goofball on a train

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

This post covers Monday & Tuesday.
As part of trying to post more frequently = shorter posts, expect posts on MONDAYS, WEDNESDAYS, and FRIDAYS (it was previously Mondays and Thursdays)

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MONDAY

Actually had a good sleep for once, but felt like I could've used another hour in bed!

I got up nice and early, had breakfast and all that, and walked to the theater early so I could have time to warm up.
I wanted to feel more comfortable and ready for our first full rehearsal in the pit!

And I brought the Positive Potato that Jameson got me. For moral support :)


I quickly found out that it would be best to take my in-ears out when playing certain pedal notes on the bass, at least for a while. I am not used to playing bass with earbuds in, so listening to how it sounds with and then without will help me to acclimate to the change and trust my ears more.

Although we received corrections and notes each time we stopped playing, this rehearsal wasn't really for the orchestra.
It was for keycomp, to make adjustments to how it sounded both with the live musicians and also in the house.

We'd play most of a number or maybe all of it, then stop and the keycomp folks would make their changes or ask to hear a specific section again so they could tweak it. These tweaks can include changing the overall volume of keycomp; changing the volume of specific instruments in keycomp; changing the tuning/pitch of individual instruments within keycomp; and even changing the articulations of keycomp instruments! And I'm sure many other types of changes that I'm not aware of. Sometimes they asked for all of us to play our parts as normal, other times they'd ask for just a few of us so they could match one instrument's volume or articulation.

I guess that's why it's called "sound design." The keycomp guys were definitely designing some sounds today!

Rehearsal was from 10am-5pm with a lunch break. Afterward we were treated to some nice snacks in one of the hotel conference rooms (it was their way of apologizing for construction going on in the hotel during our stay.) There was cut fruit, crackers, meat and cheese, wings, pretzel rolls, cheese dip, sliders, and brownies, plus misc teas and juices. It was really nice! I had some wings and a brownie and ate my actual dinner later while watching LEGO Masters "with" Jameson.

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I wanna mention one thing that I'm a bit proud of.

In the last post, I mentioned getting very frustrated with my playing and having to give myself a pep talk about it. Well today I woke up determined to do my best, stay positive, and play confidently whether I ended up feeling confident or not.

It worked. There were times that I started to feel inadequate or worry that I wasn't doing a good job. And at those times, I was careful not to back off, and to play confidently even if inside I was cringing.

No one complained about my playing, or sat me down to discuss my ability to do this job.
Whatever I was nervous and insecure about did not come to pass.
Are there things that I could do better, of course. But the same went for everyone. Every single person made mistakes today, including the MD, including the guys programming keycomp. It doesn't make them any less skilled or qualified. It makes them human. And I need to consciously, actively extend that same grace to myself.

As a person with a loud inner negative voice who has constantly put herself down since childhood, being able to project confidence today was a big deal.

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TUESDAY

Just a half day of rehearsal but it started pretty early, so I was up at 6. Breakfast and walking to the theater, warming up and chatting with the other musicians about generic stuff like our dress code, transporting misc items on tour, the fancy new Nespresso coffee machine that the musicians at Hamilton sent us as a gift.

Rehearsal went well, though many of us felt that intonation was kinda off. Having done many tech rehearsals I know that we'll have some quality fluctuations for a while until we all settle in. Again, considering how little time we've actually spent playing together, if intonation is our big worry then we've got nothing to worry about.

We were finished at noon, and I stomped up to Company Management looking for a fight :p

Not really, but I had recently been told that I would not be able to continue working as a substitute musician for Walt Disney World :(
Disney doesn't like it's cast members to work multiple positions within the company, so I knew that not being allowed to do both was always a possibility, but had hoped an exception could be made.

Company Management already knew about all of this, but after finding out they planned to remove me as a sub I'd spoken to my colleagues at Walt Disney World and they'd advised me to ask for more information, so that's what I was all-fired to do today.

But as soon as I walked in, Maia (Company Manager) said, "I sent you an email!"
Like a good little trombonist I hadn't checked my email during rehearsal. Sure enough, HR been able to work things out so that I WILL be allowed to continue subbing at Disney World! YAY!!! I'm so relieved and happy! I thanked Maia profusely.

Back at the hotel I was happy to see that my room had been cleaned and refreshed :) I clean up after myself pretty well but we're here for several weeks so I'm gonna have housekeeping come by once a week. A rare treat. Then I received a 19-quart weatherproof container I'd ordered to put inside my trunk. Another musician suggested these because they fit perfectly inside our trunks and can hold things that might leak or melt or get damaged form bouncing around.

On top of all that, the front desk gave me a warm cookie :D

The rest of my day was spent making plans for the upcoming day off, chatting with Jameson and the two female musicians in our pit, and watching Dune since it was rainy out.

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Fun Facts:

Touring shows have what's called a "footprint," which is kind of like the storage and transportation space that all of it's equipment, personnel, costumes, set pieces, etc are expected to take up. Beauty and the Beast's "footprint" is based on that of the Aladdin national tour.

Maybe partly because of that, I've discovered that we've got some road cases and equipment that were quite clearly "borrowed" from the Aladdin tour! I wonder if they'll update the labels, or keep them the same as a bit of origin story/reminder to return.


Proctors Theater here in Schenectady has a cute little shelf in the main stairwell, and visiting shows have used it as a place to leave mementos (there are also wall tags and signed dressing room tables here.)

Here is what the stairwell shrine looked like when I was here with Tootsie in 2023:


...and here it is today! You can tell I had to back up to get everything in the photo, a lot has been added!


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Wednesday: Another half-day, and picking up a rental car.

Thursday: Driving to Dillon Music to try out a Yamaha bass trombone, and maybe some side quests if there's time.

**YE OLDE TOUR DISCLAIMER** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. (get used to seeing this at the top of any tour-related posts.)

Jameson did too, tossing and turning next to me.
But eventually I did get some sort of sleep and my alarm went off at 5am.
I got up that early so I could have quiet time alone to drink coffee, eat breakfast, and FREAK OUT.

This is happening. This is happening!!

WEDNESDAY - TRAVEL DAY

Jameson got up around 6:30 and drove me to the airport. He dragged my bass trombone and I dragged my janky suitcase (it has taken a lot of hits in life.) Fortunately the airport was very chill, which is rare in Orlando let me tell ya. Checked both bags and they kindly slapped some bright orange FRAGILE stickers onto the bass case.

Jameson walked me to my gate, and we hugged goodbye.
Always the hardest part. We squeeze really hard.
At least this time I know he won't be totally miserable at home! He's got his exciting new job, too!

No line at all at security either...what an auspicious day!...so I had about 45 minutes to kill.
Spent most of it reading my book and checking that I'm not dreaming.

(The hideous MCO carpet)

The flight was very smooth and uneventful.

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CHECKING IN

Took a company Uber to the hotel...
...and LO, my trombone and accessories arrived right as I was checking in!

I had worried for nothing this time. But next time, I will make sure that there is a BUFFER DAY. Geez.
Used a luggage trolley to get everything upstairs and checked on both trombones. Both were completely unharmed!

My two trombones pictured with their respective foam cones, which are put inside the bells to absorb impact. The cases are also some of the best currently available for transporting trombones. Because if I don't invest in my gear no one else will.


My accessories also got here safely though the box was barely a box any more and had clearly been handled badly. But I'd packaged everything carefully, so no damage.

I fell right back into my tour routine: checked that the fridge felt cold, dug an aquarium thermometer out of my suitcase and threw it in there, grabbed some tote bags, and hoofed it to a grocery store! Well, this time I had to Uber because there aren't any within reasonable walking distance. I first went to Niskayuna Co-op because I remembered it being really good with lots of local products, but was disappointed to see that their selection has dwindled. Maybe the local stuff hasn't been selling well. But I got a bar of raspberry and cracked pepper dark chocolate which I'm very intrigued to try, and some house-made pretzel rolls.

Next, Market 32 down the street which is really just a fancy version of Price Chopper. Got everything else I needed there. I actually got more than usual because we're gonna be here through July! But the hotel only has a little box fridge so I still have to be careful about how much refrigerated stuff I get. That means mostly canned or shelf stable veggies this week.

Got back to the hotel, put the food away, and unpacked.
It is so weird...it feels like I never left. Unpacking and putting stuff where I like it is like riding a bike.



There's thankfully a lot of counter space here, so all the food is gonna live under the TV. There's a microwave so I won't need the Itaki this time. The collapsible silicone kettle is at the far end because there's an outlet there. That'll be my morning coffee or evening tea. And no, I don't use hotel coffee makers generally because have you ever looked inside one? They never clean them. Nope nope nope.

In the little box fridge I've crammed as much Greek yogurt as will fit, some cooked chicken, boiled eggs, pickled beets, and berries. I've left some room so that I can pack and refrigerate a lunch.
Choice shelf-stable foods include oats, tuna pouches, single-serve canned green beans, roasted hazelnuts, canned pumpkin, PB Fit, Core Power shakes, rice, and misc fruit. And of course I have brought Snack Pod loaded with roasted edamame, dark chocolate chips, Cheerios, Mike & Ike's, and peanut butter M&M's!

After unpacking everything else I lubricated and otherwise prepared my trombones for work tomorrow, and put my accessories and everything I'll need into a pile ready to go. Then a shower, and then we FINALLY GOT ONBOARDING PAPERWORK. MY GOD. Turns out we were supposed to get it a long time ago. I think someone forgot about us. It'll definitely get worked out, but will be keeping an eye on the progress of it.

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THURSDAY - FIRST REHEARSAL

Reminder: PLEASE DO NOT SHARE OR REPOST ANYTHING. Thanks!

I was awake early, nervous. Made breakfast in the hotel room (oatmeal with Core Power for milk, Fage Greek yogurt, blackberries) and packed my lunch. Since I don't know about our fridge situation at the theater I'm mostly packing nonperishables today, and will adjust as needed if there's a fridge. And I'm not packing dinner because we're supposed to be done rehearsing by 5pm, and since this is a union gig we WILL be done by 5pm.

Around 8:30am I loaded myself up with the two trombones, two trombone stands, bag-o-mutes, and my backpack with lunch and iPad and pedal...and realized that I needed to call an Uber. It's a short walk to the theatre but the combined weight of the trombones in their cases is about 50 pounds, plus all the equipment and my backpack...I would have been a sweaty mess. So I used the company Uber and just hoped they'd be ok with it. 

I've played at Proctor's Theater before. It's small and old, but beautiful. 
There's a sort of promenade just inside the entrance. To the right I immediately saw the stage door, and next to it this big poster. 


We had been instructed to go up a marble staircase and make a few turns to get to our rehearsal space. 
I found the stairs.


As I was staring at them and hyping myself up for dragging all of my equipment up there, a theater associate saw me and kindly directed me to an elevator. Which was also covered in a huge Beauty and the Beast decal, and which I couldn't photograph because my hands were full of trombones. Good lord, Disney does go hard on the marketing! 

The rehearsal room was like every other tech rehearsal room I've ever been in. It's always either a hallway, or a conference room, or a black box. The MD, keys, drums, and something called keycomp have already been rehearsing here, so everything was set up and ready to go. 


I quickly found my spot right on the end, and got set up.


They made us that HUGE and beautiful book of music, all printed on exquisitely thick cardstock, all lovingly bound in that heavy black folder. I felt like a poo-head, but picked it up and plopped it right on the floor next to my chair. We received PDF parts about a week ago, and I know that they match the paper parts (it's ALWAYS important to check that before ditching the printed part.) Plus, the digital part has all of my notes and I don't want to have to rewrite them, especially not if it's gonna mar these beautiful paper parts.

Anyway, here's the setup I'm going with for now.


The bass is at my left elbow since I use it the most and since it's the heaviest. 
The tenor is at my right-front, so that I can grab it cross-body with my left hand once I've put the bass down. This is normally where my Aviom would go but I should be able to put that kinda behind my stand when we start using mixes (we don't need them for rehearsals.)
My mutes are lined up on the floor to the right of my chair because I prefer to grab them with my right hand. Water bottle goes over there too.
...that's pretty much it. Mute bag will eventually live under my chair and/or to the right of the mutes when I'm ready to pack up.

The other musicians filtered in gradually, and we introduced ourselves and chatted while rearranging our gear and tuning up. When the MD came in, he rushed right over to me and we hugged excitedly. I am so glad he's here! So glad that someone I KNOW is here! And he had a big big BIG hand in getting me this job. I feel that I owe him a lot. Michael, our rehearsal keyboardist, is also a good friend from My Fair Lady national tour, and we hugged and exclaimed excitedly about this tour for a bit. 

Then it was time to rehearse. 

We "ran it down," meaning we ran the show from top to bottom, only pausing afterward for the MD to give us notes or for us to ask questions about our parts. When we broke for lunch I went to the management office to rustle up a backstage pass. I met some of our management team, and received not only the pass but also this very cool nalgene bottle and the ubiquitous gel luggage tags! 


Here is a better picture of the bottle after I took the protective plastic off, front and back. 


On the way out of the office I saw this red arrow that said "TRUNKS" and decided to check it out. 


Musicians are supposed to get trunks too. Sure enough, I quickly found mine! Luggage tag for scale. 


You guys, this is a BIG DEAL. 
Normally on tour (or at least all the tours I've done to this point) you get two 50 pound suitcases for your personal stuff, your "band box" which is a shared road case for carrying work-related gear and instruments...and that's it. Personally I don't care to drag 100 pounds of suitcase with me everywhere, so I usually opt for one large suitcase or that plus a carry-on at most. But this trunk means that I can bring lots more stuff! I'm actually a bit overwhelmed thinking about what I could bring. A full-sized Instapot! A bigger selection of clothes! And...I honestly don't even know what else! I'll have to think about it. But this is so exciting for someone used to living out of a 29-inch suitcase! 

Our rehearsal ended 30 minutes early, so we must be doing something right :) 
I felt that it went well and hope that others felt the same way. Everyone was so professional, and SUCH excellent musicians. When everyone in the room has that kind of focus, we can sound GREAT and be very productive. 

Someone had sent a picture of the new tour truck, so I went outside to see it in person. 
I've done lots of tours but never one with it's own truck like this. A very big deal!!





Selfie in front of the truck. I am so grateful to be here.


I walked back to the hotel, and Jameson and I sent each other audio messages about how our days had gone. 
I ate dinner and typed up this post for y'all. 

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Welp. I'm exhausted. And still can't believe that I get to do this. 

To be honest, all day today I was freaking out inside. Absolute raging Imposter Syndrome. 
It felt like any minute someone was gonna say, "You know what...it's just not working out," and kick me out in favor of some better trombonist (there are plenty.) I was terrified of making mistakes; of disappointing or embarrassing the MD, who advocated for me to be here; of committing some shadowy faux pas that would offend someone in management.

Mainly, though, I am afraid that I haven't done a passable job on the bass trombone. It still does not feel very comfortable to me. 

Now, that said, NO ONE has given any indication that I'm doing a bad job. I got many compliments today from the other musicians and the MD. The MD even said to me, "This is your gig." But I have also been there on other gigs, when a musician was not a good fit for the group, and everyone was all smiles and compliments and then she was gone. 

Ultimately, all I can do is my best. And whatever the outcome may be...if they keep me for years, or if they approach me after a week and say, "Yeah, sorry but..."...either way there is very little that I can do about it, other than give them my best and hope it's enough. 

The problem is that the more you care about something--the more you value it--the more terrifying it is to think about losing that thing. And that is what I'm experiencing now. It was the same while i was on the circus. For the first 3 months or so I was a nervous wreck on the inside, constantly terrified that any day could be my last on the best gig I'd ever had. That day never came, and I eventually felt like I belonged. I will probably be a nervous wreck for at least a month or two on this gig...definitely until we get past the Chicago layoff. But it is my deepest hope that I'll get to stay, and that I'll get to belong here, too. 

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Friday and Saturday: Same schedule as today, rehearsing from 10am-5pm both days.

Sunday: Same schedule but after rehearsal we'll move to the pit!

Questions: If you have any questions about tour, tech rehearsals, music, etc, feel free to ask! Just please make sure your answer wasn't already given in the post, it'll save me having to repeat myself. Thanks and welcome along on this amazing adventure!!

Monday, I was up just a little before Jameson for breakfast and to feel nervous about the Steamboat Lillie rehearsal.

After Jameson went to the gym I practiced bass and packed my meals for Epic tomorrow.
Ate lunch in the car on the way to the musician's union building near downtown, which is where rehearsal would be held.

I haven't been to the union building for ages. Bad memories. When I first moved to Orlando Jameson lived in an apartment so I couldn't practice there without disturbing the neighbors. I'd practice at the union building whenever I could get a reservation for it...but 9 out of 10 times my rehearsal was halved by assholes (men) who insisted on rehearsing past their assigned time, or who would bust in in the middle of my time slot to banter and guffaw and use the space as a hang, and would glare at me for being there (even though I had more right to be there than any of them considering it was MY time slot.)

This was one of the reasons I left the union soon after. And then we moved to a house in Kissimmee anyway.

It all looked pretty much the same, maybe slightly cleaner but not much.


Three ladies were already there practicing. I introduced myself and got set up. Others were running late (people have kids and real jobs) so we used that time to try on our flapper dresses from Amazon. Our bandleader had wisely ordered multiple sizes, knowing that sometimes clothing online is not what it seems. My dress fit perfectly, and it is pale purple, almost the same color I wear as Phillipa in 1920s Paris at Epic Universe. Go figure!

When everyone else arrived we buckled down and plowed through the music piece by piece.
None of it is particularly hard, but some arrangements were pilfered online and are kind of "not the best" as far as making sense. Overall, though, people will have an easy time recognizing familiar Disney classics played in an old-timey jazz style. My favorite arrangements were the ones our bandleader did herself, you could tell she knows what she's doing as an arranger.

Overall this rehearsal went much better than I'd anticipated. Jazz is my biggest weakness as a musician, and improv jazz is worst of all. Playing it makes me feel inadequate and self-conscious. But this was a good group of patient people. And fortunately a lot of what was marked "solo" improv in my part turned out to be optional or for anyone to solo, not just trombone. Phew. It was a big relief not to have to improv much!

Back home I thanked my Morning Self for packing the Epic stuff so I wouldn't have to do it after a long day :p

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Tuesday. Halfway through April, wow.

They've moved our Epic sets by about an hour so I was able to get up an hour later, still 6:45am.

I argued with myself about bringing the bass trombone to Epic because with the schedule change I may actually have time to practice. Decided to bring it and at least have a try.

It was a normal day, quite hot and sunny. I did indeed find time to practice, only 30 minutes but way better than nothing. I was incredibly tired today, but so were a lot of other people, so maybe it's the heat or the alignments of the planets or something. Nothing else to report except that leaving work an hour later (5:30pm instead of 4:30pm) really, really sucks.

This was the "best route" according to the Googs:


What kind of squiggly-snake BS nonsense is this?!
Just horrific. And Epic isn't even open yet. Ugh.

By the time I got home I was truly exhausted, and thanked my Morning Self for insisting that I bring the bass to Epic because Evening Self had absolutely no energy for it. The morning version of me sure is stepping up this week! LOL

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Wednesday. Jameson had to get up at 8 for a doctor's appointment, so I just got up when he did.

Had breakfast and went out to get myself bagels and coffee but otherwise stayed at home and felt nervous about tonight's gig.
Practiced parts of the Steamboat music that I'm uncomfortable with, and tried to relax the rest of the time because I feel stressed and tired. Our third party has been getting our pay wrong, multiple weeks in a row, and it's stressing me out on top of misc other things.

When it got to be time to go I packed some snacks, trombone and music stand, trombone stand, mutes, in-ears, music, and dress shoes, then put on my Phillipa makeup and stockings (I had smuggled my makeup bag and stockings home from Epic for this haha.)

The venue was easy to find. Dragged all of my stuff inside and got set up.
From here, everything kind of went off the rails.

Problem 1: A child--I'm talking Gen Alpha--came running out from somewhere to do our sound setup, already on the phone with someone for help and with a panicked look on his face. Oh, lord. Sound check was supposed to be at 4pm and we did not play one note until 5pm. We found out later that the actual sound guy's grandfather had died and that's why he wasn't there...and we are all sympathetic to that. But the venue also could have told our bandleader that, so she could have had us come earlier, or made arrangements for us to warm up elsewhere while sound got their sh*t together instead of wasting an hour sitting on stage.

Problem 2: The bassist's bass started BREAKING. I don't exactly know how, but suspect that since it was hot outside and she'd had a long drive, she'd brought the car-warmed bass into the absolutely freezing theatre and it had started to crack (this is a VERY common problem with wooden instruments including clarinets, and is why unionized musicians insist on specific temperatures in performance spaces.) We all jumped on our phones and frantically started asking around for any bassists in the area to help...within the next hour.

Problem 3: Our trumpet player's audio pack died immediately meaning she'd have to do the entire show without the click track.

Problem 4: There were four songs that we didn't get to at rehearsal, that we were planning to cover at this sound check. Which we now couldn't do because due to the theater's audio crew (a child) not knowing what they were doing, we were now an hour behind schedule.

We did end up getting an emergency upright bass from a local bassist, god bless her.
And we did get our mixes together. But had absolutely no time to warm up or run any tunes.

And hey, the dresses were nice. Here's mine.


Problem 5: I have to apologize if this sounds snooty or rude, and I have loads of respect for our bandleader, who worked very hard to make this band happen. But truth is truth, and every musician on that stage with me would agree: most of these arrangements were simply NOT GOOD. Even during intermission our reed player was frantically making changes to her part to try and make it sound reasonable. There were so many times that I, a low brass instrument, was written to play ABOVE the trumpet and saxophone. That just doesn't sound good, which is why people don't WRITE that way :/

Problem 6: The click track was difficult to hear, and one of us (trumpet player) didn't have the click at all and so couldn't hear any count-offs. I tried to give her the count offs when I could, but *I* barely knew them either as we'd only had that one rehearsal and one run-through of each song (well, most songs.) The result was that we'd start with the click and quickly migrate away from it. So imagine trying to sing a song while another completely different song is playing loudly in the background. That's what it was like, and it was horrible. I stuck with it for a while but when we hit the Monsters, Inc. medley it's very syncopated AND I have a solo. I locked eyes with the drummer and we simultaneously reached out and yanked out our ear buds, lol. At least that was comedic, because the rest of the situation really wasn't.

Problem 7: Our poor bandleader had paid a professional photographer/videographer to come and take footage of this set, to use for media promotion to hopefully get the group hired for corporate events or weddings or whatever. Yikes. He probably got some decent visual footage...but I doubt much of our audio was usable the way things were going. Between the bad arrangements and not following the click track and the bassist being on an unfamiliar instrument and all of us having to play in a very cold space...it just didn't go very well.

Was it terrible? No. Every woman on that stage is an excellent musician. But circumstantially, we were screwed.
Even without the sound check issues, having a gig based on less-than-ideal arrangements, with only one run-through rehearsal, and using a click track when we had a perfectly excellent drummer, is what did us in. It's a shame. I was grateful that Jameson had NOT come out to support me for this one.

I do think that the idea of an all-female 1920s Disney jazz band is awesome!
But tonight it was too rushed, too unorganized, to come together.
Maybe in the future the parts can be refined, we can talk the bandleader out of using a click past the count-off, and we can have more rehearsals. I think all of that would make this a great band.


(but the odds of me playing with this group again, after that experience, are slim.)

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Thursday: I was supposed to have a bass lesson but Will is still recovering from surgery so it's a day off. Practice, some chores, the usual.

Friday: Another day off, I'll cook dinner and probably find other things that need to be done. Still have a lot of crap to list for sale online.

Saturday: Day at Epic.

Sunday: Easter, Easter church gig, eating candy all day with Jameson hopefully, making us a nice-but-basic Easter dinner. Thinking of my mom (Easter was her favorite holiday.)

Addendum: Someone made a video of our full set at Epic a few days ago! I didn't play my best (this was the last set of Tuesday and I was ungodly tired and unfocused) but now you can hear ALL of the lines and see Plume's big reveal, the percussion number, etc!
(and yes, we know we need to be miked, we've been asking for mics from day one and will continue to push for them!!)

Watch on YouTube

Oh, Monday. A day off.

Jameson had jury duty. He was up at 6, so I figured why not also get up at 6 and do transcription.

I plugged away until noon with a few breaks. Jameson was back before lunch, and the jury ended up dismissed because the case wasn't ready to go forward, so now he's fulfilled his "civic duty" or whatever for at least a year. Yay! Also see, he was nervous for nothing :p

We had lunch together, then I practiced bass while he went out to find new pillows and get groceries. Then he worked and I went back to transcription, with breaks to pester him and eat little snacks.

In the evening Jameson had made plans with a friend, so while he did that I had a half-naughty-half-responsible dinner of vegetables, lean chicken...and the whopping big apple muffin I'd gotten from Universal last week (I'd frozen it.) Then since it was so nice out, I took myself for a walk. It was very windy and the clouds were fluffy and pink, and this made me think of my mom.

She has been gone for over 20 years now. And now that my dad is gone too, I'm realizing that there are some things that I remember about her that no one else does. Not even my younger siblings or my aunt. Of course, they have memories that I don't share either because we were all with her at different points in her timeline.

A sampling of things that I remember, that no one else does:

     - The little "lunch parties" she used to hold for the neighborhood kids. We'd have peanut butter pinwheels, ham and cheese "sailboats," and play games like musical chairs or pin-the-tail. No computers then, so we had story time or sang along with Sesame Street cassettes.

     - For some reason she really had a thing for steamed artichoke leaves and Hollandaise sauce while I was still a toddler. I remember how stinky the kitchen was after the bulbs(?) flowers(?) were steamed. I remember how fun it was to scrape the leaves with your teeth, and the tang of the Hollandaise with the richness of the artichoke meat.

     - The "Play-Doh" cookies that she and I used to make together, and the chocolate teddy bear cookies. My siblings don't remember these at all, and I have trouble finding recipes that replicate them.

     - A huge variety of children's books, many of which I can't remember the titles because I was too young and many of which didn't survive to be read to my younger siblings (probably discarded after my parents got divorced.) A few that I remember include Snow Lion, The Magic Friend Maker, and Donkey Donkey.

These clouds, when they are this color and shape, remind me of her because when she lived near downtown Bloomsburg she rented a house and my sister Kate and I shared a room in it. One day mom offered to paint the room however we'd like. We excitedly argued about how we'd like it, and agreed that we wanted clouds, but Kate wanted a pink sky and I wanted blue. My mom's solution was to paint two walls pink and two walls blue, with the clouds on the blue portions. She wasn't an artist but did have some small skill; my dad had gone to school for art so she likely learned things from him + she had taken 101 arts and had some concept of shading and scale. So it actually turned out really well. She shaded the clouds just like this, and that tied the pink walls in with everything nicely. And when the sun was setting it did shine into the room, making it seem like we really were looking at the sky at sunset. And then as the sky faded to black, the blue walls appeared darker too, and we put up those little pinpoint glow-in-the-dark stars which you could only see on the walls at night, and larger star-shaped ones on the ceiling.

It's a memory with strong nostalgia for me...settling into bed at sunset and watching the walls blush pinkish-purple with the fading sun...then waking up later to little pinpoints of light, hearing my sister snoring quietly in the bunk bed below.

The feelings these memories evoke are complex and hard to describe. But I guess it doesn't matter.
Today's sky, and the gusty cool breeze, gave me thoughts and feelings, and a good walk.


Back home, lavender tea and anime.

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Tuesday, my body wanted to sleep later but I had to make it get up.

More transcription. Upping my workload by an additional audio-hour means 4 actual-hours of work. Plus not being able to transcribe at Epic anymore, and suddenly my time seems limited.

A break for lunch, trombone practice, and grocery for dinner ingredients. I'd planned to make an Asian-inspired meatloaf from a cookbook my sis got me, but Publix didn't have all of what I needed, so chose a NYTCooking recipe instead.

One cool thing that happened today, while I was frantically transcribing, was the Disneyland Band paying a visit to the Main Street Philharmonic! How cool it must have been to hear both bands performing, and see them together! Many of my friends went, and I felt left out and jealous. If this had happened next week I definitely could've gone Ah well.

What a great group photo!

(photo courtesy WDW Cast & Community on fb)

It made me think of the time in the circus when the Red Unit and Blue Unit shared a train yard...a super rare occurrence. Everybody was mingling, swapping hard drives, exploring each others' trains...it was so much fun! I hope today was just as fun for these guys (and the two ladies in the Blue band.)

Oh also, before anyone asks and makes me say it again: I am a substitute musician with the Main Street Philharmonic. This is the same thing as being a substitute teacher for a school; you're only called to work when a regular person is out sick or on vacation or whatever. So I would not have been asked to be part of this day. I could have gone as a guest, but declined so I could finish my work.

Dinner was a lean turkey meatloaf from NYTCooking, with mashed potatoes and green beans. I used my leftover garlic bread butter in the mashed potatoes and that was awesome. The meatloaf was actually extremely good, it includes shredded apple to keep the lean turkey moist. Considering how healthy it is compared to beef meatloaf and how much Jameson enjoyed it, I'll definitely be making it again.

As I was packing for Epic tomorrow, my aunt messaged to ask if she could come visit us in April! I am so excited!! She'll only stay for a few days but I want to take her to Disney of course, and she can relax in our pool, and I'm gonna cook at least one meal for her. What to make...

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...aaaand first thing in the morning I realized that my schedule for Epic, for the week that my aunt wants to visit hasn't been written. Crap!!

I reached out to the scheduler and of course the other two ladies will be out of town or on other gigs, one for the first half of the week and the other for the second half, such that the ONLY days that I'd HAVE to work would be the two days my aunt wanted to come. CRAP!!!

I was so embarrassed because she'd already booked her flights and I had to ask her to cancel them. Hoping that she can come down another week, but who knows because my schedule is so damn chaotic. It's a big reason why I don't see most of my family :(

Well, after that I drove to the park and got through security and did my makeup and got into costume.
We had a normal day of sets but our prop is broken so we had to do our "no prop" alternative script.
It is not hard, but feels awkward without the prop. We had small crowds today so maybe let's just count it as a rehearsal.

Back home I found out that one of Jameson's friends has gotten him into an Epic preview day!!! And on a day that I'm performing!!! I am excited for him (and a bit jealous, I doubt I'll get to actually experience the park at this point.) And can't wait for him to see our show AND the other amazing shows! And eat the food!! And, and...!!

It's next week, so I'll look forward to seeing him in the park!! Eeeeeeeeee!!

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Thursday: Mostly a free day + bass trombone lesson with Will.

Friday: Day at Epic.

Saturday and Sunday: Days off. The usual day off stuff.

Thursday at Epic Universe again.

Today we had Warner Bros. "audits," which only meant that a lot of execs were at our first show specifically to review it and give feedback. Some of us were likely quivering in our boots, but ultimately only three of us would perform, and they of course chose Mariah (trombone), Adam (trumpet), and Adrian (clarinet). They're the preferred group, so we call them "the PR trio."

This was our first time seeing Mariah in costume and she ROCKED it. Especially the hat, now that I've worked at a hat shop I can see that the shape of it suits her face shape very well. Mariah is black, and the color of the suit is flattering against her skin tone. I was a bit jealous but costumes can't suit everyone who wears them, and this one is totally meant for her!

The PR Trio did all of the shows, all day. Which makes sense...why make costumes drag ALL of our costumes out, or put us ALL in makeup? But the rest of us sadly ended up doing nearly nothing all day. Yes we were paid, but it felt awkward that three of us were doing all the work and six of us were just sort of sitting around reviewing lines and blocking. I should appreciate the down time; we will get our turn.
(Fun fact: this happens in orchestra/theater pits as well, usually during rehearsals when actors and lighting/techs get bogged down in rehearsing stuff and forget that there are ten people below the stage who have done nothing for four hours. So it isn't uncommon or exclusive to Universal, performance arts just be that way sometimes.)


(The Epic Universe ad that aired during the Super Bowl)

After lunch we had a really exciting event: we got to see the stage show, Le Cirque Arcanus!!

(photo courtesy allears.net)

It was INCREDIBLE. I mean...here is where Disney is going to be strapped to come up with something that can compete. As usual I daren't share details, but the technology and staging and animatronics and puppetry and visuals and live performers, all coming together in this show, are STUNNING. I've never seen anything like it. You could actually believe you were watching wizarding magic being performed right in front of you. Really REALLY grateful that they let us see it today. Once the park is open we probably won't get another chance.

After that there was one more show, and we were pretty much done for the day.
I hadn't gotten to play my frankenbone other than to warm up, but Andrea is willing to use it as well since she also doesn't want her personal trombone to be used with our prop. Therefore I left Frankenbone in the green room tucked in a corner, and it will live there for any of us to use as needed, with our own mouthpieces of course and cleaning it regularly.

Before leaving today Mariah and I made a point to have a little photoshoot at the Epic Universe countdown clock.
We were denied a full-cast photo here last week, but Universal has since backtracked on that decision and started allowing pics here. It looks like it's too late for a full-cast photo now since too many people will be missing, so we figured at least we could get individual shots.

Just me, with the timeclock and wearing my Epic badge.


Mariah and I cheesing together:



Back home I packed meals as usual, practiced bass trombone, did a load of laundry, then got a bug up my butt to do more since Jameson was out watching our friend Lea perform in a show. After laundry I washed and changed our bedsheets, memorized some Disney music, and scrubbed the shower with a horrifically smelly bleach-based cleaner that Reddit says is the absolute best but warned me to ventilate to the extreme. Even with the vent fan on in the bathroom my eyes and throat were burning, so I had to open the door out to the pool deck and hold my breath while scrubbing away. Florida is very humid and mold and mildew reappear so quickly no matter how hard I scrub. When I was finished it really did look better, but I can only handle suffocating like that maybe 2-3 times a year. So it had better keep the mold away for a long time.

When Jameson got home I told him of my doings and we went right to bed.

Almost forgot, Andrea, the third female trombonist at Epic, got me an Easter gig! Usually I do the cathedral downtown in Orlando but they haven't asked yet. I'm grateful that she asked me :)

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Friday and another day at Epic. This time I was the one in costume and performing sets, which is good because I want the practice and also PR trio needs a break after they did all of the shows yesterday!

Our first set was canceled partly because @bioreconstruct was back, circling in his chartered helicopter. Now that previews are happening the park and everyone in it are behaving as though it's open for business, so there are people in costume and interactives and performances happening all over. There are still a lot of things that Universal wants to keep secret until the big reveal, and we are one of those things. So we ducked under an archway and waited, and waited. Additionally, there was a malfunction with our entrance door that probably ultimately led to the cancellation.

The rest of our sets went very well. We are getting used to working with our prop, interacting, and even the new changes that we've just learned in the past few days. I am getting used to how the costume feels, and learning how long it takes to get in and out of costume/makeup each day. And my "frankenbone," although it's not as fun to play as my own horn, will work for this show.

You know, I think we might be ready to do real shows! It feels like just yesterday we were panicking about memorizing our music. Time flies.

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

Before our last set of the day, we were given something really special.
Our 3rd party boss had us get out of costume, then took us into the park.
He took us to our performance spot.
I wasn't sure what was happening, but he looked SO EXCITED.

Cosme Acajor's wand shop is right next to our performance space...

(Image from Harry Potter Fandom Wiki)

With a huge smile, he opened the door to the wand shop and said, "Go on in....pick out your wands!"

That's right: they bought us our very own wands today!!!!

(The nine never-before-released wand options at Cosme Acajor.)

It was overwhelming, suddenly faced with the very personal choice of which wand is "meant" for you! And there were so many to choose from. Cosme's new-release wands are displayed beautifully in the shop, each one on an ornate stand and bearing a description of materials and personal characteristics that may be a good match for the wand. In addition to these, there are character wands "imported" from Ollivander's (Harry's wand, Newt Scamander's, Snape's, Dumbledore's, Death Eater wands, etc) available for purchase. The Ollivander's wands are sold in rectangular boxes, and the Cosme wands in triangles ("prisms.")

After gawking like a tourist I just started popping open boxes to see what the wands looked like, because there were at least 20 different Ollivander's wands to choose from. I was tempted by Skender's wand as it's circus-related, but he was a bad guy known for chaining up animals so decided against. Tempted also by the Cosme black-and-silver Deco wand (the one that I'd thought suited my show character) but it had ultimately been designated to the clarinets' character, so I passed on that too. My character's wand, incidentally, was nowhere to be seen in the shop, but if I want to go get it I've got a gift receipt and could do an exchange.

In the moment and a little overwhelmed by choice, I decided to a) look for a wand that suited me as opposed to my park character, and b) strongly consider the Cosme wands as they are the ones that are actually from the "world" where I'm working. I did in fact end up with a Cosme wand, and although I felt a little dubious about it at the time, the more I look at it the more appropriate it seems.

Can you guess which of the nine Cosme wands I chose?

When we had all checked out we thanked our boss profusely. These wands are not cheap, and they are beautiful, and the fact that he was able to arrange for us to own one even though we are 3rd party is incredibly generous and kind. I am not a Wizarding World fan, but very much appreciate the gesture and having a memento of my time here at Epic Universe, however long that turns out to be.

With that, we performed our final set, got out of costume, and headed home.
On the way out we took a group photo in front of the time clock. Not everyone was present but it was still really nice.
Congrats on making it to Preview Week, everyone!


Some folks went to Top Golf for a fun night out, but I have so much to do that I had to pass.
Instead, Whole Paycheck for salmon dinner ingredients, then home to unpack and tell Jameson about my exciting day.
Practicing trombone, receiving a new transcription job, and making plans for my days off before going to bed.

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Up early but spent a lot of time responding to social media messages, as I've just shared that I'm working at Epic publicly for the first time. Everyone has a zillion questions about the new park, which isn't surprising but is a bit annoying when anyone could google the basic info....well anyway.

After that I had my tax meeting, and found out that I'll be breaking even this year, which is just fine by me.

Then made the dill sauce for salmon tonight, and decided to make some carrot cake muffins using leftover matchstick carrots. I used Half-Baked Harvest's recipe, which is semi-healthy and she has you drop a cube of cream cheese into the center of each muffin which should be lovely. I made them today because Jameson is going to a Savannah Bananas baseball game tomorrow with his friend Hannah, and they have to leave early, and I figure they could take some muffins with them to enjoy on the drive :)


Then lunch, and cleaning up from that took a little while so by the time I sat down to do more transcription it was already 2pm. For dinner I made sous vide salmon with dill sauce, creamy lemon orzo, and roasted asparagus. It turned out quite good.

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Sunday, up early after a crummy sleep to do transcription.

Jameson got up shortly after, and his friend Hannah came to the house so they could leave for the Savannah Bananas game in Miami together. It's 8 hours round-trip driving, so I packed them some muffins to go with their other snacks and they left around 10am.

After they were gone I had quite the productive Alone Day:

     - About 2 hours of transcription
     - 1 hour trombone practice
     - Packing meals, clothes, and equipment for Epic tomorrow
     - Vacuumed, dusted, and mopped, which took quite a long time as I haven't done it in a while and was very thorough about it
     - Shopped for misc things like Tupperware to replace ones that broke recently, new underwear, and random household supplies
     - Shopped for crummy trombones on Goodwill so we'd have more than one at Epic (why I'm the one who has to do this is beyond me, but whatever)

By the time all of that was done it was 5pm, so made myself leftovers and a cup of tea and enjoyed typing this post and a little down time.

Tomorrow will be a very early Epic day, but Dwight is gone again so I think it'll just be our sets and hopefully ending at 4pm instead of 6pm. Also, I'm going to start bass trombone lessons this week! Excited and nervous, but looking forward to getting better at the bass trombone.

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Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: An Epic-Disney sandwich, with two Epic days flanking a Disney day. I'll be bringing my transcription work with me too.

Thursday: The first of FOUR WHOLE DAYS OFF IN A ROW. I'll finish transcription, do more household stuff, take my first bass trombone lessons, and cook us some nice meals.

Thursday I was still up too early...I've been conditioned!

Received a new transcription job right away (yay!) so after breakfast I got to work setting that up.
Jameson went to the gym and while he was gone I scanned all of my tax documents and set up a tax appointment (I use Brass Taxes if anyone's interested.) Partway through that process Keith messaged to ask if I could cover for him at Disney on March 4, and that's a day where I'm at Epic, so I messaged the other Epic trombone ladies to see if anyone could cover for me. Andrea could not, but Mariah could.

Disney remains my priority, so I will ALWAYS try to accommodate them even if it means losing a day at Epic (maybe someday I'll go into detail about why that is, and some of you can probably guess based on posts. But if you're stumped, for now just think of it as "first come first serve," and Disney hired me FIRST.)

A small snack and then bass trombone practice, followed by packing meals for Epic tomorrow, eating lunch, and starting transcription.
It was so, so nice to just have a quiet day on my butt and neither in a construction zone nor stomping all over creation.

Later on we both stopped working to watch the first baseball game of the season which happened to be Cubs v Dodgers. Ordered Olive Garden for dinner. Jameson gamed, I worked on Foodie Finds and trolled around for a new anime to watch. A nice night.

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Up at 5:30am for Epic.

UPDATE: Remember that time I got to eat at Cafe Lair de la Sirene? And mentioned that the dessert was fantastic? Well now that the dining options for that restaurant have been officially revealed...

...it was the butterbeer crepes!

They were SO GOOD. Essentially butterscotch crepes...but even the whipped cream was butterscotch-flavored, and the crepes were so perfect and light and thin. This one's a must-eat at Epic Universe.

(photo courtesy orlandoparkstop.com)

We started the day fairly normally, with a warm-up and one rehearsal show in our spot in the park.
Then we had a session of character building with our entertainment manager, Rusty. He led us in developing our characters by consciously thinking about how we interacted with each other...or rather, how our characters would respond to each other instead of just presenting for an audience. Doing this will make things feel less forced/scripted. I thought it went really well, and it made me excited to think about how expressive we could be as our characters.

We'd planned to do another show after that, but the fire alarm went off so we were all hustled outside. Upon being hustled back INside just a few minutes later, another of our managers whisked us off to Wardrobe for a costume fitting!

As someone who has worked for many amusement parks and shows, by this time I am very used to fittings and what they entail. Mostly you just strip down to underwear or some kind of fitted undergarment, then people measure the crap out of every inch of you and ask you your sizes (they've asked before, but they'll keep asking always in case anything's changed.) And once that's done they'll slap a costume on you piece by piece, see how each piece fits and looks, and tweak or pin it while it's still on your body. Plus lots and lots of photos from every angle to help them make more decisions after you've left.

Since I can't record this process, here's a 2-minute video that very well captures what it's like.
I especially like how the wardrobe folks describe their process for curating the look for the character.



This fitting had a lot more people in the room, and as I hadn't known there'd be a fitting today I hadn't shaved my legs :(
But although I felt 50% embarrassed, the other 50% of my brain was proclaiming subconsciously, "It's a CONSTRUCT. Leg hair is natural, so is armpit hair. And if hairy legs on a woman is the worst thing these people have ever seen, then they haven't seen much at all!" Lol. Thanks, I guess, subconscious.

I'm not allowed to describe my costume, but today was my first time seeing it and I have to say that I mostly like it very much. The colors and materials are nice, and I especially enjoy the pattern on the shirt. There's one part that I don't really care for, but it's for cooler weather so hopefully I won't have to wear it *crosses fingers*

I also got to see the boys' costumes, which are very different but period-appropriate and rather dashing, each in their own way. And the colors across our costumes are complementary, so that is nice as well. Lots of photos were taken, and we even got to pose with our instruments while in costume! I can't wait for you to see them. Many of my friends will guffaw at mine...it is definitely out of character for me...but not for my character!

(Psst....if you're an LJ or DW, there's gonna be a Friends Only post related to this............just sayin'.............)

After we'd re-dressed we got to wolf down a late lunch before heading out for training with our Main Prop!
That pesky NDA...I can't tell you a single thing about it other than we were able to touch it and interact with it for the first time, and it looks great and a lot of work has gone into it. There are still tweaks and fixes to be made, but we are closer and closer to actually using it! Between that and the costumes, it's all very exciting and makes it feel like the opening of Epic Universe is right around the corner. Eeeeee!!

After an eventful day I drove home, caught Jameson up on my doings, and did an hour of transcription since I hadn't had a moment to work on it today. After that it was a quiet evening.

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Up at 6:30am to transcribe and make caramels.

I don't want to be up this early, but was scheduled for an additional day at Epic.
Which is great--could always use more money--but I lose a day of spending time catching up on Life Things.

When I told Jameson I'd be making the caramels, and then driving an hour on Tuesday to deliver them, he chided me, "Don't kill yourself bending over backwards for other people. You've got to take care of yourself, too!"

He's right. But I also think maybe he's forgotten that the guy I'm making caramels for bent over backwards for ME, by emergency-repairing my bass trombone on Christmas Eve night, for free, and then even giving me a case to use for free (although it didn't fit and I ended up returning it.) The absolute least I can do is take a little time out of my day to make him caramels. That said, Jameson's right that it doesn't have to be done this exact moment. But I've already put it off twice due to Epic and I just want to have it done. Plus, we have group rehearsals again next week so I'll be able to bring them in for everyone else too!

Anyway, Transcription for an hour, breakfast for a half, caramels took about 90 minutes and turned out great.
Best batch I've made in a while, entirely because I was patient and didn't keep cranking the temp up.


Lunch, then packing meals for Epic and practicing bass trombone, plus Disney memorization. I only memorized one piece but that's ok, one is better than none and it's ok to start gradually. After that a snack and the other half of my Dragon's Milk beer while transcribing. Meanwhile Jameson did his own taxes, gamed, and watched the Cubs game. We were both very appreciative to have a slowish day.

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And Sunday, another day at Epic. I forgot that traffic would be lighter on the weekend and got up too early, but it was ok.

Apparently we are now doing "mock service" in our part of the park.

"Mock service" or "mock run/shift" is restaurant lingo, and describes a training exercise where employees practice their roles on other employees instead of on paying customers. This is meant to be a low-pressure simulation of what a restaurant will be like when it's open, allowing waiters to practice reciting menu items, checking on guests, serving food, processing payments, etc without having to worry about screwing up and causing a bad guest experience.

In Epic Universe right now, this means that the restaurants and some stores are open to serve a limited menu or sell limited goods, and only to Universal employees who are working or rehearsing that day. And some of the rides are open for employees to ride, too! And of course, performers like us are being asked to put on full sets in the park to not only practice ourselves, but to test audio systems in the park and gauge audience interest and reactions.

(Stardust Racers, a dueling coasters ride in Celestial Park and probably the most visible ride in the park. Employees were able to test-ride it today! Image publicly available at universalorlando.com)

All of this meant that we immediately went to costumes, to get suited up for our first performance, in costume, in the park!
My costume had been hemmed to fit me better, and I gotta be honest...I LOVE IT (aside from the winter piece previously mentioned, which I won't have to wear anyway :p ) I also found out that I'm gonna have to wear makeup (boooo) and do my hair a certain way. I have only worn makeup one other time in my life, when I worked for Busch Gardens. Which, incidentally, was also the only other time my costume was a DRESS and I was treated as a WOMAN instead of one of the guys. So, there you have it. My character is very feminine, and so shall I be while I'm her :)

As it turned out, we weren't able to do our "real" show anyway because certain elements were not ready. We did our best with a sort of "concept of a plan" of our show. People still seemed to enjoy it very much, and it wasn't hard other than being a routine we hadn't rehearsed (I was so very nervous!) We got a good response and it felt good to be in costume, and REALLY feel like we were performing for actual guests.

We did only three sets, and in between rested or enjoyed the mock service in the park (we were allowed to participate too!) Still, after being fussed over by wardrobe/makeup, and performing a set we've never done for bigger crowds than usual, I felt drained at the end of the day. Drained, but happy. It was a good one.

Went to Whole Paycheck for sushi for Jameson and I, then at home after catching Jameson up I cut and wrapped the caramels, practiced bass trombone, memorized another Disney song, and did a bit more transcription. It was a busy but productive day. Many more of those to come, I'm sure.

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Monday & Tuesday: two days off in a row, what a dream! Transcription, housework, practicing, cooking, delivering caramels to Bill to thank him for repairing my bass trombone.

Wednesday: The start of three days of Epic rehearsals, which we have been calling "The Dwight Days" because our show director Dwight will be back from California to cram stuff into our heads again.

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

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



(media courtesy Disney Theatrical)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(artist rendering from WDWmagic)

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

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


(borrowed from YouTube)

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

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

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



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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, another straightforward rehearsal day.

Nothing special happened that I can recall, we did multiple run throughs and stayed hydrated and all that.
We are all rather tired--this is our fourth week--but it is satisfying to see the show coming together.

Back home the wash-rinse-repeat of packing breakfast and lunch, practicing bass, and having some crash time with Jameson.

A Japanese cookbook arrived from my sister Kate, for my birthday. I hope to be able to make something from it, once I have more than an hour to myself each day.

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Friday and as usual I am SO GLAD for my singular day off tomorrow.

It was a bit slow for us because other groups are now rehearsing in the park, and sometimes they need to be able to do that without nine musicians making a huge racket. So we killed an hour just talking about show-related things in the breakroom, then slammed through one or two run throughs before lunch.

After lunch we took a field trip to Dark Universe!



Obviously and as usual, I can't share anything that isn't already public.

We rode a bus from Ministry of Magic to Dark Universe and slipped in through a standard employee gate.
This "world" is themed around Universal's classic horror monsters, such as Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, misc vampires, and more. It is a smaller world than ours and low-lying, so we could see the whole of it from the burning windmill all the way to the portal.

The most obvious features are the windmill and Frankenstein's castle.
The windmill has a fire effect (and a restaurant underneath called The Burning Blades):



The castle has a lightning effect, because you know, the doctor harnessed lightning to bring Frankenstein to life.
(yes the windmill is in this clip too but ignore it lol)



The windmill was not running while we were there but we did get to see the castle go off at one point which was very cool. We also explored some of the ride offerings though none of them are available for testing yet. And we walked through the STAKEhouse (get it?) which had great theming and I suspect will be very popular if for no other reason than it's dark and cool, and people will flock there to escape the Florida heat.

(photo directly from Epic Universe site)

Anyway, the main reason we were there was to act as an audience for performers in that world, just as they have already done for us several times. I can't go into detail about these entertainer experiences, but will say that they're intended to make the park more immersive, and that all of the performers that we interacted with were great and/or doing their absolute best, many of them having just started rehearsing this week.

I do want to mention how great it is that Universal has provided a "safe space" for performers to mess up without getting screamed at or glared at. There is a lot of pressure to learn quickly, and everyone is hustling to get the park completed, but it's overall a really supportive environment for us and that hasn't gone unnoticed.

We saw a few other sights, then bused back to the main hub where we could walk to our own "world." Ministry of Magic has lucked out, we are right next to the employee entrance whereas employees of other "worlds" have to take buses.

Upon returning, I felt renewed appreciation for the emotions that our "world" evokes due to the foundation of books, movies, characters, and soundtracks. Dark Universe doesn't really have that. People are going to CRY when they see the Ministry of Magic for the first time. There is a generation that grew up with the "wizarding world," and they will be awestruck when they enter. In that way, it truly is magical.

We'd intended to rehearse some more after our field trip, but the paint fumes in the park were so bad that our show director immediately cut us loose early. Sweet! Traffic was hideous perhaps because of the Super Bowl(?) so I still arrived home at the same time. I was so tired, from rehearsal and being out in the heat all day, that I decided not to practice and just relax for the evening. Jameson was out with friends so I had a quiet night.

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Saturday, My One Blessed Day Off.

My fitness tracker has informed me that over the past four weeks (i.e. once rehearsals started) I have averaged an extra mile per day at least, and between 8000-10,000 steps. I will be interested to see how this compares to my steps at the Magic Kingdom with the Philharmonic.


( Introspection )

I got about 7 hours of sleep, had breakfast, typed this up, and swept and mopped the tile floors before Jameson was up. Once he'd gone to the gym I scrubbed the shower, went out to get some bagels and groceries, packed my lunch and a bag for Disney tomorrow, then crashed through lunch and part of the afternoon. Shopped some samples from my favorite perfume shop on Etsy, and tried to make a hat band from a ribbon and failed so bookmarked some of those for possible later purchase as well.

Dinner was from our favorite Greek place, and I did laundry and Jameson gamed.

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Sunday, off to Disney.

The band’s schedule has changed, it’s now two parades and two sets instead of three sets and one parade. I prefer this as I enjoy the walking but some guys don’t care for it. Anyway, Parade One was just fine, and between that and the set I ate a packed lunch.

Got caught up with the guys throughout the day and it turns out one of the trombones is having surgery on his arm and will be out for at least a month starting in March. I think that I’ll challenge myself to learn his part so that I can help cover (and not to be callous, but to get more work as well.) Memorizing 20 more pieces of music will be a lot on top of Epic Universe performances, learning the bass trombone, and transcription work, but there are other (male) musicians here who do just as much, so I have to at least try. 

A photo that someone took of us today (a friend of the sousaphonist hamming for the camera.)
I put a pink arrow to help show which one's me.


After work, checking my fitness tracker shows that I got close to 17,000 steps and 7 miles. So, 5000-7000 more steps than I get at Universal. But I may end up at Universal more often, which will mean more steps there, just spread out over more time. An interesting comparison.


Back home I packed breakfast-lunch-dinner for tomorrow, re-packed my bag for Universal, caught up with Jameson, and we watched the Super Bowl together, neither of us caring who'd win.

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Monday through Wednesday: More Universal rehearsal and bass practice.

Thursday: Working the Magic Kingdom.