taz_39 | Entries tagged with my fair lady

Thursday, another ho-hum.

Up at 7, breakfast, data entry, lunch, trombone, data entry.

Somewhere in there someone came to repair our lanai screen because the vacationers next door were throwing water balloons at each other and broke one of the screens. They seem like a nice family and had no malicious intent, and the property owner sent someone to fix it immediately...but waking up to a broken screen with no note, no knock on the door to let us know or be accountable...was kind of sh*tty. Whatever, it's fixed, just...between this and the toilet situation, it didn't feel great. Getting a toilet installed should not take days and weeks. Getting someone to fess up to a simple broken screen shouldn't take multiple phone calls, or require constant vigilance against our neighbors. It's frustrating and tiring.

Data entry all day, and I'd meant to make us dinner but didn't allow time for grocery shopping so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Instead I picked up Chick-fil-a which is right across from Lowe's and whoopsie I somehow ended up in the garden section and the next thing I knew there was a jalapeno plant in my cupholder. How did that get there?? :p

The day ended without a new toilet installation appointment. I'm guessing it'll be another week, at least, of sharing a toilet. I don't mind that, but do mind the sewage-smelling hole in the guest bathroom floor.

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Up at 6am so that I can "make up for" the crime of needing an hour to pick up groceries for dinner.

Gosh I am in some kind of negative mood this week, aren't I. Here, look at my newly-potted jalapeno.

Managed an hour of data entry, then went to the grocery to get that over with.
Unpacked and was back to data entry by 9am.
Hit my six hours by 4pm, so worked on an application for Publix.

Yeah the grocery store. Why, you ask? Crossroads Live has just moved My Fair Lady to it's "Past Shows" section on the website. So if the show is marked inactive/past production, we're probably NOT going to China. And there has been no word of any other tours requiring trombone. And it's almost July. And I'm an unskilled garbage.

But if I work at Publix, maybe I'll get a grocery discount!
Useful to have in late-stage capitalism.
However I doubt they'll stoop to considering me.

Dinner was a broccoli chicken cheddar casserole, recipe from Half-Baked Harvest.
It's slightly healthier than a traditional such casserole because A) white meat lean chicken, B) no cream or canned soup, it's milk and low sodium broth instead, C) veggie noodles (it's supposed to be wheat but I couldn't find any,) and D) less cheese.

Ingredients are chicken breast, broccoli, tricolor rotini, onion, carrot, mushroom, garlic, thyme, broth, milk, a little butter, spices, cheddar cheese.

The cheesy pull (CLICK HERE to see)

It was quite good. Next time I'd put in effort to shred my own cheese as there was a bit of graininess (sometimes this happens due to anticoagulants in pre-shredded cheese) but everything else was lovely.

I felt pretty depressed tonight re: My Fair Lady, but applied for some more jobs and tried to cheer myself up by making plans for my upcoming Actual Two Days Off.

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Saturday, was up at 7am instead of 6 (lazy Millennial, no wonder you don't have a job.)

Before going to bed last night I'd been chatting with two places that have small Meyer lemon trees. Option 1 is an individual in downtown Orlando who is a hobby/side gig grower, Option 2 is an actual plant nursery way out in Dade City.

Not sure which I'll visit...guess I'll decide when I wake up on Sunday.

Meanwhile our MD from My Fair Lady posted that he's "unexpectedly free from August through May," so that confirms it, My Fair Lady is closed. Womp womp. I'll apply to more jobs tonight, and will make a plan to restart digital court reporting training post-Independence Day. Meanwhile I spent my afternoon doing data entry in a bad mood.

While practicing the Mary Poppins Medley FedEx arrived with a trombone for me! From my friend and former Bandmaster Brett, my boss on the circus. He insisted that I try one of his horns out before spending $$$$ on one, and sent it for free. I played it for the rest of my practice session. It's pretty good, but to be honest visually it's kind of a mess. I'll have to ask if I'm allowed to play it in the park, or if it looks too beat up.

I was so happy to hit my 30 hours of data entry. Now I will have a real weekend!!

It was pouring outside and traffic was horrific so we stayed in and ate leftovers.

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Sunday, my weekend started off with an attempt to sleep in! I made it to 8am.

After breakfast I decided to see the local hobbyist gardener's lemon tree first. They gave me a residential address and as I reached their street it was quite apparent which was their house: the one that looked like an absolute JUNGLE lol.

A lovely Indian woman and her toddler answered the door. She tisked over one lemon plant (which I thought was just fine) and pulled out another which looked even better and had three lemons already growing on it! I was happy to take it, and she walked me around to show her other plants which all looked beautiful and well cared-for. I was especially impressed by a beautiful mango tree laden with fruit, and a copse of lime trees so covered in limes that they seemed to have more fruit than leaves!

I asked about pineapple plants (why not) and she said she only had one left and it wasn't in good condition, she'd give it to me at a discount. I gratefully accepted and loaded my new "plant kids" into my car. Success!

Back home I showed the plants to Jameson over lunch, then we went to Lowes together for marigolds to plant along the side of the house (we've had them before but they died in the dry spell last month.) Shockingly Lowes was OUT of marigolds! But Jameson saw a large ornamental ginger plant that he liked so we got that instead. I also saw a pineapple plant WITH a fruit on it, so had to get it!

Jameson's ornamental ginger:

My new plant collection: pineapple, jalapeno, Meyer lemon.

The lemon tree especially has my heart. I was very fond of my little tree, which I've had for about three years and which gave me huge golden lemons without fail every winter. And this tree came from a lovely person who took great care of it. I'll try to do right by it.

The other pineapple not pictured because A) it's in bad condition and B) it has two pups! So I need to separate them out and re-pot everyone. I did re-pot the Lowes pineapple, but realized that I'd gotten the wrong soil; pineapples need sandy aerated soil. So tomorrow I'll pick up the right kind.

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Tomorrow is still "the weekend" for me, and current plan is to go thrifting, pick up what I need at Lowes, get dinner ingredients, repot the plants, practice trombone, and cook dinner for us.

The rest of the week we'll have 4th of July (no plans), I have a Disney day on the 6th, and more applying for jobs.

We had a slow morning in Eugene as it was a late flight.

It turned out to be kind of a wonky travel day, though: first our flight was delayed, then United wouldn't let us check in as a group OR individually. Instead they made us line up at the counter in the order that the bookings had been made, of all things, and then proceeded to check us in AND tag our luggage, person-by-person, all 60 of us. It was absolutely ridiculous, took much more time than usual or necessary, and was probably the least efficient way to check in a large group, ever. I've been a touring musician for 10+ years, and in the hundreds of flights I've taken with all major airlines, no one has EVER demanded that we check in in-person, or in exact booking order, before. Absolute nonsense, and someone at Eugene Airport's United service counter BADLY needs to be re-trained.

Aaaanyway. Thanks to our company management being organized and awesome, it wasn't THAT bad, just idiotic.

Our flight was delayed about 30-40 minutes, and we landed in San Francisco just in time to hit rush hour traffic. The 1.5 hour ride to the hotel quickly became a 2.5 hour trip. I struggled mightily with motion sickness from the stop-and-go traffic, and finally had to resort to wearing my Sea-Bands and eating extra Travel Bagel to stop the acid sloshing around in my stomach. Thank god for that bagel!

When I could do it without my stomach rolling, I looked out the window as there is always much to admire about California.
This is the greenest I've ever seen it here. The last time I was in this area it was badly in drought, and the hills were all brown and crusty.

A housing development in which every single house had solar panels.

We passed many fields of crops, most notably acres and acres of almonds (at least I think they were almonds, the fruit looked pale green and oval. If I'm wrong, they may have been olives instead.)

At the hotel I dropped my stuff and went to Sprouts for one last "Foodie Find," a very small one. Getting just enough groceries for two days; I don't plan to eat out at all here. I found a few fun things to try including Sprout's own brand of seasoned tofu, and a single-serving carton of Woolala Banana Milk (I've had it before but Jameson loved it very much and drank it all :p )

I also picked up some new-to-me apples to enjoy: a cosmic crisp (left), a kanzi (right), and a lemonade apple (yes I've had the lemonade apple recently in another state, but this one looked different and I was interested to try it again since they're pretty rare to come across.)

- Cosmic Crisp: It was pretty good but idk why the big fuss. To me, it seemed like an improved red delicious. The skin was still thick and chewy like a red delicious, but less bitter than one, and the fruit was juicy and had a good sweet flavor. I like at least a little tartness in my apples though, so to me these are, like the honeycrisp, overly sweet.
- Kanzi: And this one was like an improved gala or fuji. Sweet and juicy, thin skin, really nice flavor, and I liked how light and not-woody the flesh was. Some people like a "harder" apple, I prefer ones that are lighter and more "crispy," and this one leans that way. Still more sweet than I prefer but I like it more than the cosmic crisp!
- Lemonade: I'll be eating this guy on the flight home.

Back at the hotel, an auspicious dinner of turkey jerky, nuts, half a NuGo bar, and canned pumpkin. I'm trying to eat down any remaining travel nonperishables, since travel days are about to be over. Unpacked, washed up, felt depressed about the end of tour, and went to bed.

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Woke up on Tuesday a bit disoriented (where tf am I again?) and walked into the bathroom to see water all over the toilet. The room above mine, or pipes I guess, is/are leaking. If there has to be a leak I suppose better over the toilet than, say, over the bed, or my luggage.

Maintenance took over an hour to show up, so I had breakfast and worked on my court reporting modules in the meantime. When they finally did show up he took one look at the ceiling, cringed, and said he was going upstairs to see where the leak was coming from, and I never saw him again after that.

Jameson had a tattoo appointment today and was very excited about it, naturally. I chatted on and off with him while working and worrying about the expanding water zit above the toilet. Finally the front desk called to say that maintenance hadn't been able to access the room above mine because there was a pet in there (they're legally prohibited from entering a hotel room with a pet) and asked if I'd like to switch rooms. I said yes because even if the leak was fixed, there's still standing/stagnant water trapped in the ceiling and I am not a fan of it. They brought a new key up right away and it didn't take me long to switch over.

In the time it took me to switch rooms, all motivation for working on court reporting modules went out the window. I just...I feel like once again I don't have a job. Yes, I have a chance to CERTIFY and THEN start working, but for fuck's sake, that means I need ANOTHER job in the meantime!!!
WHY am I always inadequate?
Why is it never enough?
Am I not human being enough to hold just a normal-ass job?
Once again, I was supposed to know to keep applying for MORE work after being offered a job?
Honestly, I was very upset today. I'm so tired of this happening after each tour.

It didn't even brighten my mood to receive an email from The Florida Orchestra about the upcoming disco concert that I'll be involved in; or shortly after that, a text from the Main Street Phil with directions to the costuming building. I should be excited and happy about both of these fun opportunities, but right now I just feel desperate and ashamed.

With all of that in mind I unpacked (again), and walked to a small fruit stall near the hotel.
Modesto smells a lot like Mexico...hard to describe but it's a mix of, like, hot dust, decaying garbage and food and plant material, grilled meats, and perhaps a touch of brine from sea air brought inland. Just something that I noticed, going outside here for the first time today and coming from a different state.

The little fruit stall/shop had a lot more than fruit, namely dried fruits, nuts, chocolates, and honey. Lots of honey.

I didn't get anything because I'd actually hoped they'd have some veggies, and they didn't.
Went back to the hotel, did work on more court reporting, then did a depressive nap until it was time for sound check.

This theatre has an "ok" pit, and the auditorium is nothing special to look at but the acoustics are "ok" as well.
Some actors started crying a bit during sound check; these folks have performed together for twice as long as I've been on this tour, so there are a lot of emotions as our show comes to a close. After sound check we were given a photo op on stage with the Higgins study set piece.

Full cast (I'm over on the right):

Full cast goofy photo:

My Fair Lady Orchestra only:

When I saw that no one was going to the middle, I planted myself there and did what I hoped might be a good Henry Higgins pose. Note that I took care to wear my shiny reflective shoes.

Opening night went well and the audience was wonderful.

Maeghin, the actress who plays Mrs. Pierce, got us each a pair of "My Fair Shadies" sunglasses! How cute is that!

After the show was our closing night party (even though it's not quite closing night, better to have the party the night before due to load out.) The cute cake:

There were lots of photo ops set up around the event space, mainly a My Fair Lady banner that we took turns with.
Here is my set:

Another set with the band (except Abe, our bassist, who got annoyed with having to wait in line for this photo and left):

A moment before the toasts given by some of our creative team who were present. The woman on the left there is Angela Rowles, the Chief Executive Officer.

To be honest...the party gave "not with a bang but a whimper" vibes. Probably because we just got here, and it feels (to me at least) like we should still have a full week of shows before we close out. The impression is oddly like some sort of "soft closing," with just the two shows and not a lot of fanfare. But each tour is different, and going out quietly like this is a new experience for me. Hey, I got a free glass of wine and got to chat with people a bit, and it was a nice time.

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Wednesday, I woke up at 8am to do a last load of laundry and had exactly the amount of quarters needed. A sign! Lol.
Breakfast, partial packing, and started to do court reporting but my stepmom called so we chatted it up and by the time we were done it was time to eat lunch.

If anyone is curious, I DID end up passing that transcription evaluation for employment that I was working on last week!
And then guess what! They wrote to say that there will likely be no work until JUNE. Hahahahahahahahaha.
So now I "have" two jobs, NEITHER of which will actually have me working and getting paid anytime soon.
That means that although I have two jobs lined up, I still need to find even more work.

Now is the perfect time for a crotchety 65-or-older know-it-all to appear and condescendingly sniff, "No one wants to WORK any more." So I can rip their bloody larynx out.

At least both jobs were up-front about it, and didn't leave me sniveling and groveling for updates all summer like some other transcription companies coughFedWriterscough. At least now I know, for certain, that for the month of May it's back to $12/hr data entry and scrubbing toilets for elderly people via Papa Pal.

Look well, all ye who are envious of my touring lifestyle! For this is the price.

Would YOU be willing to pay it, for the adventures I've had?
As much as I gripe and curse and worry and rant...in the end, I Will Pay That Price every damn time, for as long as I can.
That's how much it still means to me.

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I had planned to get my hair trimmed back in Orlando, but a salon nearby happened to have an opening so I did it today instead. One less chore. The rest of the evening seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was time to walk to the theatre for the final show.

I am not a very boo-hooey person, and still don't even know half of these people, but can empathize with the emotions that they felt tonight. The audience was fantastic and supportive, and cheered heartily for everyone. They knew.
I played the show "like normal," but was so conscious that this was our very last time together. We'll never be here again.

So, ya know. I wore my shiny shoes. For posterity :p

At intermission I joined everyone in signing our very last wall tag, at the top of the stairs leading down to the pit.

And before I knew it, it was over. We were playing the bows, and our MD was crying and so was half the orchestra, the audience was giving us a standing O and I don't know what was happening on stage but can guess lots of emotions. And then we all started packing up like normal, but shook hands and hugged and gave goodbyes. I said, "See you down the road" to everyone because that's the traditional circus parting phrase, implying that you're not saying goodbye; your paths are just forking and they'll come together again someday.

Walking back alone, on a quiet Wednesday night in Modesto, was strange. My mute bag and trombone felt heavy. I had many mixed feelings. But quietly, in the bottom of my shriveled cantankerous little heart, I felt the tiniest ember of hope that this show may be revived overseas. That's the rumor, but as for reality we'll just have to wait and see.

At the hotel packed carefully to protect my mutes and Jameson's souvenirs, and the luggage scale says I'm below 50lbs so hopefully all's well for flying. I missed a text from our MD begging for an impromptu band toast down at the hotel bar...I think he forgot to announce it in the midst of emotions post-show. I felt bad for not going but, I have to be up at 4am tomorrow for an entire day of flying, and though the sentiment is sweet, I don't want to drink tonight (or get weepy haha.)

Packed up, shoved a foam cone into my trombone bell, washed up, typed this blog. And went to bed.
And the curtain is closed on My Fair Lady.

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Tomorrow (or today depending on where you read this) I'm up at 4am, 4:30 shuttle call, 5am departure on a 2-hour drive to SanFran airport. I'll eat breakfast at the airport, then a 5 1/2-hour flight directly to Orlando. Jameson should be able to pick me up, maybe we'll get dinner and groceries.
And the next several days will be spent unpacking, cleaning, catching up with my sweetheart, and preparing for the stationary life.

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

( CLICK HERE for Stress Things )

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pics:

Video (CLICK HERE to watch)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let's do it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Main Street Phil, stock image)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday was a total wash.

The morning was spent nervously waiting for my new boss at my new court reporting job to call, then when he didn't I realized he probably wanted me to get with a court reporting instructor he'd referred me to yesterday instead. I texted to check if that was the case and it was. So another hour of nervous waiting, then a zoom call with her.

The long and short of it is, I'm to take a court reporting course that will prepare me for this job and eventually help me to get an AAERT certification. This is something that I had looked into myself, in the past, but without any sort of job offer on the table or incentive to shell out the $800 for the courses and $1000+ for the equipment out-of-pocket, I never did it. And then I got to go on tour again. But this time my new boss and this program director are offering the course to me for FREE. All *I* have to do is put in the effort and DO IT.

It's too good to pass up; even if everything implodes and I end up with no job again, at the very least the certification (for FREE) would give me a leg up for future work. Still, that meant after our meeting was over I had to spend my morning buying even MORE equipment, and downloading and installing software, and kind of coming to the realization that this is really happening, and I'm going to have to dedicate a significant chunk of time to these courses and to certifying just as quickly as I can, because otherwise it will be entirely my own fault if I don't have work this summer.

Part of me is excited and glad. For my Friends Only crowd, you guys know how much I stress about being entry-level value at every job, and how it hurts to not be contributing to our household more significantly (Jameson has the mortgage and pays ALL of the bills, and I am lucky if I can break $12k in earnings each year at the age of 40.) This could be my chance to break out of that, and have a skills set that can at LEAST get me above the poverty line ffs.

But part of me is freaking out about the NOW...about the money being spent on equipment that I don't yet know how to use, for a job that I don't entirely know how to do.

And part of me is sad and mourning the end of my current job...you know, the thing that I went to school for because I LOVE to do it, as opposed to the job I HAVE to do. Plus currently watching the adventure and freedom that I enjoy on tour coming to an end in real time.

This is all natural...all of the feelings of sadness and nostalgia and kind of inner heel-dragging to start this new job. I go through this at the end of every tour. And so Thursday turned into a day of processing those Big Feels. Which meant that I was depressed and sad, and after I had set up my new profile for the courses and installed the software, I sort of crashed back into bed, not even watching cat videos or anime to make me feel better, just reading a little and sleeping on and off.

At some point in there I ate, and got outside for a short mile-walk (not to the falls, I didn't want to go see such a beautiful place in the mood I was in.) There's nothing else to report, for Thursday. We had our show and it went well.

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Friday I managed to stay asleep until about 6:30am, yipee.

Got up early to start my new courses, but got distracted with finding jobs for a friend. Then partway through the first module, realized I'd forgotten to create a membership with AAERT and download their training manual, which I 100% need to complete ANY of the assignments in this course. So I did all of that, but the manual is emailed to you after the fact and I couldn’t complete the homework until that was received. Rookie mistake. Worked on Foodie Finds for Modesto while I waited, and when the manual hadn't showed up by lunchtime I braved the cold to walk to Kasa Taphouse. It was mid-70s when we arrived in Spokane and now it's 35°F and flurrying/raining. It is still beautiful here, but...sigh. I was looking forward to a last taste of spring weather, before the heat of Florida. Guess not.

This is a fairly new restaurant, with self-seating and QR code menus and a quick-serve environment that I liked a lot. It was pretty busy but I was seated right away and was able to get what I came for: the pork belly bowl. It's one of their more popular dishes and the pork belly is brined for two days, so they sometimes run out of it.

Two-day-brined and grilled pork belly with pickled carrot, radish, and cabbage slaw, tomato chutney, house curry sauce, fluffy house-recipe herbed pita bread, served over yellow basmati rice.

Very very good. I don't usually do pork belly because all the fat grosses me out, but there was actually a lot of meat on these slices and the flavor was awesome. Especially loved the tart pickled veggies with the sweet, warm tomato chutney and spicy creamy curry sauce, what a great combo of flavors. The bread, though, was the BEST. It was as fresh as humanly possible, incredibly light, like a little triangle cloud, not a trace of staleness. Absolutely loved it!

Walked to the grocery for some yogurts and berries for the next few days, and popped into some shops along the way like a record store, rocks & minerals store, and a kitchen supply store (bought nothing because now that I'm doing court reporting I'm REALLY poor, but it was fun to look!)

By the time I got back to the hotel my training manual had arrived, so I spent the rest of the day working on DCR modules. It looks like the hardest part is going to be memorizing terminology, structure of the courts, and history/info about US court and law. Outside of that, I'll just need to learn my equipment, how to set it up, and "best practices" which I feel will come a lot quicker than remembering what a "certiorari" is or a "amicus curiae." One nice thing is that someone has input all of this info into Quizlet, which has an app. So tonight during breaks in our show, instead of reading Wheel of Time, I took little quizzes and flash-carded myself.

When I can start this job depends heavily on when I feel capable enough to do it, so I'm cramming as much as I can...but I'm still on the last two weeks of tour and want to enjoy that.

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Saturday...oooh we are making progress, I managed to sleep until 7:30!

After breakfast I spent a chunk of time completing a surprise assessment from a transcription company...one that I didn't apply to this year, and that sent me a 3-hour nightmare assessment last time I tried to apply for them. This time the assessment was MUCH more reasonable, so I did it, but not sure that I qualify or that they'd be willing to work with me on hours as I prepare for the other court reporting job.

Which is what I did next: spent hours reviewing the first set of flashcards, watching videos on materials, reading the same information in the manual, and reviewing the next set of flashcards and quizzes. Now I supposedly know what "in limine" means. I don't CARE what it means, but I KNOW what it means :p

The first show went fine. I checked on my caramels...you may remember that I brought two big bags with a total of 250-ish pieces:

...and this is what's left. I think there are 12 pieces in there. Good job everyone!

During this show our other Megan, who spells her name Maeghin, put up a disco version of "I Could Have Danced All Night." Pretty cute, and a nice memory for us :) I'm near the tail end of the video, see if you can catch me.
(CLICK HERE to watch)

Between shows the usual, walking back to the hotel and eating random stuff.
Evening show was also good, and it was DEFINITELY a sold out crowd. There was a really adorable moment when "I Could Have Danced All Night" started; the audience made this kind of "Aaaah!" sighing sound and then applauded so enthusiastically when Eliza started singing. It is indeed a beloved number. And I couldn't believe how people were SCREAMING cheers after "Get Me to the Church," like whooping and everything like they wanted to be involved in the bar scene haha.

After the show I stepped out of the stage door and was blown away by the massive amount of people exiting the theatre. It was a good one!

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Sunday I was up at 7, breakfast, working on my DCR training.

That and Foodie Finds for Modesto was pretty much it until it was time for shows.

I don't really have anything to report...both shows were just fine. We were all really looking forward to the golden day on Monday, so perhaps we were a bit distracted, but not to any detriment. And it's still load out, so after we finished I packed up my things as usual and went upstairs to sign our wall tag here. It's been up for several days so for once most people have signed it. Can you spot my initials?

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Tomorrow is Monday, a lovely golden day of no shows and no travel here in Spokane.

My plans are 50/50 chores/fun, so we will see what I actually accomplish from this list:

- Laundry
- DCR modules/training
- Thrifting at the local Goodwill
- Tacos at Cochinita
- Groceries to bring to Yakima (grocery options are super limited there)
- More DCR modules/training
- Some minor day drinking (the lavender honey cider I bought earlier)
- Seeing the falls one last time
- Riding or at least seeing the Looff Carousel

I slept poorly, as I always do before a travel day. Anticipation and anxiety.

Woke at 4:25am, managed to slap on some clothing and brush my teeth and grab my suitcase before the cab got here (he is always 10 minutes early, which I love.) We drove to the airport chatting almost the whole way; this guy has been picking me up on these early morning rides for nearly three years now! I was sorry to tell him that this would be my last ride for a while.

The first flight was just fine, the second was slightly delayed but otherwise normal. As the pilot pointed out features within the Cascade mountain range, I couldn't see jack from my aisle seat and felt annoyed with myself for not thinking to get a window for the second flight. BUT, my stomach had been upset all day, so the aisle was probably the better choice. Stupid body! Eight hours on planes today.

I split an Uber with Elen (cello) and Michael (clarinet) and we made good time to the hotel. It's a recently remodeled Best Western and the rooms are ideal for tour life. Moderately spacious; plenty of counter space; a larger-than-usual fridge; a big sink with food service-grade hot water; a microwave. I'll take all of that over ginchy decor or vintage charm any day!

I dropped everything and went to a local co-op right next to the hotel.

It was rather small and I was a bit disappointed not to find many local products. But they have a nice hot bar and serve a $5 dinner on Thursdays, which info I was quick to share with my peers.

From there I walked to the next-nearest local grocery called My Fresh Basket. To get to it you have to cross a bridge over Spokane Falls. I was not prepared for how big, how fast-moving, how awe-inspiring this waterfall would be. You could hear the roar of the rushing water from blocks away. It was amazing. Watching TONS of water rushing so violently down made me feel small indeed.
(CLICK HERE for video 1)
(CLICK HERE for video 2)

We are here for a week and I will DEFINITELY be taking more footage, but this was my first time seeing it and I was awestruck.

My Fresh Basket was lovely, and much more what I had in mind for finding interesting and local products! I tried not to go TOO insane here because there are a lot of co-ops between now and the end of tour, but I did take home these gems:

- DOMA coffee: A sample-sized 1/4 pound since it's sold in bulk, I just wanted to try it. A lovely medium roast.
- Ladder Coffee Original Black: another local coffee, canned. Sometimes I like to get a canned coffee for bus rides.
- Heart Water Pink Himalayan Salt: I thought this would taste like, idk, Pocari Sweat or something, but it was just..."soft" water. Like it tasted very neutral. Pretty good, but I can probably make it at home.
- WET Hydration Orange Mango Ginger Turmeric: A hydration booster (so kinda like Gatorade) but with zero calories because it's sweetened with monkfruit. This tasted pretty good! I would definitely try their other flavors.
- Laurel Tree Rosemary Garlic Hazelnuts: I didn't know that hazelnuts were a big Pacific Northwest thing, but apparently they are because there were bags of them everywhere in all kinds of flavors. This was the most unique flavor that I found, and hazelnuts are my favorite so looking forward to trying these :)
- Fage Greek Yogurt Stracciatella: Not local, but I've never seen these "Creamy Dreamy" dessert flavors from Fage before and had to check it out! Will get to this in the 2nd half of the week I'm sure.
- Tillamook Oregon Marionberry yogurt: Tillamook sells marionberry and huckleberry yogurts and ice cream ONLY in this part of the country; I have never seen it for sale on the east coast. A locally-exclusive flavor that I wanted to try!

And I got my usual groceries too (fruit, veggies, plain yogurt, protein, etc.)
Back at the hotel I felt VERY tired, but managed to stay awake and also not eat dinner until 4:30 Pacific Time.
Unpacked, got settled in, and did go to bed around 8pm because that's 11pm Eastern Time and at that point I'd been up for like 19 hours, and I had to get up at 6am tomorrow for court reporting training.

But damn, what a lovely first afternoon in Spokane! I hope the rest of the week is just as good.

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I was awake early, mainly due to the time zone changes but also because I had Digital Court Reporting training at 10am ET, 7am PT. It went pretty well...mostly it was just walking me through where to upload audio files and how to document things. I still need to learn how to use their dictation software, and how to notarize things, and how to use the audio equipment...I'm nervous about all of this, but also, how hard can it be? The job sounds like something I can do, let's just put it that way, and although I'm bound to make mistakes at first if I am conscientious and take notes I should get better over time. We will see what happens but for now I'm optimistic.

After that I had free hotel breakfast, which wasn't as good as I'd hoped (few protein options) but getting free food at all is very nice. I tried to relax for most of the morning because my guts were still upset over something. I don't feel nauseous or anything, just, uh, "overactive"? So it could be nerves, or that I ate something that didn't sit well.

My caramels arrived around noon! Excellent, because then I could bring them to the theatre for opening night in Spokane!

We are in this convention center theatre, which has 2,609 seats. Pretty cool!
It's a modern and new theatre, and the only bummer so far is having to climb three flights of stairs to reach the Green Room (which is where I stashed the caramels for everyone to have easy access.)

The stairwell does have open ports to the backstage area though, which is SUPER COOL.
I'm not supposed to be sharing these so PLEASE don't reshare them, leave them here. Thank you.
Points of interest: to the right you can see a lot of ropes for the fly rigging system. To the left you can see wigs lined up in front of chairs for the actors (a lot of costume changes happen directly backstage.) And of course setpieces and our road cases and all that. Reminder that all photos can be opened full-size in a new tab for easier viewing.

The pit was a normal pit. Our MD is still out because he's got a nasty cold and didn't want to be coughing/sneezing/blowing his nose throughout the show while also trying to conduct, so took a sick day and our assistant MD Michael led our sound check and later the show. The show was very well attended, and the audience was awesome! Lots of cheers, laughter, and applause. It's going to be a good week if that's what we're starting off with!

Also, the caramels got RAVE reviews :) So many people stopped me in the hall to exclaim over them, and three different people said they were the best caramels they'd ever had. High praise! I'm seriously considering entering them in a State Fair competition or something (but I'd have to be actually AROUND for that to happen haha.)
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Wednesday turned out to be very productive.

( CLICK HERE for Foodie Adventures )

After all of that I still had stuff to do, like research for court reporting and a few applications to touring companies and of course typing up this whole blog post. Jameson had his first physical therapy for his hand; it seemed to go well, and they gave him some sort of medical tape to try and help hold his inflammed vein/tendon in position while he plays(?) He has a gig on Saturday so I guess we'll find out how well that works.

And before I knew it it was time for the show.

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I decided to post this before the evening show, so hopefully it goes well haha.
Today was long and fun, and tomorrow I have an early, busy morning of court reporting things. After that I want to do some more exploring downtown (the falls and some thrift stores, a break from foodie adventures.)

Was up at 5am to apply for as many jobs as possible and eat breakfast before the bus departed at 8am.

One interesting one that I found is called Papa, it's kind of similar to Taskrabbit but the main focus is on companionship for the elderly and/or small tasks like housework, running errands, or transportation. There's no bathing, cooking, restroom assistance, dressing, administering meds, or other stuff that a certified/insured professional would do. I figure Orlando is probably a good area for such things, so will give it a try or at least have it in the back pocket to pick up side jobs (it's 1099 work.)

The bus ride was uneventful, I was very stressed because I'm about to lose my "me time" for the next four days and psychologically that's a blow to me. I hate not having control over when I get to work, especially, because no matter how much I repeat, "I need to be there by X time" the person I am forced to trust to get me there on time cannot manage it 50% of the time and I end up in a desperate rush to be warmed up and ready for the show. That means I am constantly watching traffic, watching the clock, and generally not being in the moment or fully focused when we are spending time together the closer and closer it gets to show time.

Whatever, there's nothing I can do except give myself an ulcer about it, which I am doing a great job of doing. Whether or not I am at work on time, for the next three shows, depends on other people who are not entertainers, and I'm supposed to be perfectly happy about it. Calm like a little Hindu cow.

We arrived in plenty of time to check in and unpack, but I had to be suuuuuuper careful about unpacking, because the room belongs to Raven this week, really. Tonight I'll use the desk, but after that my suitcase goes in the closet and one of the beds gets to act as my bed, desk, and wardrobe.

The one solo outing that I gave myself was to visit a local grocery co-op. It was really nice, and I would have liked to look around more, but we still had a show tonight so I went as quickly as I could and was grateful for the 30 minutes that I got.

Here is my haul:

- Eldorado Vitamin Drink, Dragonfruit: It's like a Gatorade but made locally. I was fooled into buying it because the nutrition label said it was only 50 calories…but I realized later there were three servings in a 16oz bottle. I don’t like liars, or deceptive marketing.
- TSK Blue Corn and Mulberry Granola: They had about five different flavors, all of which sounded amazing, but this was the most unique and also the lowest in fats and sugars. Won't get to eat this until I get to Orlando.
- Bluefly Tulsi-flavored Sparkling Water: They also had Lavender, Rosemary, and Peppermint. Tulsi is a type of basil, I think used in Thai cooking normally. This company is an herb farm in NM and does not ship these beverages, so you can ONLY get them in New Mexico. I tried it last night and it was very good! Kind of...minty and peppery? I don't know but I liked it so much I went back for another can later in the week. Very good stuff :)
- Local Beef Jerky: It's buried in that pile, it's just locally-made peppered beef jerky. Always a good travel food.
- Bean Stalk Vegan Protein Sticks: Made from soybeans, I haven't seen these before so got one of each flavor to try. Fairly high in protein, low in sodium and fat.
- Spelt Blueberry Coconut Scone: VERY good! They had many kinds of scone, sweet and savory, and it was difficult to choose just one. Delicious with lots of great textures. I cut it in half and ate half for breakfast, instead of oatmeal on Friday.

The sound check and show were fine. This backstage is really weird and maze-like.
On top of that...pardon me, there's a MORGUE??

We looked but did not find it. Mystery.

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Back to Friday. I slept super poorly not surprisingly, then got up very early so I could have time for coffee and half a scone before spending the day with Kayle and her family. I cleaned up the hotel room as much as possible and cornered all of my things in the closet and on the bed. Last night I left a work outfit and some snacks at the theatre in case I end up having to run to work over the next three shows, and might pick up some toiletries while we're out today in case I have to shower at the theatre too (this hotel doesn't have mini-bottles.) Isn't visiting with family during work hours FUN!

Kayle picked me up. She has a sort of station wagon thing, and with her tall husband and three small children all using car seats plus their stroller, diaper bags, etc, the only space available for a third adult is wedged between the trunk and the back of the rear seats, sideways, with your knees under your chin. We took turns wedged into that space all day, starting with Kayle's husband (who is WAY too tall to have to sit back there!) and with Kayle taking majority of the time back there, to her motion sickness detriment.

Anyway, we got to Old Town and enjoyed looking around. Here's some ABQ history for you: at some point there was a misspelling on some railway ledger or something(?) and for a while "Albuquerque" was spelled "AlbuRquerque"!

Skylar, Kayle's husband, grew up here and has lots of childhood memories, including the house that his dad built with his own hands (the family went there and took pics before they picked me up.) In Old Town we started off exploring the tourist shops, all with turquoise and silver jewelry and canned goods and clothing and such. Eventually we got to San Felipe de Neri basilica, which is a historic church founded in 1706. You can read more about it HERE if you like.

Behind the church was a sculpture garden so we checked that out too.

When lunch time rolled around we went to Mary & Tito’s Cafe, a NM institution since I think the 70s. The kids were pleased with tacos, buttered tortillas, and refried beans. I had carne adovada, which is pork slow-cooked in NM red chiles, served with both red and green chile sauces and rice and beans. It was quite spicy, I was sweating, but man it was good! Smoky and tender.

After lunch they took me to a small market called The Fruit Basket. You walk in and are hit with the pungent, spicy smell of dried peppers! This place dries their own New Mexico red chiles, and stews their own green chiles as well. They had lots of other tasty treats, like candies and dried nuts and fruits and produce and all kinds of spices.

The stewed green chiles were in Ziplock bags near the counter, still warm. The red ones were in huge bulk bags stacked in piles.

I didn't need anything but bought some lollipops for the kids and enjoyed the sights and smells :)

We drove from there to a park and nature preserve where we could walk right up to the Rio Grande. It was pretty low right now, but there were flood plains with big rows of netting to help catch debris (I didn’t take a pic of those and should have.)

There was a little info/activity center with fun things for the kids to do. We checked that out and signed the guestbook before leaving.
Kayle's family at the Rio Grande:

Kayle got me back to the hotel in exactly enough time to get a rushed shower, before Raven was at the door with her luggage. I got her settled in and we attempted to find dinner (near the theatre at my insistence, I am selfish like that, wanting to be able to get to work on time.) We got to the restaurant at 6pm, ordered a sandwich and salad…and 50 minutes later still did not have our food.

So I got to abandon my sister at the restaurant, run across the street to the theatre, and enjoy a dinner of stale bagels and granola bars before playing the evening show. It wasn’t Raven’s fault, but if I hadn’t put food at the theatre for myself in case of exactly this, I would’ve had to perform the show hungry. Now think if this had happened at a restaurant 20 minutes away! I would have been f*cked for getting to work on time AND for getting to eat. But when I try to explain that this is why I'm so neurotic about sticking around the theatre, or having a time buffer, it’s like I'm describing some wildly foreign concept. If there’s no time/distance buffer and something goes wrong, I could lose my job. But I guess that’s on me!!!

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Saturday, I slept barely at all. We Ubered to Frontier restaurant, another NM institution that’s been around since the 70s and is right on campus, close to the theatre. It was slam-packed in there so we queued up. It was very loud and chaotic, every time you turned around there was someone carrying full plates or drinks and there were many near-collisions happening. There was barely room to turn around, so many people in there. I could feel myself getting really anxious from sheer noise and amount of people.

The food came out quickly but I was so obviously anxious and flustered that everyone asked if I was ok and I wasn’t even sure how to answer. But I felt better when we were sitting together, because it felt less claustrophobic. I guess I hate or struggle with a feeling of being trapped in “herds” of people, and this felt like that. Similar to being packed into a tight line at airport security, or on a hot crowded jet bridge with a bunch of screaming kids.

Anyway, I got a big cinnamon bun and we cut it up to share. It was very good! Sticky gooey :)

Afterward we walked around the campus, the kids ran around and explored sculptures and stairwells and the big duck pond in the center of campus.

Eventually Kayle wanted to return to Old Town but I opted out, planning to take Raven to the food co-op because I thought she’d like it. But she wasn't feeling well and Ubered back to the hotel to lie down. After making sure she got back safely I went to the co-op myself, had a small snack, and walked to the theatre for the first show of the day.

Kayle and Elliotte came to that show (her husband stayed with the younger kids.) There was a 20-minute hold for technical issues, and since Raven texted to say she was feeling better I asked her to order us some dinner for pickup from a restaurant of her choice, to eat at the theatre. I’m sure that’s inconsiderate of me but my dinner break was now only about 1.5 hours instead of 2, and after yesterday’s experience I didn’t want to risk a sit-down dinner with “only” an hour and a half to eat and get to work.

The show went well other than the hold. Elliotte managed to stay for the whole show, and they came down to the pit afterward to say hello.

We said our goodbyes, and from there I met Raven and we ate tamales and some local chocolates at a bench on campus. This was of course a very quick dinner, so I felt guilty that I’d insisted on takeout instead of a sit-down, but the food was good and we got to enjoy fresh air and conversation anyway.

Very soon it was time for the next show, which Raven attended, and there was no hold thankfully. She had fun, and I was glad. We rode back to the hotel in one of our company rental cars with Joel (trumpet) and Victoria (flute) so Raven got to meet and chat with them.

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Sunday, Raven was up at 5:30 for her flight so of course I was up too. When her Uber was almost here we hugged and parted ways. I grabbed a coffee in the lobby and started packing back I the room, but realized Raven had left a coat behind. So now I must ship her coat to her, making sure to make room for it in my luggage since today is a Sunday. I’m sure I can throw out some of my own things to make sure my luggage is not overweight, or carry her coat on the plane.

I decided to do laundry, and it turns out the laundry is at a sister hotel behind our hotel, so I got to take a nice long early morning walk to get there. Typed most of this post up while waiting for my clothes.

After that Kayle had wanted to “hang out” at the hotel…not sure what that meant and was prepared to shut down any attempt at “hanging out” with three small children in my room with my half-packed suitcase lying tantalizingly in the middle of the floor. But it didn’t matter because 8:45 rolled around and she wasn’t here, and my friend Lauren was en route to pick me up. So, we called it off and I gave Kayle a texted goodbye.

Lauren has been my longest friend; we’ve known each other for almost 30 years. We don’t always see eye to eye but so what, who’s compatible 100% of the time?

That’s her dog Coco, eyeing our eggs Benedict (her husband made them for us.) We ate the delicious runny eggs, crispy ham, chewy English muffins, and homemade hollandaise and talked and talked about parts of each others’ lives that we’ve missed. Our mothers both died when we were young, and that has always been a strong common thread tying our relationship. We talked about how strange it is to be turning 40, to be getting close to the age that our mothers were when they passed. I think that Lauren looks a little rough, so I asked about her health but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it right now. I hope that in the coming weeks we will be able to get a little more one on one time. A few hours at breakfast isn’t really enough to hash things out on the deeply personal level that our long friendship deserves.

My voice was horse by the time we parted ways, we talked so much. She invited me to breakfast tomorrow morning, but I had to decline mostly because I am just so tired, and even though I care deeply for my friend I have a low social battery and it’s at the limit this week. We promised again to FaceTime in the near future. And she dropped me off at the theater on the campus of the University of New Mexico.

Here's a photo of us as innocent bebes in the 90s, and the selfie we took today. Not much has changed, tbh!

Our first My Fair Lady show went all right, although something is up with our conductor. I think the altitude finally got him. Not surprisingly he called out for the second show, so our assistant conductor took over for that one. I hope he is OK.

Between shows I stayed at the theater because there wasn’t really time to go back to the hotel. Drank a cup of coffee to try and stay awake, and ate the dinner I packed for myself, chatted with people. Pretty soon we'll all be going our separate ways. Hard to think about.

The evening show was just fine. We packed up quickly, and back at the hotel I packed and went to bed just as soon as I could, feeling like my brain was melting and my battery was dead. I love my family, but this was definitely not the best city for visits for many reasons including a very tight show schedule, a lot of physically demanding changes (elevation, dryness), and multiple friends and family groups visiting at once, making it difficult to make sure everyone got as much time as I could give while still doing my job to the best of my ability. I talked about how I felt with each family group, and tried to explain why I was having such anxiety over their visits this particular time. I'm not sure if I got across, but I think so, somewhat.

I just hope next time there will be a little more consideration for my work schedule, and taking into account that between shows I have to do things like get a shower, eat, warming up my instrument for the next show, etc. Additionally, maybe a little empathy for what being "at work" means for an entertainer. I am not hourly and my "free time" is NOT time off. I am literally in these cities TO WORK. I have been contracted to be in this place as part of ACTIVELY WORKING. That means that if I am called to do anything at all in the middle of the day--a last-minute rehearsal, or a covid test, or a PR event, etc--I am AT WORK and HAVE to go do it. Everything else--sightseeing, family visits, personal plans--I can do those if and when there is "free time", but I am still AT WORK and it still has to come secondary to that.

Anyway. Goodbye, Albuquerque. Hello, layoff.

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Tomorrow I'm flying to Orlando. There were no early flights, so I won't arrive until 8pm or so. It'll be good to see Jameson, cook him some meals and clean up and give him what support I can as he works through the emotional aftermath of that Disney interview.

After this layoff we'll have our last four cities: Spokane, Eugene, Yakima, and Modesto.
I'm excited because I've never been to any of these, but also sad because it signals the end of tour life once again, and a return to feeling worthless at some low-paying job. But I will do my best no matter where I am.

In closing, a photo of Kayle and I in Old Town.

What a thing, to wake up and realize you have the entire day to yourself!

I could stay in bed all day if I wanted to.
And this is why I shouldn't complain that next week there won't be a moment to myself.
Yet I'll complain anyway :p Ungracious of me. But frankly, I've spent my entire life working to avoid forced social interactions, and interactions in general, and that doesn't change just because of the situation.

Anyway, I rolled out of bed at 8:30am CT...which is 9:30am ET, which is therefore pretty late for ME.
Breakfast, computer time, a little packing because tomorrow we fly to Amarillo for a one-nighter.

And otherwise had a very lazy afternoon. Was supposed to carpool with two others to do laundry, but they backed out. I used a laundry service earlier in the week so wasn't in a super-bad fix, but there will be zero time to do laundry next week even if a washer/dryer are available. Taking an Uber by myself in Chicago would be $30 round trip. A laundry service would be $40 for same-day turnaround. I could walk four miles round trip in the cold and wind to the nearest laundromat. I could take the subway, which only gets me partway there and the stinkiness of which is ironically partly why I have laundry to do today, lol. Or I could wait until we get to Amarillo and fight with at least 30 other people in our cast for the single washer and dryer in the one-nighter hotel.

When there is no apparent "right" option, I like to turn up the heat in the ol' brain pan.
I figured, "It's the Monday after St. Patrick's...it's probably pretty slow today for a lot of hotels. Why don't I just call around and see who will let me use their laundry room?"

Scored on the very first call. A Hyatt just two blocks away said I could come use their laundry room if I showed up in the next 30 minutes! I packed my bag and walked over, and the kind woman at the front desk let me in with her key. So I spent 90 minutes quietly reading Dune and getting a chore out of my face. Not bad! Walked to Target afterward for a yogurt and to get some steps in.

Back at the hotel I packed some and filled out several job applications. Was it an exciting Chicago adventure, no, but it was a quiet day and I appreciated it. I tried the soy milk banana bubble tea from 88 Marketplace.

It had a lovely creamy yellow color, and the banana flavor was gentle and not too artificial. It wasn't as rich as dairy milk, but was yummy anyway. The "boba" was made from konjac which is not nearly as chewy, satisfying, or flavorful as traditional tapioca boba. I know why they used konjac: it adds virtually no calories (a single tapioca pearl can have up to 14 calories.) But the texture was lame and they're visually kinda blech too.

(If those were tapioca pearls there would be 114 calories in that spoon.)

Still, grateful that I got to try it!

Speaking of trying things, by the time I got back to the hotel and had my laundry put away it was time to walk to Kyuramen with our drummer, Laura, for our last meal in Chicago!

Kyuramen is a chain, mostly located in Asia but with a few locations in US cities. In fact there's one in Orlando, and I hope to take Jameson there after tour is over! The restaurant has a "trendy" and very "Instagrammable" design, most notably a tiered honeycomb system of dining booths which opens up more floor space.

(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)

We were seated in a different area with screened and curtained booths.
(I think some Japanese restaurants have booths like this, and they're recreating that?)

(photo courtesy Eater Chicago)

Laura and I both got Thai tea (I had to get mine without cream, sigh) and sipped and chatted, just about generic stuff like audio issues in the pit and plans post-tour and what our families are up to. We both ordered the omurice, hers topped with a pork cutlet.

Omurice is a traditional Japanese dish consisting of fried rice topped with an omelette. When Japanese people eat it at home it is not complicated...you can use leftover fried rice, make a basic egg omelette, put the omelette on top of the rice, and put some ketchup on top. Sometimes the rice is wrapped up inside the omelette. It's a sort of homey economy dish, equivalent to the American Hamburger Helper or tuna casserole.

But omurice can also be made in a very special (and difficult) way. CLICK HERE to see a short video of someone making an omurice. Basically you have to cook the outside of the omelette so that it's thin and delicate, while keeping the inside par-cooked, soft, and runny. You do this by working rapidly with chopsticks while carefully controlling the heat on the egg, especially at the point where you have to flip and seal the omelette, enclosing the runny center.

Once you have your omelette the difficulty isn't over; you then have to place it ever-so-carefully on top of the fried rice, so as not to rip the thin outer egg. Then the egg is dramatically cut open for serving, revealing the perfect interior. The whole thing is doused in curry sauce or demi glace (or you can just put ketchup on it.)

Here's my omelette getting cut open and drowned in beef demi glace, then sprinkled with nori flakes.
(CLICK HERE to watch)

Here's the omelette afterward. It may not be the prettiest thing, but MAN is it good. Warm and salty-sweet, giving that same soothing and nostalgic feeling you'd get from a hearty bowl of chicken noodle soup. I can see why this is a popular comfort food in Japan.

The egg was incredible for texture. It was SO thin and silky, like...well, silk! The par-cooked inside was cooked a bit further from the heat of the sauce, but was still incredibly smooth and soft. It went nicely with the hard-cooked rice and veggies underneath. The rice also had an amazing flavor that we both exclaimed over; it's only fried rice cooked with ketchup, Worcestershire, and veggies, but they also added finely chopped mushrooms that I think added a lot of earthy flavor, and the chicken pieces were strongly marinated and really savory.

The whole thing tasted way better than I had expected. Honestly I thought this was going to be about appreciating the technique that goes into making the dish, and then eating a basic fried rice with eggs on top. But no, in addition to the technique involved it was also very delicious and special. I'm glad we made time to try it!

We walked back, hurrying because it was windy and cold.
The rest of my night was packing, typing up this post, and reading more Dune.
It's been a VERY long time since a book held my interest as strongly as this :)

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Tuesday morning, was up early to have breakfast and finish packing.

Loaded onto the bus for the airport around 10am. Bye, Chicago. Thanks for everything.
(the river is still green!)

The flights were on time and nothing to report except that I had to buy airport food for lunch (but for the other meal I did my nonperishables.) We got to Amarillo around 7:30, and I Ubered to a grocery. It's not ideal but we have a five-hour bus ride to Albuquerque, and the only possible rest stop is a TA with a Subway and NOTHING else, and there are SIXTY of us. The grocery stores in Amarillo are disappointing at best, but I got basic nonperishables.

Today, Jameson found out that he did not get the job with Disney.
I can't fathom how devastated he must feel. I wish I were there to distract him...to take him bar hopping, or out with some of his friends, or to a show...SOMETHING. But I also know from personal experience that he needs to work through the hurt of rejection, and have a lot of feelings, before he can start thinking positively about what comes next. I'm glad there's a layoff coming up so I can be home and we can talk about things, or I can cook some nice meals for him or get him out of the house. But I don't know if that'll be enough to keep him from falling into a depression or a funk over this.

It was not a small thing. He's worked so hard. And he's been rejected by them again, and again, and again.
I suspect that after this, he'll finally start looking away from Disney. It was a big hope for him, a dream job. But frankly there are so many other employers, other companies out there across the US, that would absolutely see value in Jameson's skills sets and be able to put them to good use (for good pay.) We will see what happens next, but for today it's working through disappointment and very difficult feelings.

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Wednesday I was up around 8 and had breakfast, did meal planning, made overnight oats for tomorrow's breakfast, applied for jobs. Partway through the morning I picked up two bagels from a local shop called The Bagle Place.
These will be my Travel Bagels. One on the left is butterscotch, one on the right is honey almond.

Although it was sunny and 70°F out I stayed inside. I was in a bad mood, on Jameson's behalf and on my own behalf, for having to hunt for low-paying work again. It's important to remind myself that if I had a high-paying, full time job I probably wouldn't be able to have tour adventures. That's the trade off.

When it was time I packed dinner and walked to the theatre. Sunny and warm, I was almost sweating by the time I got there.

The building is a convention center complex which reminded me a lot of the ice hockey arenas where the circus used to play. The acoustics were like an ice hockey arena too: boomy and loud. But we made do. It was a decent audience and the show went quickly.

And that’s one night in Amarillo.

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Thursday we leave very early, but we also get to Albuquerque in the early afternoon. With any luck our rooms will be ready so I can see if mine will be ok for Raven and I to share, or if I’ll need to get her her own. And we have a show that night. And I have to check on Kayle’s tickets for Saturday. And bring an extra set of work clothes and deodorant to the theatre in case I get trapped on an outing and can’t make it back to the hotel before a show. And remember not to fully unpack because I need to make sure Raven has enough room. And we have a show tomorrow night. And I need to leave a key at the front desk for Raven. And see if the hotel has an airport shuttle. And, and…

(…and my selfish Albuquerque adventure--if our rooms are ready when we arrive tomorrow--will be to visit La Montana co-op!)

**This is a long post and if you're reading this in a Friends Feed/on DW there is a cut for the 88 Marketplace part.**

I woke to thunderstorms early Thursday morning. I'd planned to get up early and do grocery errands anyway, but was hoping the rain might let up by the time I was ready to head out.

It did, so I walked back to Eataly to get another bag of mezzaluna for the band, choosing a pistachio-filled bag this time. Also got them a bag of soft fruit gummies (texture similar to Sunkist Fruit Gems.) Then since Whole Paycheck was nearby I walked there and spent the rest of a gift card on supplementary veggies and proteins for the weekend.

Back at the hotel I got dressed in my only nice outfit to go to Jinsei Motto, then walked to the theatre to drop off the treats at the pit, then walked to the restaurant. It was small and not very busy, just a few people sitting at the bar. I was seated right away, and was the only person there for the lunch omakase...so it felt VERY exclusive.

On the way in you could see the dry-aging cabinet, with beautiful tuna steaks waiting to be sliced.

Here's the menu so you can follow along with me! Things with asterisks were for the premium option, which I did not take because I didn't think I could eat that much today.

I chose a glass of Amabuki black rice sake, which not only had a lovely rose color but also a fruity, floral, and nutty flavor.

The first five nigiri, served to me one by one by the chef:
- Sea bream with citrus and sea salt

- Ora king salmon, aged 8 days, with fresh grated ginger
- Ora king salmon, aged 8 days, seared, with marinade and chives

- "Hiramasa" kingfish, with a mildy spicy and citrus-y seasoning (I forget what the chef called it but it was awesome)
- "Kanpachi" amberjack with grated cucumber and sesame

The chef handed me each piece individually immediately after making them, and I had a moist towelette in a bowl to wipe my fingertips after each piece. I asked if photos were OK and he was totally cool with it. The vibe was very chill, probably because it was dead in there; the servers came over to chat, and we all ended up talking about where we were from, traveling, the commute for them today in the rain (my chef rode his bike 20 miles, in the wet cold!!), all sorts of things. I asked some questions about each piece of nigiri, or commented on the flavors (for example I'd never had aged fish before and exclaimed over how rich and smooth the texture was.)

The next five pieces:

- "Hotate" scallop with black volcanic salt and lime zest. Scallops are one of few foods that I consistently do not like, but I didn't say anything because I've never had RAW scallops, and wanted to give myself a chance to like it. And I did! It had a smooth, soft texture and the flavors of lime and earthy salt were incredible. The reason I hate cooked scallops is because they have a texture like greasy, nasty meat gristle. This was NOTHING like that.

- "Akami" lean bluefin tuna with morel mushroom
- "Chutoro" medium-fatty tuna with fresh ginger

- "Unagi" grilled eel with fried shallot. I love grilled eel and this was fire-grilled, so it was wonderfully crunchy and smoky.
- "Tamago" sweet Japanese omelette with honey

Each bite was perfect; not the huge nigiri that you get at a typical restaurant, but a perfectly mouth-sized bite that I didn't have to unhinge my jaw to eat. You're supposed to pop each one in your mouth whole, and I had no trouble doing that. I felt perfectly full after ten pieces, the kind of full where you feel refreshed and energized, not tired.

The sake was absolutely wonderful and went well with each piece of fish no matter what kind it was.
And the simple citrus, herbal, salt, and spice seasonings on each nigiri were so delicate, balanced, and enhanced the unique flavor of each piece of seafood. This truly was an experience!

My favorite bites were the seared aged salmon, and the scallop. The aging process made the fish rich and smooth, and actually made it less briny/fishy somehow. I was amazed at what a difference it made to the flavor and texture of salmon. And in addition to being happy to discover that I enjoy raw scallop, the lime and volcanic salt were such a unique flavor combo and I absolutely loved it.

In closing, this adorable tiny nigiri and green tea that were hiding in the corner near my seat. Cute little hidden art, I see you!

I thanked everyone and left a large tip (there was only $7 left on the gift card after a 25% tip and it was so slow, I felt they should have it)
I walked back to the hotel where I relaxed, typed this up, watched anime, and waited for my laundry to be returned (it was dropped off right at 5pm!)

The evening show was good, we had a guest in the pit who had formerly been an MD for some production of Cats. OF COURSE I messed up my small trombone solo while we have a visiting MD. Of f*cking course! I was so annoyed with myself. During intermission I was huffy backstage, and suddenly a local stagehand popped out of the Trap Room and gestured for me to "come here." I did, and she handed me this small magnet:

Wow! It's....exactly what I needed. Thank you Mysterious Trap Room Woman.
Sometimes I think the universe just GETS me.

After the show there was a meet-and-greet at a nearby bar with the cast/crew of Pretty Woman, another Crossroads show that's playing a theatre right next to ours this week. Their show ended first, but for some reason we all got there before them?? Eileen (French horn) and I went together, did not drink alcohol, and agreed to leave by 11pm at the latest, neither of us being interested in such a crowded noisy scene.

I almost got a Coke but then Eileen said something about a Shirley Temple, and it brought back memories from childhood. My mom was like me in that she never had a good, secure, high-paying job. After my parents got divorced, she worked at the nice bed-and-breakfast in our small town as a server. Sometimes I'd be dropped off at the restaurant for our visitation, and she'd have me wait in a small lounge/bar area while she finished her shift (the bartender would be preparing to OPEN the bar for the evening so no patrons were ever there.) I'd sit quietly at the bar and read a book, and the bartender would give me a small Shirley Temple sometimes.

I haven't had one since then. Until now.

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Friday, oh my goodness. Jameson's Disney interview was at 10am, 9am my time!!
I got up at 7am not only for that, but to get ready for a day in Chinatown!

Ate breakfast and wished Jameson luck, making sure to completely leave him alone when 10am rolled around.
Walked to the subway(?) train(?) and took the Orange line to near-Chinatown, then walked the last mile or so to reach 88 Marketplace as it's not in Chinatown proper.

I won't waste space here on what the building looks like; it's very unassuming and you can look it up online if you're curious. The basement level is a housewares store that didn't open until 10. The level above that is some restaurants (bubble tea, hot pot, etc) and a knick-knacks and souvenir shop, and some Japanese-style vending and gashapon machines. Then you go up an escalator to reach the grocery and the food court.

Forgive me, I didn't take many pictures of the food court. I avoided it, to thus avoid temptation. But they had a bakery with everything you'd see in any Asian bakery (sweet bean buns, custard buns, pork floss buns, mochi donuts, etc); a chilled dessert area with custards and roll cakes and puddings; a seafood and sushi bar; a street food stand; a BBQ/Peking duck stand; a hot pot/noodle stand; a liquor store; and probably other stuff that I'm forgetting or didn't see.

It was a normal Asian grocery, but with a LOT of product. I was in shelf-shock for a while, and spent the first 30 minutes in the front of the store walking dazed through rows and rows and rows of snacks, candies, cookies, pastries, crackers, tea cakes, jellies, chocolates, noodles, sodas, teas...you get the idea.

They even had an island dedicated to Disney snacks!! Like, ASIAN Disney snacks!!

The produce was behind all of the snacky things. Their produce was nice, but there was not the selection you'd see at a large 99 Ranch or H-Mart. This store seems more focused on shelf-stable goods. That said, what produce they had was fresh and lovely, and there were big meat and seafood counters in the back of the store against the walls, and of course dairy and eggs and all that.

I didn't go to aisles where I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything: the freezer aisle, sauce aisle, canned/pickled things aisle, etc. No point torturing myself. Plus, most of what I wanted to get was souvenirs for family. So like a typical Caucasian tourist I wove up and down the aisles of snacks, shelf stable goods, teas, and drinks to find gifts to send to people I care about.

I like to look for interesting food items that I've never seen before. Here are some:

Dragon fruit noodles! Dragon fruit doesn't have much flavor, so I wonder if it's added just for color.

A huge sheet of dried squid. Most Asian grocery stores have dried squid but I've never seen a PLANK like this.

This porridge looks colorful, I wonder what it tastes like!

A bag of premium kumquat, each one individually wrapped, and much larger than those I've seen in American stores. Look at the price...ouch!

A peach drink with chunks of real peaches inside. I especially like the design on the bottle, which is reminiscent of the foam netting that is wrapped around fruit for transport.

Chicken floss meat buns. Perhaps if you've never encountered Asian "meat floss" before, you're thinking, "GROSS!" But let me tell you: pork floss is DELICIOUS. It's sweet and savory, crispy and also melts in your mouth. So I did buy a box of these. The nutrition was good, and I wanted to give it a try.

Ok NOW we're getting weird. "Explosive Juice Cakes." What on earth...? I didn't look at the ingredients but found out later they're usually filled with a lining of mochi + some sort of fruit or nut paste. So they're probably pretty good.

Sometimes things get lost in translation, and it's good to avoid judging (certainly a laugh is justified here, but to make a scene or curl your nose over another culture's food, out of your own ignorance...that's what's GROSS.)

I found this drink on an endcap and was intrigued by what looked like a big olive-shaped black seed inside, and a whitish filament or fungus running through the whole drink. Reminded me of the bird nest beverage that I tried at another grocery. But my translation app wouldn't tell me what this was, so I didn't get it this time. More research needed.

Fully cooked duck heads, ready-to-eat! There was a whole series of fully cooked meats from this company which included whole chickens, other parts of the duck (neck, breast, etc), beef tripe, pork belly and loins and ears, chicken feet, etc. All were stamped "Product of USA." I looked for one that I might be able to buy but in general the portions were too big for just me, and the sodium too high.

While I was shopping Jameson texted to say his interview was over, that they'd asked many of the same questions over again, and that they'd be in touch for the third interview (which, I wonder if that's where they make a job offer?) He said he felt kind of "down" or disheartened afterward...but we talked about it and figured it's probably because he had TWO WEEKS of lead-up time to stress and speculate and make a bigger deal out of it in his head...and then it ended up being just a normal interview that was over in like 15 minutes. And it perhaps felt sudden, or discouragingly short. I don't know. The point is, he got through it well, and hopefully the only thing left to do is get the verdict. Personally, I was glad the actual interview wasn't nearly as stressful as the hype he'd built up for himself.

I killed an additional 30 minutes retracing my steps in the snack aisle, putting a few things back (Orange-flavored Kit-Kats because you can order them online) and picking up different things that I hadn't noticed on the initial "aisle shock" part of shopping. At checkout, I was shocked that I'd only spent $75!! That's about a third of what I spent at Eataly.

Here is what I ended up with for myself:

- Chicken floss buns: These were SWEET, which was strange, but they weren't bad. Michael (assistant MD, keys) says they taste just like a chicken pot pie without any vegetables.

- Pumpkin corn porridge: Delicious. A thin soup with sweet corn, chunks of orange squash, kidney beans, and rice. It was sweet but not overly so (probably had some artificial sweetener.) I'd eat it again.

- Grapefruit Jasmine tea: The flavor was wonderful, floral and citrus, but it was WAY too sweet. There was some sugar but mostly Stevia (I couldn't read the label but it was clearly Stevia.)
- Hawthorne soda: This was very good! And no artificial sweeteners either. It tasted a lot like sorrel drink.
- Soy milk banana boba: Trying this on Monday
- Scallop and soy sauce Pretz: These were really good, because how do you distinguish scallop-flavor from any seafood flavor? So it was fish and soy-flavored delicate tiny pretzel sticks. Really tasty :)
- Dried sea bass snack: I finally have to admit that I'm done buying Asian jerkied fish. It always tastes good...but it is RANK. I could smell this sealed across the hotel room. It tasted good, very very very fishy, mildly sweet and spicy and salty. But no more jerkied/dried fish. It is just so stinky that once the package is opened it's overwhelmingly fishy and stinks up the whole room.
- Hi-Chew premium melon gummies: These were a creamy cantaloupe flavor, very good indeed. They do have milk powder so I have to be careful eating them but it's worth it. Texture is still just like a regular Hi-Chew lol.
- Melon-flavored toothpaste: Will try this at some point in the future when my current toothpaste runs out.
- Fig-flavored Oreos: Yummy! They taste like Oreos, what's not to love. Can't really taste the fig, the chocolate cookie overwhelms the cream.
- Sakura(?) gum: Strongly tastes of cherry, and the flavor lasts a surprising time. I added a piece or two to my family gift bags.

Here's what I got for family:

- Scallion radish rice cakes: These were awesome! They were sweet and savory umami, absolutely delicious. Glad I didn't shun them because the flavors sounded a little weird, these are so good that I'd love to get them again just for me!
- Brown sugar twists: Really good, super hard/crunchy twisted dough brushed with a brown sugar glaze. They are not overly sweet, would be really good with tea.
- Mango gummies/jellies: Did not try these but I've heard they're really good!
- Egg yolk crackers: Loved these too! They're delicate and addictive, umami but leaning more salty than sweet, with a beautiful crisp texture. I could easily eat a big bag of these.
- Plum drink (herbal tea): Didn't try, will wait for family reviews.
- Tom & Jerry “cheese” gummies for the kids (These do indeed seem to be cheese-flavored! Did not try)
- “Lottery” mystery assorted candies for the kids (did not try)
- S’mores kits for the kids (Did not try)

These items may seem less generous than what I got myself, but remember that my family is also getting treats from Eataly which were far more expensive and which I did NOT buy for myself. Also, I didn't buy them drinks or jars of things because heavy items cost more to ship, bottles can break or leak, and larger items means a larger box and more difficulty packing. Sorry to be selfish but judge away because I could also choose not to send anything at all.

I went back downstairs to the basement to check out the homewares store, and so glad I did! Asian homewares are aesthetically pleasing, functional, and CHEAP. There was so much that I wanted to get!

In the back was a big section of hair accessories, and another for stationery, both of which were SO TEMPTING. I badly wanted to get adorable barrettes for Kayle's girls! But I felt shy to try and guess what they might like. Avoided the stationery too because I'd definitely want some sort of lovely expensive pen or notepad...nope, don't even look! I did pick up one can-shaped tupperware with a sealing lid. I had an American tupperware version at the start of tour but it broke pretty quickly; the Asian ones are made from a less brittle plastic so I'm hoping it'll last longer.

After two hours of going up and down aisles and picking and choosing I was tired and hungry. I walked 1/2 mile to MCCB (Modern Chinese Cook Book) in Chinatown proper, where I had hoped to get a whole grilled tilapia with a savory, peppery pork and vegetable sauce. But the server deterred me from that because each fish is two pounds!! That's enough for 4-5 people! I asked if there was anything he'd recommend for one person, and he kind of cringed. I asked about another fish dish, which he said was "somewhat better" size-wise, so I ordered it.

I also got an order of spicy pork dumplings, which is one of the items they're famous for. These were absolutely incredible. They were spicy but not overly so, the seasoning was perfect, the meat inside was juicy, the wrapper was SO delicate and lightly chewy. DAMN.

I ate four of those and packed the rest to take home (ate them for dinner.)

My entree was this HUGE bowl of Sichuan peppercorn tilapia with bok choy, bean sprouts, celery, woodear mushrooms, misc peppers and chilis, cilantro, garlic, other herbs and spices, and a little bowl of rice on the side.

I had never had Sichuan peppercorn before, but have heard that it causes a "tingling and numbing" sensation. My first bite felt like I had licked a battery! I'm sure my eyes must have bugged out with surprise. It felt like an electric current in my tongue and throat, or like pop rocks with warm heat like you get from ginger. Apparently there is a compound in Sichuan peppers that triggers a nerve reaction, and that's what causes the sensation, not the actual "spiciness." Interesting!!

And in addition to the sensation, the food was DELICIOUS. It was a light and tangy broth with a hint of pickled things and citrus. The mushrooms were chewy and wonderful, the fish tender and melt-in-your-mouth flaky and soft. It was herbal and tingly and flavorful; I ate more than intended and enjoyed it very much.

The server packed up my leftovers in a massive tupperware (I looked around and everyone had massive servings whether eating alone or in a group, so I guess that's just how this place is) and I struggled out the door with my bags of souvenirs and still-steaming food. I'd intended to stop at Chiu Quon Bakery, the oldest bakery in Chicago's Chinatown, but my phone battery was dying and I was already at my limit for what I could carry. You can get a good steamed bun anywhere, right?

Rode the train back to the hotel and crashed, then took some time to separate out the souvenirs and try a few.
It was a huge privilege to spend the day in this supermarket, and eat Sichuan food for the first time in Chicago's Chinatown.
Soon tour will be over, so I'm appreciating these moments and experiences even more than usual.

The evening show was...ok. A lot of things went wrong. I'll probably do a Friends Only post about it. We got through it all right, but all of us went to bed hoping that Saturday will not be as stressful as Friday was.

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Saturday I was extra-tired and slept extra-long. Stomping around Chinatown will do that to ya.

I should have gotten up early to get my gift boxes shipped, but was so tired and we had two shows to do. So I had a slow morning instead, and posted in our company chat about needing a small box or two...and someone actually did give me one, complete with bubble wrap inside! My hero! It'll save me buying a box anyway.

Both shows were all right. Between shows I ate leftover "tingly fish" lol. There was so much, I brought the rest to the theatre and offered it to people. No one else wanted any :(

I can't think of anything special that happened, except that after the second show we had St. Patrick's-themed SNOTS (Acronym for Saturday Night [something] Theater Shots) which were green jello shots with a bit of whipped cream and a gummy rainbow on top. I didn't take one but they looked cute!

Also, the river was dyed green! It was chaos downtown, tourists everywhere, so I didn't even try to go see it (the river is the opposite direction of the theatre) but our drummer got a short clip (I stole a screenshot so her text is on the image, sorry):

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Sunday I got up early because after trolling around online, I'd found one single UPS store that was supposedly open on Sunday!! I packed up all of my souvenirs and got there...and they were closed. ARGH.

But! As I was googling around to see if any other options at all were available, the lights came on and a woman unlocked the door. She'd been caught in the Saint Patrick's chaos and was running late, that's all. Lucky! Because I ship very often with UPS all of my addresses are stored in their system, so it took no time at all to get everything labeled and added to the outgoing pile. Nice! One less chore for the Golden Day.

Instead of going back to the hotel I found a local bagel place but there was a line around the block(!) so I went to Gotham Bagels instead (a chain but a small one and they make their own bagels in-house.) Got my Travel Bagel for Tuesday, and got my steps in for today.

We had our last show at 1pm. The streets were a lot quieter than they'd been on Saturday; I think a lot of people need to fly home today. We had a good audience. After the show I snuck the souvenirs for Kayle's family and Raven into my mute bag, and brought my mutes to the hotel with me to go in my luggage. They're bulky but a lot lighter than the souvenirs; this is all about luggage weight for the flight out of Chicago. When we get to Amarillo I'll swap everything back to normal.

And then...blessed NOTHING. Nothing to do this evening, nowhere to be.
I showered, put on pajamas, made a cup of hot tea, ate dinner eventually, watched Seven Deadly Sins.

Ah...the joy of introversion.

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It is now exactly one month until the end of this tour.

As always when this happens (what a blessing, to be able to say that!) I am wondering what happens next.
Will I get to go on another tour? Will I go back to the nursing home job? Will I be able to find full time work this time?

Tomorrow is our Golden Day. I was going to visit a museum but may instead make it a lazy, restful day because next week in Albuquerque I won't have a single day to myself for the whole week (family visiting and local friends too.) I'll do laundry, and maybe it's late enough to start applying for jobs. For dinner I want to get omurice with Laura (drummer.) If I feel up for an adventure I'll have one, but the truth is I've been to Chicago many times and have done quite a lot here over the years! It's OK to have a staycation :)

We didn't leave Kalamazoo until 11am, so there was plenty of time for a lovely slow morning.

The bus ride felt incredibly long, even though it was the shortest one of the week! It's because we wanted to be in Chicago so badly! And when we could see the city in the distance suddenly everyone was talking excitedly about their plans, where to eat, what to see and do. It was refreshing. This tour got off to such a rough start, and we've had so few extended stays anywhere. We needed this.

The hotel is the Allegro Sonesta, and it's a fancy old one, formerly a Bismark hotel built in the 1920s. As homage to that the decor is Deco-themed.

As with most inner city hotels, the room is small and has limited counter space and outlets. The ironing board will do time as a table for me this week. Because of the limited counter space I was forced to do some furniture rearranging before heading off to Eataly.

Elen (cellist) came with me, although I tried to deter her by essentially being cantankerous and saying I didn't want to socialize. She said she'd walk with me and then leave me to shop, and I agreed to this. We chatted and walked, and shared our worries about what will happen when tour ends. She broke her hand partway through tour and missed several weeks and THOUSANDS of dollars of income that she was depending on :( It is terrifying to lose work, plus, it's incredibly hard to get a basic job any more. We're constantly hearing how "No one is willing to work these days," but have any of the people saying that tried getting a job lately?? I am lucky if I get one interview for every 50 applications, that is NOT an exaggeration.

Anyway, we got to Eataly and I had the pleasure of seeing Elen gape at three floors of Italian awesomeness. I gave her vague directions for where things were likely to be (it's been years since I've been there after all) and we parted ways. I started on the ground floor, where there are grab-and-go cafes with pizza, sweet breads, Italian coffee, chocolates, prepackaged cookies/crackers/biscotti, and dessert pastries.

Near the checkout they tend to keep smaller items that make good gifts for shipping, so I started there and got many nice things for my siblings and their kids, stepmom, step-grandparents, and Jameson of course. Tiny jars of Italian honey; an herbal tea blend for Kate; strawberry-flavored chocolates; a packet of fruit chews for the kids; limoncello prepackaged pastries; a chocolate pistachio "cigar" for Jameson to hopefully "celebrate" good news, haha. And a bag of mezzaluna cookies/pastries for the band :) I wanted to get more savory items like maybe some special olive oils or spices...but those are SO EXPENSIVE. There wasn't a single truffle-adjacent item under $20!! Booo.

On the second floor were the sit-down restaurants, the huge wine department, meats and cheeses, sauces, and pastas fresh and dry.

I got everyone dry pasta last time, so only got some for my stepmom (she didn't get Eataly souvenirs at all last time.) Found a cured salami to send to people, even though it's made in the US I know people wouldn't buy it for themselves. Back on the ground floor I fretted over what to get for dinner. Everything always looks amazing and I want to try all of it! Eventually I settled on a slice of mushroom and a slice of margherita pizza. I checked out and everything was around $250, ouch, but also well worth it. None of my family has ever been to Chicago, and none of us has even a drop of Italian blood, so these are rare delicacies indeed for them. I have the privilege of being here, of being able to spend time and money here. I want to share that experience any way that I can.

Some of my haul to send to family:

It was almost dinner time so I heated and ate the mushroom pizza, it was VERY good and my favorite part was that it didn't depend on loads of cheese. There was some but it was tastefully applied, the mushrooms were so flavorful and the true star. I ended up eating half the margherita later...it was disappointingly bland. Eataly's pasta has NEVER been disappointing in any way, just sayin.

Since it was still early I decided to walk to the nearest Amazon GO store.
Amazon GO is a cashierless, "frictionless checkout" store. You enter using a credit card or your palm (if you have Amazon One), then pick up the items you want, and just leave. No scanning each item, no digging in pockets for card or cash. The store itself is very basic, it looks just like an airport convenience store. But the technology involved in being able to shop like this is FASCINATING, and I wanted the experience.

Here's a video I made of what it was like. It still feels quite strange to walk out of a store without interacting with someone, scanning the items, or proccessing some sort of payment. But I love it :)
(CLICK HERE to watch)

Also, please don't whine at me about jobs being lost to this. Our economy is changing so drastically that we're going to have to reevaluate what humans will be doing for work in the very near future, across many industries. Also, being an underpaid cashier at a convenience store is NO ONE'S dream job, and it does not pay enough for one adult to survive, much less a family. It's a desperation job at best. And as mentioned in conversation with Elen on the way to Eataly, people like us are applying for actual, available, open cashier positions...and not getting them. The purpose of cashierless checkout is to increase efficiency/time savings, and I am FOR that. We all waste YEARS' worth of time standing in line.

Anyway, I got to check out some extremely cool technology that is still very much in the testing phase. If this ever goes mainstream, grocery shopping will be SO much faster! Back at the hotel it was time to fully unpack and chill out for reals. Typed this post up and chatted with Jameson and my sisters, made plans for the week. It's good to be in one place for a while.

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I slept better than expected and enjoyed coffee, oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit in my hotel room.
Worked on some Foodie Finds, looked at and bookmarked some jobs. Worried about how I'm gonna get laundry done this week.

And walked to Russian Tea Time for lunch.

(2nd photo courtesy VOX)

It was slow, and I was seated immediately. This was a moderately upscale place, and even though I'd dressed nicely I felt worried about how...AUSTERE the vibe was. It made me worry about my table manners! But the servers were friendly and helpful with decision-making, which made things feel less stuffy and more friendly. I wanted to try their house-infused vodka but couldn't decide on a flavor. The server said she liked the horseradish one the best, so I was about to get that but she said the smallest pour you could get was 2oz. And a flight of THREE flavors was 3oz. So I mean...!

Beet, horseradish, and coriander. (On the menu the middle shot is tea, but they were happy to switch in the horseradish.)

From spending time with Russians in the circus, I know that you're not supposed to SIP vodka served this way. So I started with the coriander shot; smelled it and threw it back. "Будем здоровы!"
I was surprised at how smooth it was, no booze face at all, and the pickle was a great chaser. The beet shot smelled very good, so I DID sip that and was glad I did. It was sweet and earthy, complex, and it would have been a waste not to savor it.

I waited a solid 15 minutes to do the horseradish shot, hoping they'd bring my food out. I killed time texting pictures of the experience to Jameson, his parents, my siblings, etc, and chatting with them about how their day(s) were going. But in my peripheral vision I could see the servers hovering, like, waiting for me to finish so they could bring out my entree. Fine then: I smelled the shot (powerful horseradish smell!) and down the hatch. IT WAS SO GOOD. Spicy of course, but so flavorful and clean. Obviously would be excellent in a Bloody Mary, but also with charcuterie, or pumpernickel bread, lox, capers, olives...I was seriously impressed, and not just because I had a great buzz going :p

The minute I set the shot glass down my food came out (uh huh, that's what I thought.)
Grilled wild quail, mashed potatoes, polenta, arugula, stewed prunes, and raisins in a Madeira-wine berry sauce.

My goodness. I was worried about how to eat the quail but luckily a gentleman across the room had ordered the same thing, and I saw him picking up the leg and wing bones and eating them as you would wings, so I did that too. I've never had quail before today; it's very good, maybe like deeply marinated chicken thigh meat. Very flavorful. Everything else was fantastic too, with most things being savory and smoky and the sauce bringing a beautiful sweetness. And the portions were perfect.

They sell their infused vodkas in 375ml or 750ml bottles. I decided that Jameson NEEDED the horseradish vodka. He loves Bloody Marys, and nothing would be more perfect for that. I'll ship it with his Eataly and Chinatown treats.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped at Target for a few small things and to kill time and because the weather was shockingly nice (mid-60s, in Chicago, in early March!! Global warming indeed!) Then hydrated and relaxed until sound check at the Nederlander Theatre. Which is gorgeous. It was, of course, formerly a 1920s movie palace. (CLICK HERE to see my view from the pit)

Our cellist showed up with food poisoning, and had to call out (she was shaking it was so bad and kept having to leave to puke) so we got an emergency cellist named Mark. Poor guy had to sightread the book, but he did an absolutely excellent job! And Elen is ok, she hydrated and rested and last I heard was feeling much better, having gotten whatever-it-was out of her system.

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Wednesday we had two matinees and they were earlier than usual (1pm and 7pm) so there was not time for adventures. I booked a laundry service and they said they'd pick up by 1pm, but they weren't there by 12:30 so I had to leave my dirty clothes at the front desk (eew, sorry guys) and get to the theatre for a day of work.

First of all our cellist was feeling much better, having barfed out all of whatever made her sick. Yay! (And now you know why I almost always do my foodie adventures for LUNCH lol. No seriously that is why.) Also, at each of our spots in the pit was a surprise: a bag of Garrett Popcorn from our conductor, DAR. The "Chicago Mix" of cheddar cheese popcorn and caramel corn, of course.
I love this popcorn but have to eat it with Lactaid due to the powdered milk and cream (which I did, immediately. So good.)

The show went well and it was a good audience that laughed a lot. Afterward we saw several of our tour's head honchos checking in at the hotel where we're staying; two Crossroads shows are in town playing simultaneously, so this is a good time for corporate to visit. Gosh, I'll have to behave myself (far too late for that :p )

During the break I did nothing special, just ate dinner and showered and made plans with two of my sisters who are coming to Albuquerque to see the show next week. The evening show was good, it sounded like a full house out there and it was a very responsive crowd.

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On Thursday I'm walking back to Eataly because a local trombonist very generously gave me a gift card! To get something nice for the band. It is convenient because the bag of mezzaluna that I bought for them only has six cookies in it (I didn't realize until I got home) so I will buy more cookies and also some fruit gummies.

In the afternoon I get to enjoy an omakase experience at Jinsei Motto, thanks to a gift card from my sister Raven!
And in the evening we'll have a show and a meet-and-greet with the cast of Pretty Woman (and corporate.)

Weekend Chicago plans include a whole day in Chinatown on Friday; shipping souvenirs to family; two shows on Saturday and one on Sunday; and a Golden Day on Monday whence I hope to try Japanese omurice and visit the art museum!

I had a rather hectic morning of my own making. I hadn’t realized that the laundry here was FREE, and then also realized that both my sweaters were due to be washed in addition to regular laundry. So I did a rapid-fire load of laundry at 6:30am, finishing up around 8am, which only gave me a little time to fold it, pack, and scoot out the door for the bus call.

We rode through the somewhat-mountains and lakes of Northern Michigan. Houghton is on the peninsula...I've never been up here and it's very pretty, lots of lovely birch trees and quaint ski slopes and campsites. And the big Finger Lakes of course. It's a shame we won't get to see any of it, except what we see from the bus.

A quick rest stop at a random Walgreens (the only place that they could find for our large group) and we found out that one of our trucks had broken down, the one with the "house" set piece. The truck had been repaired or replaced and was moving again, but it would have to be a rush to get the set piece built in time for the show. We got to the hotel actually on time for once, giving us an hour or two to unpack, grab something for dinner, and get ready for the show. I walked to a Walmart next door not because I needed anything but to stretch my legs after five hours on a bus.

The theater was a 10-minute drive away. Sound check was fine; we could hear loud ratcheting sounds as the house set was assembled but it got done. The acoustics here (it was some hall on the campus of Michigan Tech?) were actually really nice. And the audience was good and appreciative. That alone makes coming out here to the middle of nowhere worthwhile! Not many tours come their way, I'm sure.

And just like that, we packed up and loaded out and will do it all again tomorrow in Green Bay.

I have to add that here in Houghton it is Eastern Time,
we came from Central Time in Wausau yesterday,
we go back to Central Time in Green Bay,
then to Eastern Time in Kalamazoo,
and back to Central Time in Chicago.
Plus, it's daylight savings on Sunday.
Not confusing at ALL, haha.

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What day are we on? Right, Friday. TGIF!

After hotel breakfast off we went again, stopping for lunch at a random Walmart. We were only there for a half hour so enough time to pee and stretch legs, really. We got to the hotel on time, but found out that our crew bus had broken down and load in had started about three hours late. Our show schedule did not change--we were told that crew was rushing to make up the time--but damn, what a rough journey we are having. Every day on a bus, shows every night, switching time zones constantly, and two breakdowns. I'm thankful that after Green Bay, we have one last long travel day to Kalamazoo, then the jump from there to Chicago should be just three hours.

We got to the hotel on time, so again a blessed hour or two to shower, pack a dinner, and get to the theatre. I had hoped to go for a short walk to stretch my legs but it was in the mid-30s and raining, so much for exercise. My view would be pretty nice, if there were time to enjoy it.

My dinner. I'm getting down to the last of the nonperishables that I bought for this week of bus travel (which means I didn't overbuy after all.) I will be VERY happy to eat real meals in Chicago. The tuna, green beans, and Chinese rice cake I brought myself; the peanut butter, half-bagel, and apple are stolen from free hotel breakfast.

The crew was able to get loaded in on time for the show despite the breakdown, mainly because the locals here are the same people we used in Houghton and they knew where everything goes already! We (as in everyone who's not crew) showed thanks by showering them with food-gifts, booze, candy, and thank you cards. I peeked into their dressing room and it was just packed with cookies, candy, alcohol, flowers, cards, you name it. We would not have done a show tonight if not for how hard these people worked to overcome an unplanned event. HUGE kudos to them!

During intermission we female musicians took a group photo to celebrate International Women's Day.
The My Fair Lady orchestra is unusual in that we have SIX women in the pit. That is unheard of for touring shows.

For comparison, a group photo of the Tootsie pit band and the circus band (at least with Tootsie we enjoyed the musicianship of POC as well.) One of these things is not like the others...

Anyway. The show was just fine.
We are all SO TIRED of being on a bus all day every day. But too bad, we've got to pack it all up and do it again tomorrow.
Only, we don't have a show tomorrow! It's just a travel day. Thank god, I think we could all use a break.

In closing, artwork in the hallway at the Weidner Center here in Green Bay. Next stop, Kalamazoo.

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It doesn't feel like a Saturday. A Saturday without shows is outrageous! But here we are.

We left an hour later than scheduled, with no explanation given...but partway through our ride our assistant company manager got on the mic to apologize: she had tried to calculate for yet another time zone switch, had calculated backwards instead of forwards, had adjusted our departure time based on that, and as a result not only had we left an hour late we'd also be arriving to the hotel an hour late. Meaning two hours later than scheduled.

Sigh.

Everyone was very kind and patient about it--I mean good lord, we've changed time zones EVERY DAY, I definitely would have made the same mistake or a worse one--but you could still feel the disappointment in the air. We've had so much time on the bus all week, between 5-12 hours per day ever since Monday and it's now Saturday FFS. We were all looking forward to arriving with time to enjoy some daylight. The good news, though, is that we only have one show on Sunday and it's at 6pm (we still have load in and sound check but it'll be a chill morning and an opportunity to get to bed early too.) And then the ride to Chicago, please god please, let it be only three hours long. Pleeeeease.

Our lunch stop was at a mall, and I had eaten the last of my nonperishables before we got there so I could shoot straight to the Victoria's Secret. I don't know about you ladies but I HATE shopping for bras. So expensive and for a person like me with tiny bewbs, not very USEFUL. Blessedly, VC is still selling the same "model" of bra that I prefer, so I grabbed three of them. This batch needs to last at least two years!

When we got to the hotel it was almost 6:30pm. I threw my things in my room and immediately Ubered to CoreLife, a "healthy bowl" type of restaurant, and got their Korean BBQ pork bowl with forbidden rice, pulled lean pork, kimchi, bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, fried egg on top, and sauce on the side. Not pretty, but I was so happy to see it!

I ate it WAY too fast, rushing because the grocery would close soon.
Calculating for lunch and dinner tomorrow + lunch and snacks on Monday, I got a packet of Tofurky Thai Basil (has 3 servings), two Fage yogurts, one Koia protein shake (one half for each breakfast), blueberries, a green juice containing four servings of veggies/high nutrients/low sugar, some carrot and celery sticks, and two treats: a strawberry coconut Fillo's Walking Tamale, and a can of local coffee. I'll supplement all of this with the bagels, peanut butter, eggs, and fruit from the hotel's free breakfast.

Back to the hotel to unpack, chat with Jameson, and get the heck to sleep.

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Had the best sleep I've had all week, very likely because we didn't have to get on a damn bus today for once.
Made myself get up at 8:30 (technically 7:30, yay daylight savings) to make a decent cup of coffee instead of hotel swill.

It had snowed a bit overnight and was very cold out, low 30's with a 15-degree windchill, so I had a slow morning. The thrift store that I wanted to visit was closed; in fact EVERYTHING interesting was closed, on a Sunday. Bummer. So I watched anime and shared my Chicago Foodie Finds with the group chat, drank tea and allowed my body to relax in a way it can't do on a moving vehicle.

The evening show was fine. It was a decent crowd. I think with these one-nighters, it gets to a point where it's like, why bother looking around, because we're only here for three hours. No point learning where stuff is. Especially in these school campus spaces that are rather bland-looking (no offense, they still serve their purpose.)

Here are two fun photos to remember Kalamazoo by, anyway:

Joel (trumpet) and Andrew (Clarinet) playing chess before sound check(mate)!

My view during the "Ascott Race" scene. I got yelled at by several cast for this photo being unflattering :p Too bad!

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Tomorrow (or today if you're reading this on Monday) we have a late departure because it's only three hours to Chicago.

I will be so excited to get away from this bus/driver.

Current plan is to immediately drop luggage in the hotel (if the rooms are ready, we'll be there quite early) and hoof it to Eataly, then regular groceries and a visit to the Amazon GO store if I feel up for it. With all the foodie plans I've made, plus sightseeing and St. Patrick's Day and shows, the next posts will be LONG with lots of PICTURES, you can be sure of that!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

( Tedious Details + Jameson Update )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Sunday we woke up late-ish, needed after our Yucatan adventure.

Made myself a nice brekky and worked on typing up my entry for the vacation...which not surprisingly ended up taking the entire morning. Eventually Jameson got up and went to the gym, which was my opportunity to dust (I don't like to clean when others are around) and wash our bedsheets. When that was done I resumed packing, attempting and failing to split my things between two smaller suitcases instead of one large one. Guess I have to stick with the big mamba-jamba.

Jameson returned and we ate lunch together. I worked on the blog again and finished it, checked in for my flight, reserved a taxi for Monday, updated Foodie Finds for Tulsa recommendations, put the registration sticker on my car, and went for a neighborhood walk while Jameson did laundry and watched the Cubs game. When I got back I made some overnight oats and brewed some coffee because my flight is early tomorrow and if I eat at home I won't be tempted to buy an expensive airport breakfast.

I felt sad to be leaving after such little time at home. Yes, we did have a wonderful vacation, but we didn't have those quiet times together that I'm sure many couples look forward to. That will have to wait for the layoff in March.

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Monday I was up at 4:45am to get dressed, finish packing, and have breakfast before riding to the airport. I had a layover in Charlotte where I ate a nonperishables lunch I'd brought, then found the gate and about eight more My Fair Lady peeps. The flight to Tulsa was uneventful.

We're in a nice hotel and my fridge is larger than usual. No walkable groceries besides a DGX so I Ubered to Whole Paycheck, and enjoyed buying a whole week's worth of groceries at once, something I haven't gotten to do for most of this tour!! The rest of the night was unpacking, eating dinner, meal planning for the week, tea, and Seven Deadly Sins. I've been to Tulsa with Tootsie, and it was a good time. Looking forward to visiting some favorite spots again, and also trying something new!

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Tuesday I was up early because of the time change, but enjoyed a cup of coffee while making a tax appointment and writing emails to my stepmom and aunt. I walked to the DGX because I'd forgotten to get paper towels. The weather is lovely, mid-70s, but tomorrow there's supposed to be a 40-degree drop plus a strong windchill so I enjoyed the sun on my skin while I could.

Back at the hotel some research to see what I'd like to do in Tulsa. Then I walked to Sisserou's, a Caribbean restaurant nearby. While on tour with Tootsie I'd wanted to come here for their shark sandwich, but it was out of season at the time. Now they've got it back in stock!

I started with a sorrel drink, something else I've always badly wanted to try. It's made with a specific type of hibiscus that I have grown myself (CLICK HERE to see me make my own hibiscus jam with it!) This drink has hibiscus, cinnamon, clove, orange peel, vanilla bean, and raw sugar, all steeped together for 24 hours. The result is a refreshing, cranberry-esque spiced drink. I've heard that sorrel is a nostalgic holiday beverage for Jamaicans, and I can understand why; the flavors practically scream "Christmas."

(That is a candied hibiscus calyx on top, btw)

My sandwich came out, beautifully plated (though the lighting was lousy for photos.) "Bake & Shark" is a Trinidadian sandwich made with a fried flatbread, an herb and citrus-marinated fried blacktip shark filet, topped with slaw. This one was served with three dipping sauces (probably for sides but I got the steamed veg side, whoops haha)

Yes, this was REAL SHARK. I've never had it before, and it was VERY good. It was like...if you can imagine a chicken breast so tender and juicy that it flaked with a fork. And then just ever so slightly sweet.

And before anyone comes after me about sustainability: YES I did my research and the blacktip shark is NOT endangered, it is completely legal to fish for it in the United States, and the population is responsibly managed, hence why it's "seasonally available" just like softshell crab and other seafood. Anyway it was extremely good, and if I see it on a menu anywhere I'm likely to jump on it.

A lazy walk back to the hotel for digest-and-chill plus packing dinner and getting dressed for sound check.

The theatre is not overly decorative, so I didn't bother with a photo :p It's a large space for us, with over 2000 seats, yet I've heard we're selling well here. The show did seem well attended, and we got good applause for opening night.

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Wednesday, it did indeed drop 35 degrees overnight so I did not get out much. Instead I caught up on things like emailing my aunt; writing a letter to my grandma; making plans for Albuquerque with my sister; reserving a sushi place in Chicago to use a gift card from Raven; and doing some casual job-bookmarking for April (this tour ends in about 90 days y'all.) I was also startled to realize I hadn't made a foodie sheet for Green Bay (was that city added later than the others?) so worked on that a bit. A brief walk in the cold to find a mailbox for the letter...I could have mailed it from the hotel but it was sunny out and I at least wanted SOME exercise. I just kind of zig-zagged downtown until I found a drop box, which didn't take long. Some pics from my tiny journey:

Lobby of the hotel. So swank.

Some Deco bits of downtown.

A domed church.

This mural was beautiful but it was impossible for amateur-me to get a good photo. There were trees and lampposts in the way, and the street was not wide enough for me to back up and get the whole thing in frame.

Back at the hotel it was more chill, and creating a Foodie Finds sheet for our upcoming two-day bus journey, since we will arrive at the midpoint hotel in Des Moines early enough to enjoy dinner there. It was a fun little sheet to make; I used AI to create a “disco cat with the Des Moines skyline in the background.” It delivered spectacularly well…but I could not for the life of me make it stop giving the cat a Des Moines t-shirt…or get it to spell “Des Moines” correctly!

The evening show was just fine and well-attended.

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Tomorrow, I have a freebie masterclass for my friend Curtis, who is teaching a class at a New Jersey university and wants me to speak about my time with the circus. After that I’d like to get lunch at a local juice bar, a scoop of ice cream from a local creamery, and take a walk in a big park!

The rest of the week I don't have much planned, except perhaps sushi with our cellist and another grocery run over the weekend, as the upcoming two-day bus travel followed by one-nighters means I'll need to plan carefully for travel supplies and food.

It was quite the long travel day. After breakfast we loaded onto the bus and had a three-hour ride to Raleigh-Durham International. On the way we passed Winston-Salem, which I haven't seen in a very long time (I went to grad school there and have wonderful memories of living with my awesome landlords) and even the brief glimpse in passing tugged at my heartstrings.

The airport was whatever, I walked around a lot just to get steps in and looked at everything, like I always do. I noticed a Delta pilot sitting quietly and chomping some beef jerky...I wanted to ask him for trading cards but didn't want to interrupt his eating so kept walking. But 20 minutes and at least three laps later he was still munching away, lol. And he had a friendly, relaxed look about him, so I thought "why not" and approached him. He enthusiastically said, "Yes!" to the cards and pulled out a stack, I asked which was his favorite to fly and he said the A321 (I already have a card for that one but since it's his favorite I couldn't decline it!) I thanked him and started to walk away but he said, "Wait, I have more for you!" and handed me two more that I DIDN'T have yet: the 767-400, and the 767-300, which is a holographic card!!

A video of the holograph (CLICK HERE to watch)

What a cool dude! I thanked him profusely and went back to our group to show them off to my friends :)

At boarding I had equally good luck: the pilots had a card for the plane we were actually riding, the A220!

Here are all three cards. Each plane has something unique about it. The A220 has enough cargo space to hold two adult orcas! The 767-400 has a very powerful engine that could inflate a blimp in just seven seconds! And the 767-300 has enough fuel capacity to fill 1600 cars!

I now have seven unique Delta trading cards. Yay! Don't ask what I'll do with them, no idea haha.

We arrived on time and it was a smooth flight. Luggage retrieval, and while we waited I pestered a few more pilots who walked through the airport for cards. Two of them gave me A321s (and said they liked flying it too, I wonder why!) so now I have duplicates of those which I'll give to Kayle's kids or something. And I got my first rejection, a pilot who said, "Aww, sorry, I don't have any on me!" It was bound to happen!

Another bus ride through Boston traffic, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. We got to the hotel only 15 minutes later than scheduled, but with only one working elevator it took an obnoxious long time to get to our rooms. It was too late and dark for walking so it was an Uber for me, to get dinner at the Whole Paycheck hot bar and just a few groceries. We're only here for three days; in addition to the usual fruits and meats I picked up some treats for myself.

These two green juices. The one on the left looks more appealing, but the one on the right contains two servings and the other is only one. The bright green one has more fiber and potassium; the dark green one has lower sugar and more vitamin C. I got both entirely because I couldn't decide between them.

These snacks and rice!

The granola is a brand I've had before but it's very hard to find in stores, this is only the second time I've seen it. It's made by soaking the oats in whole-fruit juices, which gives it incredible flavor and extra fiber and vitamins while still keeping it a low-calorie snack. Last time I got beet, this time went with carrot.

The little can is a milk tea, made with plant milk! FINALLY! Milk tea is wonderful but I can't usually have it because it's made with whole or condensed milk. This brand is called T'wrl and they make four flavors of milk tea: matcha, hojicha (roasted green), Taiwanese-style black, and Ube. At some point I'd love to try them all.

The "forbidden rice" is a microwaveable par-cooked bag, something you don't see too often for black/purple rice. The brand is Jasberry, and this is a proprietary rice that they've grown over a decade of intensive cross-breeding. They claim it has 40x the antioxidants of brown rice, and with that dark purple coloring I can believe it.

Put my food away, chatted with Jameson and people online, and chilled out.
Look at that, a night without a show!

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Was up earlier than I would have liked to have breakfast before heading out to get a massage. Our hotel is eight miles from the theatre this week so we have rental cars, and I was able to borrow a band car, saving me Uber dollars, yay!

I don't get massages very often because I don't like to be touched, but about once a year I suck it up and enjoy one. This one was only 30 minutes; I really should have booked an hour but maybe at the resort in Mexico I can have another :)
The masseuse was great, and 30 minutes later I walked out feeling much more relaxed. A shame to have to step into the 30-degree windy northeast weather! I walked a few minutes down the street to Root and Press, a little cafe lined with bookshelves and serving standard cafe stuff with a lot of vegan options.

I went with their special, a vegan caprese made with Just Egg, cashew mozzarella sauce, basil, lettuce, tomato, garlic, and balsamic drizzle on ciabatta. It was delicious!

I was a little disappointed that the "mozzarella cheese" was only a sauce, because a caprese usually has big slices of fluffy white cheese. But I think they were trying to simulate that with the vegan egg, which was still very good. Drove back to the hotel where I packed dinner to bring to the theatre, drank lots of water and tea, and enjoyed some chill time, making a packing list for Mexico and watching Seven Deadly Sins which my bandmates have recently convinced me is worth checking out.

We carpooled to the theatre (rental cars.) It's a pretty theatre, I guess, but the backstage is horrible. I played here a year or two ago with Tootsie and remember hating the claustrophobic pit...they literally locked us in before each performance, even removing the stairs to get out! And that was terrible for my anxiety. This year thankfully I am not the only one who sees a huge safety concern and/or anxiety inducer in being literally trapped in the pit until someone outside opens the door; our MD insisted that the door remain open and had some stagehands install black pipe-and-drape. People have to be quiet if they walk by the pit but TOO BAD, it's way better than being locked in with no way out.

The show went well, no complaints otherwise.

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Saturday and two shows.

Not much to report for the morning: breakfast, working on Foodie Finds for Tulsa, feeling annoyed at all the cleaning and shopping and packing I'll have to rush through for this Mexico trip, and simultaneously looking forward to the trip such that I didn't feel like working! :p

The first show was ok, we had another hold so there went our "streak". So lame. I hope it stops after the layoff.
During the break between shows I stayed at the theatre because it was so far back to the hotel, plus I had a physical therapy appointment and didn't want to make my carpool come back early on my behalf. Walked to Worcester Public Market and just enjoyed looking around, but it was 20°F outside with a strong wind so my cheeks are now windburnt (can't wait for them to peel in the Mexican sun. Sigh.)

My physical therapy was, surprisingly, possibly helpful! At this point I'm convinced that the weird twinging I've been feeling can't be muscle-related because I have full range of motion. But then...I described what I was feeling to the physical therapist as follows:
"It feels like there's a string tied from the bowl of my right hip, to one of my small lower ribs, and every once in a while at random someone plucks it."
And he pulled up this image:

And I was like, DANG.
Those are hip flexor muscles. And one thing that I really should have considered, is that I have never been able to sit cross-legged. I've always been a W-sitter. For forty years. And just maybe, a lifestyle of lots of sitting in pits and on buses and planes, plus holding a four-pound instrument over my left shoulder for hours at a time, plus continuing to W-sit, could be adding up to weird muscle spasms, cramping, and twinging.
Why didn't I consider this??

We tried some stretches until I was able to simulate the twinging, then he gave me some stretches to do by myself. I'm not entirely convinced that hip flexors are The Whole Problem, but it won't hurt me to focus on it and see if the stretches help diminish the weird sensation. I'm glad that I decided to talk to PT about this; at least it makes me think it COULD be something minor stemming from a lifelong habit, rather than an imminent medical emergency like a hernia or burst appendix or something.

The evening show was ok but the pit is SO COLD. We were all bundled up, the woodwinds were even wearing coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. They don't believe in heat here in Worcester I guess. I hate to disparage any theatre but this one is in the top ten most uncomfortable that I've ever played. It's cramped, cold, only one bathroom backstage, no dressing room for the orchestra, and if our MD hadn't advocated for us we'd be literally locked into the pit before every show with no way to get out if there was an emergency except scaling the pit wall into the audience. I'm sorry but I think that's all a recipe for disaster, eventually, for someone out there.

After the last show we carpooled back to the hotel where Elen (cellist, who broke her hand over the last layoff and just recently rejoined us) gave us each a little Fireball shot! We took them together as a band. Much needed! Actually, I could have used that in the pit to warm me up!

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Sunday, I wasn't deeply in the mood to do two shows but was excited to get to the layoff afterward!

I partial-packed and packed myself dinner for the theatre, then carpooled over.
At the theatre there was a wall tag to sign on stage level, up a creepy rickety spiral staircase that is actually backstage. This meant that on the way to sign the wall tag, I could look out over much of Stage Left, a view that I rarely get to see.

The wall tag. It's just a MFL stencil but the colors are pretty against the matte black.

Our first show was good. Eileen (French horn) had her parents in the pit to watch and listen, and although it was cramped it was nice to have visitors...made the show go faster.

During the break between shows I tried to get steps in by going to a Taiwanese grocery store a half-mile away. And of course I can't do THAT without getting something! My tiny haul is just some cashew candies (literally looks like cashew brittle stuck to rice wafers); some "soft wheat cakes" that resemble rice cakes only with a softer texture and sugary coating; and "creamy corn" candies which I shared with the band. The corn candies weren't bad! If you like sweet corn things like kettle corn, creamed corn, corn fritters/muffins, etc, you'd like these. Just a cheap taffy candy. The others I will have to try later (and I want to share them with Jameson.)

Back at the theatre I ate dinner, then it was "one and done." We packed up, loaded out, got to the hotel...and now, a much-needed break!

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Tomorrow, I get up super early and fly to Orlando.
I'll have the evening to get a few groceries, clean a bit or pack for Mexico, then we're going to see Jameson's friend Lea perform in a local show. The next day, final packing and prep. Then on the 21st we fly to Yucatan for a mini vacay!!
You won't hear from me for a bit because I'll be hopefully relaxing on the beach with a drink in hand!!

Here it is, the hectic final week before our second layoff!

Two shows in Johnson City, a one-nighter in Blacksburg VA, a long travel day to Worcester involving both buses and planes, and then a weekend of matinees. Goodness.

I've booked myself a massage in Worcester, because even though I hate being touched I need to find the source of this weird twinging in my side, and since I carry a lot of tension in my back and neck let's get it loosened up first. Then I've made an appointment with our tour's traveling physical therapy specialist. They're usually booked solid (I mean, people are DANCING up there, obviously they need PT first and foremost) but I managed to squeeze in on the coming Saturday.

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On Monday we loaded the bus and got going. It was a typical ride, but I was excited.
Our lunch stop was at some mall, which I could care less about...but next to the mall was Prostor Market, an Eastern European supermarket! As soon as we arrived I sped through the mall (they parked on the opposite side that I needed, go figure, but hey I got some steps in) and dashed across the parking lot in the rain.

( CLICK HERE for European Market! )

We rode the bus the rest of the way to the hotel and arrived with no time to do anything but throw our luggage in the room, get changed, and rush to the theatre for sound check. The theater has a very deep pit so we can't see the audience at all, and I can only see the ceiling which is bland and beige. Oh well, we're only here for two nights.

The show went well except that we had to stop and hold in the middle of the show again, I'm not sure what for but this is the third time it's happened this week. Now I suspect that something is actually broken, and they're trying to make it to the layoff with the broken part?

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Tuesday I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. Johnson City is a bit higher in altitude so that's certainly part of it, but also just doing a lot of shows and then cramming onto a bus every other day will take its toll. I typed up this post and had breakfast, making sure to hydrate EXTRA, then Ubered off to do laundry. That went smoothly, so from there walking to Earth Fare for some travel groceries.

On the way I had some long texts with Jameson, who got some bad news about his hand (he injured it while playing keyboard several months ago, and it has not gotten better and is painful for him every day.) The doctor says there is little to nothing that they can do for him, and that his best bet is to wait and see if it improves or changes. Not what he'd been hoping to hear. Being in pain when you wake up, all day, and when you go to bed...and then being told "Just wait and see"...yeah. Not ideal.

I want to believe that it will get better, and he'll be ok. But mostly, I'm worried about what this will do to his mental health.
Right now there's not much I can do except express that I'm here for him, for anything.

At the grocery it felt like I was doing math, trying to calculate what I could or could not buy, what I'd eat before the flight on Thursday, what could survive 3 hours on a bus, etc. But I think I did a pretty good job of not overdoing it. They had lemon plums which I'd seen before but never tried; now's the time! Don't they look weird?

Once I got it home I found out that they're not ripe until the whole fruit is the reddish color of the tip. So I'll have to wait, and/or this Weird Nipple Plum is coming with me on a plane. Emotional Support Plum. Lol.

I did a partial luggage packing and ate lunch, then continued mathing out my meals in MyFitnessPal. Partly for nutrition like I always do, and partly to see how long my food will last and what is likely to end up in my luggage instead of being consumed in the next 48 hours. It's a pain in the butt but I don't like to waste food, and looking ahead helps to prevent that.

In the late afternoon our drummer Laura arranged for a cute Galentine's meet up at the hotel pool, with all the ladies of the orchestra! She made us strawberry cream Baileys shots, and brought us cupcakes iced to look like roses. So thoughtful of her! It was my first Galentine's celebration ever :) I didn't stay long, but it was nice to have a moment with the ladies.

After that I had to call maintenance to my room because my cheap aquarium thermometer let me know that the fridge was not getting below 50°F (10°C) which is NOT safe for food storage. It was a brand new fridge too, there were still pieces of packaging stuck to it. The maintenance guy confirmed that I was NOT crazy, it was too warm and it must have a bad compressor. Switched it out and the new fridge is fine, but I didn't feel safe about my turkey wrap I'd gotten for the bus ride (also the warm fridge had leaked condensation into the container and now it was soggy :/) so I did end up throwing that out. Everything else was unopened yogurt and protein and fruit though, so I felt it was still in the "ok" range.

The joys of minifridges. Glad that I started carrying cheap thermometers with me exactly for this reason!!

The evening show was mostly good, but we had ANOTHER hold that interrupted the show.
We are now up to FOUR of these and it's unprofessional and ridiculous. I do not know the details about what is causing these show interruptions, but it has to be some sort of issue with moving large setpieces or with a recurring safety concern, I don't think anything else would stop our shows four times in a row like this. We still have six shows to go before the layoff, I really hope they get it worked out because it's been very disruptive, and not what people are paying to see. I can't be the only one annoyed about this.

After the show there was a wall tag to sign (on canvas, which means the theatre will be able to move it! See that

marlinkhylacat ?) but the lighting backstage at this theatre is all ultraviolet blue for some reason, so there was NO way to get a decent pic :/ Signed it and loaded onto the bus back to the hotel.

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Wednesday (Valentine's Day!) was weird because we didn't leave our hotel until 11:30am. That's pretty late, but it's because Blacksburg VA is only about 2.5 hours away, and if we get there before 3pm we won't be able to check in. So I got to enjoy a slow morning and taking my time packing before we loaded onto the bus. Which one of our cast members decorated for Valentine's Day!

We rode our romantic charter bus through the mountains, and arrived with enough time to ACTUALLY unpack and get ready for the show for once. I was fortunate to get the handicap-accessible room, with a wide-open floor plan and a whole living room setup. Too bad we're only here for a few hours.

The Moss Center for the Arts, on the campus of Virginia Tech, is a beautiful building inside and out.

I snuck out to the lobby to have a peek, having seen these hexagonal windows on the ride in. Very beautiful.

The show was sold out, and FOR ONCE we didn't have a hold! Thank god!
But during "Just You Wait" some diphthongs rained down on me. What strange weather they have here in Virginia ;)

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Now it's late and I have to get to bed, because we have a heck of a travel day tomorrow.
First a 3-hour bus ride to Raleigh International (WHY, omg) then a flight to Boston, then another bus from Boston to Worcester during rush hour. Sigh. This layoff can't come soon enough.

Almost forgot: the handwashing signs backstage at this theatre had, instead of the standard "Effective Hand Washing" sign, this one that incorporated Lady MacBeth's monologue, in which she is attempting to wash a spot of blood from her hands in a dream.
Gave me a good laugh!

The bus ride was long and a bit boring, as long bus rides often are.
I watched scenery, dozed, read my book on and off until I got motion sick, and ate my nonperishables.

We stopped at a Target for lunch, and since I'd already eaten I just window shopped and walked until it was time to get back on the bus.
We got to the hotel about 30 minutes late, probably partially due to traffic and other factors.

I decided not to hit the grocery since it was night, and I had an early doctor's appointment that would require an Uber. If I have to pay for a ride anyway, may as well kill two birds with one stone and hit the grocery after the appointment.

So my night was chill. I reintroduced myself to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack, which gave such childhood nostalgia. Like most 80s and 90s kids, Disney was a keystone of my formative years. Beauty and the Beast came out when I was six years old, and I was INFATUATED. Specifically, like many young girls who saw this movie in theaters, I related on an emotional level to Belle's Reprise where she sings about how it would be awful to be married, and wanting "So much more than they've got planned."
(CLICK HERE to see the movie clip)

And here I am, tearing up in a random hotel room at the ripe age of forty, listening to this and remembering how I felt watching this scene at the age of six. Emotionally connecting with Belle: I certainly did NOT want to get married! And how exciting it felt not to know what my future would be like. Wondering what I'd be when I grew up, and hoping I'd get to have adventures! (Spoiler alert: I got MUCH more adventure than ANYONE planned.)

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I slept poorly because I was nervous about the doctor's appointment. It was just an ultrasound of my upper right abdomen, not even invasive, yet I am so phobic about medical stuff that any little thing freaks me out. An unfortunate part of my psyche that I'm working on fixing.

A quick Uber to the radiology office and I didn't have to wait long. The radiologist was super sweet and fun to talk to. I expressed interest in what she was doing, and made it clear that I wasn't asking for/interested in a diagnosis...I just wanted to see my guts on the screen! Once she truly believe that I wasn't going to ask her to diagnose anything, she was more than happy to turn the screen so I could watch while she navigated my organs. Too cool!! She showed me where the gallbladder was ("Yours is small!") and explained how the sound waves of the ultrasonic machine actually bounced off the ribs, created rib-shadows across the organs. I realized that I could expand my chest to reduce shadows for her (also very fun to see.)

She said that my scan was "very easy" because "you clearly take care of yourself" (reading between the lines = "This scan is a lot easier to do when you are not overweight.") She did not indicate, verbally or by expression, that anything was wrong or dire, and it's not her job to do so in any case, so no takeaways there. I should have results in a few days.

Regardless of outcome I was interested in the imaging process itself, and so happy that I got to look at my guts today! Could I tell what I was looking at, no! But the radiologist showed me many interesting things, and I could see things move when I breathed and laughed, and the shadows of my ribs across my organs.

After that I Ubered to Ruby's NY-Style Bagels (it was next to a Harris Teeter.)

Look at those beautiful breads! So many great flavors. I definitely wanted the Bloody Mary and Cacio e Pepe flavors. I was considering a sweet bagel also but none of the flavors stood out. While I was deciding the cashier shared that her favorite bagel of them all was the Rosemary Sea Salt, hands down! So I asked her to add one to my order. She gave it to me for free!!

I immediately posted photos to Foodie Finds + social media, thanked the cashier, and went next door to get my groceries.
I didn't need much; we are only here for three days. In the berries section they had red currants!
I've never had them before...time to try them out!

I had them with breakfast one morning. They were...not great haha. I didn't mind that they were sour, but they had a lot more tannin than I was expecting (you know how when you eat walnuts, or drink dry red wine, or accidentally eat a banana string? And it makes a "dry" sensation in your mouth? That's tannins.) I ate a handful with my yogurt, but will try to give a lot of them away too. Womp womp, but glad I got to try them!

Another Uber back to the hotel (geez, $$$) and finally I was done for the morning. Typed this up, had breakfast, and packed dinner to bring to the theatre. For lunch I had another special stop in mind, this time walkeable THANK GOD.

The Grits Counter is another local restaurants specializing in grit bowls, they also do burgers, finger foods, cocktails, and desserts. I got there just as a group of My Fair Lady folks were sitting down, on a lunch break from load in. They all thanked me for Foodie Finds and for recommending this place, which made me warm and fuzzy inside :) I'm sure people would find this place without me, but it's also very gratifying to find out that the info sheets have been useful to my coworkers.

I placed my order and joined them outside (it was a gorgeous high-60s day.)
The Harvest Bowl: carrot cake grits, grilled chicken breast, roasted corn, fried hominy, cranberries, and smoked gouda mornay sauce (on the side since I'm such a loser at digesting lactose)

Lots of flavors and textures here, both sweet and savory. The carrot cake grits were fantastic; I should look into recreating that flavor with oatmeal, it can't be hard. You could also have called this "Corn Three Ways" between the corn grits, grilled corn, and fried hominy! The hominy was nothing special but added nice texture. The whole thing was a little Thanksgiving-esque. The smoked gouda sauce was incredibly good, but I used it sparingly because grits are already made with whole milk. Very delicious and creative use of boring old corn. I'd love to try the other flavors (they have nine!)

I walked back and managed to take a little nap before walking to the theatre for sound check.
This theater is very....bland. It looks like a high school auditorium.

(photo from Robert Windel, Flickr)

The backstage, however, is coated in wall tags!
I took video, but we are NOT allowed to show dressing rooms and they were impossible to avoid.
Instead here are some pics:

Some tags from famous people, that I could find.

And here is a tag from a My Fair Lady tour that took place more than twenty years ago!!

Our cast artist, Ashton, painted our wall tag to be a sort of homage to the older one, which I thought was very cool.
Can you find my initials? :)

The show was fine, kind of a lukewarm audience but maybe they'll warm up over the weekend :)

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On Saturday I was pleased to get an email with my ultrasound results.
( TRIGGER WARNING: ultrasound pics )

For lunch I walked to Big Billy's Burger Bar, excited for their venison burger, but it was unfortunately disappointing. It could have been good but they WAY overcooked it; I asked for medium rare and got a hockey puck. Womp womp.

The evening show went well except there was a hold when a setpiece would not move. It added about 10 minutes to our show, but the audience was patient and the show went smoothly once it started up again.

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Sunday, I thought about walking to Walmart but passed. This last week of shows is a lot of jumping around and at least one flight, so I have to be careful about what I'm traveling with so as not to make my luggage overweight.

The matinee was good, dinner between shows was fine, the last show was good...except AGAIN we had to hold for a "technical issue," not in the same spot but I suspect a similar problem with a set piece not moving as it should. Some of the setpieces (from what I understand) have to be moved with the help of motors, and I think some of the places where we perform are not ideal for this. I don't know. But twice in one weekend is pretty unusual. I hope it doesn't happen again in the next cities!

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This coming week is going to be a little nutty.

We bus to Johnson City TN tomorrow and it's a "load and go," so there will be a show the same night.
Then we have another show there on Tuesday.
Wednesday is a "load and go" to Blacksburg, VA, we probably won't even get to see the town and barely our hotel rooms.
Then a travel day to Worcester, where we'll do a Friday show and weekend matinees.
From there, a layoff!

The usual loading up the bus and riding to the airport on Monday.

We arrived with about an hour to wait, and many people used the time to get breakfast and whatnot.
I walked the airport for a bit to get some steps in and to window shop. At a Rite Aid I found these "church eggs," which are a nostalgic treat to me. Members of our church in PA used to make these confections and sell them at Easter. They're super delicious, with the standard fillings being peanut butter cream, butter cream (similar to Cadbury Egg filling but less sugary), or coconut cream. Prepackaged eggs will never be as good as homemade, but these are made by a small candy shop in a small town outside Pittsburgh, so this is the closest I'm likely to get to my childhood Easter memories. It felt indulgent to get one of each flavor, but how could I not!

After that I sat to read my book for a while. There were some sparrows flying around inside. I guess birds sometimes accidentally fly in, through loading docks and jet bridges and such. I decided to try an interaction and here was the result.
(CLICK HERE for TikTok video)

Having volunteered at multiple aviaries, I do know how to catch birds...in an aviary. When the birds have plenty of energy, and plenty of space to fly away, yer not gonna catch 'em. Any time I moved toward the birds they quickly reacted. Hopefully a little water was helpful for keeping them healthy a while longer.

The flight was fine and normal; I was a bit anxious but not too bad. After the flight I asked the pilot about Delta trading cards, and he gave me one! Not for the plane that we'd flown on, he didn't have any for our model. Still, it's a new card to me!

We retrieved our luggage and went outside to wait for the charter bus, which just so happened to be coming to the Delta employee pickup area. There I found a female pilot sitting on a bench looking at her phone. When she looked up for a bit I walked over and politely asked if she participated in the trading card program, and she said, "Yes of course!" and brought out hers, two different planes, one of which I hadn't collected yet. And the card is an older print from 2016!

It was interesting to read that this plane was (is still?) operated with a joystick!

I feel like such a nerd but this is a really fun activity when flying Delta! And not once has a pilot seemed annoyed or put out by my asking, and every one of them has had the cards easily on hand. So cool! How many unique cards will l be able to collect before the end of this tour?

Luggage retrieval and a 1.5-hour bus ride to the hotel. Because the hotel is far from the theatre and there's not much around, our company management arranged for a grocery run using a charter bus. This brought back memories of the circus because the circus bus was often the ONLY way we could get groceries back to the train yard. We went to a Kroger and tried to get all we need for two days, and maybe a little extra for the bus rides to the cities to come.

Back at the hotel I ate grocery store sushi and drank tea and water (I still have a sore throat and sinuses, it feels like another virus coming on) and for once, chilled out. I wanted to do laundry but there was a queue so figured I'd try again in the morning.

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Tuesday morning, I had fallen asleep around 10:30 and slept on and off until 7:30, which is great. I want to give myself time to kick whatever-this-virus-is in the pants.

Joined the laundry queue (there's only one washer and dryer for all 60 of us plus other hotel guests) and was able to get my washing done by 9am, then had the free hotel breakfast. I took it very easy all morning. Am I going to feel under the weather for this whole dang tour? I hope not. It's annoying.

In the afternoon I went to a gas station to look for something to help me feel better, and found Propel Immune Boost water. Not something I'd normally want, but it had vitamin C, potassium, zinc, B and E vitamins, etc. And I was surprised to feel noticeably better after downing one! Went back and got two more later on. And that was my only outing of the day, despite the lovely mid-60s weather. Sometimes you just need a day to crash.

Rode the bus to the theatre for the show. For some reason the show time was changed to 7pm instead of 7:30pm (it's been 7:30 since we first got the schedules back in summer 2023) but no one complained; how nice to finish a show earlier than expected and still have some time in your evening!

(Image courtesy Gogue PAC facebook)

This is the Gogue Center, a nice new facility, spacious pit. There were little snacks and drinks for us in the Green Room as well which were much appreciated. The show went well although our MD is going through something personal right now, and was struggling emotionally. I don't know what's going on but I very much wanted to give him a hug :(

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Wednesday...didn't we JUST get here? After breakfast I started my partial packing routine. Luckily because of the time change I'm waking up at 7 instead of 8 and still getting a full night's sleep, which is excellent for being productive. Worked on Foodie Finds and misc paperwork for upcoming appointments, then took an Uber downtown to meet my step-aunt and step-grandpa for lunch. They weren't arriving for another hour and the weather was lovely, I wanted to get out and see the downtown a bit before they arrived (and not make them detour to pick me up.)

The downtown is cute...pretty much your all-American college town, with the sprawling campus and rows of shops and restaurants that only exist because of the economy generated by the school (my hometown is like that too, but smaller.) I saw the big stadium from a distance, but didn't get all that close. The campus was nice, shiny red and white brick buildings everywhere and students hustling between classes.

Most of the campus was clean, but at the part near the main intersection/town I noticed a lot of trash on the walkway and especially around the little gaggle of trees near the University sign.

It took me a moment to realize that those trees must be "The" oaks, which I guess are a historic part of sportsball victory celebrations having to do with toilet paper? But the original trees were poisoned by some idiot so now they've been cut down? And in their place are some small oaks that look super normal, except that they're now essentially living trash cans. Old dissolving toilet paper, gum, wrappers, and bottles stuck to the branches and blowing around the bases.

I'm gonna be honest: I do understand "school spirit" and all that, but there's "school spirit" and then there's "an excuse for piggish behavior." Taking a game so seriously that you decide the right reaction is to poison trees over who won/lost, or to trash a part of campus, seems to me like dumb animal behavior. But if you're an alum of this school, I'm guessing there must be some heartwarming or nostalgic connection in all this that as an outsider, I am not understanding. People used to burn couches in the street at my school when their favorite teams won or lost, and I thought that was idiotic too. Maybe the tradition here in Auburn was different, when the original oaks were there. And besides being trash-riddled the new trees looked like they're doing all right.

Toomer's Drugs was diagonal across the street.

I popped in to look around. It smelled so strongly of lemonade! They had many flavors and also sold it in bottles. I was tempted but decided to pass and just enjoyed looking at all the tiger mascot merch.

Soon it was time for lunch so I got to The Hound, a nice restaurant off the main drag. My aunt and grandpa showed up and got situated, and we asked our server to help with a photo to send to family who couldn't join us.

We got caught up, and as usual it was me who talked too much and answered questions about myself, which makes me feel blabby and self-absorbed though I know people have a lot of curiosity about what I do. I did get to ask after my grandpa's health and my grandma's cats, and everyone's doing "ok" which is all one can expect after a certain age. We talked about age too, since I've just turned 40. What a joy lol.

I had a cup of the gumbo: white rice, andouille sausage, alligator, shrimp, chicken, tasso ham. It was saltier than I'd usually choose but VERY good.

And their grain bowl, which was farro, sweet potato, fennel, cranberries, pistachio, goat cheese, and balsamic. I'm a sucker for hearty grains like farro and REALLY enjoyed this, saving half of it to eat later.

Both my aunt and grandpa got a hot sandwich with turkey, bacon, avocado, brie, mustard, and a few other yummy fillings, that they both enjoyed. Having limited time sucked, but we at least got a few hours together. They took me back to the hotel where we hugged goodbye, and they pushed a birthday card with "a little something-something" in it, which they REALLY shouldn't have. As usual I was spoiled when I do not deserve to be. I hate for people to treat me to things because rarely do I get to pay anyone back; I'm always the taker and never the giver :(

Anyway. From there I chilled for a bit, did more paperwork that had cropped up (taxes), and went for a short walk at a nearby softball field just to get some sun and fresh air.

Soon it was showtime. Bus to the theatre, do the show, pack it up.
We had a wall tag to sign too (I was early to it so not many signatures yet.)

Auburn was good, I got to do more than expected for just a two day stay.

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Tomorrow morning we have a long bus ride to North Charleston, SC.
I have a bag of nonperishables to get me through snacks and lunch.
We won't arrive until evening. We'll have three days there, two of which are matinee days, so all I have on the docket are a doctor's appointment on Friday and some foodie finds to visit.

LONG post. You've been warned.

I had set an early alarm for Thursday knowing there'd be limited time to do things before our understudy rehearsal, but was so tired that I went back to sleep for an additional hour.

No matter. It was still a productive morning. I managed to make an appointment to get some testing done while we're in South Carolina; it's always a pain to do/schedule medical things while traveling for work. Then I sent a portfolio and resume to an opportunity I'm interested in. The opportunity isn't until 2025, but I want to be in consideration from the start because you never know what people will need and when. Maybe I'm being an annoyance, but I'd rather get my hat in the ring early than hear later, "Oh, we've already picked someone for that job."

Then, rehearsal. The call time was 12:15 and it ran until 4:30pm. The purpose was for the understudies--not just actors but also our assistant MD--to be able to do a whole show. Since it was for such a good cause I was happy to be there, but near the end my goodness we were getting hungry.

That pretty much took the whole day. I had time to go back to the hotel, shower, eat dinner, and decompress a bit before it was time to do the show.

Also, Jameson has applied to another corporate opportunity with Disney. I don't know if he has good odds of getting it, and after what happened last time (a string of interviews ending in no job offer and literal silence) I don't want to get hopes up. But still, a chance is a chance.

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Friday, my stepmom and sister drove into town to visit!
After getting them settled into their hotel room, we walked over to Bae Bae's Kitchen, which is kind of mod-Korean plates and cocktails.

My pandan cocktail (with house-made pandan syrup!) and Kate's plum sour.

For the plates you could choose a protein and two sides. I did panko shrimp and two pickled dishes, white kimchi and yellow radish. Everything was fresh and delicious.

From there we took an Uber to Phipps Conservatory, a sort of botanical garden/greenhouse.

For the winter they have an orchid and bonsai tree display. There was also a miniature train set that was cute (didn't get a pic of that), a desert plants area, and many fruiting and spice trees/plants. We had a good time walking through and looking at as much as we could see!

We finished up earlier than planned because the outdoor sections were closed, and also frankly the displays were not as extensive as we had expected overall. I mean, orchids are lovely and everything, but after the fourth room of them or so it's kind of like...ok more orchids...got it...haha. But we did enjoy the experience :)

To kill time I suggested hitting The Strip for window shopping. The initial plan was to go to Prestogeorge's for coffee or tea, but the Uber dropped us off right in front of an Asian grocery and I knew Kate especially would lose her MIND in there!

An hour and a half later we marched out with all kinds of goodies to try! My sister and stepmom are from a rather small PA town, and while it has a small Thai/Asian grocery, there's not nearly the selection that you can find in a large city. I was so happy that they'd enjoyed new and exciting grocery items just as much as I did! We opted to walk back this time as it was only about a mile to the hotel.

After a brief rest and prep we walked to Gaucho, an Argentinian steakhouse where I'd made reservations for us.
Despite being a steakhouse it wasn't super-upscale; the food was certainly steakhouse-quality, but reasonably priced and there were small plates as well as the expensive wood-fired premium steak entrees. Oddly enough, I was the only one who got steak! A sliced steak sandwich with roasted veggies and chimichurri on HUGE fluffy ciabatta. Everything wood-fired and with a beautiful smoky sear to it, even the bread.

Kate got the seafood special which was seared scallops on a bed of pureed potato and turnip with crusty wood-fired bread (nobody took a pic somehow.) My stepmom got a roasted eggplant with roasted carrots, onions, beets, couscous, lemon ricotta, and pistachio gremolata. All of us tried it and honestly, I think it was the best dish of the three. The flavor was just incredible, between the smoke and the rich spices and the creamy lemon ricotta.

For dessert we had coffee and shared a banana dulce de leche bread pudding (as you can see, it was ALSO fire-roasted!)

Everything was amazing. I saved half my sandwich but everyone else crushed their meals. Good job us!
We walked to the theatre and picked up the tickets at the box office, then I left them in the lobby and went to the pit to do the show. It went pretty well, though I made some total weirdo mistakes, probably from being nervous with family there and also from being tired (socialization is draining on me no matter who I'm with or how much I love them.) After the show I found my fam in the lobby and we walked back to the hotel together. They had a great time and said they absolutely loved the show. Yay!

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Saturday I was up early to work on Foodie Finds for Auburn because it's recently been pointed out to me that we DO have time to explore there. I wanted to add some downtown options in case people find the time/money to Uber there and check things out.

I met my stepmom and sister in the hotel lobby, and we walked to The Speckled Egg for breakfast. I was very thankful to have made reservations because we overheard the hostess say that there would not be open tables until 1pm!!

We were seated right away and enjoyed catching up with each other while eating bagels with lox, a crab and lobster roll, and "Hen's Hash," which was over easy eggs on potato, sweet potato, brussels, mushroom, and onion, with sourdough toast and a drizzle of house-made pineapple habanero vinegar. That was my dish, and it was simple yet the seasoning was perfect and it felt healthy to eat :)

When we were done eating we took time to appreciate the architecture (the restaurant is located inside the Union Trust Building which like many skyscrapers in Pittsburgh is historic and beautiful.)

We made sure to get selfies in the lobby!

I am extremely grateful for this time with family. Because of my lifestyle it is difficult to coordinate visits with family; time home is brief, so much needs to be done when I'm NOT moving all around, and then when I catch them during tour like this our time is limited. Which is why I'm so grateful that they drove four hours just to spend time with me, and see the show. And yeah, eat some great food!

Back at the hotel I walked them back to their room, then we hugged goodbye. I'll see Kate again soon when we do the sibling trip to Mexico! Then it was time to type this post and digest that exquisite breakfast before the 2pm matinee. It went well, and our assistant MD got to conduct the show for the first time and did a wonderful job.

(photo courtesy Laura, drums)

Between shows I finished fixing the Auburn Foodie Finds sheet, and tried to chill and drink tea because I was feeling a little yucky. Our French hornist has a cold (she says it's a cold anyway) and she'd BETTER not have given it to me.

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Sunday was my birthday! The big 4-0!

I spent the morning responding to a barrage of well-wishes on social media. People are so kind! But today is certainly the day that I hate facebook the most haha.

Then, to my surprise, I got a message from one of the trombonists who sat next to me for Candlelight.
He was the musician from The Florida Orchestra, on the gig where I ran to my seat with only two minutes to spare before downbeat. He wanted to know if I'd sub for the orchestra on Trombone 2, for an upcoming Pops concert in May (Disco-themed!) I have nothing lined up so of course I said yes!

Here it is, you guys! The payoff! All of that finagling last year, and I actually get to sub with an established symphony orchestra. It may not seem like much, but to me it's the fulfillment of a dream (and also an absolute strategical win; my inner INTJ is CACKLING)
A fantastic birthday present!

Soon it was time to walk to the theatre.
There's an art installation on the way. It seems eerily meant for me.

I shared it to my socials, with the following caption:

"Today I am 40, and spending the day being a trombonist with My Fair Lady at the Benedum Center. Which is next to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, where I performed with the All-Eastern Band as a high school student in 2001…hoping to become a professional musician.

"In a way, it’s a full-circle moment. I’m surprised, happy, and maybe even a little bit proud…that in the end, I really did get to be a musician after all. And on some pretty amazing gigs too. How wild is that? Looking back, it feels like a miracle.

"Today I’m playing two shows. And the fact that that’s “normal” to me is incredibly special.
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"Edit to Add: It’s special because this wasn’t just my dream. It was my mother’s dream too. She passed away before she could see me realize it.

"She never once discouraged me from music.
She never once tried to bar my path.
She never once suggested I try something “safer.”

"She supported my dream of becoming a professional musician with no reservations.
And I have felt her love, and her unconditional support, every step of the way."

I don't feel particularly older, today. But giving my first masterclass last week made me realize that I AM older...and as a musician, I'm now considered to have "made it" in music. As I'm still struggling to find work and get gigs, this is surprising to me. And yet, from the perspective of a kid in college with no experience, I have done a LOT. I am surprised to look back and see so much. Life is strange. I'm grateful to be here.

The show went well. All of our shows here have been very well attended.
Between shows I partial-packed and did more responding to b-day wishes.
The evening show also went well. At intermission Company Management called me into the office to receive this loverly card from the cast! How nice! Several people took this time to thank me for doing Foodie Finds, which made me feel extra warm and fuzzy.

And then, the show was over. Did the usual pack up, typed up this post, and went to bed.

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Tomorrow we fly to Atlanta, and from there it's a two hour bus ride to Auburn, Alabama.
I've never been there before, and we do get a little time to explore so I'm hoping to see the downtown and visit a restaurant.
But I also REALLY need to do laundry!

The bus ride was long and blessedly uneventful.
There were some light flurries blowing around that didn't lay on the roads but coated all the trees with sugary crystals.

That was our view for pretty much all of West Virginia. I had a hard time on this ride because of stupid motion sickness. West V is mountainous, even the highways are winding. You go up and down in altitude so your ears are constantly popping, and the bus had to pump the brakes on the downgrades. By the time we got to the Walmart lunch stop I was feeling a little green around the gills, but took care of myself and was all right.

In Walmart I played with the big Valentine's Day plushies. Best find was this massive manta ray plush.

I got a very few groceries, mostly restocking travel-sized cleaning supplies. We were still far enough away and the bus was warm enough that I didn't want to get refrigerated things.

Our bathroom stop was the Pennsylvania Welcome Center, where we found shelves and shelves of fliers for nearly the entire state. I dug through the NEPA section until I found the place where I'm from: Columbia/Montour. And of course there was a flier for Knoebels, the small rural amusement park where I'd gotten my first-ever job, circa 1998, scooping ice cream at The Old Mill for $4.25 an hour!

Back on the bus and just an hour later we were in downtown Pittsburgh, checking in to the Omni William Penn.

It's a big, old, historic hotel, having been built in 1916 and hosting many famous people including quite a few US presidents. And therefore as soon as we got to our rooms everyone started tittering about it being HAUNTED. I will say that while unpacking, two of the four lamps in my room suddenly went out, and even though they shared outlets with other appliances (one with a phone and the other with a Keurig) the other appliances still had power, but the lamps would not turn back on until I physically unplugged each one and plugged it back in. I mean...I'd call that Old Hotel Things. But who knows...:p

Anyway, after ensuring that the tiny box fridge was functional I took an Uber to Whole Paycheck, intending to spend the gift card that my aunt got me. I ate at the hot bar and got all of my usual groceries plus some treats like local canned coffee, puffed lotus seed snacks, and a bag of baru nuts. And then at checkout without even thinking I hovered my hand over the Amazon One sensor and completely forgot the gift card. Boo! That's ok, there's no question it'll be put to good use eventually.

Back at the hotel I finished unpacking and had a nice shower and got the heck in bed.

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Tuesday I was up early early early to eat breakfast and go do laundry. Because fancy, historic hotels do NOT have washers. I also wanted to do some sightseeing, because I've got today and Wednesday to do it and that's pretty much it.

It was cold and windy and I was not inclined to walk across the highway bridge over the river, so for the first time in my life I rode the city bus. How have I made it to age 40 without having ridden a city bus?? Light rails and trolleys and subways and trains and charter buses and taxis and Ubers...but somehow, not the bus. It was great. I paid with the app and the buses were on time. Easy.
The downside? They're stinky. But so are subways.

Did my laundry and rode back, then since it's a 3-hour transit pass I rode it again to get to the Strip District for a loaf of bread from Mancini's, a historic Pittsburgh Italian bakery.

I got "the twist that started it all," which was just a loaf of white Italian bread in a twist shape. It is simple as hell and has no preservatives, probably just yeast, water, flour, and salt. Crispy crust, fluffy white crumb.

There's not enough room to store half in the fridge like I normally would, so I'll just have to eat what I can before it goes moldy or stale. I've wrapped it up tightly so that should help.

After that I meant to walk next door to Wholey's fish market for sushi, but didn't know the sushi counter was closed until mid-February (Google says it's open.) Still, I admired the beautiful seafood for sale.

Wholey's hot bar just had fried foods, so instead I went to Peppi's and got a hot chicken mushroom Swiss hoagie made using Mancini's bread. It was simple but really good and flavorful.

There was a huge coffee/tea shop next door to Peppi's called Prestogeorge, I popped in and was overwhelmed by all the choices. Shelves and shelves of teas and coffees on both walls, like a library but for beans and leaves.

The sales folks were very helpful, and I ended up with Ethiopian Harrar Deep Blue entirely because the salesperson liked it, and with two sample-sized bags of their herbal orange tea and spicy chai.

I was THRILLED that neither of the herbal teas contained rooibos!! Nothing against rooibos, but it is used SO FREQUENTLY in caffeine-free teas and I am tired of tasting it as the base flavor for everything (that and liquorice root, they're in EVERYTHING and it's very annoying!) I tried the orange spice tea as soon as I got home and it was wonderful, flavor-packed and sweet. Might have to start ordering from these guys, especially in the summer when Jameson and I go through iced tea so frequently.

After that I decided to be done and walked back to the hotel, where I cut up/wrapped the bread, put away my laundry and the other foods, packed myself a dinner to bring to the theatre, and got to sit still for about an hour before sound check.

What a lovely theatre! The Benedum was built in 1928 as a Stanley Theater (a movie palace) so it is ornate and gilded. To my great delight and surprise, this theatre has not only been restored but also RENOVATED: it has bathrooms backstage!! And water fountains!! Hallelujah!! I love these gorgeous historic theatres, but most of the Foxes and Orpheums out there have only been restored, so there'll be one 1930s toilet for the entire company to use, or one toilet per floor and ours is the 5th floor or something. I know this probably sounds like, "So what," but let me tell you as a touring musician, that it matters. Very, very much.

Sound check was fine, and the show was fine. Well-attended, and everything went smoothly. A few props fell into the pit (a coin used in one of the first act scenes, a bouquet from "I'm Getting Married in the Morning"), but that happens from time to time.

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Wednesday I had planned to visit a museum, but now my stepmom and sis want to visit one when they come to visit on Friday so I held off and instead enjoyed a slow morning. The coffee from Prestogeorge was very good, very smooth and creamy. They've definitely made me a fan :)

In the afternoon I took myself for a walk. There are many "little things" around Pittsburgh, that are beautiful, that are not in museums.

The bridges, for one thing. (CLICK HERE to see)

This lamp! I love it. It has toe beans :)

Kaufmann's corner clock.

Some bike racks. I have a friend who runs a bike rack Instagram, so I send her pictures from time to time.

The Badenum Theater. We are performing here through my birthday :)

Entrance to our hotel.

It was a short walk, but it was in the mid-40s and sunny and nice.
The rest of my day was chilling out, because starting tomorrow things get busy.
We'll have rehearsal AND the show. Then on Friday my family gets here and we've got lunch, the botanical garden, dinner, and the show planned. We'll probably also have breakfast together the next day before they leave, then I'll have the matinees over the weekend.

In fact the only other thing that I've got planned is to try and eat at APTEKA, and I've just learned that they're so exclusive that I should have preordered food days ago so that probably ain't happening.

As I finish this post I'm getting dressed to walk to the theatre. It looks like a lot of people had a fun day today; some of our cast took a group tour of PNC Park, others went to the science museum, and others like me just enjoyed the nice day :)

(photo courtesy Zoe, cast)

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The evening show DID go well in Columbia, we had a great audience. In fact we seemed to be sold out or close to it for all of our shows there! I walked back to the hotel with Kyla (cello), and we noticed that the full moon had a big shining nimbus around it, probably from the intense humidity.

What the campus looked like as we were walking back.

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Friday morning we loaded up and had a short bus ride to a Walmart for lunch, then the hotel in Greensboro which is six miles from the theatre (unfortunately.) We got there around 2:30, so I did have time to walk to the Asian grocery nearby. Because we're here for such a short time and the schedule is so tight, I didn't actually get much...I'd hoped to find more prepared foods and didn't have luck there. But the bakery section was pretty awesome!

I got a char siu pork-filled bun.

I unpacked and dressed for the show and rode the bus to the theatre for sound check.
The design of this theatre is very 70s. It put me in mind of being beamed up into a spaceship!

Sound check was fine, I ate a packed dinner while others went out to find food.
The show was "ok", we seemed to be having some cognitive dissonance between what the drummer was doing and what the MD was conducting. I'm not sure if the acoustics are to blame, or if someone was distracted. It happens.

(photo courtesy Ashton from our cast)

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Saturday, I woke up feeling kinda blargh because unluckily whoever is staying in the room above mine was stomping around like an elephant around 1am last night. Earplugs can block out a lot of sound, but low-pitched stuff like heavy bass or stomping feet, not so much.

I went downstairs and got oatmeal and coffee from the free hotel breakfast, and supplemented that with my own yogurt and fruit. Took a shower and got ready for the show because with the hotel being so far from downtown, it was unlikely I'd get a chance to come back before the day was over. Plus, my Aunt and Uncle were coming to the matinee!

They picked me up from the hotel around 11, and we drove to Natty Greene's for lunch. It's bar food, but it was pretty good and we each had a drink with our meal too. They asked me many questions about the show, the tour year so far, how I'm doing, how my siblings are doing...except for my sister Raven none of my siblings keep in touch with our aunt regularly, which I can't understand because A) she IS our coolest relative, and B) she's our last living relative on our mother's side. We always touch on the possible "whys" behind her seeming exclusion from their lives, but it's a sad and baffling topic so we never rest on it for long.

She and my uncle look well, although they didn't seem to want to talk about themselves much (I promise, I was a good little socializer and made sure to pelt them with questions too!) My aunt showed me pictures of a bus trip they took recently to Ireland, that was pretty cool! They saw lots of beautiful old castles, forts, and churches, and got to do a self-guided tour of the Guinness factory. Unfortunately it absolutely poured while they were there so several of their promised tour stops were skipped, plus the sightseeing they DID do involved getting soaked to the bone and not having the best views. Still, it looked like a fun time. I am jealous because she and my uncle have been overseas many times...I want to go! But it is so hard to plan vacations with the type of work that Jameson and I do. I expressed hope that I'd get to do an international tour at some point...but also, if that doesn't happen, I've GOT to plan an overseas vacation.

After lunch my uncle took a picture of us :)
I love my aunt. She's my very favorite relative, one of few people on this earth whom I truly cherish.

From there we moved the car to a different parking spot, then walked to the theatre.
I left them at the box office to pick up the tickets I'd gotten for them, and got warmed up and ready for the show.
It was a packed house again. The show went well, but I got a note afterward about dragging in a certain section and felt pretty wilted about it for a while (I am glad to know when I'm doing something wrong so that I can fix it, but because of my upbringing I do tend to take EVERYTHING as criticism initially before coming around.)

I met up with Aunt and Uncle again, but it was pouring rain. We got them checked into their hotel, then tried to go get dinner but everywhere was packed with a 30-minute wait and I didn't have that kind of time. After scrambling around and getting wet we finally gave up and went to Jimmy John's...which is FINE, because I don't care about the food! I cared about being with my family. We got to talk some more and spend time with each other.

They gave me a birthday present, too. My aunt made this card herself!! I keep telling her that she should consider starting an Etsy shop.

Inside was a gift card to Whole Paycheck!! She knows me so well lol.

They dropped me off at the theatre where I had to run through the rain to get to the stage door on the other side of a big fence. I was early so had time to become less soggy before the last show of the night. I paid SUCH careful attention to the conductor and my tempos, and it seemed that the section I'd gotten a note about was better, so I'll have to re-teach myself to look up at the MD more often and I think that will fix it. It's not that I wasn't looking at him, but I was probably relying too heavily on my ears/hearing the drums, and also watching the MD using peripheral vision meant I may have been seeing more of his UPBEATS than downbeats, and getting off that way. Anyway, the technicalities of professional musicianship. The important thing is that you take steps to correct; then things will work out :)

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Sunday, I got up early because I wanted to hit a co-op downtown (since the Asian grocery hadn't been quite what I wanted.) I did as much as I could at the hotel--showered, partial-packed, packed one meal to bring to the theatre, stole some food items from Free Breakfast to supplement my travel food and the packed lunch. Tour tip: if there's a free breakfast, steal stuff. Bagels, boiled eggs, single-serve packs of peanut butter, plasticware, fruit, etc are all useful for travel or a tight show schedule.

I took the earliest bus to the theatre (10:40) and walked to the co-op.
It was a cute little one, small but mighty.

I got a curry chicken salad sandwich for dinner, a yogurt for breakfast, a local canned coffee, some fruit, and a few small things to snack on for the 9-hour bus ride to Pittsburgh. Then back to the theatre for our first show. It went pretty well, we're still not quite all on the same page musically (we talked about it and agreed) but hopefully it's just a rut of overthinking. Between shows, back to the hotel for light packing and prepping for the bus ride (the curry sandwich was very good!) and then our final show in Greensboro.

Before going down to the pit I signed the wall tag, and Victoria (flute) kindly offered to take a pic of me with it.

The show went well, and before we knew it it was time to pack up once again.
Next stop, Pittsburgh!

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Our luggage call tomorrow is at 7:30am. We'll have two rest stops and one lunch stop before reaching P-burgh around 5pm hopefully.
It's a shame there wasn't time for sightseeing in Greensboro, but we had good audiences here and it was a nice run overall.

We will be in Pittsburgh for a whole week so I'm hoping to catch up on some rest, it would also be nice to visit a museum or see some sights. My stepmom and sister will be coming to see a show and I'm looking forward to spending time with them. And Sunday will be my 40th birthday!

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June 2025

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goofball on a train

(adventures of a touring musician)

Entries tagged with my fair lady

Cheating at Gardening

My Fair Lady - Modesto, CA and the End of Tour

My Fair Lady - Yakima part 2 and Eugene, OR

My Fair Lady - The Last Golden Day & Yakima part 1

My Fair Lady - Spokane, WA part 2

My Fair Lady - Spokane, WA part 1

My Fair Lady - Albuquerque NM

My Fair Lady - Golden Day Chicago + Amarillo TX

My Fair Lady - Chicago part 2

My Fair Lady - Chicago part 1

My Fair Lady - Houghton, MI and Kalamazoo, WI

My Fair Lady - Tulsa OK Part 2

My Fair Lady - Tulsa, OK Part 1

My Fair Lady - Worcester, MA

My Fair Lady - Johnson City, TN and Blacksburg, VA

My Fair Lady - North Charleston, SC

My Fair Lady - Auburn, AL

My Fair Lady - Pittsburgh, PA part 2

My Fair Lady - Pittsburgh, PA part 1

My Fair Lady - Greensboro, NC