected, it was supposed to be a petri dish and had pop rocks and red chocolate "gravel" sprinkled on top. The boba balls inside were juicy and refreshing. Texturally this was fun to eat.

A bit more wandering, then we went to see the Beauty and the Beast stage show.
Jameson has a good friend who plays Belle, and she got us VIP seats!! We were front and center!

It was a lovely show, and of course made me think of the tour adventure awaiting me in June :)

We also had to go see Muppet Vision 3D, which is going to be closing permanently in early June. This was essentially the last time we'd ever see this show in person. It's a great show, funny and cute, but it's dated and I can see why it's being closed/replaced. It was a privilege to get to see it one last time.

For an afternoon snack we went to a random bar where Jameson got a beer and we shared a charcuterie.

Next we rode Toy Story Mania, which is a shooting game. Jameson won, of course, as usual, and I sulked good-naturedly :p

We decided to try queuing for Smuggler's Run again as the wait time was only 45 minutes. But 45 soon turned into an hour, and longer, and by the time we were nearing the end of queue we both badly needed a restroom! Daunted by the thought of working our way aaaaaall the way back through the line (it is QUITE long), I volunteered to find a Cast Member to ask for help finding a restroom. The woman I found, Elaney, was so gracious; she immediately led us backstage to an employee restroom, without even knowing that we were Cast Members ourselves! When I saw that she was nervous to be taking us "backstage" I quickly told her that we work here too, and she was VERY relieved. Still, the fact that she would go out of her way like this for non-employees is exceptional, and we both took note of it.

Elaney let us rejoin the queue about where we'd left off, which we were very grateful for. Smuggler's Run was fun as usual (we've been on it three times) and this time we had two kids piloting our ship so we crashed A LOT haha. Jameson was laughing his head off, and I have to admit doing a bad job smuggling was a lot more fun than successfully delivering our cargo!

By the time that was finished we only had a little time before our dinner reservations. We just window shopped and enjoyed the vibes, then went to the most exclusive restaurant in Hollywood Studios: The Brown Derby.

You may remember that a few days ago when Jameson called me at the car dealership to tell me he'd gotten the Producer job, after hanging up with him I "got him something special." It was this reservation for this very fancy restaurant! Jameson has only eaten there once before, when he was too young to remember or appreciate the experience. And I've never been inside at all. I figured there was no better way to celebrate our achievements...and I was right :)

The first thing that went amazingly right was we met Dana.
Dana is a longtime Disney employee, possibly a manager at The Brown Derby. He noticed our Celebration Buttons and asked what we were celebrating. We told him, and he congratulated us and then engaged Jameson in a discussion about the "good old days" of Hollywood Studios since they'd both worked there around the same time period. He was just lovely, and when it was time for us to be seated our server started to take us to a standard table but Dana said, "No, let's celebrate properly!" and ushered us to a comfortable booth.

From there we were treated to an incredible meal!
Jameson had a refreshing gin-and-lemon drink, I had a French rose wine.

We shared these escargot with Roasted Garlic Béchamel, Crispy Prosciutto, and Puff Pastry.

Jameson's entree was the Pan-Roasted Halibut: Braised Bok Choy, Roasted Cashew-Jasmine Rice, Olive Oil-macerated Heirloom Tomato, Thai Coconut Sauce.

I had the Root Beer Brined Pork: Creamy Polenta, Pickled Corn, Herb Chimichurri, Barq's Root Beer Lacquer.

It was absolutely incredible. I don't think I've ever had pork like that. Sweet but also a slight bit of heat, and the veggies there on the side are pickled which gave a great hit of acidity against the sweet pork and rich polenta. I was very surprised when those mini corn ears turned out to have been smoked by themselves, they had amazing flavor!

For dessert Jameson got a poached pear with vanilla panna cotta, and I did the Derby's famous grapefruit cake.
Both were incredible, but I have to admit that the poached pears were better than the cake. The flavor was so complex, fall spices and smooth clean panna cotta...it was just WOW.

With dessert, Dana brought us each a celebratory mini-flute of champagne!
We made a very grateful toast to our career successes.
Throughout the day we had been talkng on and off about how we felt, what these recent life-events mean for us, what our hopes and dreams are for the future. This whole day was absolutely perfect, and this exquisite dinner was the perfect way to wrap up a celebration of each other. We have both worked extremely hard. Life is unpredictable and things may still not go as we hope or plan. But we had today. We had this moment where both of us had something amazing to celebrate, and the means to make this memory, which will live with us for many years to come.

Probably the most memorable of all was getting the check for this extravagant dinner!
Here was the crest of the "karma wave" we'd been riding all day :)
We were Cast Members, so we knew we'd get a discount.
But I had also brought our Cast Member Dining Discount coupons, which range from 20% off up to 50% off of a meal in the parks. I asked our server if The Brown Derby accepted Dining Discount coupons, fully expecting that they wouldn't (they usually can't be used in the upscale restaurants.) She asked me to give her a coupon and she'd see if she could apply it. I handed her the 50% off coupon, because why not? If there was a time to use that one, it was now. Again, fully expecting her to come back and regretfully inform us that she couldn't apply it, and perfectly happy to pay with our regular discount.

To both of our amazement, she came back with the check and no coupon.
WE GOT 50% off our meal!!!
I couldn't stop smiling like an idiot. We quickly paid (I gave her a MASSIVE tip) and got out of there, joking that they'd probably chase us down for the rest of the bill!

We considered sticking around for the Fantasmic show, but it had been a scorching day and we'd been outside in 90-degree heat nearly the entire time. We were wiped. We drove home, happy and full and exclaiming over how exceptionally WELL this day had gone. I seriously felt that the universe was celebrating with us.

Tally of Awesome Things:

     - Excellent parking
     - A mere 10-minute wait for Rise of the Resistance
     - Getting to see Muppet Vision 3D one last time before it closed
     - Getting into the most exclusive bar in Galaxy's Edge with essentially no wait time
     - Getting "rescued" by an amazing Cast Member in the Smuggler's Run queue
     - VIP seating at the Beauty and the Beast stage show
     - Special seating, complementary champagne, exceptional service, and 50% off our meal at The Brown Derby!!!
     - Getting to spend an entire uninterrupted day with each other, and both of us in a good place in our lives.

To try and pay back some of the "karma wave," or "pay it forward," as soon as we got home I went to the Guest Services website and filled out a Cast Compliments form for both Elaney (the woman who helped us in the Smuggler's Run queue) and Dana (who went out of his way to make our evening exceptional.) When Cast Members receive kudos, they don't necessarily "get" anything other than a pat on the back and a certificate. But I used all of my skills with words and did everything in my power to show that these two really deserved recognition. So who knows...at minimum I hope they are touched by these words and proud to be who they are :)

Here is what I wrote:

"I have TWO cast Members to recognize!

"First was Elaney working on May 16 around 4pm at Smugglers Run. My partner and I had been waiting in queue, and he suddenly needed a restroom. But we were almost to the ride, and weren’t sure if we’d make it all the way back through the queue in time for him. I went looking for assistance and found Elaney, who guided us to a nearby restroom and waited with us to ensure our safety and comfort. We were then able to rejoin the queue and still ride the attraction. Elaney was empathetic, kind, and most of all she put our safety and health first. We appreciated her so much today, and really wanted her to know that and to recognize her for that.

"And next we have Dana at the Brown Derby. We made dinner reservations at this special restaurant to celebrate both of us recently getting amazing career advancements. We were wearing celebration pins, and Dana noticed and took time to inquire what we were celebrating. We told him, and he not only congratulated us and engaged us in a lovely conversation, he also seated us at a comfortable booth and arranged for us to each receive a flute of celebratory champagne to toast our success! The evening was already so special, but Dana went out of his way to make it EXCEPTIONAL. We will remember our fantastic meal at the Brown Derby for years to come.

"Both of these Cast Members showed us what it means to actively apply The Disney Way, and how that seemingly small extra effort can turn a guest’s experience into not just a day at Disney, but a treasured lifetime memory. As Cast Members ourselves, my partner and I were touched and inspired by the service we received from these two individuals today. We would appreciate if you could pass on our gratitude and thanks."

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If you've made it this far, congrats, you've probably met your reading quota for the entire day.

What can I say, today was incredible. We are both grateful beyond anything in words.

Was up and out the door for Disney at 9am.

Before that, per the teaser posted by Disney Theatrical last week, here’s who they’ve chosen to be their Belle and Beast on the national tour: Kyra Belle Johnson, and Fergie L. Philippe.

Watch on YouTube

(media courtesy Disney Theatrical)

I don’t know either of them, but damn, beautiful humans and great singing voices.

At the Magic Kingdom it was business as usual starting with the morning parade, followed by a set. Both went just fine. A lot of people in the band are currently out sick or just now getting over misc illnesses, so I tried to put out good vibes and wash my hands frequently. I think it was a normal day, nothing to report except that I'm a bit rusty on this-and-that song, not surprising when one is asked to keep 20 pieces of music in one's head and pull them out only once a month or so. And I got in my 7 miles/17,000 steps.

Back home I packed food and a bag for tomorrow at Epic, and was going to practice bass, but Jameson said he felt dizzy and then spent the next hour or two throwing up :( He thinks it is food poisoning because he was feeling all right all day until dinner, but I'm keeping in mind that he's been feeling under the weather in general lately too and this could be one of the viruses floating around. When he seemed to have nothing left to "divest," I brought him ice water and a Dramamine and a bowl to puke into, and he got into bed. I dug out every anti-nausea thing that I could think of in the house, disinfected all the touch points that I could think of (doorknobs, light switches, remotes, fridge and microwave handles, countertops, etc), then spent two hours silently fighting anxiety as Jameson rested.

I am not a caretaker-type...and also, both my parents died of horrible illnesses.
Additionally, the trumpet player that I worked with on the circus had cancer and the final year before he passed, he stood next to me on the bandstand in terrible pain, and I cannot tell you what that put me through mentally and emotionally as there was nothing I could do but silently witness his suffering.

So when my loved one gets sick, my mind immediately jumps to the Worst Possible Scenario, and I am in terror that something awful is going to happen and I will be useless at the critical moment.

Therefore I was awake well into the night, and slept very fitfully in the guest bedroom, getting up every few hours to check on Jameson.
Oh, forgot to mention that today was Jameson's first day of physical therapy for his hand/arm. He said that it went well, and he's been given some exercises to do at home. He was supposed to have another session tomorrow but per the incident under the cut, he will be staying home and resting instead.

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Friday, I guess it's Valentine's Day. Not a very romantic one for us...poor Jameson.

I was up extra early so that in addition to getting ready for work, I could run to Publix for ginger ale, crackers, bread for toast, rice, low sodium broth, and applesauce with electrolytes added. (I'd have gotten Pedialyte too but Jameson can't have lots of salt so instead opted for the broth.) Before leaving for rehearsal I checked to make sure that he was all right, and left a note that if he needs me he should call right away.

Later on he was awake and well enough to do some work from home, and later still he was hungry and ate much of what I'd gotten for him. He said he wasn't nauseous at all any more, just shaky and exhausted. So it was food poisoning after all. Phew.

Meanwhile, my last day of full-time rehearsal at Epic Universe!!

(image from discoveruniversal.com, artistic rendering of Ministry of Magic at night)

As I've said many times now, this has been an incredible experience.
I have memorized new music, and learned how to act (wouldn't call myself an actress but have done more acting now than at any other point in life haha.) I've met a lot of great musicians and great people. And I have been a part of the opening of a whole new theme park. Not many people can say that!

And now that that's said....I NEED A BREAK!

Our schedule was 9am-6pm every single day for the past five weeks, and for me it was 8am-7pm if you include the hour of commute time at each end. This left me with "Me Time" of 6am-7:30am each morning, and 8pm-10pm each night, with Saturdays off. That's it. Every other waking moment has been Epic Epic Epic Epic.

I need to catch up on chores.
I need to make us healthy meals (it's been over a month since I got to cook)
I need to prepare to go on tour, including learning bass trombone and scheduling bass trombone lessons.
I need to learn another trombone part/20 more songs for Disney.
I need to start transcription work again.
I need repairs on my car and around the house.

And loads and loads more things that I can't even think of right now because I'm exhausted.

I've gotten off track with griping there, sorry.
It was our last day of full-time rehearsals. I saw people in other departments getting weepy, but we were all very decidedly dry-eyed. Our whole troupe very much needs a break from this.

We slammed through rapid-fire show runs until lunch while a helicopter circled overhead. It was @bioreconstruct, a local guy who charters a helicopter to fly over the new park and get footage of the construction. I won't link to his accounts because he's peeking into the park without permission I assume, and with the NDA I can't share his footage. But it's easy to google him and find his videos yourself if you want spoilers.

After lunch we took a field trip....to SUPER NINTENDO WORLD!!!

(artist rendering from WDWmagic)

I was so excited to come here! And it was better than expected!
While the park was still heavily under construction (especially the Donkey Kong portion) there were a lot of fun interactive elements that we got to try out. I can share more about this "world" because technically it already exists in Japan AND Universal Studios Hollywood, and there's loads of existing footage of what's in store.

We split into groups of 3 or 4, and each group was given a "power up band" which helps you to interact with objects in the park.

Watch on YouTube

(borrowed from YouTube)

Even if you don't have the band there's still a lot to do...like punching the iconic question blocks, bricks, and POW blocks. I ran around punching as many blocks as I could until my hand was sore! They've constructed the bottom of the bricks to be very satisfying to punch, and the sound effects, as you can see from the video, are true to the game.

Additionally there were mini-games hidden throughout the park. A lot of these involved insanely hi-def interactive screens and effects, or required you to put in a good physical effort to get results. It felt like you were really IN a Mario game!

This video does a good job of summing up the mini games available. I played 2-3 of these with my group and it was awesome.

Watch on YouTube

There weren't any character meet-and-greets yet, or live entertainment offerings (I mean the games ARE the entertainment) so once we'd done a round of games we returned to our own world breathless and happy. To be honest, this world was a bit overstimulating with all the music and noise and activity, but the fun factor made up for it!

We then slammed through a few more show run throughs, and before we were released for the day our show director gave a little speech thanking all of us for our hard work and reflecting on our rehearsal time together. He'll be back in a few weeks for brush-up rehearsals (because our important prop piece is not ready yet, I suspect, and he needs to train us on it) so this wasn't a goodbye, just a "Good job and see you again soon."

And finally, we were given permission to take a photo against the blankest of blank white walls that we could find!
So here we all are, everyone who was involved in this five-week rehearsal marathon for our show (name of our group is top secret and TBA)
Congrats on making it through, and here's to opening Epic Universe Ministry of Magic together!

Back home, Jameson was recovering well and had done quite a bit of working from home! He has also booked a trip to Hawaii for a friend's wedding in September, which I'm VERY pleased about because he never takes vacations and he is so incredibly overdue for one. I told him excitedly about our visit to Super Nintendo World and as a gamer he was very jealous (sorry dear!) then I unpacked, practiced bass trombone, and we had a nice quiet night.

(Taking this opportunity to add that there's a Friends Only post going up alongside this one, with more "sneak peak"-ish things...)

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Saturday my blessed day off, but full of catch-up work.

I woke up too early but used the time to type this up and enjoy Me Time with coffee and breakfast.
Then laundry, and starting my newly-received transcription job, and when Jameson got up and went out for errands I vacuumed and cleaned our bathrooms and practiced bass trombone and packed for Disney tomorrow. More transcription after lunch, then we drove downtown to see Alton Brown at the Dr. Phillips Center!

Jameson and I both enjoy competition cooking shows, so when he asked if I wanted to see Alton this weekend I was thrilled!

Finding dinner downtown on a weekend has become more and more nutty, even with more restaurants popping up. We tried a new Mexican place that looked nice, but after we were seated we were completely ignored for a solid 20 minutes. No water, no "sorry about the wait," no nothing. So....we left :p and probably won't be back. Instead we went to The Bao Spot, which is a weird little hole in the wall that is for some reason space-themed and where the food is served completely at random. We'd been here once before when going to see Peter Pan, and knew that even if service was lacking at least the food is awesome.

Jameson got his UFO burger 20 minutes before I got my bao, and was therefore completely finished with his food by the time I started eating. Also, since we'd sat around at the Mexican place for 20 and my food took 20 to arrive at the bao place, I then had to rush to eat so we could get over to the Phillips on time. Whatever, I had the soft shell crab bao again and it was fantastic, and tried a "cosmic fish" bao that was good but not as good as the crab.

Our seats were up in the balcony, but I'd never been up there at this venue and am always excited to see new stuffs. Plus, we could see the stage clearly and got to see the spikes on the stage for misc props.

The show was basically Alton talking about parts of his life and career, and tying those parts in to food science such as thermodynamics and steam as vector for power. He demonstrated his favorite type of cooktop (carbon steel) by making an omelette right there on stage, and the grand finale was bringing four volunteers up on stage to do a steamed hot dog assembly line complete with condiments! That was hilarious and fun to watch, and fit the whole Alton Brown brand of food-humor. We learned a lot and really enjoyed the show, and I hope he's been having fun traveling the US and putting his knowledge and incredible life story on display!

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Sunday I woke a bit confused...Epic or Disney? Ah, it's Sunday, so it's a Disney day.

The normal morning routine, and I packed up my transcription stuff and brought it to the Magic Kingdom with me. I was surprised to see this sign on the door of the warm-up room:

"Chickens" refers to the fluffy white plumes on the band's hats!

The sign is telling us to take the plumes off our hats today because of the wind.
The plumes can go flying off, and sometimes bring the whole hat with it!

The parade was fine, our first set was fine. Between events I did transcription.
Our second parade was canceled because there was a guest band participating.
And then it was raining, so the second set was canceled as well.
And finally, we walked out to do flag retreat...and it started raining!

So, it was a very easy day. I was grateful...the guys were in a cheery mood because they got a break, and I got time to rest and transcribe.

When I got home Jameson was out with friends, so I did my usual thing of packing lunch/dinner, practicing bass, and I was gonna transcribe a bit more but ended up writing and posting this instead.

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Monday: Another day at the Magic Kingdom. It's not supposed to rain, but IS supposed to be in the mid-60s!

Tuesday: My first Epic Universe rehearsal as ONE trio, instead of all of us there at the same time. I wonder what we'll do?

Wednesday: A day off!! I have so much to catch up on but it's gonna be a lot of transcription.

On Sunday night after Main Street Philharmonic rehearsal, Jameson took me to the Be Our Guest restaurant at Belle's castle as an early birthday present!

Well, before that, our reservation was at 8pm so we had several hours to kill.

Right now it is between "tourist seasons," no major holidays going on, so foot traffic at the Magic Kingdom was fairly light. As a result we got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Under the Sea, and The Barnstormer in quick succession. Somewhere in there we used our castmember coupons to get a free pretzel and a bottle of water. I have been saying this since becoming a castmember, but what a thing it is to be able to just throw on my ID badge and walk around Disney at any time. What a massive privilege.

We arrived at Belle's Castle right as the evening fireworks were going off, which was quite magical!
( Be Our Guest Restaurant )

Full and happy, we walked to the backstage gate that I normally use with the Main Street Philharmonic, then Jameson had to go to guest parking for his car while I slipped backstage, gathered my things from the band break room, and rode the company bus to the employee lot.

This was a magical night, and I'm so grateful. Jameson is very thoughtful...the best :)

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Monday it was back to the rehearsal grind.
Weirdly, despite all the pressure to memorize and learn quickly and do a zillion repetitions per day, it now feels like we are AHEAD. We're getting more breaks, and the focus is on small nuances of acting and doing full runs of the show rather than lines or the music.

We are still waiting on an important prop, and of course there will be more costume fittings. But...you guys, I think the show is SET. I think that if we had to perform tomorrow live in the park, we could all do it.

We did get to at least SEE our important prop for the first time, and it's beautiful! But there are still some kinks to be worked out in the design so we weren't allowed to mess with it just yet. Throughout the day we had several other casts walk through our "world," so each set of us got to do a full run with a real audience. All of the runs went great (there were some technical difficulties but OUR performances were on point.)

On the way home I stopped at Target because Tuesday is my birthday and I wanted to bring treats for everyone. I got mini sodas and seltzers, some chocolates, an assorted mini cookie tray, a tub of savory snack mix, and some fruit gummies. Kinda overdid it probably but whatever, we need a pick-me-up and any leftovers will be quickly snatched by the rest of the entertainment department.

At home I put everything away, packed breakfast and lunch, ordered dinner for pickup tomorrow, washed our bedsheets and put fresh sheets on the bed, emptied the dishwasher, showered, and typed up this post. By then it was 9:30pm.

I cannot wait for these full time rehearsals to be over.
Do you guys realize I've been eating dinner in the car, while driving, almost every day for the past three weeks?
Tired of it.

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Tuesday I was up 15 minutes early to allow for loading up the car with birthday treats, picking up my dinner (a Panera breakfast sandwich) and getting to the rehearsal building early to set up the treats. Everyone appreciated them :)

We went out into the park as usual, but the vibe was kinda off today. It just seemed like a percentage of us were sort of...over it. Including myself. Our show director wanted new choreo for one section, and it was actually a really good change that had us moving more and being more dynamic. But we learned it almost all in one go, and personally I needed time to rehearse it in parts to be able to remember it all. Eventually we got it, though, and I'm looking forward to getting more comfortable with the new movements.

Nothing really to report...we're all just doing our best out here.

Back home it was bass practice, packing lunch, and a little chill time before bed.

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Wednesday, the only thing special was that someone left a bag of googly eyes out in our green room so I stuck one in the middle of my forehead. Because that's what you DO when there are free googly eyes.

(Fun Fact: the background is intensely blurred because I took this pic in Epic Universe)

A lot of the actors were delighted and copied me...and so throughout the day I saw misc people walking through the park, practicing their roles, with googly eyes on their foreheads. It was pretty damn funny.

Other than that it was just another rehearsal day. We did some run throughs, had some audiences made up of other entertainers and/or construction workers. It's hot outside now so I drank lots of water. During the lunch break I went to Whole Paycheck since my only day off is Saturday and I won't have time for groceries otherwise.

Back home I packed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, practiced bass, had my hour to relax before bed.

Oh also...I have put googly eyes on my trombone.

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Friday: More rehearsal, of course.

Saturday: A day off. I'll catch up on what I can but need to rest too.

Sunday: Subbing with the Main Street Philharmonic all day.

Thursday's rehearsal was more interesting and dramatic than expected. Lots of ups and downs.
(DISCLAIMER: The opinions in this post and my blog in general are my own personal opinions and views, and do not represent or reflect the opinions or views of either my third party employer or Universal. There, I said it.)

REHEARSAL
We started off indoors running the script in groups a few times, probably because our show director had something to handle and needed to keep us occupied in the meantime. Then we went out to the park and set up in the same area as on Wednesday, not our performance area but nearby. We ran through the music about three times, then did run throughs of the show, then had to relocate to get out of the way of misc cherry pickers that were roaming around.

I might have mentioned that construction workers and other entertainers/departments often stop to watch our show rehearsals. Up until this week, we have been the only entertainers actually rehearsing in the Ministry of Magic world. I can see the enjoyment of people who stop to watch us, even though our show is incomplete and a bit weird without costumes/props. And afterward we always get LOADS of compliments...strangers are constantly coming up in the break areas or while we're walking through construction, to tell us how they enjoyed our playing. This is very gratifying. For one thing, pulling a theme park together is stressful for everyone involved and being able to provide a release from that to others, if only for a moment, is a wonderful thing. And second, it cheers me to think about what the guest reaction might be once the park opens!

THE DRAMA
After lunch there was a bit of drama because some of the shops in our "world" were open for test sales, and Universal employees were allowed to come shop there. Understand that this means people were being offered first access to exclusive, never-before-seen, limited edition merch created specifically for this theme park. If you're a Harry Potter fan, that's a BIG deal. So imagine how it felt to excitedly rush over to the shop for this special event, only to be told that because you're a "vendor" (i.e. third party employee), you are not considered a Universal employee, and won't be allowed to buy anything.

Several members of our cast are major HP fans, and so naturally, they were ticked. And frankly, I think they were right to be upset. It is obvious and expected that Universal employees will get perks above and beyond what third party vendors would receive. All of us understand that. But to flaunt that entitlement right in front of our faces today, by restricting us from the merch while Universal employees shopped right in front of us....I think you can see how this is tactless. They should have told us that we weren't included in this special event.

That experience left a sour taste in our mouths.
We were somewhat mollified, though, when we were instead offered the chance to taste-test some guest foods!

THE EATS
Restaurants in each "world" have rehearsals, too. They need to practice making the dishes, and wait staff need to practice greeting guests and reciting menu items and whatnot. And today we'd been rehearsing right outside Cafe Lair de la Siren, so we were invited in for an exclusive dining experience!

(artistic concept of Cafe Lair De La Siren, where we got to eat today. Image from discoveruniversal.com via Universal)

Aaaaaand I CAN'T SHARE ANYTHING ELSE WITH YOU! Arrrrrgh. I am sorry!

Suffice to say the restaurant was beautiful (looks just like the above!), the food was very good especially DESSERT, and guests are really going to enjoy how immersive every aspect of this park is :)

MORE DRAMA
After that some of us were thrown right into a rehearsal "show" for a crowd of Universal entertainment employees and management. The group that performed did an awesome job. Then another group of us was asked to perform for some actors passing through. That group included myself, Rick (clarinet) and Brian (trumpet). It must not have been our lucky day, because one of the guys forgot his line and didn't realize it, which caused the next guy to mess up HIS line and say one for a later part of the script. I was able to clumsily "rescue" us by riffing for a bit until I could spit out a line for the correct scene, but it shook us pretty good and we went through the rest of the show very tense and not doing a very good job.

Afterward our show director had us talk it out: what had happened, why it had happened, ways that we might recover from such, plus encouragement and recommendations for how to move forward with future runs. I felt pretty disheartened and negative about it for about 15 minutes, then my brain whispered, "Hey! You're NOT an actor whatsoever! Remember?" and through that thought I was able to give myself some grace. I'd simply done my best. Brian was also very down on himself about it, so after the coaching session I turned to him and said, "Well, I think that no one can call themselves an actor until they've had an experience like that!" He laughed, and I hope that bucked him up a bit. Because it's true, every actor has bombed a performance, just like every musician has bombed an audition. It's going to happen, so imo just cringe when it happens and then pick yourself up and move on.

At home I told Jameson about the unusually eventful day. I packed lunch but didn't practice, as Thursday has been delegated No Practice Day, thankyaverymuch. Instead I gave my trombone a bath and chilled online while Jameson gamed.

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Friday, and I was so glad but dreading rehearsal because we'd been told to spend the entire day not as ourselves, but as our characters. This meant speaking with their accents, physically doing their mannerisms, and not saying or doing anything that they wouldn't say.

METHOD ACTING
It was HARD.

I know that "real" actors do this all the time, in fact I've seen other acting groups doing it here already, as a group activity. At first I felt annoyed at having to do this, self-conscious and stupid...but then I sort of decided, ya know what, my character is essentially ME already, but with a French accent and without the goofy streak. She's sardonic, and sarcastic and dry, because after all she is FRENCH and also a 1920s female trombonist who has to be witty to survive. But she is also warm toward her fellow musicians, delighted by new things, and interested to hear what others have to say. With a foundational character in mind that IS rather close to my own personality, it became easier to BE HER all day.

Maintaining the new way of speaking for eight hours straight was difficult, and made my mouth tired! But when the show director called me by name ("Hey Megan, you're up next") I simply ignored him, or asked in a French accent who he was looking for, or if he had mistaken me for someone else. And he and I have already been snarking back and forth in general (we have a lot in common so get along well), so now I just did it with a French accent and with sayings that my character might use. It was easy, as I've had a lot of practice snarking at men :p He tried to trip me up and catch me as Myself several times throughout the day, but never once caught me being Me.

By the end of the day I was one of just two cast members who hadn't broken character all day, which is not really an accomplishment but it pleased me anyway. When the director said, "Ok, go home and have a great weekend!" I immediately popped back into Myself, yelled "WOOT, see ya later b*tches!" did a goofy dance and ran away, which got a big guffaw out of my peers. The show director said, "There's Megan! Where have you been all day?" :p :p

OTHER THINGS
Aside from "being our characters" all day, we did several runs with or without audiences just depending on who was walking by. I was very lucky because during my show a group from Celestial Park was walking through, and there were my friends Lea and Meka! Both are dancers/entertainers for that "world" and are also in rehearsal. When I was done I made sure to hug them both and catch up a bit. We didn't get much time but Lea was seeing Jameson later for drinks so certainly I'd get The Tea later.

The Ministry of Magic is really starting to come together around us. So much more signage and decor than there was last week, and all of the animatronics and "fantastic beasts" seemed to be going at once today, they are probably testing those extensively. We are also finally starting to see other Ministry of Magic performers actually in the park (up until now most groups have been rehearsing indoors) so that was very exciting, for us and for them!

(mooncalves being fed, Fantastic Beasts movies)

During my lunch break I saw that the drive to Whole Paycheck was just 12 minutes (in the evening it's 25-30) so I decided to get over there and buy the wings to save myself from fighting traffic at night. It was a good choice, and nice to just be able to go straight home after work today.

During a lull between run throughs our show director took us to the cafe and bought us each an ice cream or cookie, and thanked us for doing a great job, naming each of us and saying something positive about how each person has grown or improved over the past three weeks. He says that at this point he's very happy with the show, and for the final two weeks it'll just be touch-up stuff and minor changes. We are still waiting on props that we'll be using in the show, and probably more costume fittings, but the foundation of what this show will be has been established. That's very exciting, and I hope that we'll have a lot to look forward to after rehearsals are done.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the Ministry of Magic merch, and the general vibe, is AWESOME.
Of course I can't give details, but will say just this:

Think of the Roaring 20s fashions in Paris and America.
Then add a Wizarding World twist (robes, wands, fantastical creature patterns, etc).

Yep.

Back home I put the groceries away, played bass trombone for 30 minutes, typed this up, and tried to stay awake past 10pm. Jameson was out with Lea and we caught up when he got back home.

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Saturday I was up relatively early to return the bass trombone case to my friend Bill, who had repaired my bass when it showed up damaged over Christmas. I was supposed to bring him homemade caramels, but there has just not been enough time to make them due to the setting, cutting and wrapping that's required. He'll get them eventually, just not today. We chatted for a bit, just general trombone nerd stuff. Then I left and hit Publix for a few things, then back home to wolf down lunch and practice trombone.

Packed a bag and a meal and an outfit for Main Street Philharmonic rehearsal. I feel like I've neglected the music for this gig, and feel guilty about it. But it can't be helped with all that's going on.

In the evening I made air fryer wings and Jameson ordered a pizza. I did laundry, we watched The Traitors, he gamed.
I watched several episodes of From the New World(Shinsekai Yori) which is a criminally underrated anime that feels appropriate in these times.

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Sunday, Main Street Philharmonic rehearsal!

I was up early to eat brekky and pack meals for Monday since I likely won’t want to do that tonight. Drove to Disney and walked the Utilidors under the castle for the first time in a while.

I watched the band’s first set since they were doing the Classics Medley, which is one I struggle with.

Ate lunch and then practiced for the second set and parade (I did the parade last week,) then did the third set with the band. Chatted with the guys throughout the day and got all caught up on their doings.

I went out to watch them do flag retreat, and as they were finishing Jameson met me and we headed toward the castle.

We had three hours to kill before our reservation, so went on several rides and had some snacks to tie us over.

I’ll share what we did and how the Be Our Guest Restaurant was in the next post :)

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Monday through Thursday: more Epic Universe rehearsals. Practicing my Disney stuff a bit extra to make sure I’m prepared to sub for Keith on Sunday. Not much else!

(IMPORTANT: I was asked by my third-party employer to remove an IG story last night, simply because I added a picture of the Epic Universe logo.

Since the IG story in no way violated my NDA, I'm going to choose to continue sharing already-public information in this blog, such as press media or articles that any of you could easily look up yourselves.

THAT SAID: if my posts start becoming more scanty or if you see them edited after being shared publicly, understand that there's a lot of pressure to keep pretty much everything confidential until the park opens. It's annoying, I'm annoyed too, but that's how it is. Thanks.)

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Thursday was a difficult commute. I got cut off by a pickup on an exit ramp causing me to brake hard and spill coffee all over (luckily just in my cupholders but it was a big puddle in there) so had to then stop at Wawa to clean it up, which made me late to Universal, which was slammed with another orientation so it took me nearly 20 minutes to find VERY far away parking, practically run to security only to find a line out the door, and finally get through to rehearsal.

This is the second day in a row I've been late-by-my-standards (I was not even five minutes late but I do not like to be late AT ALL) so I'll be getting up extra early tomorrow to ensure that I'm there at a reasonable time.

The day continued to be crummy for me, I had bad headache and we spent the day mostly running the music which was deafening in the small rehearsal room. I can't wait for this weather to clear up so we can rehearse outside. I wore earplugs and took Motrin and made it through.

Partway through the day we got to do some run-throughs. Three of us were chosen to do both run-throughs, and tbh I felt sore about it. But I can understand that our show director probably wanted to put forth those of us with the highest energy and stage chemistry, which is definitely not me. Had to chide myself a bit and remember that a year ago, or five years ago, I never would have even attempted perform as an actor much less actually WANT to be on stage acting in front of an audience! For god's sake, I've never even been brave enough to try karaoke, and here I am whinging that I didn't get asked to act today. It's a miracle that I've been asked to act at all. Besides, we'll all have a chance to perform before our five weeks are up.

Well I did get over it pretty quickly, and was glad to work on other things for the rest of the day.
Traffic getting home was terrible, it took me over an hour to drive the 18 miles. Luckily I'd already promised myself a day off from trombone practice. Caught up with Jameson, packed lunch for tomorrow, and enjoyed typing this blog and watching One Punch Man.

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Friday! So glad to be at the weekend!

Aerial photo of the park. Ministry of Magic is the big white building(s) squatting to the right of the hotel (the hotel is the one top-center with all the gold domes on top.)

(photo publicly available on orlandoparkstop.com)

Close-up of the Ministry of Magic/Place Cachée. Place cachée is French for "hidden place" and it's the wizarding portion of Paris in the 1920s. Similar in concept to Diagon Alley.

(photo publicly available on orlandoparkstop.com)

Today made up for how crummy Thursday had been.

I got to do two full run-throughs!
Our show director pulled me aside before the first one to ask if I was ready...and maybe to fret a little himself about whether I was ready. I said, "Look, I've never acted before, but I've performed on stage before, at other theme parks. I'm not gonna embarrass you." He laughed at that and let me go on. I had my book off to the side, and did reach for it several times when the nerves got to me, but never managed to get it on the right pages so it didn't really help! But I had been so close to being "off-book" at that point anyway that it didn't matter. There were a few spots where I forgot my music but I just laid out in those small moments. Speaking from musical experience, it's better to lay out than try and make something up and sound bad.

For the second run, it started off as just another rehearsal behind closed doors to help us feel more comfortable. I'd left my book all the way across the room because since it was just us rehearsing, I figured it'd be a good time to ACTUALLY try going off-book.

And so OF COURSE that's when a line of important-looking Universal execs walked in to watch.
Thanks a lot, Murphy's Law!

But you know what, I went on like they weren't there and just did my very best, like I had already planned to do whether they'd been in the room or not. And afterward they smiled and said, "Great job," and left.

You guys,
today was the first time
in my life
that I have ever acted.
At all.

I got up in front of 30-some people and did a xx-minute show as an imaginary person.
Younger Me would NEVER.
I guess we really do change as we get older.
I was nervous, but I didn't CARE that I was nervous. I just felt nervous and DID IT.

And after the first run, lots of people made a point to tell us that we did a great job including our show director.
Honestly it is so crazy to think about, now that I've done it.
Whatever happens from here, I'm grateful to have had this experience.

Also, I am now the first person in our cast to go completely off-book!
Some folks have memorized the music but not the lines, or vice versa. I'm the first to do a whole show with no book at all.
That did make me feel good today :)

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Saturday, I was thrilled to have a day ooooooofffff!!!
I do look forward to rehearsals but it's been a very intense two weeks, and breaks are very much needed and appreciated.

Woke up at 7:30 and breakfast and anime, and when Jameson got up to go to the gym I went out for bagels and groceries, came home and cleaned the bathrooms, and started to practice bass trombone but my lips are rather chapped and I've played for six days straight so decided it was OK to not touch the trombone today at all.

Instead I was a burrito in the sun.

Jameson's car appointment took longer than expected (don't they always) so I was very lazy. Stayed wrapped in my burrito blanket, dozed a bit, had some tea and snacks, watched YouTube videos, and enjoyed the quiet of the house. Jameson eventually came back with dinner and we watched Traitors and more splatting in front of the TV. An email went out asking all of us to have our music fully memorized by Monday, which gives some people only a day and a half to get it in their brains, and that's not even counting the script. I feel relieved to not have to worry about it but bad for the people who do. People can't be expected to memorize at the same pace, and we all have other jobs and lives outside of this new theme park that take time away from that, too. We'll see who's able to get it done by Monday, but stragglers should not be made to feel bad if they don't meet this sudden deadline.

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Sunday, it's finally getting back above 60°F (15.5°C) and sunny. Hooray!

Slept in "late" to 8am, breakfast and packing my lunch for Monday.
Jameson got up and went to the gym and while he was gone I practiced bass and did a run-through of my Epic Universe stuff just to make sure it's solid for Monday. When Jameson got back we had lunch, then it was so nice out that I just had to go for a walk. The neighborhood is quiet because there are fewer tourists this time of year, plus the animals are still in hiding from the cold. So it was just me and the sun and the breeze.

For dinner we went to a K-Pot that's popped up in Margaritaville nearby. We haven't been out to eat together in too long. I forgot my phone which is a shame because no pictures, but it's just as well because this is the type of thing where you're cooking your own food and we had stuff spread all over the table, not to mention sputtering oils on the grill and sauces dripping and yada yada.

Here are some stock photos from the KPot site so you can get an idea, if you've never done this. You have a pot of boiling broth, in which you place meats and veg and noodles and dumplings, simmering them together until they're tender. Then there's a little round grill which you baste in oil before adding your thinly-sliced meats or veggies. There's a sauce bar where you can use premade sauces or make your own, to season your food before grilling.

Jameson got a spicy seafood broth and I went with a fragrant herb broth. He did shrimp, octopus, different cuts of beef, mushrooms, and dumplings. I did spicy white fish, brisket, bok choy, pumpkin, and dumplings. I made us a sweet-hot peanut sauce that was BOMB, we ended up dipping almost all of the brisket in it. We each had a drink too.

It was lots of fun, and I ate WAY more than usual but it's so rare for me to overeat that once in a while will do me no harm. Plus, I think this is relatively healthy considering you're not adding butter or dairy and everything is boiled or grilled.

Went home to digest and rest up, because here comes the last week of January.

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This week we'll be outside for most Epic Universe rehearsals, weather and construction permitting. I have nothing special planned, just rehearsing all day, practicing Disney stuff after rehearsals, and trying not to worry about the political turmoil...looming like a distant tsunami which will inevitably, unequivocally roll ashore and impact us all.

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.

After breakfast I got bundled up for the cold and hoofed it over to the nearest Bank of America, about a mile away.

I went there for a "banker's check," because the person I'm buying a bass trombone from would like to be paid that way. He lives in California, so the trombone will have to make it intact all the way across the country to Florida. It's a $,$$$ check and it made me cringe to spend that kind of money. But if I get the gig I'm hoping for, I'll get that money back and then some.

After that, walked to a Salvation Army nearby and had to wait outside for 15 minutes because I got there too early. Stamping my feet in the cold and pacing like an idiot. Finally they opened, and I warmed up and enjoyed browsing for nothing-in-particular. I'm always on the lookout for new khakis (I only have one pair left and they're very old) and black dress shirts, but I never find these things. Instead, look at this FABULOUS shirt that I found!

It's hard to see in the pic, but it's a dark blue stretchy fabric with sparkling stars all over it. The stars sparkle silver or multicolored depending on light. It was only $4 so I bought it, and we'll see if I actually drum up the guts to wear it in public.

Walked back home, and on the way received some ASTOUNDING GOOD NEWS which I can't share yet but if you're an LJ Friend you know what it is! For now I can only say that it's a life-changing job opportunity, and I DO need that bass trombone after all! Overwhelmed with this, I unpacked my things and ate lunch in a daze, then started a load of laundry and spent much of the afternoon trying to gather my thoughts.

The evening show was fine, as far as I could tell. I am in the women's dressing room this week, and while I enjoy having my own space it's also nice to sit with a group of women, chat about this and that, hear everyone's plans and upcoming auditions post-tour, stuff like that.

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Friday, I could hardly sleep at all because every time I woke up my heart and brain were racing with this new job opportunity and what lies ahead. I'll tell you this much, it's another tour. And so I had an insomniac sort of night of randomly reading a book or googling this and that to try and lull myself back to sleep.

Breakfast and only a few free hours before we had to commute to the theatre for the first of two shows. I was extra-hungry so ate a Pop Tart. Show was ok but the audience was lame, very lukewarm.

During the break I stayed at the theatre and “air-tromboned” the music for my next tour. I’ve played through it before, but now that I know I’ve GOT the gig, it feels different. I’m making it “mine,” if that makes sense. A really nice feeling.

The evening show was all right, all of our shows are well-attended right now in the lead-up to Christmas.

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Saturday morning was more exciting than expected.

Upon checking my email, was shocked to see that I'd been offered a callback on a recent audition that I took...

...yeeees, the one that I'd assumed was a public rejection, after they posted a new audition listing and started specifically looking for "female trombonists" only AFTER I'd sent my materials in. Now I guess I have to open mouth insert foot on that. The callbacks are in early January. I won't be able to access my other trombones or audition materials until the week of the audition. Which isn't a problem per se, but it means I'll have less time to work on preparing than many others. But I will do my best.

After that exciting news I walked to Shapiro's for black-and-white cookies for the band. And more excitement happened!
The cashier's name was Greg, a really cool guy who was over the moon about the fact that I'm a trombonist visiting on tour. He hooked me up with a dozen fresh cookies, and also this fabulous Shapiro's Deli shirt with a pickle on it!!

As if that weren't amazing enough, as Greg was excitedly pelting me with questions about touring and tromboning, someone came up behind me and said, "Excuse me, but are you talking about trombones?" It was my facebook friend and fellow trombonist Josh! We've never met in person, but he knew me right away (I think it's the iconic raspberry pea coat that I wear everywhere) and we got to hug and take a quick selfie. What are the odds that we'd both be in the restaurant at the same time, on the same day? How cool!

We wished each other well on our respective gigs (He's doing a local production of "White Christmas") and chatted a bit about bass trombones since I'm buying one and he's primarily a bass trombonist. But we both had to be on our way after that. Great start to the morning!

We had two shows again, and I stayed at the theater again between shows to eat dinner and "air trombone" my new tour music. I would've liked to explore Butler University's campus, but it has been bitter cold here plus most of the buildings are closed for the weekend/holiday already.

Both shows went well and were well attended. We can probably expect some nice overage pay from Indianapolis!

Also, tonight marked the final performances of Jollywood at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
I wish I could have attended at least one show, but it wasn't meant to be this year.
Congratulations to the cast, crew, and Muppets involved. What a fantastic production to be a part of!
And of course, special congrats to my dear Jameson (pictured here with his friend and fellow performer, Lea)

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Sunday, I had gone to bed late because someone in the room above me was stomping around like an elephant until 1am :(
And also got up early because that's how I am :( :(

Made the best of it by packing lunch and dinner, eating breakfast, partially packing my luggage, and starting a new Megan's Foodie Finds for the next tour :) When the sun came out I bundled up and walked to CVS for a protein shake because I shorted myself one this week, plus I feel like I've been too sedentary because of the cold.

At the theatre, our two shows felt very long indeed. The vibe, from everyone, was wanting a break and wanting to go home and see family for Christmas. Still, both shows went well and nothing crazy happened. For the first show Mr. and Mrs. Boyce (Jameson's parents) showed up with Jameson's brother Kevin and his wife Debbie. We got to chat briefly afterward, and it was really great to see them and give hugs all around :)

After the second show I felt very impatient for my carpool to hurry up and pack (I'm always the first one out of the pit) but made myself relax. A few more minutes doesn't get me to Orlando and Jameson any sooner. Before I knew it we were back at the hotel.

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Tomorrow I'm flying with the tour to Charlotte, which for me is a layover and for them is the final city on tour.
From there I'm flying to Orlando to spend as much time with Jameson as possible over Christmas.
I'll be driving back up the east coast on Christmas Day to Charlotte, where Elf will have it's final shows.

Monday: Travel day, last-minute Christmas shopping

Tuesday: Christmas Eve Day, probably unwrapping presents with Jameson and having a nice dinner together

Wednesday: 10-hour drive to Charlotte

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!

Firefly petunias went on preorder on Sunday night, so I was up WAY too late ordering them as gifts for my ENTIRE FAMILY haha.
After a super early breakfast, piled onto the charter bus at 7am and off we went.

For this trek we had to cross all of Pennsylvania (which, for my overseas friends, is a state that is 283 miles or 433 km wide!) It generally takes about 7 hours to drive longitudinally across the state.

For us it took close to 10 hours, partly because of traffic and partly because we did two rest stops that were about an hour each.
PA is my home state, and I have driven back and forth on I-80 hundreds of times.
I made sure to be looking at Maps to see my hometown of Bloomsburg as we passed it, because you can't see it from the highway.

Today was also Jameson's birthday!
( Jameson's Birthday )
Meanwhile our lunch stop was at the Pocono outlets in Tannersville. I have lots of fond memories here; being from a small town there was not much shopping locally, so around the holidays my dad would take us for at least one day trip to the outlets. It was a luxury and a special experience, back then. Today I window shopped, and made sure to visit the Gertrude Hawk store as they're a local chocolatier. We used to sell their chocolate bars as fundraisers at school, and dad would always put their Smidgens or Teenie Boppers in our Easter baskets or Christmas stockings :) Today I just got a few truffles from the display case, for the memories.

We finally arrived in Stamford around 5pm, and I bolted out the door to a nearby Japanese grocery!
They had all of the usual candies and snacks you'd expect--Harbio stuff, weird Kit-Kat flavors, rice crackers, dried squid--but the real draw was the prepared food section, which sported a huge variety of traditional Japanese bento, dons, sushi, and sides/appetizers.

They also had sandos, onigiri, a prepackaged baked goods section, and a wall of high-quality matchas and imported teas. And it's right next to the theatre. Knowing that I will not be able to resist going back at least one more time, I limited my basic grocery shopping mostly to breakfast items. We're only here for the weekend anyway...why not enjoy some REAL Japanese food?

Tonight's dinner was this grilled eel bento with seasoned white rice, assorted pickled veggies, sweet glazed pumpkin cubes, a seaweed and/or dried mushroom salad, and slices of tamago. It was absolutely LOVELY.

I also got these "sweet wheat crackers with chestnut," and unfortunately they were pretty gross haha. They had a bizarre fishy aftertaste which I hadn't expected at all. Their texture was also weird and grainy, like rehydrated beans. Solid nope!

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Would have liked to sleep all day on Friday, but having been on a bus for 10 hours yesterday I knew I should get out a bit.

This hotel does not have a microwave or free coffee, so here are my familiar travel companions: a collapsible silicone hot water kettle, an Aeropress, and an Itaki steam cooker! Made myself some lovely oatmeal with yogurt and berries, and coffee :)

A little time to chill and then I took myself for a walk to get local bagels (blueberry, pumpernickel, wheat) and to pick up a pizza from Colony Grill because my friend Bill INSISTED.

Colony Grill, established 1935 by Irish immigrants, has been serving this same style of pizza through both World Wars and up through present day. They're a chain now, but this location in Stamford is The Original. I wasn't inside for long but it was a lovely old bar decorated with headshots of service professionals who have eaten there over the years.

What makes this pizza special is the ultra-thin crust and the way the cheese is thinly spread and caramelized. Also, the "hot oil" is a MUST. I got light cheese (because lactose intolerance) and hot oil on half. The texture was incredible, crispy and lightly charred with chewy, browned cheese and savory sauce. The hot oil was amazing.

Luckily these pizzas are quite small and light, so I ended up eating 3 of 6 pieces and saving the rest for later.
If you're ever in Stamford, take my friend Bill's advice and get you a pizza from Colony!

After that I relaxed, hydrated, and did some online Christmas shopping. I've been very stressed lately with Certain Things going on. My next job isn't until Monday, and I am grateful to be able to recuperate a bit.

We only had sound check and one show in the evening. The pit is cramped, but the one in upcoming Red Bank, NJ is supposedly even worse so this is good practice for that. The theatre, like most theatres, is beautiful.

Everything went just fine, and despite being a small audience the crowd was the most enthusiastic one we've had yet. I looked out and saw a sea of Elf hats and Christmas sweaters, and there were loads of kids in attendance. During intermission so many crowded the edge of the pit that most of the guys went and hid under the stage overhang haha. I was in a decent mood so decided to interact, and asked if anyone had questions:

"What are all those?" (the HEDGE of woodwind instruments)
"What are those bottles?" (the trumpet mutes)
"How can you hear each other?" (I showed them the Aviom and describe a bit of how it works)
"What do YOU play?" (showed trombone and made slidey noises)
"Why's the drummer in a box?" (LOL, explained that the drummer is very loud and if he weren't in a box you wouldn't be able to hear what the actors are saying)

Over the weekend we have four shows, I hope the crowds will stay enthusiastic :)

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Saturday, breakfast and messing with a personal project, then walking to the Japanese grocery again for takoyaki.

Ate them for lunch and they were lovely despite being cold.

The first show was fine, though we had audio issues throughout.
The second show was also fine, audio issues were better and it seemed to fly by quickly.

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Sunday, I did not WANT to be up early but also wanted to get laundry out of my face and early is the best time to do that, because no one else on tour will be up and the washers are likely to be free.

I packed such minimal clothing this time that I need to do laundry once a week, which is one of the many catch-22s of saving weight in one's luggage. Emailed some family that I haven't been in touch with, packed gradually for bus travel tomorrow, reviewed corrections to my transcription work recently made by a proofreader. On one case I did pretty lousy, on the other I did surprisingly well. Will be interested to see how many corrections are needed on the recent Punjabi case that I did.

There were two shows today, one at 12:30 and one at 6pm.
First show was fine, very noisy as there were lots of kids in the audience.
Second show was fine too, also noisy because someone in the cast had guests who were screaming and cheering for them! I hope that felt nice :) Our understudy for Buddy was also in for the first time and did a great job, especially since it was last minute.

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Monday: Travel to NJ. It's a short bus ride so we are leaving late and also stopping at some shopping plaza to kill time (hotels generally don't have rooms ready until after 3pm.) I'll hit a grocery and start a new transcription project.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: Transcription, transcription, transcription, and a show on each day.

The opening night show went well. The band had one snafu that almost derailed us, but we hung on and kept going and made it without crashing. It's during a dance number so if we mess up, it's bad for everyone on stage too. I'm sure it'll get worked out....

I should backtrack. Before the show started as audience members were filtering in, I popped out of the pit to go backstage (the pit entrance is through the audience here.) To my surprise my internet friend Ryan appeared out of the crowd! He's someone I've known since my circus days, and though I can't recall exactly how we met (his social pages are sparse) we've been friends online for many years. He'd come to see the show, and brought me a block of locally-made maple walnut fudge! How awesome!

I'm going to cut and wrap pieces to share with the band :)

During intermission our MD wanted a group photo, so here we all are!
I got cut out of the first attempt, so they insisted I get closer, so now I'm TOO CLOSE and became a lurker lmao

My friend Ryan came down to the pit while we were doing the Exit Music, and took a picture of me! Evidence that I work here, y'all!
I look like I'm about to cry lol. Sometimes you make the weirdest faces while playing :p

After that we all packed up and went over to Firebird Tavern for the opening night party. It was simple, no decorations or fancy cake or "swag bags," but there was lots of really good food and an open bar.

Gonna be honest, I went straight to the bar and slammed down a glass of red wine. I feel like I've been tense and anxious ever since coming out here, there's no one here that I really know, the cast is overwhelmingly male, and then there was the election of essentially a person who views women as property, as breeding cattle, as something to be used and thrown away. Being surrounded by a sea of men at this particular time has not made me feel comfortable or reassured.

You get me?

So I initiated my buzz and spent the rest of the night trying to scream conversations at people over the raucous actors. Mostly I ended up with the MD, as he had questions for me about life on the circus and I wanted to know more about his international tour with The Sound of Music. When Sam (the Director) got up and waved goodbye without giving a speech, I took that as my cue to leave as well. It was a nice party, in general these seem like nice people to work with although in full honesty I feel like an outlier here. But I will make do, and hopefully this will just be a Fun Experience For Humans in the end.

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Thursday, breakfast and typing this up and finishing my transcription editing, submitting it.

A quick Jameson update: last night he told me that his hand, which he injured last year around this time while working Jollywood, has started hurting again in the same way :( He's doing his therapy exercises, but after a certain level of playing it seems to be not enough. He will be looking into surgery options again. Part of me wishes he wouldn't...I feel like, what if surgery only makes it worse? But he's an adult and I will voice my concerns and he will decide.

Walked to a Meijer to supplement groceries, and along the way saw many nice things in Detroit.

The rest of the day was uneventful. At showtime I got dressed and cut up the fudge to share with the guys. At the theatre I queued up at the production office to sign up for a seat on the next travel day bus. This is a thing that NETworks does and Troika doesn't, apparently. I'll still be sharing a seat; I just wanted one nearer the center of the bus to reduce motion sickness.

Found my dressing room on the 4th floor, which was surprisingly JUST FOR ME. Rarely do I get my own dressing room! But also, there was a swag bag in there! I'd expected to see these at the company party but I guess they distributed them this way instead.

Wandered and looked at wall tags until it was time to play the show.
It went well again, we had one Notion snafu again but I doubt the audience noticed.

Back at the hotel I decided to do laundry because I need to practice staying up later for the upcoming overnight Disney rehearsal. I also opened my swag bag and found an Elf laundry bag, and an Elf embroidered fleece sweater! How nice!

It is a little big on me, but I don't mind.

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Friday, we only had one show in the evening. I woke up to a new transcription job...in Punjabi! That should be fun!

I got to work on it right away and not surprisingly this case is going to take extra time. No more exploring for me here in Detroit.

For lunch I picked up a nice prosciutto + arugula + fig jam sandwich from a local Italian deli. Nothing else to report, I worked on transcription pretty much all day with just a few breaks for resting my eyes and stretching my legs. And I still barely made any headway :( But some cases will be like that, and if I keep plugging along it'll be all right.

The evening show went pretty well, we get better each time. Notion did not interfere with us today :p

Jameson had his final dress rehearsal for Jollywood tonight...the show premieres tomorrow!!! I'm so excited for him, and hope it all goes well! He says that Kermit the Frog has a special interaction with the band, and I hope to catch that when videos start popping up on YouTube.

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Saturday I was up early. We had three shows at 10, 3, and 8.
Feels just like the circus! It's been ages since I did a three-show day. Hope I can handle it!
They're even providing catering between shows for us, how nice!

Since I've somehow landed my very own dressing room here, I had a nice private space to work on my job between shows. After each show I went to the catering room to grab a plate of food, brought it here to eat, then got to work.

It still took forever because this judge is a spaz :p
By the time we got to the last show, I'd only gotten about 30 minutes of headway and had only just gotten to the actual cross-examination. But some progress is better than none.

Meanwhile Jameson was having opening night at Hollywood Studios/Jollywood, premiering the Disney Holidays in Hollywood show!
For now I've only got this picture from last year, but he's up there again on stage with the Muppets, Tiana, Belle, and more! The whole cast has been doing overnight rehearsals for the past four days in a row. Certainly everyone is exhausted, but this show is SO GOOD. I hope it was an awesome opening night for everyone involved!

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Sunday I woke up to a rainy day and swollen lips.

We had one more matinee. I ate breakfast and worked on transcription until lunchtime, then walked to that Italian deli again for a turkey sub (it was awesome.)

The afternoon show went well. One thing that I've noticed about Elf is that people are DRESSING UP for it! Parents and kids are showing up in Christmaswear like sparkly shirts, ugly sweaters, elf hats, string light necklaces, etc. It's really fun! I wish I could take a picture to show you but that's probably some invasion of privacy + there are quite a lot of kids in the audience who don't need their pics on the interwebs.

Speaking of kids, it's been really delightful having the pit ringed by children before the start of each show!
They love to exclaim over all the instruments and pelt us with questions, and it's cute how they get all shy when we answer back or ask them if they're having fun :) I don't like kids much but from a distance they can be all right ;)

After the show I packed up quickly so I could eat dinner and start on transcription.
I was disappointed that we were not offered a wall tag here, but that sometimes happens if there's no one artistic in the cast.

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By the time you read this I'll be on a bus on the way to Erie, PA.
We are only there for two days, then finish the week in Stamford, CT where my sister Raven is coming to a show with some friends.

I'm going to have to focus mostly on finishing this transcription job these next several days, but also need to get into a weekly practice routine.
Touring is not a vacation :p

Sunday, I was up early to have breakfast and finish packing.
A 40-minute ride to the airport, returning the rental car, checking bags, through security. Easy.

This was a Delta flight so I was excited to pester some pilots for trading cards again!
(CLICK HERE to learn about Delta's trading card program, an ongoing employee initiative since 2003)

Lexington airport is relatively small, so I only found one pilot, but he had a card to give and it's a new one for me!
(Remember that you can enlarge the pics by clicking on them)

I thanked him and walked back to the tour group, many of whom asked, "What's that?" so I got to show it off. Most people look at me like I'm insane, but one or two always get SUPER excited and start looking for cards themselves.

The flight was short and uneventful, and in the Detroit airport (which is much larger) I approached three pilots, one of whom didn't have any cards and two others who had giant stacks of them!

The most exciting card was this special edition square-shaped one, minted this year to commemorate the 2024 Paris Olympics and Team USA! How pretty it is!

The other two new ones were an A330 and a 757. I do have cards of these planes, but they're from an earlier year and so these are not duplicates.

I did get two duplicates which I gave to two people on tour who were excited about them :)

We got to the hotel only to find that our rooms weren't ready (it was only 1pm) so I dropped my luggage in a storage room and walked to a Whole Paycheck for groceries. I figured by 3pm our rooms would be available, and I was right. Put groceries away, unpacked, ate dinner, and just as I was finishing my next transcription project showed up in my inbox. I set up my formatting and transcribed up to the Q&A point, then made tea and chilled for the night.

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Monday, breakfast in the room since this hotel doesn't have complementary. The coffee I bought in Kentucky is very good!

Worked on transcription for the entire morning. It's an expected 1:4 ratio for actual audio vs. audio processing time. I worked from 9am-11:30am and fell just short of an hour of actual audio, so my ratio was approx 1:2.5. Considering I got up to pee and stretch and write emails during that time, that's pretty good!

For lunch I decided to get a real taste of Detroit. There was a Buddy's Pizza just a few blocks from our hotel.

The carry-out counter is pretty much the same as one you'd see anywhere, pick your slice and they warm it for you. It was $3.50.

I took it back to the hotel, popped some Lactaid, and enjoyed the cheesy goodness.

After that I took a little time to figure out my macros for coming days and chat with Jameson, then it was back to transcription until 3:30. That left me about halfway through the audio which I'm very pleased about. Went for a short walk to a local grocery just to check it out. It was like one of those tiny NYC convenience/grocery stores, tightly packed like a little maze but with everything you could imagine. You can kinda see by the ceiling lights how far the maze extends.

I got back to the hotel just in time to get a text from our MD that we have ANOTHER day off tomorrow, and did anyone want their instruments now? (per IATSE rules, we won't be allowed in the theater until the show day.) I said yes and hustled over to the stage door to get my trombone and practice mute.

Back at the hotel, got an email from the Orlando Philharmonic with an offer for a Holiday Pops gig! Obviously I can't take it and am pretty sad, but grateful to have been asked, and hopefully they'll consider me for other work after the holidays are over.

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Tuesday. It is so weird to have a second day in a row with no shows or rehearsals. I wondered if it's because of the election, or just coincidental?

Breakfast and straight into more transcription until noon, lunch, then brushing up on my memorized Disney music. It's been a while since I've practiced at a hotel and I felt shy about it, but used a practice mute and I would hope that between 1-2pm most people would be awake anyway...

After that finished my transcription (still need to do the edit/review), had dinner, made tea, felt depressed about the election. I kept CNBC on with the sound off so I could see the disaster unfold without having to hear the tittering.

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Wednesday. Under His Eye.

Breakfast and packing some snacks before heading to the theater.
The Fox in Detroit is an exact copy of the Fox in St. Louis; even the backstage area is the same. It gave such a strange feeling of deja vu, to be in a city I've never visited before yet to feel so familiar in this space.

The lights weren't up yet.

The iconic chandelier after the lights were brought up.

Backstage, it's just like in St. Louis: The stairs and halls are covered in signatures and wall tags from artists all around the world, famous and forgotten, spanning decades.

I found two Elf tags, one from 2017 and one from 2022. Certainly we will get one, too.
(Remember that you can enlarge the pics by clicking on them)

We did a run-through of the show that went pretty well. Tonight is opening night, and I hope the show will go smoothly and people will have a lovely time. Laughs are certainly needed today.

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Tonight is our opening night party, so you'll see pics of that in the next post :)
I'm looking forward to meeting people, and I know that there are some My Fair Lady and Tootsie cast in this ensemble as well!

Thursday: Finishing and sending transcription project, groceries for the weekend, if there's time I'll sightsee before the show.

Friday: Laundry, possibly another transcription assignment, possibly lunch with a local relative whom I don't know well, a show at night.

Saturday: Three shows! Oof. I won't have time for anything but that most likely.

Sunday: Only one show. Packing, transcription, and saying goodbye to Detroit.

You see, I am typing this on September 12th.
We are already nearly halfway through September.

Got up at 6:30am on Thursday, did NOT want to be up that early but life is life.

Did about 1.5 transcription modules, had breakfast, did another 30 minutes until it was time to get ready for work.

Today's hat:

A leather flat cap, handmade in Belgium and selling for around $130.
It's the only flat cap in the shop that looks "ok" on me. I am eating lunch super fast because I was offered a paid 15 in place of an unpaid 30, and took it (money is money.)

It was a very slow shift, I sold what I could but most people were just coming in to kill time before their meal reservations.
At 4pm I clocked out and drove 10 minutes to Epcot.

The Food and Wine Festival is going on right now, so there is Remy and Ratatouille decor everywhere.

( Night at Epcot )
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Friday, I got up at 8 to get as much done as possible before my hat shop shift.
Something I ate or drank last night did not agree with me; I didn't feel nauseous but (TMI WARNING) my body definitely wanted something to get out, ASAP. I suspect the kabob or the carrot salad, it's hard to believe the drinks would've had anything to do with it.

Anyway, those "interruptions" messed up my timeline a bit, but I still did an hour of transcription training, washed our sheets and made the bed, practiced the first act of Elf, and packed myself dinner. I felt exhausted but also know that tomorrow is a day off and maybe I can allow myself to rest a little extra.

Today's hat:

As soon as I walked in Rin, the quietest retail worker I have ever worked with, jumped in front of me in a full-on goth red-and-black getup, 13s painted under her eyes, flapping her arms excitedly. "HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!" she said. Oh! I hadn't realized...but I'd conveniently worn red and grey with black shoes, so thought, why not do a novelty hat to celebrate!

The day started out unfortunately slow but picked up after 8pm thankfully.
And I had a wonderful surprise!

As I finished checking a customer out, a woman came up to the register and said something like, "I hope this isn't weird but...I'm bringing you a part of your digital life, in person!"

It was

brittdreams from DreamWidth!!! She lives nearby and happened to be at Disney Springs, and thought she'd drop in to see if I was working!! AAAAAAAH this was such a treat! I've only ever met my LJ and DW friends a few times in person, but each one of them has been absolutely wonderful. And I admire brittdreams SO MUCH. Like most of us on these blogging sites, she writes about her work and her general life, outings and travels and day-to-day. But in doing so, she shares a deeper look at the challenges that she, specifically, faces, as a black woman. Reading her blog has revealed to me many areas where I've been blind to my entitlements...or rather, society's built-in entitlements. That aside, she also works damn hard at everything she does, and shares her travel adventures (especially what she gets to eat!), and all of this means that I look forward to her posts and root for her endlessly on the interwebs :)

We chatted a bit, as much as we could; the store was kinda busy and she had to get home. But we got to meet in person!! Really made my day!

Before I knew it the shift was over. And back home, Jameson had two pieces of amazing news!

1 - His masters degree arrived in the mail! He's going to get it framed :)

2- While he was holding his degree and pondering what opportunities he could now apply for with it, his phone rang. It was Carnival Cruises, inviting him to interview with them for a music production position!!! He applied for this job over a month ago, really wanted it, and was elated to finally hear back from them today!! I am SO EXCITED for him!!

Of course, we have both had bad luck and let-downs when it comes to exciting interviews/auditions, so my excitement and hope are tempered with bracing myself for the aftermath if he gets rejected. But at least he's got an interview and a chance. This job would take him to Miami, either a few days a week or we'd have to move there (we need more details.) This is actually a factor in our favor, because being touring musicians with no children or pets, we are more flexible than most when it comes to relocating. But again, we need to wait and see.

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Saturday, I was up at 8 to type this post and harvest my jalapenos.

I'm making cowboy candy! It's just jalapenos boiled in sugar and spices, and it tastes fantastic as a topping for eggs, sandwiches, etc. Think spicy pepper jam. Good stuff.

In firefly petunia news, one of my cuttings (the smallest one, that I started out in a dish of water) has survived and is now growing exponentially!! I will repot it before going on tour, and would like to give it as a gift to my Aunt. She has always been so supportive of me, and I'd love for her to have my first cutting from this rare plant.

It glows very nicely, though being so small it's hard to get my camera to focus on it :p

When Jameson went to the gym I worked on transcription modules, then hit the grocery before lunch.
After lunch I practiced and then made the cowboy candy.

Sugar, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, garlic, celery seed, turmeric, and ginger.

The sliced jalapenos and garlic are added to the slightly thickened syrup.

The finished jars. I'm not water canning them, so they'll go in the fridge and last a month or so. We are supposed to wait a week before eating them, to let the flavors mingle. Yum!

Cleaned up after that, vacuumed and mopped the floors, and chilled for an hour. I ended up doing more transcription modules after dinner. I'm now more than halfway done.

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Sunday...I was up at 8 because there's so much to do :(
Would really like to sleep in one of these days and have eight hours of sleep.

The firefly petunia (the main plant) was the brightest I've ever seen it last night.
I had to put it on the floor so I could sleep!

This is the most blooms it's ever had too. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible because once I go on tour it will probably have to live outside, it will not be getting full care, and I expect it to either die off or die completely. In fact tomorrow I'm probably taking another cutting, since I've promised the first one to my aunt.

Anyway I won't bore you with the rest of my day. In summary: typing this post, doing transcription modules, going out to get printer ink, installing said printer ink, getting cheap sushi for dinner, practicing Main Street Philharmonic stuff, and going to work the closing shift at the hat shop. "Today's hat" will appear in the next post since I have to post this before work tonight.

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Monday: A day off. I need to catch up on cleaning, take a petunia cutting, and other chores.

Tuesday: Hoping to take my transcription tests + closing shift at the hat shop.

Weds & Thurs: Days off. Jameson's Carnival Cruise interview. I might pick up some Papa Pals, and I plan to possibly make a batch of caramels and send them out just so I can check it off my To-Do list. Definitely making dinner one of those nights. And definitely expect to be taking the transcription onboarding tests by then.

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.

Woke up to glorious, glorious rain and a temperature below 90. Hooray!

I was scheduled for a rehearsal day at Disney, and it was doing an all-day drizzle when I arrived. We went out for the first set and as soon as the door opened there was a peal of thunder. Nope! We all piled back downstairs. We ate our packed lunches, and I played through my Halloween stuff. The guys played Rochut etudes or drum exercises, watched YouTube, chatted.

I got caught up with Keith (full time trombonist) and he’s doing well. Most of the guys are. They were able to do the second set which included two songs that I had wanted to record for choreo purposes, so that was great for me.

And the Fall decor is up, which makes me feel a bit nostalgic and also wistful for cooler temperatures.

For the parade they did the “dog bone” which is a shortened route that is shaped like a dog bone, hence the name. I placed myself at the “When You Wish” stopping point. Two of the trumpets have found me in this photo lol.

Also took a look at the spooktacular merch on Main Street. Tempting stuff! Sent a lot of pics to Jameson’s mom. (Reminder that you can enlarge images if you want a closer look. This is a tiny fraction of all the spooky merch in the shops.)

I was supposed to do the 3rd set but it got rained out, so instead I practiced and read my book and showed off pics of my glowing petunia to the guys. Overall I was a waste of space today, but am VERY grateful for, essentially, the free money and free Fall vibes. It must be nice to be a full time member of this band.

Back home, dinner and chill.
Jameson got an email from Disney's Candlelight Processional offering him a performance date.
I got an email from Disney's Candlelight Processional informing me that I'd be sublisted again, to fill in if a regular member is out sick or wants to be with their family. It would be lying to say I'm not frustrated and feeling inadequate, for having part-time work and gig economy contracted work instead of a "real job." But I need to remember to be grateful to have these opportunities at all, because many people do not. And if it's hard for me as a 40-year-old to be earning the same wage I earned in high school, imagine being a high schooler in 2024 with 2024 prices, and earning 2006 wages :(

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I was still in a mood on Friday morning re: always a last-resort musician and never a first call, so while Jameson was at the gym I dusted and then mopped so aggressively that I broke the Swiffer and will have to get us a new one (well, the truth is I got it jammed between a desk and the kitchen cabinets and yanked it free instead of being patient, and the head snapped off.)

At Disney Springs before going to work I swung by Sephoria for a sample-sized Commodity Milk perfume. I don't wear makeup or have any skin care routines, so have not been in a Sephoria before and don't care to go again. I've simply got heartache for Autumn Things, and am hoping that this perfume smells like chai. And as a Disney Springs worker I get a discount that makes it worth trying.

Today's hat:

You needed to see the shirt to understand why I chose the peanut butter-colored hat :p
I got just as many complements on this humble bucket hat as on the fancy derby hat last week. Just goes to show that the right hat at the right time is always a good fashion choice haha.

It started off moderately busy, but a big thunderstorm rolled through and cleared everyone out pretty quickly between 7-9pm. It rained very hard for quite a while. Though the rain was nice it made the night seem to drag on; I'd rather it be at least a little busy to make the time go faster. Though I did have time to notice, for the first time, that our lights lining the ceiling are fashioned from bowler hats!!

Highlights of the night included selling a Panama hat for $180, and my boss dropping in and telling me that Kathy Jeanne is working on my hat, they'll send it to our store so I can buy it at the employee discount + contribute toward our sales goals, and that we are just waiting for the owner of Chapel Hats to see if he'd be willing to go in on a new "interchangeable trims" product line with Kathy Jeanne. Either way, I'll have a hat with removable trim which I think will come in very handy. There are the two custom trims; then there are also elastic trims in the store that I could put on it; and then there are the fascinators which may be pinned to it. I intend to get a lot of use (and marketing for misc products) out of this hat.

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Saturday, I couldn't sleep so was up at 7:30am for no reason.
Made iced tea, swept the front walkway, took care of the petunia and cuttings.
When Jameson woke up I washed and changed our sheets. Made a quick trip to Target for a new Swiffer.

Watched The Boy and the Heron, finally. It was hurtful to watch. I suppose it's a lot of symbolism of grief, and processing personal trauma. It came across very "What Dreams May Come," which if you've ever seen that I'll bet you were only able to watch it once, that's how painful THAT was.

Our friend Rebecca was in town, she's Head of Wardrobe with Feld Entertainment and a total bada$$.
(CLICK HERE to learn about our friend Rebecca)

She lived on the band's train car in our Ringling days (mid-2010s.) We have a lot of great memories together :)
Jameson and I picked her up and we went to dinner at The Stubborn Mule, all of us getting the prix fixe for $40 each. I decided to live it up and have two glasses of wine because "it's been a week," what with hospice visits and retail work and feeling low in the self-esteem department.

I had the Korean sticky ribs, ratatouille with rice, and chocolate cake. Ratatouille not pictured because it was just a mess of veggies over rice, it was tasty just not very photogenic.

The ribs, despite being a starter, were a half-rack! So I ate three and took three home. Can't wait to fight Jameson for them later :p

Cake was cake. Can't complain about chocolate!

We talked about ALL things: our past together in the circus, all of the countries Rebecca has traveled to with Feld shows, some drama and experiences she's had on those shows, spilling tea on what circus friends and family are up to these days. It was really good to connect with her, we haven't seen each other for YEARS, probably close to a decade! I'm annoyed that I didn't think to ask for a group photo before we parted ways. She's currently doing the new Feld show, called "Let's Dance!" It's still in rehearsals but there will be performances this coming weekend, I work but maybe Jameson can go.

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Sunday, I woke up feeling those two glasses of wine a bit but nothing some water won't fix.

Late breakfast and then practicing trombone and packing dinner for work.
I'd wanted to go for a walk but didn't get up early enough before the heat hit.
Picked up two Papa Pal visits for Tuesday, both at the same memory care facility I'd visited last Monday. I didn't see any for the hospice place this time.

Visit 1 is a dementia patient who's hard of hearing and likes walks, watching TV, and games.
Visit 2 is a mid-60s guy in a wheelchair who rolls around with a speaker and loves listening to music and chatting it up.

Not sure what to bring them but sure I'll think of something.

I'll be doing a closing shift at the hat shop tonight so Today's Hat will be in tomorrow's post.

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Monday: Probably a walk, closing shift at hat shop.
Tuesday: Papa Pal visits, possibly cooking dinner.
Wednesday: A day off, not sure what I'll do with it yet but probably chores.
Thursday: Also currently a day off.

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.

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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.

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

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.

I could have slept in on Monday but was wide awake a little after 7. Oh well.

Did a little research on trombones on The Trombone Chat (which is just what it sounds like, a forum and classifieds for trombonists.) Have probably mentioned this before but I do not want to use my precious, irreplaceable Williams trombone in the park, so am looking for a trombone that would be safer to use outdoors...one that I could stand losing, or repairing.

I only have four more scheduled dates at Disney, but in general the Williams (and the Minick for that matter) should not be my ONLY options for theme park work. They're both very rare and once they're damaged they not only lose value, they are also irreplaceable.

( Trombone Nerd Stuff )

Aaaanyway, Jameson and I were at the martini bar because his friend Tracy was performing in a comedy show there (Gaggle Reflex) and she'd asked him to perform on a song. Just one song, so for the rest of the time he could enjoy the show with meeee :)

The blacklight painting on the wall. I can never get the whole thing in frame. There are many martini glasses hidden in the mural.

For the cocktail I went with The Woodsman: Woodford Reserve, St. Germaine, 10-year Tawny Port, Amish fig jam, mint, lime. Not flavors I'd usually get but that's kinda why I got it. It was very good, I especially liked that the fig was gently sweet and gave texture to the drink.

They don't water down the drinks here either...learned that the first time. Enjoyed the comedy show with a lovely buzz, some good laughs were had. Jameson's part wasn't until the end, but he only had a beer so as not to be muddled in the head.

Here he is waiting for his cue. (So cute <3)

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Tuesday I was up early but not early enough, because I felt pretty dissatisfied with everything I touched today.
I got my six hours of data entry and an hour of trombone practice, and went to the grocery for taco salad ingredients, and vacuumed while Jameson was at the gym. I probably just need to go for a walk again to work off this unease, but didn't find time today.

Made the taco salad for dinner, so easy.
And made these super-simple Ritzy Rolos treats (thanks TikTok!)

Take some Ritz crackers. Put a rolo in the center of each one. Preheat oven to 350F. Stick the crackers in there for a minute and thirty or until the Rolos look shiny and start to lose shape (if they're melting you've waited too long.) Take 'em out and slap another Ritz cracker on top. Eat them warm or after they've set. We've tried them both ways and they're awesome warm or cold.

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Wednesday decided to get up at 6am. I'd like to be able to have a real weekend if possible, for once, which means more work up front.

Sometimes the quiet twilight in the morning is nice and calming too, even if I'm very tired. The early woodland/swamp birds calling to each other, hearing people getting in their cars to head to work. I keep forgetting to mention that we've been sleeping with a white/brown/pink noise machine, and I'm surprised that we stay asleep longer and feel more rested when it's on. Not sure why I never got into those before.

Between chunks of data entry I threw out my dead lemon tree, threw out my expired plant fertilizers and sprays, changed our bedsheets, did laundry, applied for some jobs, and did laps in the pool for "exercise."

Our big excitement today was having new toilets installed! We've been trying to do this for ages but contractors here in FL are majority scam artists...I'm not kidding. I got ripped off for nearly $400 while Jameson was at work and I was handling an AC repair alone (the guy refused to leave our house, I wrote a whole rant about it.) And then when Jameson tried to replace our toilets the first time the contractor uninstalled both of them, couldn't install the new ones properly, still charged Jameson the full cost of installation even though we didn't actually get anything new installed, AND THEN reinstalled our old toilets incorrectly. I still don't understand why Jameson paid him, but then he probably doesn't understand why I paid the AC guy either. We're idiots, I guess, for not having become HVAC technicians or plumbers ourselves, or for thinking that people who have business licenses and websites advertising themselves as plumbers are actually plumbers.

Anyway, THESE installers were part of a purchase and installation package from Lowe's, so if they screwed up at least we'd have recourse.
And guess what! While they didn't "screw up," one of the toilets showed up broken in the box!
So we did get the master toilet installed, but the guest bathroom is now just a pipe in the floor.

I joked that we could always just turn it into a Chinese toilet.
Honestly, I wouldn't be opposed; supposedly everything "comes out" easier when you're squatting.

Supposedly we will have another toilet showing up on Friday, fingers crossed because the hole in the floor reeks of sewage.
Meanwhile our one new toilet is lovely. The old one was on the verge of breaking and was running constantly. Our new one is super basic but compared to the old one it's a throne for kings and queens :p

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Another quiet weekend in the works, which I'll try to appreciate since the 4th of July is coming up.
Recall that we live in a vacation rental neighborhood...........

In closing, my banana tree trying to make bananas.

(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.

I got up an hour earlier on Thursday and was glad I did, even though I'll be tired. It feels nice to have an "extra" hour by the time I'd normally only have one.

I went for a walk at 11am because it was mid-80s and waiting any longer would mean mid-90s.
Didn't see anything special but it was good to get the exercise.

Back home and more data entry. I'm doing a really tedious bit today...I often volunteer for tedious work because I'm a throw-away employee and therefore am good for such things, rather than taking someone else off of their project, if that makes sense. Jameson also had a lot of grading to do so we kept "checking in" on one another to alleviate our boredom haha. Nothing to say except, "So...how's it going?" but at least it's a break from staring at spreadsheets!

Before dinner I went outside to look at the vanilla. The beans are definitely beans...they look like snow peas right now! No idea if that's how they're supposed to look or not, but I like it :)

At the end of the day Jameson got info on a potential job...but I'm gonna have to vaguebook it until we get more info. Regardless it was very exciting, and he had difficulty concentrating for the rest of the night!

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Friday I was up extra-early again, partly because I want to have most of the day off on Saturday and partly because I had low-key tumultuous feelings about Jameson's potential adventure...and shockingly, a potential adventure of my own that I received last night. It'll require an audition, and the material is not stuff I'm comfortable with (ugh, JAZZ...*cringe*) but I want to challenge myself and take the audition anyway. Vaguebooking until I can give details.

I ended up not getting enough work anyway because of trombone practice and having to shop for groceries for dinner. Whatever, I'm doing my best. Dinner was just taco salads and they were crunchy and delicious.

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Saturday I "allowed" myself to "sleep in" until 8am.
Breakfast, work, lunch, and about 2 hours of tromboning, because now I need to learn this audition music in addition to memorizing Disney stuff. I've got about 20 days left to memorize all the Disney music assigned, and I have six pieces left which means I have approx 3 days to work on each piece. That's theoretically plenty of time, but some are easier/harder longer/shorter than others.

As for the audition, I plan to record it on Wednesday or Thursday. Like I said it's in a style that I'm not very familiar/comfortable with, so even though they asked for recordings "ASAP" I'm pushing that boundary as far out as I can.

Right now my practice routine for Disney = a full run-through of what I've got memorized, every other day, so as not to forget things. After the run-through I work on memorization. And on the alternate days I just work on the castle set and straight memorization. After either type of session I've added the audition material. I'll only have 3-4 days to work on that before it's GOT to be recorded and sent. But I've got my first castle set with Disney in 48 hours. Note that I don't get PAID to practice all of this stuff. Do you see why musicians want to be paid as much as they do for performances? Music doesn't learn itself, even for a professional.

And to top it off I get my period on Monday! Nothing like pain, exhaustion, bleeding, and bloating to make one feel really top notch for recording an important audition, and marching in WHITE PANTS in full Florida sun and humidity, amiright ladies??

In the evening we had tickets to Peter Pan at the Dr. Phillips, thanks to my friend Kevin who is Reed 2 in the pit orchestra. I worked with Kevin on Tootsie the Musical. We all went out to dinner beforehand at The Bao Spot, a new place in Orlando. It had a weird space--dinosaur--Star Wars themed interior?

(photo courtesy Orlando Weekly)

The food was very good but came out at random; I was the last of the three of us to order but got my food first, then came Kevin's food and the appetizer, with Jameson's food coming out last after I'd practically finished mine. They're pretty new so maybe they haven't got their sh*t together yet for timing but I hope they figure it out.

My bao: spicy soft shell crab with arugula and apple kimchi slaw. It was VERY good, super crispy and fresh. I haven't had whole soft shell crab in a long time and it was lovely. My other bao in the background there is the kalbi beef with kimchi, also very good, tender and well-marinated.

Two bao is enough for me but the boys ordered a few more as we talked, and Jameson got a burger that was sealed like an Uncrustable and fried, it looked pretty amazing tbh. We talked about musician nerd stuff and tour stuff mostly. Peter Pan is going to Monterrey next, and Jameson and I sort of cringed and looked at each other: Monterrey is where the circus got run out of town by a mob of hundreds, and where our animal crew got HIJACKED by a bunch of thugs on motorcycles (our animal crew was mostly huge buff dudes and former circus STRONGMEN, so the thugs got absolutely beaten to a pulp but it was still a scary experience.) Anyway, we warned Kevin, uh, "gently" about Monterrey. Maybe it's different now (I doubt it. Sorry Mexico.)

Soon it was time for the show. We had amazing seats. Thanks Kevin!!

The musicians, who did a fantastic job btw.

I went to the pit to harass Kevin before the show. Here he is warming up on flute! Notice the bass clarinet next to him. Tour musicians are often doubling on other instruments; some reed players have as many as five instruments to play during one show!
(CLICK HERE to see Kevin warming up)

The show was great. Kind of a kiddie show but that's to be expected. The child actors did an AMAZING job, especially with the choreography. And the stage featured a hi-def screen that gave a lot of depth, and it really made the flying scene where they all go to Neverland the first time AMAZING. It felt like a ride! The kids are in the air on a fly rig system directly in front of the screen and facing it, to look like they're flying, and I wondered if any of them need to keep their eyes closed for it (I would.)

No spoilers but the crocodile was the best part :p

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Sunday, I let myself sleep until 8am again (just another lazy millennial who doesn't want to work!) and then got up to do the same as Saturday: breakfast, data entry, lunch, tromboning. I memorized more Disney stuff but don't feel any better about the audition music.

I had to exchange some bed sheets at Target so picked up dinner for us there too.
We had a pretty chill evening...both of us are a bit psychologically exhausted from preparing for musical opportunities that may-or-may-not exist. There's a tension while you're waiting to audition, or preparing material, or waiting to hear back about a job offer. It can wear you down.

Tomorrow I take my Minick trombone to my friend Pat to see if he can free up the slide.
Tuesday is Disney day and my first day doing a castle set, plus they could have me do the parade and/or flag retreat.
Wednesday I have to finish up any audition practice and set up for recording, and either do it on Wednesday or Thursday.

The good news is after the audition is submitted, I should have nothing else on the docket for the rest of the weekend except data entry and memorization. But it's going to be a tense week.

TRAVEL

Was up ungodly early at 4am for the flight.

Long bus ride to the airport, but once there I had time to wander and sip coffee and eat random things.
My flight was direct, so both a blessing and a curse: Get there faster, but be on a plane for a longer stretch of time.
Still, it was a smooth flight with in-seat screens so I got to watch the movie Suzume (beautiful art but disjointed storyline) and even read a little. We must have had a good tailwind because we arrived nearly 45 minutes early!

Jameson came to get me, and we got caught up as we rode back home.
He's gotten a new Queen tattoo! It's pretty big and on his back. It's not done yet, just the line work and some partial coloring, so there will be pics when it is finished.

At home we ate Panda Express and watched Conan O'Brien Must Go, which is both adorable and hilarious.
I unpacked as much as I could, and unboxed all of the court reporting gear that I've wasted money on.

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VANILLA

Friday I woke up feeling like garbage, not really surprising after a whole day on a plane and multi-time zone jump.
Breakfast and hydration and Motrin.
I checked on the vanilla, and it was blooming!

What a beautiful flower!

The flower that I tried to pollinate on Easter seems not to have taken. Maybe I did it too early? Maybe I did it wrong? I'm not sure. Well, I got to try again with this flower, and there are several more that will bloom this week as well. I'll watch more tutorial videos.

Here are the reproductive parts of the flower (I got the taller ladder out this time and was at eye level, much easier to see what I was doing.)

I guess the longest part, the stamen, is what holds the pollen. And then under that there's like a little flap-shield-thing that you have to push aside with the toothpick, and then press the pollen-tip and the female part below the shield together. So I did that, and also used the toothpick to physically take some pollen and rub it on the female part (at least that's what I was trying to do.) We will see if THIS one takes. I left the ladder out on the pool deck since I'll be needing it again.

FRIDAY DOINGS

Jameson went to physical therapy for his hand, and I had wanted to do a loads of things while he was gone but just wasn't feeling great, so took my time. Vacuumed and got groceries...enjoying being able to buy larger quantities of things, not just a week's worth! And I bought some Tillamook German Chocolate Cake ice cream, which I've been dreaming about since we saw it in the store over Easter.

Back home we had lunch together, then while Jameson did his hand therapy and practiced piano I wiped down the kitchen, cleaned both bathrooms, did a load of laundry, washed my trombone, and did my most hated chore: scrubbing the shower. Then swept and mopped the tile in all rooms, had a snack, and we took a break to watch the Cubs game around 3. I drank loads of water and felt better but still very jet lagged.

Dinner was Chick-fil-a, watching TV together, and thanks to a DreamWidth friend's post about his experience with Prolific I was reminded that there's another gig-economy tool in my pocket, so I pulled that up and managed to finally get it set up (I vaguely remember identity verification issues when I first signed up, likely due to that pesky apostrophe.) Did a few surveys while Jameson gamed with his friends.

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HEALTH

Saturday I set an alarm for 8:30, but could not bring myself to get up and fell back asleep for another hour.
When I checked the vanilla there were THREE blooms at once! On different branches of the vine. I did my best to pollinate each one, and we will see how it goes (one was well above my head so I'm pretty sure I didn't get it right.)

My throat feels very strange, scratchy and itchy, but not in the back of my throat, halfway down...around the voice box or larynx I guess? It's not sore, just irritated and constantly giving me the urge to cough. Not sure what's going on with that but I hope it doesn't progress...I've got my Disney costume fitting on Tuesday. So of course I felt worse as the day went on.

This does seem to happen every time I crash-land from tour. Guess my body does not adjust well to the sudden lifestyle shift. I don't know how to prevent that...I hydrate and eat vegetables and try to get as much sleep as I can, but if my show ends close to midnight and I have to be up at 4am for a flight, or if I'm in a new time zone every few days, what can I do about that?

CLERMONT

Anyway, Jameson wanted to go to Clermont to visit a record store and though I wasn't feeling well I wanted sunshine and a nice meal with my boyfriend, so off we went. Clermont is cute, little shops and a park by the lake and a brewery and whatnot. We did the record store first and didn't find anything but enjoyed looking. For lunch we chose the brewery. Jameson got chocolate milk stout, I did the key lime cider.

I'm not usually into cider or beer but when you're not feeling well things change haha.
There was a coal-fired pizza place next door so we got a Sicilian pie that came out piping hot, crispy, and excellent.

Very, VERY good pizza. We walked around a bit more after that but didn't really need anything, so that was it for the afternoon. At home Jameson watched baseball and did laundry, meanwhile I received an email full of Dropbox parts and mp3s from the Main Street Philharmonic so busied myself with downloading all of that, sorting it into playlists and set lists for listening and practicing purposes. This stuff will need to be memorized so if I can listen and play along it's ideal. Listening to the music made me quite nervous...but I will do my best.

By the time I was done with that my head was pounding and I felt lousy. It feels like some sort of virus, I don't know what, but anything that starts in the throat makes me think of covid right away. I took it easy, just watched TV with Jameson and drank lots of water and ate bad things like leftover Christmas candy (yeah I've still got a stash of that.) Jameson insisted that I take some NyQuil, so I did and fell asleep quickly as a result.

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DISNEY MUSIC

Sunday my eyes popped open at 10am, instantly felt guilty for "sleeping in." Isn't it great how childhood traumas get to influence one well into adulthood, and probably right into the grave! Clearly I needed the sleep.

Breakfast and checking the vanilla (it's having a break from blooming after yesterday's extravagance) then a brief chat with the Main Street Phil manager whose name is Mike. I wanted to check on a memorization timeline since I'm sick right now and memorizing is more difficult than usual (brain fog sucks!) He reassured me that there's no rush, nothing to be done anyway until our costumes are complete. That's a relief. He also confirmed that we subs will be guaranteed at least one performance day in the park.

That means, no matter what else may happen, I'll get to fulfill my dream of playing the trombone in the park as a Disney employee.
Oh my gosh. Every time I think about it, I'm amazed and grateful.
(It also still blows my mind that I auditioned no less than FIVE TIMES for this same opportunity, was rejected each and every time, and ultimately got it by a completely different route. Just goes to show, there are other ways to reach a goal besides what you're "supposed to do.")

Jameson went for a walk, and while he was gone I ran the dishwasher, washed our sheets, dusted, and tried to work on my court reporting homework now that I've got most of the needed equipment. I couldn't for the life of me get the audio coming to the correct areas, though, which made me feel very stupid and inadequate...until Jameson spent a solid hour on it and couldn't get it working either. He has WAY more audio tech experience than me, so if he can't get it I'm not stupid, something is actually wrong. Sent an email to the program director, who will hopefully help me out.

Jameson applied for more out-of-state teaching jobs, I played through my Disney music with the recordings. Doing that made me feel much better about the music, less intimidated and more excited :) The Hot Dog Dance especially made me happy, because that's the type of music you can goof off to. I may not be an extrovert, but I have performed in front of crowds before and can be QUITE the goober on stage.

Case in point, Busch Gardens circa 2011:

Taco salads for dinner, German chocolate cake ice cream for dessert. Jameson played Fallout with friends, I took Prolific surveys and watched Fallout the series until bedtime.

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Tomorrow is Monday, so Jameson will have to work.
I'm going to pack a little bag for my rehearsal day at Disney, and practice my music for both Disney and The Florida Orchestra, and run a few errands, and hopefully hear back from the court reporting teacher so I can move along with that.

Very excited and nervous for Tuesday (and hoping my health can hold out until that day is over.)
I'll go first thing in the morning for a costume fitting, then from there I'll get a tour of the Magic Kingdom employee tunnels, followed by an entire day of shadowing the Main Street Philharmonic as they perform sets in the park! I'll pack one meal and eat another at the Magic Kingdom's employee cafeteria. And between sets I'll have my trombone with me, and will practice my music.

Wish me luck :)

Thursday, my stress levels were pretty high despite having most of the day free.

( CLICK HERE for Stress Things )

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Other than that, all I did was work on my court reporting modules, pack, and walk to a Goodwill (which turned out to be a waste of time as they didn't have fitting rooms, I hate that!! But at least I got some fresh air.) I was feeling low energy, not only depressed but also a stomach ache (stress!), so took a nap and only got up when it was time to make dinner.

At the theatre, we had our final show in Yakima. It was well-attended, and tonight's Cute Audience Moment was when Pickering declared, "Mr. Higgins will miss her? BLAST Mr. Higgins! I'LL miss her." The whole audience in unison did a soft, "Awww!" that was just adorable :)

And then, like, that was it. We packed up and loaded out. Seven more shows to go.

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Friday, up at 5:30am after barely any sleep, and a smaller-than-usual breakfast to try and keep my guts and tummy calm for the six-hour bus ride ahead.

We took off and I was fine, dozing for part of the way but my eyes popping open as the scenery got more and more awesome. Starting with rolling green hills covered in farmland and moss and budding trees:

Then these huge cliffs and rock formations, and Mount Rainier in the distance (I couldn't get a clear pic from the bus.)
We were riding along the river that is the border for Washington and Oregon, and it was quite beautiful.

Pics:

Video (CLICK HERE to watch)

We stopped for lunch in Portland, which looked like a fun city, too bad we don't get to visit :/
Then as we got closer to Eugene everything was so GREEN. And there were so many SHEEP.

We arrived a bit early, but for the most part rooms were ready. There were just about two hours before sound check so I unpacked and scooted over to Bao Bao House. Inside, no one spoke much English and there was handmade bao being constructed. Both very good signs.

I ordered some char siu bao, some walnut brown sugar biscuits, and some anchovy peanut appetizers. All of the buns/biscuits were made fresh and came out scalding hot, to the point where they steamed the containing bag haha. The anchovy peanut snack had been made prior, I could tell because it was cold.

Peanuts and dried anchovies, stir-fried with sesame oil and chili flakes. This was very good: not too salty, not fishy-tasting or -smelling, nor overly spicy. Just good flavors, crunchy peanuts, and the anchovies were kind of chewy AND crunchy. I liked it a lot!

The walnut brown sugar "biscuits" were like a pan-fried doughnut with chopped walnuts and brown sugar filling. Extremely good, crispy on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. I had to get a whole order of 5 so brought them with me to the theatre to share with everyone. (I brought the anchovies too but shockingly, no one wanted that :p )

The char siu bao, of course, were fantastic. Ate two for dinner and will eat two for another meal.

The theatre is pretty interesting-looking. The ceiling looks like a woven basket...or a lawn chair, or something.

Once again I can't see the stage, ah well. That's normal!
It was a good opening night audience. We didn't get back to the hotel until nearly midnight, and then I was up too late reading an unfortunate article about sexual misconduct in the NY Phil. It was interesting to see my male colleagues surprised to hear this story and acting like it's breaking news...meanwhile most female musicians have known about this incident since it happened back in 2010 or 2011. How STRANGE that this is such a SURPRISE to the MEN.

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Saturday I woke up extremely tired and stressed. Too much to do and too little time.

I started laundry and ate breakfast, typed up this blog, then got to work on an application that I'm doing in the hopes of protecting myself against failing the AAERT exam. It was intimidating and frustrating, but I stubbornly plugged away and by the time 10am rolled around I'd gotten about 1/3 of it done. It looked extra-dreary outside but I was INSISTENT on seeing at least one tiny slice of Eugene...I am so annoyed that we don't get more time here! So I Ubered downtown.

A mural that I loved by local artist Liza Mana Burns.

My first stop was a small "hippie grocery" called Kiva Grocery. They were VERY small, and didn't have really anything that I needed, but I found chocolates from Seattle and a pouch of canned tuna that was caught and hand-packaged literally by one local family of fisherpeople. The big draw at this tiny grocery was the HUGE bulk section.

From there I walked to Whole Paycheck and had lunch at the hot bar, got a few things for meals, then walked to the theatre...in the absolute pouring rain. I had planned to visit Eugene's Saturday Farmer's Market, and it looked like a huge and fun affair with loads of vendors selling everything from veggies to bongs to murals, just everything, but the rain got harder and harder and it was cold to boot, and I was carrying groceries, and after struggling past a few stalls I gave up and practically ran to the theatre. I was early so at least there was time to get myself from "soaked" to "damp" before the show started.

The show went well. It was Michael (our assistant MD's) last time conducting, and he did a great job.
Between shows I went back to the hotel to shower, put away groceries, eat dinner, and work on the transcription evaluation some more (yeah that's what it is, I should have said that earlier.) I went faster this time; once all of the case info is plugged in things are easier, and making progress made me feel more confident. Typing things out verbatim is something that I enjoy, weirdly.

The evening show was also fine, though we were all very tired and some note mistakes were made.

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Sunday, I woke up a bit late, but then finished the transcription evaluation and after combing it a zillion times for mistakes, sent it in. There are some things that I'm unsure if I did correctly, but I'm hoping that I did well enough to receive consideration. And if not, it just means going ahead with the plan I'd already initiated.

The break between shows was not very long so I packed dinner to bring to the theatre.
The first show was good but had scant attendance. Between shows I tried to work on my court reporting modules but the theatre's wifi had a "nanny," some sort of annoying content-blocker that for some reason designated the site I needed to use as spam. I was able to get in sporadically through rapid-refreshing, but it was too annoying and I had to give up after a while. Tried to work on this blog too but of course it's a RUSSIAN site so it was ALSO blocked. Tried to watch anime but THAT was blocked too. I MISS THE 90's AND THE WILD WEST INTERNET.

Well, soon it was time for our last show in Eugene and our last day of double shows, ever.
It was packed, which was great, and it was a vibrant and responsive audience.

Again, I really wish we'd had more time here, to get to know the city. Perhaps some day I'll get to come back.

(this amazing photo courtesy Aaron, one of our sound techs.)
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We are flying to Modesto tomorrow, and it's a late flight so I'll get to sleep in a bit and take my time in the morning.
And work on court reporting modules.

In Modesto I don't really have any plans. We are only there for two days, and then tour is over.
If we arrive early enough I'll enjoy a trip to Sprouts for some groceries, but there are no more Foodie Finds for me.
We'll have our closing show party, and pack our bags, and that will be that. Chapter closed.

Let's do it.

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taz_39

June 2025

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Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 06:56 pm

goofball on a train

(adventures of a touring musician)

Entries tagged with exploring: restaurants and businesses

Celebrating Each Other "The Disney Way"

Jam-Packed Week

Be Our Guest and All the Rest

TGIFebruary

In Hot Water (er, Broth)

Year of the Ssssssnake

Elf on Tour: Indianapolis part 2

Elf on Tour: Greensboro part 2

Elf on Tour: Stamford, CT

Elf on Tour: Detroit, MI part 2

Elf on Tour: Detroit, MI part 1

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." - Walt Disney

Halloween Haunted Houses, Hats, Ho-Hum

What's 'Good Enough'

Trial and Error

Several Types of Plumbing

Eats, LEGOs and Other Things

Unplanned and Planned

Back in Orlando for 2024

My Fair Lady - Yakima part 2 and Eugene, OR

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June 2025

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