goofball on a train

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PSA: I am reading and catching up on everyone's writings even if all I do is "like" or don't leave any feedback. It's been a crazier last-couple-days than expected. Haven't even gotten to unpack yet. But I do read everyone's posts when I wake up and before bed. Promise!!

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Dust Info

TL;DR the majority of our flooring was tile, and one way or another breaking up the tile generated dust.

As far as how it got all over everything or why there's so much of it:

The floors were installed a month ago, and Jameson has done little to no cleanup since then (not a criticism, just a fact.) The dust has had an entire month to spread around the whole house via HVAC, ceiling fans, or being tracked from room to room.

From what little I saw of the renovations, a jackhammer and a sledgehammer were used to break up the floor. They may have used other tools like circular saws that might have generated a lot of dust. But ultimately I was not present for the renovations and did not see what happened.

Although Jameson removed or relocated the furniture, and the cabinets and immovable objects were covered with plastic, there is dust inside many of the cabinets and on all of the flat surfaces. The dust is lightest in the kitchen and dining room, moderate in the guest bedroom, and heaviest in the two bathrooms. I'm sure this has somewhat to do with size of space (containment) and what was and was not covered/protected during floor removal.

Cement/tile dust is a cancerous material (silica dust) and is dangerous/damaging when inhaled. That is why I'm especially anxious about it, cleaning it up in a specific researched way, while wearing a mask.

All right, there it is...I hope that makes sense or helps fill out the picture.

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WEDNESDAY

Jameson was up at 7am to go get his MRI. I couldn't go back to sleep. Breakfast and scanning my zillion tax forms. I have nine W2s, three 1099s, and a bunch of misc other forms from doing things like redeeming old savings bonds last year. Whoever is handed my taxes will have their work cut out for them.

I finished up about the time Jameson got home, looking pale and shaky. This was not his first MRI, but last time he went in waist-first. This time he went in head-first, and that triggered a MASSIVE panic attack. They had to pull him out and try again with fewer neck restraints and a towel over his head so he could get through it. I hugged him (not too tightly because he was literally JUST in a confined space) and when I let him go he seemed close to tears :( He is not prone to panic attacks so this was especially scary for him. He said his body just reacted and there was nothing he could do to make it stop. As someone who suffered intense panic attacks for a full year, I completely understand what it feels like, how terrifying it is, and how little control you have to make it stop once it's started. But he got through it, somehow, and that's great because hopefully he'll have results that will reveal more about what's going on with his neck and arm.

Jameson took a few deep breaths and went to work while I set a tax appointment and then started Dust Battle with the guest bedroom. I chose to clean this room next because it’s where I practice trombone and do my tour packing. I want to play the trombone with minimal dust inhalation, AND I still need to unpack but don't want to do that where dust will get on my tour clothing, cooking supplies, in my suitcase, etc.

Jameson had sort-of wiped some parts, and you can see where he did that and what level of dust we're dealing with here. It is odd to me that there's so much dust in this room as it was not a part of the renovation. But I wasn't here so I don't know what happened.


I put on a KN95 and did the same wet microfiber followed by dry microfiber tactic as used in the kitchen, starting at the tops of furniture and doors and light fixtures and working my way down to countertops and tables. Same dresser as above, after I'd finished:


I took the quilt outside and shook it thoroughly, and when it was back on the bed I moved my suitcase, trombone, and other things from the floor onto the bed and vacuumed. Then I put the things back on the floor and wiped everything down again with the dry microfiber as new dust was settling from the vacuuming.

Lunch break with Jameson, and I should have practiced trombone but didn’t feel like it. Instead I wiped all of the windowsills (LOADED with all kinds of dust, not just from the floor reno) then emptied the kitchen island because plaster and dust had gotten in there. Here you can see some of the pieces of plaster and tile, as well as a fine coating of dust near the inner walls.



I rinsed all of the Tupperware and dishes that were down there, wiped all of the appliances, wiped the shelves down, and put everything back.
Drew a smiley in the dust on the crock pot. Sometimes the dust was hard to see, but on black appliances or surfaces it's pretty obvious.


Had meant to do the cup cupboard too but lost my steam for this. Instead I basic-dusted all of the furniture and surfaces in the living room and bedroom, as these were some of the least-dusty areas. Then I dry-swiffered the entire new floor with a microfiber cloth.

It was a little futile to Swiffer at this stage. Until I deep-clean the bathrooms (which are the dustiest/dirtiest) we will continue tracking debris and dust from the bathrooms throughout the house. I’ll definitely have to sweep again. But the feeling of stepping on plaster bits and grit all day has been annoying me, and it felt much better afterward.

We had dinner and watched TV together. Jameson did laundry and then I did mine, followed by a load with just the microfiber cloths and some towels that had been exposed to The Dust. I can't see dust on the towels but it must be there. Jameson had an overnight at Disney tonight. After he left I vacuumed and dusted the bedroom (but not the gigantic bookshelf in the bedroom, that will have to be a separate project.)

Overall I got a lot done today, but there is SO much more cleaning to do. I'll have to wipe the blades of ceiling fans, the tops of kitchen cabinets, the tops of doors, the baseboards. The bathrooms will need intense deep cleaning. The cups need to be rinsed still, and other kitchen cabinets probably need to be emptied and wiped. And then I'll have to wipe everything down AGAIN after knocking dust down from those high areas. But I've only been back for three days and so I think it's going as well as possible.

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THURSDAY

Jameson was up at 7:30am for Disney. I got up shortly after him for breakfast. Spent way too much time typing things out/venting, but felt better afterward and ready to move forward.

Dust Battle continued with the master bathroom. I should mention that after the new flooring was installed, the toilets had to be pulled out and re-installed to be level with the new floor (a $3,000 fix, paid for by me.) That probably generated extra dust and debris.

I started with removing everything from the counters, and either washing each individual item in the sink or wiping it down to get the film of dust off. I opened the medicine cabinet and did the same there, removing everything, wiping each thing down, wiping the shelves, and putting things back. Under the sink, I didn't take everything out because only the few items nearest the doors had dust, but did wipe the insides of the doors and the bottom of the cabinet.

Next I wiped the tops of all the doors, the fronts of the doors and cabinets, the tops of all light fixtures (had to bring in a stepladder for that,) and the blinds for the pool entrance door. The blinds were awful, lots of plaster and dust had been trapped in them. Here's some of the plaster (this isn't even half, most of the rest I caught in the microfiber cloths)


Next the top of the standing shower, which was caked with fine white dust-paste. Again, this is a fraction of what was up there and it took multiple passes and washings of the microfiber cloth to get 90% of it.


I wiped down the shower walls and shower head/handle, but did not scrub the shower as I consider that a separate chore from "cleaning the bathroom." I got behind the toilet to sweep up all the plaster back there, wipe the dust with wet microfiber, and then was finally able to do a "normal" cleaning of the bathroom albeit with two passes to wipe the toilet, once to collect dust and the second time to actually clean and disinfect. Cleaned the sink and counters with wet microfiber and then as normal. Swept the floor with a broom (wearing a mask,) then again with a dry microfiber, then again with a wet microfiber mop. Vacuumed the bath mats and put everything back.

I know there's no point of comparison but just trust me that this is significantly cleaner than it had been, and it was a huge relief to have gotten most of the gross dust out of there. I am looking forward to Jameson's reaction because he is always VERY appreciative of what I do around the house :)


The bathroom took about 90 minutes (3x longer than usual.) I finished at lunch time and took a break to eat. Made myself practice bass for 20 minutes.

Before continuing Dust Battle I swept out the garage and wiped the tops of some picture frames and door frames, then it was on to the guest bathroom. This is the tiniest room and the dust is most condensed here. Here is the counter by the sink.I ran a finger through the dust on the left there so you could see the difference.


The shower handle.


Same process as the master bath: removing each little item, wiping it, wiping the insides of cabinets, tops of doors, shower walls, etc etc. There was a lot of plaster in the tub so I wet-swept that out. Wet microfiber, clean and disinfect, dry microfiber, wiping and mopping the floors. It was done faster than the master bath but I didn't time it.

After that I was VERY tired, but there was one last thing to do. Microfiber-swiffered all the new flooring, wet-microfiber-mopped all the new flooring, and vacuumed all of the carpet again (having knocked a bunch of dust down from on high today.)

With that, I have done the majority of MAJOR dust cleanup, and everything else will be single-projects (the shower, the bookshelf) or touch-up (light fixtures, windowsills, picture frames, etc.) And a week from today I'll check and see how much more dust has settled or been pushed out of the HVAC, and do a full (regular) cleaning again.

The house after all of my work on it. Not that you'd be able to tell a difference.


The kitchen, which I don't think Jameson ever sent a good pic of after the floor had been installed.


Though I was tired, I called an Uber to the grocery for ingredients for dinner tomorrow and to replace some cleaning supplies I'd used up. Would rather do that today and get it over with. Picked up premade sushi for Jameson and I, and he got home just a few minutes after me. We ate and chatted about our day, I showed him my work around the house and he was happy and grateful as predicted :) We spent the evening relaxing on the couch. He's still struggling with anxiety from the MRI (sometimes it can take days for a panic attack to let you go) and I was exhausted and actually sore from all the housework over the last several days. It was good to sit still and quietly together. 

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Friday: Tax appointment. I will owe a lot this year thanks to Epic Universe which was all 1099 work. Other than practicing and cooking us dinner, I have no plans. I'd like to take a break from cleaning since I've made huge progress. 

Saturday: Jameson wants to go to the new giant H-Mart and I am SO EXCITED!!!

Sunday: No plans but will probably do one project-clean like the bookshelf, and practice. 

**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.

This post covers the weekend.

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FRIDAY

Restless sleep, but that's ok. Kind of lazed around in bed for a while before doing breakfast, and doing something unorthodox: placing an Instacart order. The new Strawberry Koia flavor was released ONLY at Wegman's, it's too far for me to Uber, I wanna try it, and this city is the last time we'll be anywhere near a Wegman's. I added other stuff to the order to make it worth their while.

Packed myself snacks and dinner, worked on Richmond Foodie Finds, and had gotten 2/3rds through my presentation rehearsal when the Instacart arrived.

Strawberry Koia (stock image from their IG):


I also got an avocado, some yogurt, and Drizzilicious Salted Caramel. Yes, still obsessed with these and aiming to try all of the flavors!


I had paused my masterclass timer to retrieve the delivery, and picked up again after putting everything away. 47 minutes seems to be my average (and I did work in more comments to make the info more applicable to non-performance students.) I had a snack and did a little research for potential Philly sightseeing. So far the rest of the week looks like this:

• Today, 2/13: Rehearsal with Koz, evening show
• Saturday 2/14: Doing laundry, 2 shows, possible meeting with our musician's union rep.
• Sunday 2/15: Two shows.
• Monday 2/16: Golden Day. Attending a Ringling Bros show at Xfinity Arena, possible outing with a friend.
• Tuesday 2/17: Picking up rental car, driving 2 hours to Delaware, giving masterclass. Running carworthy errands afterward if time allows. Returning rental car, dinner with my brother/fiancee and their family, and the evening show.
• Wednesday 2/18: Two shows. A friend wants to meet up so possibly that if I feel up for it.
• Thursday 2/19: Another friend meet-up for lunch. Company-sponsored tour of the African American Museum, which I have signed up to attend so that I can at least enjoy ONE cultural experience in Philly. One evening show.
• Friday 2/20: This is my only truly free day so I am trying to protect it from social things! Laundry rest please, and one evening show.
• Saturday 2/21: Two shows, my sister is coming to the matinee so she'll want to do a meal or hang out.
• Sunday 2/22: Brunch with another sister and her family, they're attending the matinee. Load out and packing for Pittsburgh.

Yeah, I'm kinda glad the other masterclasses got cancelled. For some people this schedule is nothing, but for me that amount of extroversion is a lot.

I walked to the theater early, nervous for rehearsal. The actors had been there already for several hours rehearsing with The Creatives, with DAR conducting and some keyboardists there to play some parts. I tiptoed around in the pit to get my horns set up, then filled my water bottle and dug around in my trunk until they were ready for us.

Rehearsal went pretty well. There is a new ending to one of the numbers so we rehearsed that a few times, then the decision was made to keep it and put it in the show. Another change was made to the ensemble, we rehearsed that for a while until The Creatives were satisfied with it and it was likewise added permanently. Next Koz had a list of things that he wanted to address, but thankfully most of them had to do with house audio meaning he was not asking US to change anything, but rather the Sound Department. They spent the next hour-or-so adjusting this-or-that level at Koz's direction until he was satisfied. It is hard to tell from the pit how much difference these changes make, but I hope it'll be an improvement for our audiences! We closed with tweaking a few articulation things, but overall the band did not get a lot of corrective notes, which is great! One can infer that we're doing a good job. And Koz made sure to come to the pit and tell us that :)

During the break before the evening show I chose to stay at the theater because I just did not feel like walking back in the bitter cold. I'd packed dinner, and took it to the warmest part of the building that I could find to eat and read my book. "The warmest part of the building" happens to overlook some offices of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I noticed some ads in the windows for the Curtis Institute of Music. Long ago, I auditioned for Curtis and was rejected. Funny how things work out.

The evening show was good. All of the new changes were incorporated. I was impressed with how the ensemble did them seamlessly, as though they'd always been a part of the show. That's why these people are professionals!! Personal playing-wise, I didn't do as well as last night's show. After 48 hours of being evaluated, my nerves were shot and my fight or flight kept trying to grab the wheel. I still did a very good job, but had some quavering notes due to nerves and a few small mistakes related to nerves.

After the show DAR was beaming. I think during intermission he got to talk with The Creatives and they were pleased. He showered us with complements and expressed gratitude for us. He's such a class act :) And his praise was much appreciated after spending two days wondering what The Creatives are thinking!

Also, I checked my socials before bed and saw that Full Blown Trombone Studio has posted an ad for my masterclass in March! So spiffy!


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SATURDAY

I was awake early to do laundry. Breakfast and coffee between elevator rides to switch stuff from washer to dryer. Folded and put away the laundry. Masterclass run-through was a whopping 49 minutes but I think it's because I should have stopped the timer at a point when the PPT got messed up.

Lunch and the walk to the theater. No Creatives in the audience. My nerves were still a bit high BUT it was a good show and a great crowd. After the show our musician's union rep met us backstage for a quick talk. Mostly he wanted to give us a paper copy of our contracts and go over a few points of it that can be difficult to understand, then opened the floor to any questions. We had a bunch, so there was back and forth on those topics for a while. Not sure that anything will actually get accomplished, but airing concerns at least gets them on the radar for the future.

Hustled back to the hotel for dinner, only a short break before having to turn right back around but at least it wasn't so cold out tonight!

At the theater there were some Valentine's Day surprises!
The Chip Kids got us all cards with little $1 lotto scratch cards attached.
Jasmine (ensemble/Babette and Wardrobe understudy) gave the band some lovely cards.
DAR got us a box of cookies to thank us for doing well in rehearsals, and our management team got us little treat bags with Valentines inside.


At our places in the pit we found "love notes" from Koz and DAR as well :p
Just things we'd rehearsed and that they'd like to change/improve. I didn't get any direct notes, which I count as a big win! There were some general ones for all of us, but for the most part it's poor DAR who has to implement a lot of the changes that Koz wants to see. These were in our notes because we all need to be aware of them so we can help make them happen (by watching and following DAR.)

For the evening show our union rep was in the audience for the first act and came to sit in the pit with us in the second act. This show was personally my worst one of the week. It's like, all of the tension I've been shoving down or trying to ignore came spilling out. It manifested, unfortunately, into SHAKING in my lips while I was trying to play delicate and exposed passages. The fact that it was ONLY happening during those specific parts tells me that it was psychological. Luckily I do not have many exposed lines but it was VERY annoying, and I had to then explain to Tim (trumpet) and Gary (drums, who is nearby this week) why I sounded shaky and weird.

I was able to calm down for the second half by reminding myself that despite his decades-long career and well-established mastery of his craft, Brian May himself still has Impostor Syndrome. Even a musical genius like him still has days where he doesn't play well. We (the entire company) have been evaluated and scrutinized a lot this week. This is my dream job...it means the world to me. Showing that I deserve to be here and not letting DAR down has been at the forefront of my mind all week. I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself, especially while Koz was here.

Thankfully, Sunday is supposed to be a normal 2-show day. I am hopeful that my nerves will settle back down, and I can get back to playing like I normally do.

(NOTE: RE: "Have you tried beta blockers?" No, I haven't, and I don't intend to. A: that's not what that medication is supposed to be used for, and B: there is dependency/withdrawal if you stop them. One becomes reliant on using beta blockers to be able to perform, rather than coping with fight or flight and developing an ability to perform despite it. I.e., beta blockers are not a solution for the problem, they just make it so you don't have to face the problem. To each their own and this is my choice.)

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SUNDAY

Normal morning stuff, coffee, breakfast, typing up this post. Prepping my room for housekeeping as I hope they'll come through on Monday. Doing a little research on the best way to get to Xfinity Arena for the circus on Monday.

I did a final run-through of my masterclass (I don't want to do one on Monday.) 47 minutes with only a bit of stumbletongue, that's all I can ask for.

The matinee was good. I played better, there was a little shaking but it was barely noticeable. The crowd was wonderful and enthusiastic. Back to the hotel for dinner and some decompression. Walking back for the evening show. Again, a decent show but I think we are all kind of mentally burnt and in need of a day off. Several folks will be visiting friends or family on the east coast, or going into NYC to blow off steam. 

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Monday: Golden Day. Seeing the circus, then hopefully having a quiet evening of resting and packing stuff to bring for this masterclass.

Tuesday: Busiest day of my time in Philly. 4-hour round trip drive, Delaware masterclass, dinner with my brother's family, evening show. 

Reflecting on things that happened this year, good and bad.

JANUARY

★  I bought a bass trombone to start practicing for Beauty and the Beast. It was damaged in shipping, and a friend graciously offered to repair it over Christmas.

★  Jameson had carpal tunnel surgery, which was largely successful and beneficial.


★  Mice took up residence in my car while I was away on tour, causing $8000 worth of damage, most of which was covered by insurance.

★  I auditioned for an Epic Universe band. I had no idea what I was in for.

★  Had a few rehearsal days with Main Street Philharmonic, always a lot of fun :)


★  Got the job at Epic Universe, and plunged into five straight weeks of intense, all-day rehearsals for Place Cachee Jazz.


★  A relevant Friday Five that I did halfway through January (CLICK HERE to read.)

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FEBRUARY

★  Jameson took me to Be Our Guest restaurant (I'd never been.) It was amazing, and extra emotional knowing I'd be joining that show soon!


★  Turned 41. Took this photo illegally INSIDE Epic Universe months before it was open to the public :p


★  Got to try/preview butterbeer crepes, visit the Dark Universe and Super Nintendo World, audit other musicians performing at the Burning Blades Tavern, and other treats and previews of Epic Universe well before it opened!



★  Had my photo taken from a helicopter. That's a first!


★  Performed several times with Main Street Phil. Wow, I was blessed to be rehearsing/performing at Universal/Disney at the same time!


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MARCH

★  More Epic rehearsals, higher levels of tension as park opening drew near. We were audited quite a lot by WB execs and the creative team when they were around. Mariah and I at the countdown clock:


★  More time at Main Street Phil as well.


★  For the first time ever I was offered the chance to do an international tour. It would have been with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I had to turn it down because the dates were the same as Beauty and the Beast's, and I wasn't about to give that up!!

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APRIL

★  Jameson and I got to spend a whole day previewing Epic Universe before it opened to the public!!
(CLICK HERE to see pics and read about the full day)


★  Jameson started having more interviews for Disney corporate around this time. I remember feeling anxious for him, and worried that any more rejections would be the straw that would break his back.

★  For the first time someone took photos of one of our Place Cachee Jazz sets! We got the first full recording of our set this month as well.


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MAY

★  Got to see Jameson perform at EPCOT with The Hooligans during the Flower & Garden Festival.


★  Epic performances are in full swing, I am there 2-3 days per week performing.

★  I have discovered the joys of the Snack Pod (actually a large-scale pill container that I used for snacks!)


★  We got new sinks installed in both bathrooms.


★  The casting list for Beauty and the Beast finally went up, so I could finally share my involvement!! Exciting!!


★  And just a few days later...Jameson was offered a job with Disney Event Group!!!
We officially became a Disney Power Couple, a House of Mouse if you will :p


★  We had the Most Fantastic Day At Disney Ever to celebrate our career success, including an incredible 50% off dinner at The Brown Derby, riding Rise of the Resistance with only a 10 minute wait, getting to see Muppet Vision 3D one more time before it closed forever, and more
(CLICK HERE to see pics and read about the whole day)


★  Epic Universe finally, officially opened to the public.


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JUNE

★  A fun and busy month where I worked at Epic as Phillipa, Jameson got the hang of his new job, and we used our Disney Dining Discount coupons at Flying Fish which was an incredible experience.


★  Jameson was sent to one of the Disney cruise ships in the Bahamas to help produce/rehearse a band for the Rapunzel show.


★  I had my last performance dates at Epic Universe. Bittersweet...I'd still show up as a sub, but never again as a regular member.

★  On Wednesday June 11, I traveled to Schenectady to begin tech rehearsals with Beauty and the Beast!!


★  This is the first UNION tour I've ever been on. First one with a logo truck, too.


★  During tech I ended up buying a new bass trombone after recognizing the one I'd blind-bought was not a good fit for me. This whole period was scary as I wasn't sure I was good enough for this tour on bass to begin with, and was still working SO hard to get it under my belt, practicing every day in addition to daily rehearsals. But it all worked out in the end :)


★  First band outing with my new coworkers.


★  And first preview performances with an audience. I could not believe I was here, and getting to perform this show.


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JULY

★  We finished Beauty and the Beast tech rehearsals, and then I had a really weird layoff in the Chicago suburbs so that I could visit O'Malley trombones...


★  ...and attend the show's opening night performance and party!


★  Was able to go home to Pennsylvania for a short visit with my sisters, their husbands and children, and other family.


★  My Aunt came to visit, and we went to EPCOT! It was very hot but we had a lovely time.


★  Our AC broke to the tune of $12,000 right after my Aunt left! Jameson had to foot the bill for that one :/

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AUGUST

★  Touched a $1300 shoe.


★  Tried grilled lamb heart at Vinai in Minneapolis. It was excellent!


★  Signed my first Beauty and the Beast wall tag.


★ Had a corn-flavored cocktail (it was REALLY good)


★ Jameson had a wisdom tooth extraction (very quick and successful!)

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SEPTEMBER

★ I got sick (first of two times uuugh) while the tour was in Durham.

★  Seaweed bagel!


★  Gingersnap burnt honeycomb ice cream!


★  My Aunt visited while we were in Durham, and she took me for an amazing lunch and showed me some of the local sights!
(CLICK HERE for pics and full post)

★  Banana pudding sweetcorn ice cream in North Charleston!


★  Presented a masterclass to a local trombone studio near Greensboro!


★  Rode a vintage elevator:


★  I felt intense gratitude. (CLICK HERE for full post.)

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OCTOBER

★  Jameson went to Hawaii for the first time, for a wedding! And got to eat lots of wonderful things, and got a commemorative tattoo!


★  My sister Raven came to visit, and we went to Animal Kingdom! It was rainy but fun! (CLICK HERE for pics and full post)

★  Got pulled over for speeding in Appleton, WI, but was let go with a warning.

★  I got sick AGAIN, wtf! Some sort of chest/bacterial thing. Awful!

★  The best pork schnitzel and spaetzle I've ever had (Appleton, WI)


★  Got OBSESSED with the new season of Hazbin Hotel and specifically the character Alastor, who is very INTJ-coded.

★  Was The Grey Stuff for Halloween :D


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NOVEMBER

★  Fantastic hot chicken in Nashville!


★  Also, these incredible Creole-Asian-fusion rice cakes!


★  Jameson turned 44! And hated it.


★  Met Susan Egan in person and chatted with her!

★  Re-upped my theme park castmembership with a 42-hour Round-Trip Rehearsal Extravaganza! (CLICK HERE for pics and full post)

★  We received our schedule for the 2026-2027 season!! Look forward to it!!

★  We were treated to an incredible Thanksgiving steak dinner in San Antonio! Open bar woooooot


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DECEMBER

★  Jameson performed with Good Charlotte!


★  I rode in a self-driving car!

(stock image courtesy Axios)

★  I participated in bus choreography :p


★  Visited with my Aunt in Austin, where we saw the sights and ate good food together.


★  Went to the new Beak & Barrel and nearly got ship-wrecked.


★  Performed at Candlelight four times, once on bass trombone (a first!)


★  On December 31st, the last day of this year, I sold my car. This is the first time I've been without a car since I was 15 years old.

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Closing Thoughts

It's been an AMAZING year, and largely positive for both of us compared to other years. We know that things change over time, there will be ups and downs, and I think Jameson and I are both in awe of and appreciative of how 2025 has gone for us. This year will live in our memories as the year our lives changed for the better career-wise. 2026 looks good on paper, but a lot can happen in this crazy world. For now we can only appreciate what we have....the amazing moments, and close calls, and frustrations, and joys, that have come and gone...and those that have yet to be.

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Honorable Mention: Critters Of The Year

★  This year I met a glass lizard, a huge orb weaver, a praying mantis, and a gorgeous red-shouldered hawk who looked at me like it knew me.

**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.

This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.

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WEDNESDAY

Breakfast and Normal Morning Stuff, then I took the company rental car to 99 Ranch!
I tried not to be a psycho about taking pictures in the store (you've all seen enough of them too I'm sure) but here are a few.
( CLICK HERE for Asian Grocery! )

After lunch I did a little Christmas shopping and kinda chilled. It was wet and chilly out, I was unmotivated to go out further.

Carpooled to the theater for the evening show. We had a great audience, very reactive, and a standing O during Be Our Guest, always a special treat :) We can see the audience well here so if it happens again I will try to get footage.

Both of our Chip Kids have some sort of bug, so Vacation Chip Kid was flown in from somewhere to fill in! They just recently left the show so of course their costume is still here, they still know exactly what to do and how to do it. They did an excellent job!! We've got a few other people out for health issues...it's that time of year. But this is why there have been SO MANY understudy put-ins and rehearsals. The Show Must Go On!

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THURSDAY

I tried to get up early and kinda succeeded. It was rainy again but I had adulting to do!

Breakfast, meal prepping and planning, drafting an info email for my Aunt so she can access the hotel without me on Sunday night when she arrives. Making a to-do list for the layoff, packaging Jameson's records for shipping. I also wiped down the laminate floors in this apartment/room since there's no housekeeping and since it's been raining lately.

After the records were ready I bundled up against the rain and walked to the UPS store to ship them out. One less thing to worry about. Back home lunch, then I got a notification that USPS had tried to deliver a package to me but due to "Insufficient Address" was not even going to make a second attempt, but would return the package to sender immediately. Considering I've received packages from both Amazon and UPS at this address with no issue, I call BS. There's nothing wrong with the address, the delivery person either didn't know where to leave the package or didn't make contact with the front desk. 

I have two more USPS packages coming this week, so this was concerning as all of them are addressed the same way. I tried calling USPS, which if you've ever tried to get a human via their helpline you'll know what THAT was like :p It took multiple calls and inputting a lot of info via a chat before I could talk to a person, then they told me there was nothing that I could do. But the package was somewhere in the city. It wasn't even anything important, but I hated the thought of the wasted time and gas and packaging of returning it when the thing was RIGHT HERE. 

So I called again, and kept trying until I finally got an operator who kindly gave me the address and phone number of the local office where the package had been. I tried calling and of course no one answered....so I said, heck, I'll Uber over there and try to work something out. 

I got very lucky. At the post office a very helpful associate said he'd leave a note for the driver to try again the next day. I tried to give more detailed instructions on where to bring the package, and gave my number in case he needed to call, and signed up for text notifications so I could try to meet him in the lobby. I also gave tracking for the other two packages on their way so this hopefully wouldn't happen with them as well. I thanked the associate with big smiles and wished him happy holidays, then stood to the side to call another Uber to get back home, having done all I could do. 

And while I was doing that, he came running around the counter: "Your package was here! The driver brought it back already."

Wow! Something in the Universe really DOES love me. 

Package in hand, I looked at my phone...and saw that Uber had found me a Waymo! A self-driving car!! 
I was definitely nervous about it...but life is so short and I couldn't say no to the opportunity!


It didn't want to pull into the janky post office lot (I don't blame it) so had me walk to the McDonald's next door. As I approached the car the Uber app gave me a button to unlock the car's doors. I did, and got in. 

Short 3-minute video of the experience. 


The first five minutes or so, I felt nervous and it felt WEIRD. Car moving all by itself, steering wheel turning, accelerating and braking appropriately. No one in the driver's seat. It was WILD. And it was a good driver!! After a few minutes I relaxed, and then a bit more. It felt pretty safe!

My view. And yes I was leaning forward like a nerd the whole time to watch! 


The car has intense sensors on the roof and all four corners, and probably all over. They spin constantly, and must be doing some kind of scanning. The console screen showed all of the cars around us, their actual shapes. It also showed when cars had brake lights or turn signals on. We didn't pass many pedestrians so I didn't see if it saw them or not.


I could have picked my own music, set the thermostat, or viewed the route.
There is an option to pull over if you need to, or to call for help if you need to.


The car stuck to surface roads; I don't think they're allowed on the highway yet. But this is still a city and we got cut off about 3 times. The car reacted appropriately each time. Once it decelerated BEFORE the car pulled out, as though anticipating that getting cut off was a possibility. Another time it switched lanes for a car that was pulling out too close to us. And the third time it had to brake a little, but not hard because it apparently had "seen" what was about to happen. 

Another time we were on a narrow street and turning left, and the car stopped a full bus length back from the white line near the stoplight. It then inched forward carefully. I wondered how it knew to do that! If a truck or bus had needed to turn onto that street, it would have needed the space in front of us to do that, and the car seemed to anticipate this. I am boggled by how much information it must be processing, how many "if this then that" scenarios, and then reacting, and taking actions based on...well...on what it "thinks." 

After that moment, I truly thought that there MUST be a human somewhere remotely driving the car, or at least taking over in certain situations. But no: I looked it up, and Waymo cars are FULLY autonomous. It was the car making choices the whole time. 

The car pulled up in front of the hotel. There were no spots available at the curb, but it pulled over as much as it could just like a real driver would and cautioned me to look carefully before getting out, make sure I had all of my things, etc. To get out I had to pull the door handle twice. 

And that was it! Aside from there being, ya know, no driver, it was like a good Uber ride. The car stayed within speed limits, handled completely appropriately, and the only time I felt unsafe was when the human drivers were doing unpredictable things around us...which is of course the norm now, but I wonder if these cars will change that, 10 years from now.

As usual I am deeply fascinated by technology like this, and was very glad to have this special chance to ride in really one of the first driverless cars. If you get a chance to try it too, I think you should! You might be surprised :) 

I spent the next hour or two editing and uploading my ride video, answering questions from friends about the car, and prepping for the show. Carpooled in, and Michael (Key 3) had spent the day baking us an apple pie! It was a delicious pre-show snack! 

The show went well and seemed well attended, nothing else to report this time (and that's how we like it!)

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Friday: Laundry in the morning, not sure yet what to do in the afternoon. One show at night.

Saturday: Two shows and no plans.

Sunday: Prepping for my Aunt's visit + two shows.

**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.

This post covers the weekend.

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FRIDAY

Up early to do laundry. FYI I get up early to do laundry because no one else does :p and this way I don't have to wait for a washer to free up.

Packed things to put back in my trunk, had breakfast, submitted Austin Foodie Finds to the group chat. I am kind of burnt out on all the work involved in Foodie Finds, it's a lot of research and linking and formatting, so I haven't even started on Houston yet. Hopefully I can dredge up some motivation for it while in Austin, or while on the December layoff.

The first show was fine. Perhaps because we're in "the holidays" now, there were loads of treats backstage! Someone brought a huge cinnamon roll the size of a cake; another a huge sheet pan of homemade cornbread; and someone's mom sent several loaves of pumpkin spice bread! These were gathered and put on a wardrobe hamper for everyone to enjoy. I had a small piece of each thing, it was all delicious :)


Between shows I went back to the hotel for dinner, then walked back a bit early because we'd heard there was a Thanksgiving parade on the river and that downtown would be packed. And it totally was! Cars were gridlocked and even walking was tough with packed sidewalks. I took this photo at a closed-off street. Look at the pretty lights! This is the first night they've been turned on, probably for the parade and to signal the start of "the holidays."


The evening show seemed well attended and the audience was kinda rowdy! It was nice :)

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SATURDAY

I kept thinking it was Sunday because we had a two-show Friday :p

Awake way earlier than I wanted to be, but such is life. A slow morning, a lazy afternoon (I should have gone for a walk tbh), and walking to the theater for the show. Downtown is still incredibly crowded, I think there are more holiday events on the River Walk this weekend.

The matinee was good and well attended. Someone brought pecan and pumpkin pies for us...we have so many treats!
Between shows the usual dinner at the hotel and walking back and all that.

Evening show was also good. We have a substitute flutist in the pit with us, I suppose Dane (flute) is taking some time off in an upcoming city. I noticed someone working on our wall tag as well, it should be done by tomorrow and I'll be excited to sign!

After the show and before the exit music, some of the actors on stage made a speech about Broadway Cares. This has been going on for weeks, it's a current fundraising drive. The audience is asked to donate once they get to the lobby, and they can purchase donation prizes like photos with cast in costume (usually $20), playbills or posters signed by the whole cast (Ranging from $40-$100), and suchlike things. But tonight there was a special item: a piece of sheet music signed by Susan Egan! They brought the house lights up and did an auction right there. They had sold some of these previously for I think $400...but tonight, doing it auction-style, they managed to sell TWO of these for $1100 each!! Woooot!

I haven't really mentioned it in this blog, but the Broadway Cares fundraiser has been going on for the whole month of November. After almost every show and before people exit the theater, the actors announce that they'll be taking donations for this organization, which provides social service programs all across the country. From battling AIDS, to granting emergency financial aid, to providing food and shelter for actors in need, and so much more, Broadway Cares has done an INSANE amount of good in this country.

(reminder to click the image for a larger version)

From what I understand this is not only a fundraiser, but also a competition! I'm not sure where Beauty and the Beast stands in the donations rankings but hopefully we'll find out soon! Every week we get a report on how much we've raised, and I gotta say the generosity of audience members in EVERY city we visit is incredibly touching. Once the totals are in I will share them with you :)

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SUNDAY

Slept in a bit, the usual breakfast routine followed by packing. We only had one show today. One-show Sundays are nice! It feels like you're getting a break even though you've still had 8 shows :p

The holiday crowds are clearing out so walking to the theater was a bit easier today.
Behind the theater they'd closed off the entire road and backed all of our tour trucks literally into the middle of the road for load out. The Majestic is an old theater with rather narrow hallways, and I imagine loading out is not going to be very easy.


Backstage our wall tag was ready to sign. It's the little blue one there near the floor :) 


Pre-signatures:


Post-signatures (well, most of them.) I circled mine in red for you since they are a bit hard to see on the blue background.
(Remember that you can click the image to open in a new tab and view larger.)


The show was nice and went quickly, and loading out was fast for me personally as well. Before I knew it I was back at the hotel with the whole evening free! It was cold and windy out so I decided to have a lazy night, doing some casual Christmas shopping, looking up layoff flights, working on Houston Foodie Finds, eventually eating dinner and whatnot.

San Antonio has been good to us these two weeks :)
I must admit that I didn't get to do a whole lot this time because I was fixated on preparing for and taking that crazy trip to Orlando. But having been here many times before, I don't feel bad about it. Sightseeing or not, it's a lovely city and always a pleasure to visit.

Tomorrow we have quite the relaxing day. We get to stay in this hotel until 1pm, then a very short bus ride to Austin to arrive by 3pm.

Not sure how I will spend my time in Austin yet, but am looking forward to it!

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Monday: Travel day, and I'm really hoping to hit two big Asian supermarkets once we arrive in Austin: 99 Ranch (Chinese) and Asahi Imports (Japanese)!

Tuesday: No plans, just opening day in Austin!

Up at 4am, the scheduled Uber came to get me at 4:30am. At the airport, checked the trombone and through security by a little before 5pm. The flight was at 6:30 and thankfully I had worried for nothing, because it wasn’t even raining, there was no turbulence, and nothing was delayed.

Layover in Atlanta was enough time to eat a yogurt, granola, and coffee.

Landed in Orlando right on time. Frequent visitors to the theme parks will recognize this hideous carpet.


My trombone Arrived Alive. Thank goodness. God BLESS this hardshell case and that foam cone in the bell.


I picked up my rental car. It was a good thing I’d reserved; many of the other counters were out of cars or were renting at inflated rates for the Thanksgiving holiday. Drove first to Publix for a cheap sushi for dinner, then home to see my Jameson!! He was working but we got to catch up a little, he played a few of the arrangements he’s been working on and showed me the new outdoor lights he’s installed on the house. They’re really impressive, basically permanent LEDs wrapping the roof edges that you can change to any pattern or color you like!

I had only a few hours and spent them sorting my mail, swapping some stuff out of my bag, cleaning up a bit, and renewing my drivers license which expires next year, surprise!

the 12-hour mark.


Eventually I ate dinner, got dressed, waved goodbye to Jameson (he was in a meeting) and off to Health Services for my annual hearing test and training modules. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's off to work we go!


I've written about this part of the process before: after checking in you are taken to have an annual hearing test where they stuff you in a tiny soundproof booth, put some special headphones on you, and play a series of tones in decreasing volume in each ear to test your hearing. They never tell you which ear they'll start with and you don't know what pitches they'll play next either. I always get a little stressed during the test, wondering if I'm imagining phantom tones, or worrying that the beating of my heart, suddenly loud in that muffled space, will drown out what I'm supposed to be hearing. But she said I did about the same as last time with a few small variances that aren't worth noting, so I guess it's all good.

Next you are taken to a room with a computer to complete some safety, privacy, and PPE policy modules. Basically you are reaffirming that you understand company policies on a variety of topics, and misc "safety in the workplace" items as well. My modules were fewer than usual, only about two hours' worth (typically it's around 3) and I was finished with everything around 8:30pm which is a new record.

Since I had time, I paused in the parking lot to admire Spaceship Earth cycling through a bunch of random patterns. I never fail to be grateful, and feel a sense of wonder, looking at parts of Walt Disney World after hours.


For this rehearsal, larger instruments such as keyboard, tuba, bass, etc were give drive-on clearance, meaning we were allowed to drive a vehicle into EPCOT's backstage and park very close. Other smaller instruments and the choir members had to park in the employee lot and take an employee bus in. Being able to drive onto property is another reason that I'm able to do Candlelight rehearsal each year; the bus would add another 10-15 minutes which I cannot spare when rushing to the airport afterward.

Anyway, I drove through the gatehouse and got a great parking spot (perks of being early!), found the trap room (essentially a trailer that serves as a green room for EPCOT performers) and settled in to chill out until rehearsal at 10:45. There were some nice snacks laid out so I enjoyed some of those, made sure I looked presentable, and chatted with friends as they filtered in. Sam (our local AFM union president) stopped over to say hi and ask how tour was going. I saw Clay, who is a music producer for Disney and a good friend of Jameson's. We hugged and got caught up a bit (he was leaving after conducting an earlier rehearsal.) He's usually out on the cruise ships so it was a rare treat to run into him! Other friends included my friends Sara and Kristen, both trumpets who sub with the Main Street Phil; Jeff Thomas, who's the principal trombone of the Orlando Phil; and Justin (also trumpet) who plays at Epic Universe with me. Everyone of course wanted to know how tour is going and when the show's coming to Florida (I wish I knew!)

As our call time approached we got word that there were enamel pins available (see last year's pin HERE, it still lives on my backpack.) I went to management to get one and got to finally meet Renee, who is our coordinator/director for Candlelight each year yet somehow I've never met her in person! She seems like a lovely human, and confessed to being a foodie and following my tasty adventures!

But anyway, I walked away with this beautiful pin to commemorate participation in this once-a-year holiday event.
The design is giving "retro" and "astronomy," I think!


Finally it was time to line up and walk over to America Gardens Theater. On the way over I made sure to give a little wave to "my" vintage mailbox :) There are two of these, one at EPCOT and one at Magic Kingdom, and they were made only a few minutes from my hometown in Pennsylvania.


It was a good run through. Of course I can't take any media during rehearsal so I always reshare this image so you can at least see what it looks like on stage. The choir is always so beautiful with their colorful robes and the festive lighting :)


Afterward there was a brief break where some of us hit the restroom or had a snack, and others went home because they'll be able to come back for future rehearsals and won't need to attend both tonight. Other musicians arrived to fill their spots and I got to chat it up with some more local buddies, then back to the stage for the second run-through with a different conductor than we had on the first run. Everyone attends multiple rehearsals because it gives us all a chance to experience different conductors and colleagues around us; during Candlelight there's a rotation of personnel and the subs could end up performing with just about anyone. The second run was better than the first for me; it always takes me some time to settle back into playing in an orchestral trombone section after years of going it alone on tour. Jeff and the other trombonists always seem pleased with my work, that's all I care about.

Right at 2:30am we wrapped it up. I didn't run, but did a quick walk back to the trap room to quickly change shirts, pack up, clock out, and peel out to get to the airport. ETA 3am.


I dropped the rental car, got my trombone checked in, through security and arrived at my gate more than an hour ahead of boarding!! That's a new record!! First of all this time I paid extra to not have to fill the rental car gas tank, saving me 10-15 minutes, and secondly I prepaid for the trombone and all I had to do was drop it. It all worked out extremely well.

Obligatory bathroom photo. Full disclosure that I did use a mild filter to reduce shadows and increase warmth so I'd look less like a zombie lol.


At this point it was about 4:30am and I'd been up for 24 hours. Boarding was on time. I can't sleep on planes but was able to doze at least. We landed on time too, but for some reason there was a traffic jam of planes preventing us from reaching our gate so we had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes!!! Not only that, we were at the farthest possible gate from where I needed to go, a good 10 minute walk even with taking the terminal train. I was stressed and annoyed, but made it just as they were announcing my boarding group.

Then we sat for ANOTHER 30 minutes while they "manually filled the lavs," whatever that means and I probably don't want to know!! But to be honest I was glad for the delay because it gave time for them to put my trombone on the plane!! Thank goodness Jameson got me that Air Tag. I could see that it was with me :)


Finally we took off, landing about an hour behind schedule. Though I was close to tears from being worn out and just wanting to get home, I was SO grateful to be safely back in San Antonio and not having to worry about making it to the evening show!! Our MD had been texting throughout the day to make sure I was on schedule, too. I felt bad to make him worry but also grateful that he cares enough to worry, if that makes sense. Rescued my trombone from baggage claim and we waited patiently for an Uber.


I was back at the hotel by about 10:40am. Plenty, PLENTY of time. This was probably the best 48-hour Candlelight experience I've had, as far as everything being on time and arriving back to the tour with time to recover. Best of all, Past Me had had the foresight to remove the "Do Not Disturb" hanger on the door, so Sleep-Deprived Future Me got to walk in to a clean room and a freshly made bed. There's no lovelier sight when you're ready for a nap.


I showered and unpacked, ate lunch, and slept for about 3 hours. Woke up feeling still tired but MUCH better. Typed up this whole post, got ready for the show, ate dinner, walked to the theater a bit early to ensure I could set everything up and get comfortable. Everyone very kindly asked how the trip had been or expressed that they were glad I was back. 

The show itself went well and normally. I found it hard to keep my mind from wandering off and had to focus extra hard, and energy was definitely flagging, but I made it through! 

And with that, the annual 48-hour Candlelight Rehearsal Extravaganza was OVER!
(It was more like 42 hours but you get the idea.)


This is the third year in a row that I've successfully participated in this rehearsal while actively on tour.
At this point three different touring companies (Crossroads, NETworks, and Disney) have allowed me to do it.
I am grateful for the trust that they've put in me, and for the ability to afford/make this journey for three years in a row.

Often people don't understand why I go through all this trouble once a year, just for a rehearsal. This might be one of those exulansis things where I should just give up explaining it because people won't get it, but here goes:

1 - Candlelight was how I became a Disney cast member, and continuing to participate in it for as long as I can is very important to me. Even if I don't always get to perform in the actual shows, attending the rehearsal and reaffirming that I work at Walt Disney World, and all that entails, is a privilege and a joy. 

2 - Because Candlelight is how I became a Disney cast member, I am required to attend at least one Candlelight rehearsal each year, otherwise I will lose my ability to perform at Walt Disney World. That means no subbing with the Main Street Philharmonic, no filling in at Candlelight, not being able to work at the park at all during tour layoffs. That would be a LOT of opportunity lost, and that's why I feel one crazy travel day is well worth it. 

3 - I'd potentially lose some benefits (might not be totally correct but I am pretty sure there are differences between theme park and non-theme park cast member benefits.)

Hopefully that makes sense. 

Anyway, what a trip. And as I was walking exhaustedly back to the hotel, an email landed in my inbox....
We've been given our 2027 Beauty and the Beast tour dates!!!

I absolutely CANNOT share them until they're public on the website...but I'm sure they will be soon. Look forward to it! 

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Wednesday: 2pm matinee, then we have our company Thanksgiving dinner at a steakhouse. Very much looking forward to it!

Thursday: One evening show. Nothing planned because it's Thanksgiving and I assume most things will be closed. I'll use the time to recover from travel, do laundry, and think of all the things I'm thankful for :)

WEDNESDAY

I slept poorly and woke up in a sour mood. "Hormones?" I asked myself.

Then I remembered. It's October 8th.
That's the day my dad "suddenly" died of Covid because he refused to vaccinate.

Public post + obituary is HERE.
Friends Only documentation of the funeral, my thoughts, misc rants, and multiple posts on the aftermath begin HERE.
The night I got the call that my dad had died, HERE, followed by multiple introspects, all Friends Only.

And so I don't have to type it all out again, here's THIS POST briefly describing why this week in October is particularly hard on myself and my siblings.

TL;DR our mom died on 10/09/01 of pancreatic cancer which took her only four months after diagnosis;
our dad died nearly exactly 20 years later (today 10/08/21);
our grandpa died on 10/10/24;
and our parents' wedding anniversary was also 10/13 which isn't particularly notable except it's kinda weird how all of these deaths + their wedding date are crammed into this one week in October.

I often joke with my siblings that we should reserve our October death dates now, since they're such a hot item :p

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Needless to say I woke up anxious and wishing I could spend all day under the covers. Not just because of the above but also because I don't WANNA do Epic Universe tomorrow! *throws tantrum*

Eventually I got up and around, exchanged condolence and support texts with my sisters and stepmom, then

• Ate breakfast
  
• Popped over to the grocery for pork tenderloins and other ingredients for dinner
• Made a marinade for the loins and a mustard cream sauce
• Practiced both bass and tenor/Epic Universe stuff
• Packed lunch and snacks and a bag for tomorrow
• Lunch
• Lazed around for a solid hour and a half because I was feeling cranky
• Chatted via text with my step-grandma, who of course wants to talk about her husband with his death anniversary coming up
• Rotted my brain with a bunch of Alastor/Hazbin Hotel plot and lore theories
  
• Worked on Foodie Finds

For dinner I made us pork tenderloins that had been marinating all day in honey, salt and pepper, garlic, thyme, and mustard. Seared 'em and threw 'em in the oven, and while that happened I made mashed potatoes and frozen French-cut green beans. I messed up the mustard sauce: it was made of cream, two kinds of mustard, tarragon, parsley, and salt and pepper, but one comment on the recipe said to pour drippings from the pan in there too so I did...all of it. Should NOT have done that, it turned out far too watery. So, I told Jameson to call it a "mustard au jus" :p

It still turned out fantastic, with the pork being perfectly cooked and moist and tender and very flavorful. Jameson said it's the best one I've made, and I agree. Therefore it's a good thing that I made two! I sliced one and froze it for Jameson to enjoy while I'm gone. (Or if he forgets it'll be a treat for ME when I get back.) I should've taken a picture I suppose, oh well.

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THURSDAY

Jameson was up at 7:30 for Disney and I got up with him so I could sit around and fret about Epic for a while. Chatted with my siblings via text about our mom's death, since today is THAT anniversary. At the very least while I'm making a fool of myself at Epic today, I can imagine her cheering me on.

The one nice thing about these half-day rehearsals is that I don't have to leave until 11-ish. I got there early under the assumption that my ID badge wouldn't work, but security told me it's active through the end of the year! How nice. Once in the break room I was greeted by several of the Hogwarts / Beauxbaton / Ilvermorny "students" and some "living paintings" who were hanging out. The jazz trio was out on a set. I ate my packed lunch, then went on a hunt for my makeup bag and touched base with Brendan (management) to see if there was anything I needed to know (nope.) Put my makeup on and checked on my costume, lucky I did because they gave me someone else's skirt and the wrong shirt too. BUT I've gotten new shoes to wear, how nice! My other ones were pretty beat up from those hot summers prancing around on cobblestone. 

Back in the break room, the trio was back so we caught up with each others' doings. They kindly ran over the script with me once to make sure I remembered it (I do), and then we piled downstairs for the set, but it started raining immediately. Yay! Mariah (the primary trombonist/"Phillipa") asked if I'd be willing to play the next three shows without having audited her show first, and of course I was happy to, I don't need to see the show to do it :p 

(I took this pic while waiting for the 2pm set but when it started drizzling I quickly ran inside)

None of the other sets got rained out, so I got to do all three. I was weirdly calm...I like to think it's because of my mother's influence, thinking of her today as it's the anniversary of her death. It was also nicely cloudy and breezy all day, which made it SO, SO, SO much more comfortable to perform! 

All of the sets went just fine. I received a lot of flattery about my playing and character portrayal and all that which always feels nice. Though I hadn't wanted to do an Epic brush-up rehearsal today, I HAD wanted to see my friends, and was very glad that everyone's still happy and enjoying the gig :) 

Mariah followed us out to the final set of the day and took this little clip of us.


I was focusing a lot on posture, gestures, and facial expressions today, so was grateful for this footage as it's informative for me. Not that I'll get to do this very often, but it's relevant to the public speaking endeavors that I'm making lately. 

Overall it was a lovely day. I fought traffic to Whole Paycheck (absolutely horrible...it took nearly 30 minutes to go less that 2 miles / 3.2km !!!) where I got wings for us for the weekend and sushi for dinner. Got home around 7 and we had a late dinner together and told each other about our day. 

In closing, a little spoiler for you. This bird is in the Cirque Arcanus stage show, but it's almost constantly broken. It hangs out in one of the rehearsal rooms so I see it a lot. I love the detail of it's face. Someone put a lot of effort into this puppet. 

**DO NOT copy or share my backstage photos.**

**DO NOT copy or share my backstage photos.**

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Friday: Cooking something for dinner, not sure what. Practice, laundry.

Saturday: Probably more of the same and touch-up cleaning.

Sunday: Last day at home before heading to East Lansing, MI to continue the tour.

WEDNESDAY

Up at 8 though I could have (and would have liked) to sleep longer.
Jameson was up at 8:30 for breakfast and the gym. He's starting to get nervous about his wisdom tooth removal on Saturday and is thinking about what soft foods he should pick up. I've already decided that Thursday's dinner is going to be meatloaf and mashed potatoes since those should be easy-to-chew leftovers.

While Jameson was out at the gym I went to the grocery for dinner ingredients, then prepped the salad. Well, I started to prep the salad but the lettuce I'd bought had rotted from the inside so I had to drive all the way back to the store and replace it. By the time I'd returned and finished the salad it was lunch time, then Jameson had a zoom meeting. I wanted to go for a walk but it's still so hot, so instead dozed and read my book until he was done then practiced bass trombone for a mere half hour. Then BOTH of us lazed around because he had nothing to do until a 4pm class. I was so bored that I counted out the 15 pasta shells for tonight's dinner and set out all the pans I'd need. Worked on Foodie Finds for North Charleston as well, mostly just checking that the restaurants I'd pegged are still open (some of them weren't so it's good I checked)

It's a good thing that I'd prepped so much for dinner because partway through boiling the shells I gave them a stir...and to my surprise, every single shell had broken!! I am 41 years old and never in all my days on the planet have I seen something like that happen! What would even cause it?? I was flabbergasted. For the THIRD time that day I had to drive back to Publix and grab another box of shells (a different brand.)

Thankfully none of the new shells broke at all and I was able to proceed with dinner. My goodness. Between the rotten lettuce and the broken pasta the universe seemed rather opposed to my cooking dinner tonight.

But we endured :p Here are our delicious cheesy shells:


Jameson prefers non-meat shells filled with ricotta, parm, mozzarella, and savory Italian spices. I add just a touch of nutmeg too. They're creamy and delicious, but I have to take one Lactaid per stuffed shell. We watched BattleBots together, and for dessert we tried a bunch of the candy I'd gotten for us. The peelable sweet potato candy was certainly weird; it did taste like sweet potato and I might have liked it except it had a sour taste that didn't really belong. Jameson said the Mountain Dew gummy worms were "ok" but didn't quite nail the flavor of the drink. Ah well, it's fun to try new things.

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THURSDAY

With Jameson at Disney corporate early in the morning I was able to have a more productive day. There are certain yucky chores that I prefer to do when he's not around, and one of them is scrubbing the bathroom. The cleaning product that I use is the only one that well and truly kills black mold between scrubbings, but it smells absolutely horrible and burns the throat and eyes. I don't subject Jameson to that.

And so, after breakfast:

• Scrubbing the shower (ugh)
• Grocery for dinner ingredients (I feel like I live at this grocery now)
• 2-mile walk
• Lunch
• Laundry
• 30 minutes bass trombone practice
• Making meatloaf sauce
• 2pm union meeting *
  
• Typing up union meeting notes *
• Assembling dinner and getting meatloaf into the oven

* RE: Union Meeting: There's a meeting between the union stewards and the AFM representatives once a month. Musicians are welcome to attend as well. I had planned to attend anyway, but an hour before the meeting our steward texted to say he couldn't make it and to ask if anyone would be going. The other BATB musicians either didn't respond or said they couldn't make it, so ended up being just me. Therefore I paid attention and took good notes to share with my coworkers. I also got to present concerns about an issue with reimbursements that has come up recently (I had gotten approval from more than half the band ahead of time, otherwise I would not have said anything here. I have been a steward myself before and know that in this capacity you're speaking for your peers, not yourself.)
Dinner was meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans, nothing special. There were too many onions in the meatloaf and not enough apple this time, kind of a bummer but I'll remember it for next time.

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Friday: No plans except celebrating our friend Lea's birthday at Epcot (idk what that'll entail but CERTAINLY a drink)

Saturday: Jameson's wisdom tooth surgery.

Sunday: Any final chores, repacking my suitcase, checking in for my flight, and enjoying a final day with Jameson before Beauty and the Beast starts up again in Durham.

**DISCLAIMER** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer.
DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION. Thank you.**

This post covers The weekend.

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FRIDAY

Intentionally up early because I'd pre-ordered a very fancy croissant from Diane's Place, a Hmong-influenced bakery across the river. It's a 2.5-mile walk, hence getting up at 7 for a 9am departure for a 10am pickup.

Want to see me get more exercise? Easy. Put a treat at the destination.

It was a pleasant and quiet walk, though very humid. Lots of people were out jogging or walking dogs or whatever. On the way I passed a lot of flower gardens in peoples' yards. This absolutely massive flower caught my eye. My hand is approx 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) long, for context.


Diane's Place was PACKED. It's very small and clearly you've got to make reservations to eat there. I was glad to have only ordered pickup as I was sweaty and gross from the walk. I would have walked back, however at that point it was about 80°F (26.6°C) and drizzling, and I thought making this croissant sit in the heat and wet for an hour might ruin it. Therefore I grudgingly Ubered back.

Here is my prize: house-made croissant with coconut pandan Chantilly cream filling.


Pandan is a tropical plant with dark green leaves. When you cook or boil the leaves they have a flavor that is sort of a subtle grassy vanilla-nut-spice. Like a more complex vanilla I guess you could say. It's very popular in Southeast Asian dishes and desserts. I love the flavor and any time I see it will jump at the chance to eat it. This croissant was just as good as it looks! Light perfectly laminated layers of pastry, filled to the brim with sweet, light, pale green pandan cream. Chantilly is just whipped cream with added sugar and vanilla, so although I have to eat Lactaid for this I know that 2 or 3 will be enough. Totally worth the walk for this amazing and unique treat (AND I got to burn some of the calories from it too yipee!)

That was pretty much the only adventure for today. Ate lunch later on, watched anime, practiced in the afternoon, rested before the show.

Evening show was good and normal. Our associate conductor led our show, so our swing keyboardist was on the Key 1 book (I think? Hope I got that right.) Everyone did a great job. No standing O in the middle this time, but that's ok, let's not expect those, or get complacent ;)

As the show went on I was dismayed to start feeling pain in my right jaw. I think it's some kinda TMJ, but I don't think I've ever felt it quite so bad before (even had trouble chewing my intermission granola bar.) This is not the way I wanted to go into a four-show weekend.

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SATURDAY

A massive thunderstorm rolled through between 4-5am, and while it was exciting and enjoyable to fall back asleep to, it also meant losing some sleep.

My jaw is still all messed up which is a shame. There's nothing to do about TMJ; typically you just have to ride it out. I wonder if this happened during the stress dreams I had a few nights ago. Partly because of my worry over the jaw pain and perhaps because of the dreary weather, I felt mopey all morning. Did get my act together to do a load of laundry though, which will save me having to do it on the upcoming Monday off.

The matinee went fine, our assistant MD conducted again and did a great job.
Ooh, ooh! And I finally got my first travel reimbursement check! Yipee!!

Perhaps because it's the weekend we were utterly BOMBARDED with food. Someone made bacon chocolate chip cookies and brought them in; someone's friend dropped off mountains of treats including Gatorade, protein bars, candy, fruit, nuts, and chips; and a local custard shoppe dropped off little single-serve containers of their house-made cookie dough custard!! If this keeps up I'm not sure how I'll still fit into my clothes next year! But truth be told, I'm really grateful for all of the free treats, some of which save me a bit on groceries. Ironically it reminds me a little of that Ben Folds song about being offered free coffee only when you can afford to buy coffee.


(About half of the treats. An equal quantity was upstairs in front of the call board.)

Between shows I went back to the hotel to rest and eat dinner. The audience was piling out, and there were GAGGLES of little girls dressed as Belle! Here were four who got together for a photo, faces emoji'd for privacy.


Intermission dinner-and-chill, then back to the theater for the night show.
We DID get a standing O again mid-show :) 
I thought it went pretty well. I could've played some parts better, but rarely does a show go by where I think I gave perfection. I will do my best tomorrow. 

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SUNDAY

Up way too early for no reason. Such troubles sleeping lately!
Downstairs to steal bagel, walnuts, Greek yogurt from free breakfast.
It was a boring morning, and in retrospect I should've enjoyed a walk or something. But I did nearly finish the last Eragon book at least.

The matinee featured a lovely audience who applauded even for smaller scenes, and gave a partial standing O after Be our Guest (some stood while others remained seated.) 

Dinner was spent trying to source a new anime to watch, texting Jameson, and looking up hotels and Airbnbs in Greensboro. You see, I have made a promise to myself on this tour that I will NOT be doing ANY carpools! 

Every once in a while (for financial reasons) the touring company books a hotel that is too far from the theater to be walkable. In those cases they'll either give us Uber credits or get us rental cars, which is generally just fine. I've experienced this across every tour I've been on, including the circus. But on this tour, at least for the first year, I have decided to give myself the gift of NOT having to deal with rideshare commutes. NOT having to get up extra early because the town we're in has limited Ubers; NOT getting home super late because the hotel is so far away from the theater; NOT stressing out because that one person in the carpool is perpetually late thereby making ME late. Oh and NOT fearing for my life because the coworker who is driving turns out to be a terrible/scary driver. Yes, I am So Done With That this year. I'd rather spend the extra $50 per night on a closer hotel in a small handful of cities, and not have to worry about any of it :) 

BUT that does mean I need to book my own place any time the company books a far hotel, and Greensboro is one of those.
Honestly though? I'm looking forward to it! 

Anyway. Evening show was also very good and featured another mid-show standing o, so after this post I'll probably stop mentioning them. For me it's a complete novelty still, and it makes me very proud of our show and all of the work and passion that everyone has poured into it, which is apparently coming across quite well to the audience each night.

One more blatant brag about this iteration of Beauty and the Beast: 6 of the 8 shows this week had standing ovations mid-show, and additionally, every single show has had a standing ovation at the end. This is, again, something that I've not experienced with any other show I've been on. I am SO HAPPY to be a part of this story that is loved by millions of people, here in Minneapolis and also around the world! :)  :) 

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Monday: Day off. I hadn't planned to do anything but found out there's a light rail to Mall of America for only $2, so I guess that's the plan! 

Tuesday: One show in the evening. Going to Vinai, a Hmong restaurant, for my final Minneapolis foodie find.