goofball on a train

Thursday, work at Epic, the usual routine.

Super hot. We had hoped it would rain but sadly it did not, so it was just stiflingly humid.
Our sets were well attended however, and I saw Small Bee Photography there again, so perhaps we'll have some nice photos of our sets too :) It is so incredibly awesome of these pro photographers to give us FREE access to the images that they take.

At the final set there was a "show dump" happening right when we were going out to start our performance.
A "show dump" just means the audience is clearing out of the theatre and back into the street. The circus was dumping, and all the people who had just seen that show were pouring into our performance space in Place Cachee. We only have one handler and there was no way she could clear all those people out by herself.

(photo courtesy touringplans.com)

So I went out there as Phillipa, ahead of our cart and the handler.
Saw our tech fighting the sea of people to get to his audio spot.
Planted myself in the middle of the square packed with people, looked around, and shouted,
"AH, SACRE BLEU! I MUST TEST ZE ACOUSTICS IN ZIS SPACE!"


Put my trombone up and started playing short loud notes: "BAP BAP BAP"
...and a few longer ones right at eye level for good measure: "BLAAAAAAT"
While doing that, swinging slowly in a circle, forcing people to move away from my slide.

They scattered like roaches!

"Jules" came up behind me and parked the cart. "Wow!" he exclaimed, in character. "Zat was effective!"
I gave him a pleasant Phillipa smile. "Well! I do my best."

When our day was done I got ready to go see Mariah's band play downtown. I wiped myself down with a "bathing wipe" that I picked up ages ago somewhere on tour. Quicker than a shower, and ensured that I wouldn't clear out the venue with my stink. Had started to drive over there when Jameson sent me a long audio message. Turns out he's already being poached by another branch of Disney corporate. This is only his second day of work!!

This one is called Disney Live Entertainment (DLE) which is a part of Imagineering and for whom Jameson has interviews MANY times. They want him to be a producer for them, temporarily, on the Disney Magic cruise ship at the end of June! The ship will be in the Bahamas and there's a band he'll supervise during rehearsals. How cool! He was SO EXCITED.

This is the thing about Disney. Once your pinky toe is in the door, YOU ARE IN. Buckle up and prepare for liftoff.

Feeling happy for Jameson, I continued on to Judson's Live, the venue where Mariah's band Raspberry Pie was performing.
Ages ago I promised to come see her play, and was glad to be able to keep that promise :)

( Raspberry Pie at Judson's Live )
I decided to leave before the end of the second set, having been up since 5am and knowing that Jameson would want to talk my ear off about his exciting cruise ship opportunity. Got home and as predicted he had a lot to tell me! I listened as he described the job and how it had been offered, his speculations about what it would be like, etc, until midnight when we finally wound down.

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Friday, Jameson had to pop over to Disney to work out some technical issues with his logins, but he was back by lunchtime.

I had breakfast and hydrated, washed our sheets, made the bed, did laundry, typed this post, got ingredients for sesame chicken salad for dinner, got the chicken marinating, and made the spicy citrus dressing. I "should have" practiced but was feeling cranky, don't wanna, didn't. I was in a bit of a mood, perhaps from drinking too much the night before and not getting much sleep.

Ultimately I'm grateful that our non-standard lifestyle does generally allow large chunks of time to rest if I choose. From 2pm to 4pm I was able to doze, read, decompress, and try to gentle myself back into a pleasant mindset. I was 50% successful. Cooked the chicken and assembled the salads, which are napa cabbage, romaine, the sweet-spicy chicken, mandarin oranges, pomegranate seeds, toasted nuts (your choice), crispy wontons, avocado, sesame seeds, and a tangy citrus dressing. Jameson loves it and that makes me happy :)

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Saturday. I was kind of a slug. Breakfast and mostly practiced, spending 1 hour on Beauty and the Beast and 1 hour on the Chicago tribute band stuff. I am starting to (barely, sort of) feel better about the Chicago music, but will be happy when that gig is over with.

Jameson went for a walk, and we both kind of lazed around, then decided, why don't we use some more of our Disney Dining Discount coupons? We looked at the resorts, and Jameson recommended Flying Fish which is at the Boardwalk resort.

Got our reservations and drove over around 5, enjoyed looking around a bit, and were seated very quickly.
Very cute steak and seafood restaurant with whole schools of glass flying fish dangling from the ceiling.
We each got a drink (sauvignon blanc for me, vanilla bean bourbon for him) and I got the following:

Strawberry Gazpacho (vegan)


Ash-crusted Salmon with Herb Risotto, maitake mushrooms, baby turnips, greens, and shellfish broth
(I got too excited and dug in before remembering to take a pic)


Matcha Bavarian Cream with guava curd, sesame white chocolate, and vanilla panna cotta


Jameson had the shrimp cocktail appetizer, "Frutti di Mare" entree (assorted shellfish with pasta and red broth), and this Hazelnut Chocolate Bar that came with a golden truffle.


All of it was extremely good. The gazpacho was visually stunning and also amazingly complex in flavor, herby and tart and fresh. There were tiny cubed vegetables hidden in it. The salmon was very interesting, I assume it's capped in charcoal powder with maybe a little salt. The crust wasn't very flavorful but did give a fun smoky, crispy texture. The risotto was excellent, and I could have eaten those baby turnips in a bag as a snack lol. The matcha guava dessert was VERY good, matcha and guava go together quite well. Jameson's favorite was the shrimp cocktail which featured plump white wine-braised shrimp, though he loved the flavorful pasta in his main dish too. We both felt "meh" about the choco-hazelnut bar as it was kind of one-note; a little fruit would have been welcome with it, that's all.

Once again we were able to use a 50% off coupon. With tip it was probably about $100 each (in other words it would have been $200 without the coupon!) Very, very grateful for our castmember perks.

Back home I took time to move some of the furniture off the pool deck because we're having it sealed tomorrow.

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Sunday, Jameson kept kicking me in his sleep and almost kicked me out of bed!
So I finally just got up ahead of my alarm. Poo-head!

Had breakfast and then moved the heavier pool deck furniture outside of the screen, swept the pool deck.
The sealant guy came around 9:30 and after an amicable chat he got to work.
I had hoped to go for a walk, but received a surprise transcription job so plugged away at that instead (it was supposed to be sent on the 30th so I'm a bit annoyed that I've lost those days to work.)

Pool deck dude was done a little after noon. He always does an excellent job and is THE only contractor we've ever called back (three times now.) I always write him a very good Google review with pictures, so this time he asked me to take photos while he was working and made me promise to add them to my review, which I'm very happy to do. His work was $$$$ and it made me cringe, but I definitely couldn't do this myself and it took him 3 hours, and we only have to do it once every 3 years or so.

After that, lunch and trombone practice, all three sizes of trombone. Then back to transcription while Jameson watched the Cubs game.

Checked my email during a transcription break and was thrilled to see that the music coordinator for BATB has finally sent our music, and play-along tracks!! There are only TEN DAYS until tour begins, and I am seeing our actual music for the first time. Turns out, it's exactly the same as the Australian version. Wooooo!!

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Monday: Transcription, rehearsal for the all-chick Chicago tribute band.

Tuesday: Transcription, and finally getting this Chicago tribute band gig out of my face.

Wednesday: Transcription, packing for Epic, getting my trombone stands and mutes ready to ship to Schenectady.

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.

Thursday, as you saw, the casting list for Beauty and the Beast went up!
This meant that I was able to share my next adventure with everyone!

I was at Epic early in the morning again as usual. Stopped at Whole Paycheck beforehand to get wings and a few groceries, then practiced bass trombone backstage. Eventually the boys came in and I got with them to discuss the day's plan, and right after that is when someone messaged to let me know the casting list had gone up!

(photo courtesy Disney Theatrical)

I posted to all of my socials, and then had to respond to congratulations and questions between sets for the rest of the day. I did not mind! It has been hard to keep quiet about this gig, it is an actual dream job for me and it has not felt like it's really happening, and still probably won't until I'm actually in rehearsal!

Management at Epic has known for a long time that I'll be leaving, and has invited me to stay on as a sub during layoffs, which I VERY much appreciate. The truth is, I'm not sure that they'll be able to find another female trombonist. That's not to be critical or snooty, but to say that there just aren't that many to begin with. In the whole state of Florida, as far as I know, it is just us three whom they've already recruited who play professionally.

I hope I'm wrong.
Or that they hire some boys to play trombone! Lol.

It was a normal day, though we didn't have the cart or Plume.
The last two shows of the day were "rained out," though it was only drizzling. We don't really have a rain contingency yet so even a drizzle causes a bit of chaos, but for now if We The Band agree to stop the show, it stops. That will likely change.

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Friday I was up early again to drive to the nearest Toyota dealership.
My car is overdue for the 100k service. I delayed that due to the rodent infestation that I had to take care of at the beginning of this year. This time they presented me with about $3000 of work to do, but only half of it was the 100k service, the rest was just stuff they found (something about the undercarriage and linkage, blah blah blah.) They said those things could be addressed later, so I handled $1500 of it today and will come back for the other stuff before the end of the year.

This, combined with replacing ALL of the faucets in our house, has been a financial gut punch.
But it's ok you guys! Because I have Snack Pod.

While waiting for my car I chatted with Jameson, who said he was gonna go on a walk.
Just a few minutes later he CALLED me.
He NEVER calls me unless it's urgent.

HE GOT THE JOB!!!!!!!

He had just started his walk when Disney Event Group called, and offered him the Producer role.
FINALLY!!!!!!

I almost screamed out loud in the dealership. Managed a medium-loud yelp that made some people turn around haha. So, this role is only part time, BUT. There is already talk of making it a full time role depending on DEG's needs. And as with many aspects of Disney, a foot in the door can be enough leverage to get you REALLY moving within the company. Jameson will still be doing his online teaching for LA Film School, but he is extremely hopeful that the future will center around this job.

After celebrating over the phone with Jameson he hung up to go call his parents, and I checked out the DEG website...and also got a special little gift for Jameson ;) TBA.

Here is where Jameson will be working!!



Shortly thereafter my car was done, yeah yeah whatever I paid for it and drove home as fast as my little wheels could take me! Where Jameson excitedly told me all about how he was offered the job, and showed me that video of the offices, and described all of the hopes that he has for this going forward. He got emotional, because we were both just so excited and exclaiming about all the work he's done, all of the sweat and tears he's poured out for Disney, and all of the years of waiting and of trying SO HARD and not getting any response from the universe. But now, here is a wonderful chance for him. Everything is worth it for that moment of success. I am so, so happy for him.

Also...I'm pretty sure this makes us a Disney Power Couple! What a funny thought!

We had lunch together and I did laundry, Jameson worked and did some research on some stuff he'll need to buy for this role, mainly clothes. He's very excited to have an office again! (That probably sounds weird lol)

For dinner we celebrated with pizza and air fryer wings :)

Late in the evening I was surprised to receive a transcription job!
No announcement of resumption after the long pause to funding/due process. They just said, "Thanks for your patience, here's an extra $0.25 per page as gratitude." I felt a flash of annoyance because I'm off for the next 4 days and as a Lazy Millennial, I like down time. But then I accepted the job and felt good about it. First of all I really do enjoy the work, and secondly I'm happy (and relieved) that at least some people out there will receive their right to due process.

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Saturday I was up earlier than I'd like because of the transcription work.
Felt bummed but, when the universe gives tasks I think it's wise to complete them when one can.

Unrelated, a photographer called Small Bee Photography took some nice photos of Place Cachee Jazz during a set this week.
Here are my two features:


Jameson was up early too for a massage. I simply plugged away at transcription while he was gone, getting through about 30 audio-minutes of the 3 audio hours I was sent. After lunch, practicing. I'm doing tenor and bass for Beauty and the Beast, plus practicing switching mutes, then have to practice Chicago music for the all-female Chicago tribute band I've got at the top of June, so all three sizes of horns were out and the guest bedroom looks like a frickin trombone petting zoo.


After that a small rest before another real-time hour of transcription which completed Case 1 of 3.
We'd planned to go out to celebrate Jameson getting a new job, but he was feeling a bit under the weather so we ordered sushi instead.

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Sunday, transcription. Went to the grocery for myself and Jameson.

I think he's got a cold. I wonder if it's the same thing that I felt earlier in the week, except it's grabbing him a little harder (he eats fewer veggies than me so :p ) Because of that we sort of threw all plans out. I dusted and practiced and did a second round of transcription, and that's about it.

A month from today, I'll be flying to Schenectady for tech rehearsals.
We are still waiting on LOADS of information.
Direct deposit forms, onboarding paperwork, logistics for our instruments, luggage allowances, a route schedule...THE MUSIC. It makes me very anxious, but there's nothing to do. They'll have to give these things to us at some point.

Dinner was the last of the dino nuggets with marinara sauce and whatever leftover shredded cheese we had lying around. And broccoli trees, of course.

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Monday and Tuesday: As much transcription as possible, I need it done before the Epic workdays when I'll have zero time to work on it. Probably some chores and cooking too.

Wednesday and Thursday: Work at Epic.

Right before bed, another spoiler sent via a facebook friend:



Finally @bioreconstruct and his helicopter have caught us in costume AND with our instruments!
We still did not have our prop, though, so that should still be a surprise for most people.

(I am still under the NDA, but at this point Universal has officially shared our existence and that we're a trio of musicians with a puffskein, plus I haven't had backlash for the other @bioreconstruct photos I've shared, so I will risk this and see what happens.)

Anyway, was up to do transcription. Finished one case and started another shorter case, which sadly had incredibly poor audio and was difficult to work through. This is why you can't judge a case by it's audio length; it may be a short clip, but the clip could be VERY complicated to transcribe. In fact I worked on it for the whole time that Jameson was at the gym, which was frustrating as I'd hoped to practice while he was gone, too. Ah well. Finished all of the transcription and now only have to review everything and ask my bosses some questions.

I also found a general store in Harrisburg, PA that was willing to ship me some church eggs!

(stock image of peanut butter filled "church eggs")

The name of the store is Zimmerman's, which has been around since 1915 and always carries multiple churches' chocolate filled Easter eggs. The eggs are on preorder at most churches during Lent, so I knew I'd better try to get them now or never. The buttercream are my favorite but the peanut butter are awesome too, coconut coming in third :p I got two of each kind of egg from the top two popular churches in the area. Now they just have to somehow not melt on their way here. We'll see how they do!

And then when Jameson got back from the gym, I whipped up the Quaker Maple Bacon Instant Oats to try.


They were surprisingly good! Weird, but good. No pieces of actual bacon or even fake bacon, just a sort of smoky aftertaste and smell. And the label says "made with MILK ingredients," so while it doesn't say what or how much, I have to assume that it's lactose or whey for sweetening purposes (many Quaker cereals are sweetened with whey concentrate.) Boo. Still, it was fun to try!

After that I went to the grocery for taco salad ingredients, and back home went for a walk. It was sunny and 70F with a brisk breeze and not a cloud in the sky. I'm surprised that we can still have days like this, this late in the spring in Central Florida. Usually by now I remember it being 10 degrees hotter. Not complaining. Didn't see anything special on the walk, it was just good to get some fresh air.

Finished transcription, got notification that the firefly petunias I'd ordered for family have shipped so I notified my fam and sent care instructions for when they arrive. Also ordered myself some vanilla lavender chai, a sample pack, because when I'm feeling anxious sometimes I buy myself small waste-of-money things online. I am anxious, btw, because I feel that I really ought to hear more about the upcoming summer tour, and am impatient to hear something and worried until I hear something. This is typical for me, and simply means that I'm impatient, not that anything is overdue or in jeopardy. Right.
..............right?

Taco salads were nice as usual. I had an Underberg afterward and that felt nice too.

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Had stress dreams, so did Jameson. His were about his job interview today. Mine, weirdly, were about the pork roast I plan to make today. In the dream I had to make it for a huge group of people and only had enough ingredients for Jameson and I. I've always been very stressy about cooking/baking so this is no surprise.

Mariah (one of the other Epic female trombonists) had messaged sometime in the night to say that her grandpa had passed away, and could Andrea or I fill in for her today. Technically I was free, but by the time I woke up to read the message it was 7:30am which is when I'd usually be leaving for Epic. Fortunately Andrea had apparently been up and responded at 6:30am to say she could do it. Anyway, not to be selfish but I really needed today to finish this transcription job, so I'm glad Andrea could do it. (Obviously if she hadn't been able to I would have no matter the inconvenience to me.)

After reading through those messages and eating breakfast I got a late start on transcription review, but plugged away until Jameson went to the gym, then ran to the grocery for ingredients. Back home, switched over to practicing because I did not practice at all yesterday and felt guilty about it. I haven't been memorizing my Disney stuff either, entirely because I feel overwhelmed about it, and because it's not something I was asked or required to do, just something that I took upon myself in case I was needed with our 2nd trombonist out with an arm injury. But it doesn't seem like I AM needed, I haven't been called at all and his subs must be covering for him. There goes my motivation for memorizing the 2nd part.

Well, I got in a good hour of bass practice then went back to transcription until lunch time when I prepared and seared the pork tenderloins and got them going in the slow cooker with peach jam, bourbon, peach balsamic, a bit of soy, molasses, spices, onions, and garlic. This is a photo from the last time I made this but it looks just the same. Also, it was so good that I did an entire post just on this recipe, HERE.


After lunch I made the slaw and some iced tea, and set Hawaiian rolls out to thaw.
Am I getting a jump-start on summer with this meal? Lol.

While doing all that, Keith messaged to ask if I'd cover at the Magic Kingdom for the next two Sundays and I said yes before considering that Mariah might need one of those days for her grandpa's funeral. So I quickly texted back and forth with the Epic Trombone Ladies, and it seems like we should be all right. Phew. I am grateful for the additional work, but in this particular situation I'd waive "Disney Priority" and help Mariah first.

I went back to transcription around the same time that Jameson began his interview with DEG. He was using headphones and had the door shut so I couldn't totally tell how it went, but heard him laugh a few times and speaking passionately about his work at others. When he emerged he told me it had gone well, and that he should hear more by Thursday, and that if there's another interview it will likely be in person. Fingers and toes, fingers and toes. Crossing ALL of our fingers and toes.

Back to transcription review until it was finished (yay!). Now all I have to worry about tomorrow is getting the frankenbone cleaned, practicing, and packing for Epic.

Before bed, received a startling offer to join an Asian tour of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
This is my first international tour offer. Something that I've hoped and dreamed for.
And I will have to turn it down, because I've already said yes to another equally-dream-job tour!

How strange life is. A few months ago I was scrubbing toilets and selling hats.

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Wednesday, barely slept at all because my mind was racing about what touring Asia would be like, and from angst about not having heard back from the tour I've accepted. Now that this other offer has appeared, I would REALLY like for the other tour to confirm with me, again, that I'm signed with them, A) because they've been silent for 3 months exactly, B) because they haven't sent any paperwork or info as yet, C) because it would be the worst thing in the world to decline a job for another job and then find out you don't have the other job, and D) because I am the type of person who really badly needs legitimate reassurances, or something more than a verbal agreement.

I mean, unless something has gone horribly wrong, I am still slated to head out with the tour I've accepted.
But waiting to know FOR SURE makes me feel like someone is twisting a knife in my stomach.
Just yes or no, guys. Please.

The MD, bless his patient heart, did get back to me to say as far as he knows everything is still a-go.
That is indeed reassuring, but I'd also like to hear it from the music coordinator if possible.

Anyway, was up too early, ate breakfast, drove out to Pat's with the frankenbone.
He went to work on it right away, and I started the drive out to Clermont to kill time but he called to say he was done before I got there. Drove back and we talked about trombone nerd stuff for a bit, thanked him for his work, and drove home.

Where I proceeded to eat lunch, pack for Epic tomorrow, and screw up my courage to call the music coordinator. He did not answer so I left a message. And then I did nothing for the rest of the day because I felt discouraged, annoyed, and put out. I HATE being in limbo, it drives me absolutely bonkers. This should be a set job. I should not be fretting to this extent. But three months of silence plus having to turn down another offer, while trying to patiently wait to hear from someone...it's really, really hard for me in ways and on levels that I can't describe. It makes me absolutely squirm inside.

Jameson was also in a bit of a funk probably for the same reason, as he's supposed to hear back about his job interview tomorrow. We binge-watched three episodes of Traitors and went to bed early, knowing it would be hard to fall asleep anxious.

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Thursday: Epic, followed by my bass trombone lesson. I hope Will isn't put out when I show up with my show makeup on lol.

Friday: Epic again...and Jameson will get to see the park, and my show!!! I am nervous and excited. He will get to see more of the park than I ever will, too, and I'm jealous of that.

Saturday: A day off. I'll have to do a lot of transcription.

Sunday: Filling in at the Magic Kingdom. I'm looking forward to it.

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.



(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.


(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.



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.

Around 9pm last night--which is well after I'd posted to DreamWidth and scheduled the usual post to LJ--I received a Universal audition results notice.

Sort of.

To sum it up, Universal is hiring through a third party. It's the same third party company that currently hires for their Mardi Gras band. The way this works is, the third party posts the audition notice, holds the audition, selects whom they'd like to use for the project, and submit that list of names/portfolios to Universal for review. Universal then selects whom THEY'D like to use from that list (if anyone.)

And only after that selection process is finished, are any of us actually offered contracts for the project, through the third party. Hopefully that makes some sense.

So what I got last night was an email essentially saying, "Congrats, we've selected you for review by Universal, and we think you've got really great odds of getting hired!"




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That's great!
I'm not complaining.

I am 40 years old, and have essentially never won an audition in my life unless you count the recorded audition for Candlelight (I sort of do count that actually.) So this is a new and exciting experience for me.

I am also ecstatic just to be in consideration. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I'd be performing as a sub at Disney while also getting the opportunity to work at Universal. PLUS having another potential tour on the horizon. I don't mind admitting, this is more than I deserve and far more than I've ever expected all at once.

Regarding the "fly by the seat of your pants" nature of these auditions, the awkward wording in the second audition posting asking for "female presenting" trombonists, and the impression that these people kinda don't seem to know what they want yet...it's honestly a standard level of chaos for a brand new park and a brand new show. It's reminding me of Busch Gardens and the "Mix It Up!" show, actually. It was a brand new show when I was hired, and they were so desperate for a trombonist that they took me without an audition, paid me to drive all the way from California to Virginia, then I was thrown into preview night with absolutely no preparation whatsoever (thankfully I had taken it upon myself to memorize the music, but nothing could save me from choreography that I'd never been given.) I remember well how stressful it was to be thrown on stage and expected to follow the choreo of people who'd been rehearsing for weeks, in front of the entire creative team. I remember a lot of yelling and harsh words about how bad we looked (not my fault at all but it sure made me cringe) and the subsequent weeks of rushed rehearsals and drastic choreo and costume changes.

With a new show, there are a lot of creative voices trying to talk over one another, and one day one voice gets heard and implemented, and the next it's someone else so they scrap everything you learned yesterday. It's a weird and stressful process, and I feel for the third party company, for having to negotiate for us and for these potential performing jobs.

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Another great bit of news is that there are THREE female trombonists!
Myself, Andrea (who I mentioned in the recent post), and Mariah, a local trombonist just out of high school who's in a lot of local bands...notably, bands that play gaming/anime/nerd music. How freaking awesome!!
I am so excited to work with women trombonists! Theoretically they should take all three of us, two as full or part time and one as a sub. But they may have other options waiting in the wings, we'll see.

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We are scheduled for an all-day orientation on Friday, even though we won't be offered contracts/jobs by then. Interesting.

I'll be going to orientation, and theoretically by the weekend we're supposed to know whether I'll be hired at all...and then, whether I'm being offered full time, part time, or a sub contract.

Here goes nothin'.

We spent Monday mostly on a charter bus to Erie.

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

It's a pretty old theatre.


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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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.

Sunday's hat:


It's my no-trim Kathy Jeanne straw hat, with one of the store's elastic trim bands attached. Disney-themed, with a cotton candy-colored castle and blue and pink feathers. The band is too tight so I only wore this hat for four hours, then switched to a fuzzy winter hat so I wouldn't get a headache.


Customizing the trim on this hat should be fun and easy. While on tour I'll check thrift stores for scarves, belts, or ribbons.

Ah yes tour...that thing I'll be doing IN A WEEK.
And they STILL haven't gotten us the music!! :(

I mean...I've been practicing the original score, so expect I'll be fine. They're overnighting us the books today or tomorrow, which means I'll have to find room in my luggage for a binder full of music.

Anyway, Monday I woke up mildly annoyed about all that there is left to do. But grateful that I might still be able to do most of it.

Today's Stuff:

- A load of laundry
- Trip to bagel shop (French toast, cinnamon raisin, egg)
- To Publix for a roll of quarters for tour laundry
- Transcription
- Practicing Christmas Disney stuff + a little Elf
- Prepping mutes for possible shipping to Kentucky tomorrow
- Planning dinner tomorrow
- Finding Pumpkinhead beer for Jameson (one is for meeee)
- More transcription
- A nice walk with Jameson :)

I didn't get as much done today as I wanted to, but there is still time and every little bit helps.

Technology-Is-Cool Sidenote: Pumpkinhead Ale is really difficult to find around here. Publix gets a limited amount but it sells out VERY quickly. Today I could only find it at Total Wines an hour away (two hours of driving round-trip.) But then I remembered that you can order alcohol via DoorDash! I checked, and there was a small liquor store that had it in stock a 30-minute drive away. I ordered some and it showed up right as we were finishing dinner. The Dasher scanned my ID, and that was that.
It only cost slightly more than the in-person price, and saved me a HUGE long drive to get something nice for Jameson. Yay!

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Tuesday, Jameson was up early for Jollywood rehearsal.

After he left I had breakfast and did transcription until my Elf music showed up, at which point I stopped to check some other things off my to-do list:

- Booked a rental car for Candlelight rehearsal in November
- Printed a gift card to add to Jameson's birthday presents
- Ran and emptied dishwasher
- Put recycling out
- Deadheaded the petunia
- Shipped my mutes to the hotel in Kentucky (I hate doing this but each one is the size of a wine bottle, and there are FIVE OF THEM, they take up SO MUCH SPACE in my luggage!!)
- Target for dinner ingredients + last-minute tour items
- Practiced and marked mute changes in my new Elf book
- Ordered more crap for tour on Amazon
- Cooked pork chops for dinner
- Voted!

Preparing for tour always costs more than I expect. This time I had to get new black socks, some new toiletry bottles, and music editing materials since I have to deal with a PAPER book. The original plan was to scan the music to PDF, and I probably still will. But when I got the book there was a not inside implying that they REALLY want us to use the physical book. Plus, whoever arranged it actually did a really good job with the page turns. So...okay. I'll try using the book :p


This year I voted by mail. The ballot didn't show up for two weeks so I thought it was lost and requested another. And today the other one showed up! I spent a solid 40 minutes researching the candidates and the amendments up for consideration (because I'm a centrist and don't believe in voting for someone just because of their party affiliation)


Vote, y'all.


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Wednesday I woke up mildly panicked, thinking about all that's left still to do.

What's still on my To-Do List:

- Weeding front yard
- Thorough cleaning of whole house (vacuuming, mopping, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, scrubbing both showers, washing bedsheets)
- Finish packing
- Wash trombone
- Pumpkin carving with Jameson
- Finish final transcription project
- Leave plant care instructions for Jameson

This may not seem like a lot, but "thorough cleaning of whole house" is many tasks in one. And I still have two hat shop shifts, and need to practice not only the changes to my Elf music but also Main Street Philharmonic music and Candlelight music. Plus there's cooking final meals for Jameson, and roasting the pumpkin seeds after carving. It's all stressing me out tbh, and the last two days have not felt like days off at all.

Today's activities:

- Putting ballot in mail
- Transcription
- Practicing new Elf part and making notations
- Ordering Pub Sub for dinner and picking it up.
- Getting ingredients for crock pot oats for Friday
- Transferring dish soap and olive oil to new Nalgene bottles
- Watering petunias
- Moving some things to garage for storage while I'm gone

Transcription ended up taking longer than expected because I had a lot of questions, but I did finally get it done.
Practicing also took a long time because I had to stop and practice the new parts over and over.
As I type this, the Nalgene bottles just showed up so I'll be filling them momentarily.

Soon it's time for my second-to-last hat shop shift.
Thursday's hat will be in the next post.

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Thursday: Scrambling to get more tour stuff done, editing and submitting transcription project, buying pumpkins for carving, practicing the other half of Elf (I only got through half the book today), making overnight crock pot oats

Friday: Crock pot oats and pumpkin carving with Jameson, making pumpkin seeds (or at least starting the process,) washing bedsheets, practicing if needed, finishing packing, any chores that I can knock out

Saturday: Any and all of the household cleaning. Hoping it will go faster than I think. Last-minute tour prep. Possible trip to the thrift store to drop stuff off.

Sunday: I'm hoping to mostly rest, but also anything I haven't done yet. Because Monday...off I go.