Tootsie on Tour: Sacramento, CA
**Disclaimer: The content of this post reflects my own personal views, opinions, and experiences.
This post does NOT express the views or opinions of my employer.**
The venue: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center
(It's so new that all I can find are the concept renders)
(stock image)
Covid Tests To Date: 90
TL;DR TikTok: Click HERE
--------------------------------------------------------
I slept terribly because I was constantly anticipating my alarm.
When it finally did go off I hopped up right away and got dressed, grabbed my luggage, and out the door to the waiting cab.
At the airport I had a little time for a snack before we boarded and took off.
A short layover in Salt Lake, and one last leg to Sacramento.
And just like that, I'm back on tour!
I got to the hotel way before pretty much everyone, and as a result my room wasn't ready yet.
They asked me to kill 30 minutes, so I dropped my luggage and was heading out when Adam (our new bassist) arrived.
He's from Salt Lake so it's not surprising that he showed up around the same time as me.
I told him that I was off to find Osaka-ya for Japanese treats, and he decided to tag along.
We chatted on the way about this and that, then found the little shop on a street corner.
It was even smaller than the one in San Jose had been, and it being a Monday they didn't have a big selection.
But what they did have looked beautiful, and it was hard to narrow down which to take home!
I ended up with these three, and Adam and I also munched on some peanut butter-filled mochi as we walked back.
This was his first mochi/manju experience, and he seemed to enjoy it.
In following days I ate all of these, and unfortunately they were kind of disappointing...the strawberry mochi was very artificial and left a bitter, weird aftertaste; the white bean-filled baked bun was salty rather than sweet. The purple one had cherry leaves and juice and a red bean filling, and that one was my favorite, but the bean filling was dry and it was kind of an unpleasant texture. I gotta say, the "wagashi" shop in San Jose was better by far. Sorry I couldn't give this one a better review :/
By the time we got back it had been almost an hour, and our rooms were ready.
I did my usual of dropping the luggage and having a look at the fridge before rocketing back out the door for groceries.
Along the way I noticed a gaggle of men standing on a street corner and taking turns gawking at their phones and then up at the sky.
Three construction workers in orange vests and hard hats, one homeless guy pushing a shopping cart, and a sleek-looking dude in a full suit, uncharacteristically clustered together and pointing excitedly upward. I looked and didn't see anything, but one of the construction dudes saw me looking and told me to take a picture of the sun using my phone. So I did.
Whoa. What is this witchcraft??
I didn't know at the time what would cause that, so I was a little freaked out and a LOT curious, and kept glancing up at it as I walked.
Turns out it's called a 22-degree halo, and it's a fairly common phenomenon that happens when there are cirrus clouds containing hexagonal ice crystals high up in the atmosphere. Wild! I was happy to see something so neato.
Anyway, I walked two miles to the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op.
(stock photo)
It was lovely! Nice big store, lots of organic produce, great selection of locally-grown and locally-made foods.
I got some coffee beans which smelled fantastic, and a loaf of bread from Grateful Bread.
There were many local bakery offerings to choose from and I was having trouble narrowing it down (soooo much sourdough) until this dark "Algonquin bread" caught my eye. Any unique or unheard-of flavor is a must-try for me!
I have no idea what makes this bread "Algonquin"; if anybody knows please fill me in. It's likely just some reference that I'm ignorant of. The bread is a dark brown and looks like maybe a rye or pumpernickel, but it tastes more like a Borodinsky bread. It has malted flour, wheat bran, and molasses, which give it a rich sweet flavor that is very enjoyable.
For my primary groceries I walked another mile to Safeway and just got my usual boring stuff.
Having walked nearly eight miles since arriving in Sacramento I decided to Uber back with all of my goods.
Unpacking took longer than usual both because I kind of forgot how to do it efficiently, and because there's limited counter space in this hotel room. It reminds me of the hotel in Kansas City actually; kind of a vintage, Deco theme with a lot of brass trim and aged furniture, but not a lot of actual surface area to put things out. No matter, I'll manage.
After unpacking I wolfed down a big piece of salmon with rice and broccoli for dinner, then spent the rest of the night typing this blog up and trying to remember how to do my job.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up right at 7am on Tuesday, which is of course 10am eastern time. Sigh.
Made myself some of the local coffee I'd bought (it's REALLY good) and some oatmeal with raspberries.
Took a quick walk to Target because I'd forgotten that I'm out of dish soap.
Washed the dishes, and just tried to chill.
It worked, I got in a nap before sound check, which went well.
This theatre is extremely new, and while that generally means a clean space and a good design it also means some kinks being worked out, like wifi is sketchy and there are doors with keypads that refuse to open for love or money.
Anyway, it was nice to be back and both cast and admin expressed that they had missed "their" band :)
Here's my stand, music on my iPad, and my little monitor for watching Soto (our MD) with.
Our show went well, I think we had some intonation issues from being apart, but in my experience as a musician that's pretty normal.
A good crowd, too.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, still up way too early.
Noticed that there was a post from Ringling's social media, announcing the reopening of the show (again) and with several AP articles and interviews and videos to pick through. There still aren't many details about what they plan to actually DO, but there will definitely be no animals, no train, and possibly no clowns. There's also a big emphasis on audience participation. Some of my circus friends are speculating a sort of "America's Got Talent" tour, and I think that's not a bad guess, but that's also not very "circus".
Anyway, the main "update" here is that they've apparently decided on a new logo.
This interview from Today has the most detail, but there are more videos on the Ringling site if you're interested.
Anyway, this announcement unfortunately took up a lot of my morning as there are people out there who think I'm a one-stop shop for Ringling info. The only reason I had All The Info while the circus was active was because I was upkeeping the blog, and the company supported my efforts with that. I don't know why people still think I'd have some sort of super-secret insider information when I haven't been employed by Feld for five years, and never even mention them unless it's to reminisce or share a news article.
Getting bombarded with questions and commentary just because I shared a link this morning was kind of a final straw for me.
Because I do "interesting things", or perhaps because I'm female and they feel they are entitled to my time and attention, over the past year I have garnered and unwanted following of specifically white men, between the ages of 25-65, who feel that they MUST send a private message for EVERY post that I make. Because just liking or leaving a comment is not enough; they require MORE. I'm supposed to take time out of my day, every time I post something, to individually respond to their private messages, usually asking a question about the content that has already been answered (i.e. "Is Ringling coming back?") or making some inappropriate remark about my abilities as a musician or as an amateur baker, or even about my appearance despite the fact that I rarely post pictures of myself (which is WHY I rarely post pictures of myself).
To sum it up, receiving six unwanted PMs this morning, all from men who can't be bothered to read what I posted or have any consideration for my time, was finally too much. I have tried to be gentle, I have tried to be polite, I have tried to be responsive despite the idiocy of the questions and the time it takes me to spoon-feed responses to these people one by one. But with Ringling coming back, there are plenty more announcements to come, and with a second tour of TOOTSIE on the horizon, I am just not going to be able to handle more and more private messages from this demographic. PMs are fine, when we are actually conversing. But that's not what this is.
So I made a short, kind of whiny TikTok, in which I begged anyone engaging with my content to please think a minute before asking a question that could possibly already have been answered by the very content that I posted.
Now, that is VAGUE considering the actual issue that I'm dealing with, which is PMs from a specific demographic.
But I am still trying to be gentle. I am still trying not to pick a fight. I am still hoping that some people are capable of changing their behavior.
Plus, I absolutely reamed out several of these men via PMs yesterday so those should have gotten the "hint" now that I'm not so cutesy and subtle. I doubt anyone will actually stop messaging me with stupid questions, or stop expecting me to dedicate chunks of time to their neediness each time I post something. But at least now I can say I've tried.
After dusting my hands of that, I took myself to the State Capitol.
There was some kind of administrative press conference thing going on on the lawn, so I couldn't get the distance I needed for a decent photo of the building. But it was nice to wander around. There's a garden attached to the capitol grounds with lots of very large trees and interesting flowers.
They had a small rose garden; most of the roses are about spent, but there were still some looking fresh.
There was a desert plant section, where some of the cacti were in bloom.
This cool little orange flower is called Lion's Tail, and it's related to mint.
I had never seen a "Chinese lantern" like this!
They were growing all over a large bush.
These pretty red coral flowers grow on the branches of a big stout tree:
But my favorite flower of all was not a part of the garden: a milk thistle standing proudly at an intersection, spiky and good.
It was getting to be around lunchtime, so I took myself to Solomon's.
(photo courtesy Visit Sacramento)
This used to be an Empire Records store, and the restaurant is now a tribute to that legacy.
It was unfortunately rather depressed-looking, perhaps because it was a weekday, but I got 1/4lb of house-smoked lox to take home and enjoy with my Algonquin bread and some egg whites and some chopped bok choy.
The evening show was just fine, we had a large crowd.
There's a line in our show, "I don't think you should be telling me what I can do with my body", that is getting a LOT more applause than usual thanks to current events.
Covid tests are now taking place after shows on Tuesday and Friday, so I got those and then walked home.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, we had matinees.
I managed to sleep in until eight, woohoo!
A slow breakfast and the realization that I'll have to go get groceries again, I'll be out of protein and fruit soon.
I'd like another jug of water too as it's so hot here.
Vegas will be even hotter, with daytime highs above 100F.
I decided to walk to Target before the matinee, and got my groceries and the water.
On the way back I figured, why not hit Frank Fat's for their famous banana cream pie?
It's a Chinese restaurant but for some reason they have the best banana cream pie in Sacramento.
Oh yes, it was just as good as it looked!
The bananas were somehow magically perfect, not over or under-ripe.
There was enough custard to coat the bananas and not much more, giving them almost a candied or glazed appearance and texture.
Topped with a big fluffy mountain of real whipped cream, sitting on a flaky yet strong crust (it HAS to be strong to hold all that!)
Man it was good!
I ate half with lunch and half with dinner.
Both of our shows went well, I didn't do anything else special between shows.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, I woke up a bit nervous because of a job interview later in the morning.
I had breakfast and scheduled a laundry pickup with SudShare; I have tried to use this app before but the particular hotel that I was staying in would not let me leave items at the front desk for pickup. There are many cities where laundry services are not readily available, so I want to get used to using this app once in a while, and this seems like a good week to test it out.
My interview was at 10:30 and it went shockingly well.
It only took about ten minutes, and it was basically to ensure that I'm a Real Person who really can do some data entry.
MY concern here was to confirm that the job was fully remote, and that the work can be done at any time of day, as long as it actually gets done, and the answer to both of those was a strong "yes". This means that it's a job I can do both during the twelve-week layoff AND while on tour. Yay! I've never done remote work like this before, but it sounds like it could be a good fit.
While I was in the interview a Sudster picked up my laundry at the front desk, so now we wait and see what it's like to get the clothes back!
To celebrate supposedly getting a job, I took myself thrifting!
First to a Goodwill that was not on the map as "boutique" but was definitely boutique.
I was surprised to see such nice stuff in a Goodwill; prices are higher, but you also don't have to paw through a warehouse-load of clothing to find your hidden gems. I tried on several things but in the end nothing was a keeper.
There were two more vintage/thrift stores nearby so I visited each, where I found many fabric patterns that I absolutely adored but just my luck, everything was either the wrong size or wrong style. Plus their dressing rooms weren't open, so there were lines of women in front of the mirrors, all of us struggling to cram blouses over our t-shirts and try to guess if they fit well. I did find one nice blouse, a shiny black with red flowers, that I think will be good for post-tour work. Ten bucks.
By then it was well past lunch time and I was very hungry, so walked back to the hotel.
I got a message from SudShare:
That was quick! The next message was from my Sudster saying they'd drop it off in a few minutes.
I had just enough time to throw my bag in my room and scoot back down to the lobby before he showed up with my laundry.
Look how nicely folded! And the underwear was separated neatly in a smaller bag inside.
This service was WELL worth it.
Without using SudShare I would have paid $20 to Uber to the nearest laundromat (or alternatively, spent 30-45 minutes walking in 90-degree weather carrying all of my clothes to get there, then paid $7 to wash and dry, plus spent the next two hours trapped at the laundromat getting harrassed by random men while I waited. Then another $20 Uber back to the hotel (or alternatively walking back in the heat with all of my clean clothing against my sweaty body). The total cost would have been $27 plus 2-3 hours of my time. Just for one load of laundry!
But instead I paid $20 for someone to pick up, wash, dry, fold, package, and drop off my laundry while I went thrifting.
That's a good deal!
I will definitely keep this app and use it again.
Typically I have no problem walking to a laundromat or spending a few hours at one to save some money.
And a lot of hotels do have laundry facilities.
But every once in a while you have a city like this where paying someone with a car and a washer to help you out really is the best option.
Anyway you get the idea. I put the clothes away and ate lunch, then was going to take a nap but a live band started rocking out in the park across the street, go figure. Instead I watched a little Netflix and did a little Vegas research.
The evening show was nice. Our trumpet chica Yael volunteered to do a "Tootsie Takeover" on Insta, so she was making little stories throughout the day and as the night went on. I was briefly in one, awkward as usual, which you can see on this week's TikTok.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I woke up earlier than I wanted to. Weird dreams about baby quail kept me up. Sounds cute, but it wasn't.
Breakfast, a little internal moaning because I'd intentionally "forgotten" to get some small grocery items and would now have to walk to Target...I do this kind of thing to myself on purpose because without a reason to exercise, I often won't, and "Unless you go get that food you're going to be very hungry today" is a good way to bully myself into a walk.
So the morning was spent savoring the quiet cool of my hotel room, then huffily walking to Target for literally just a banana and some protein, then cleaning up and heading to the theatre for the matinee.
The show went well, both shows went well, nothing to report except that for the first time on this tour I had to run to the bathroom in the middle of Act I because I'd chugged a coffee right before the show started (so amateur, I REALLY should have known better!). But it didn't impact anything thankfully, and it happens to literally all of us at least once. Once in a blue moon matter does trump mind.
On the way back to the hotel I chatted with Adam (bass) who said he'd been back to Osaka-ya to try more of their manju, and that he really enjoyed it. I resolved to give them another chance tomorrow morning.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, only one show today!
I ate breakfast and started packing, then walked back to Osaka-ya.
They did indeed have a better selection, and some fresh sushi as well, so I picked up two manju and a bento.
The manju were chocolate-filled chocolate mochi, and a sort of dorayashi (sweet pancake) wrapped around a piece of peanut mochi.
Both were quite good. The sushi was "futomaki", which is a type of vegetarian sushi roll containing picked vegetables and seasoned egg pieces. That was also really good, the flavors were sweet and sour and nostalgic. I'm glad I went back to try more of their food!
We had our one show and it went by quickly.
Really lovely audiences here in Sacramento, lots of laughter and each night a handful of people stuck around to applaud the band, which doesn't happen often and makes us feel special :)
I was happy to spend the rest of my night packing more, eating a dinner of random leftovers in my room, drinking tea, and watching anime.
In Vegas, the food situation is going to be "rags to riches".
On one hand, I have some exciting restaurants to visit including a taiyaki stand in Chinatown; a new Italian restaurant in the Arts District serving handmade pasta; a bar in Container Park that sells Hot Cheetos sliders; and an old favorite cafe, Makers & Finders, that has a really exciting and eclectic menu.
On the other hand, we are staying in Old Vegas and will have nether refrigerators nor microwaves in our rooms, meaning the rest of my meals for the week are going to consist of delicacies like canned meats and vegetables, shelf stable fruits, dry goods like nuts breads and jerky, and single-serve meals cooked in my electric skillet. Yum, yum. Going without a fridge sucks, and I'm bummed, but will make the best of it like everyone else.
Let's ROLL them dice!
This post does NOT express the views or opinions of my employer.**
The venue: SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center
(It's so new that all I can find are the concept renders)
(stock image)
Covid Tests To Date: 90
TL;DR TikTok: Click HERE
--------------------------------------------------------
I slept terribly because I was constantly anticipating my alarm.
When it finally did go off I hopped up right away and got dressed, grabbed my luggage, and out the door to the waiting cab.
At the airport I had a little time for a snack before we boarded and took off.
A short layover in Salt Lake, and one last leg to Sacramento.
And just like that, I'm back on tour!
I got to the hotel way before pretty much everyone, and as a result my room wasn't ready yet.
They asked me to kill 30 minutes, so I dropped my luggage and was heading out when Adam (our new bassist) arrived.
He's from Salt Lake so it's not surprising that he showed up around the same time as me.
I told him that I was off to find Osaka-ya for Japanese treats, and he decided to tag along.
We chatted on the way about this and that, then found the little shop on a street corner.
It was even smaller than the one in San Jose had been, and it being a Monday they didn't have a big selection.
But what they did have looked beautiful, and it was hard to narrow down which to take home!
I ended up with these three, and Adam and I also munched on some peanut butter-filled mochi as we walked back.
This was his first mochi/manju experience, and he seemed to enjoy it.
In following days I ate all of these, and unfortunately they were kind of disappointing...the strawberry mochi was very artificial and left a bitter, weird aftertaste; the white bean-filled baked bun was salty rather than sweet. The purple one had cherry leaves and juice and a red bean filling, and that one was my favorite, but the bean filling was dry and it was kind of an unpleasant texture. I gotta say, the "wagashi" shop in San Jose was better by far. Sorry I couldn't give this one a better review :/
By the time we got back it had been almost an hour, and our rooms were ready.
I did my usual of dropping the luggage and having a look at the fridge before rocketing back out the door for groceries.
Along the way I noticed a gaggle of men standing on a street corner and taking turns gawking at their phones and then up at the sky.
Three construction workers in orange vests and hard hats, one homeless guy pushing a shopping cart, and a sleek-looking dude in a full suit, uncharacteristically clustered together and pointing excitedly upward. I looked and didn't see anything, but one of the construction dudes saw me looking and told me to take a picture of the sun using my phone. So I did.
Whoa. What is this witchcraft??
I didn't know at the time what would cause that, so I was a little freaked out and a LOT curious, and kept glancing up at it as I walked.
Turns out it's called a 22-degree halo, and it's a fairly common phenomenon that happens when there are cirrus clouds containing hexagonal ice crystals high up in the atmosphere. Wild! I was happy to see something so neato.
Anyway, I walked two miles to the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op.
(stock photo)
It was lovely! Nice big store, lots of organic produce, great selection of locally-grown and locally-made foods.
I got some coffee beans which smelled fantastic, and a loaf of bread from Grateful Bread.
There were many local bakery offerings to choose from and I was having trouble narrowing it down (soooo much sourdough) until this dark "Algonquin bread" caught my eye. Any unique or unheard-of flavor is a must-try for me!
I have no idea what makes this bread "Algonquin"; if anybody knows please fill me in. It's likely just some reference that I'm ignorant of. The bread is a dark brown and looks like maybe a rye or pumpernickel, but it tastes more like a Borodinsky bread. It has malted flour, wheat bran, and molasses, which give it a rich sweet flavor that is very enjoyable.
For my primary groceries I walked another mile to Safeway and just got my usual boring stuff.
Having walked nearly eight miles since arriving in Sacramento I decided to Uber back with all of my goods.
Unpacking took longer than usual both because I kind of forgot how to do it efficiently, and because there's limited counter space in this hotel room. It reminds me of the hotel in Kansas City actually; kind of a vintage, Deco theme with a lot of brass trim and aged furniture, but not a lot of actual surface area to put things out. No matter, I'll manage.
After unpacking I wolfed down a big piece of salmon with rice and broccoli for dinner, then spent the rest of the night typing this blog up and trying to remember how to do my job.
--------------------------------------------------------------
I woke up right at 7am on Tuesday, which is of course 10am eastern time. Sigh.
Made myself some of the local coffee I'd bought (it's REALLY good) and some oatmeal with raspberries.
Took a quick walk to Target because I'd forgotten that I'm out of dish soap.
Washed the dishes, and just tried to chill.
It worked, I got in a nap before sound check, which went well.
This theatre is extremely new, and while that generally means a clean space and a good design it also means some kinks being worked out, like wifi is sketchy and there are doors with keypads that refuse to open for love or money.
Anyway, it was nice to be back and both cast and admin expressed that they had missed "their" band :)
Here's my stand, music on my iPad, and my little monitor for watching Soto (our MD) with.
Our show went well, I think we had some intonation issues from being apart, but in my experience as a musician that's pretty normal.
A good crowd, too.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, still up way too early.
Noticed that there was a post from Ringling's social media, announcing the reopening of the show (again) and with several AP articles and interviews and videos to pick through. There still aren't many details about what they plan to actually DO, but there will definitely be no animals, no train, and possibly no clowns. There's also a big emphasis on audience participation. Some of my circus friends are speculating a sort of "America's Got Talent" tour, and I think that's not a bad guess, but that's also not very "circus".
Anyway, the main "update" here is that they've apparently decided on a new logo.
This interview from Today has the most detail, but there are more videos on the Ringling site if you're interested.
Anyway, this announcement unfortunately took up a lot of my morning as there are people out there who think I'm a one-stop shop for Ringling info. The only reason I had All The Info while the circus was active was because I was upkeeping the blog, and the company supported my efforts with that. I don't know why people still think I'd have some sort of super-secret insider information when I haven't been employed by Feld for five years, and never even mention them unless it's to reminisce or share a news article.
Getting bombarded with questions and commentary just because I shared a link this morning was kind of a final straw for me.
Because I do "interesting things", or perhaps because I'm female and they feel they are entitled to my time and attention, over the past year I have garnered and unwanted following of specifically white men, between the ages of 25-65, who feel that they MUST send a private message for EVERY post that I make. Because just liking or leaving a comment is not enough; they require MORE. I'm supposed to take time out of my day, every time I post something, to individually respond to their private messages, usually asking a question about the content that has already been answered (i.e. "Is Ringling coming back?") or making some inappropriate remark about my abilities as a musician or as an amateur baker, or even about my appearance despite the fact that I rarely post pictures of myself (which is WHY I rarely post pictures of myself).
To sum it up, receiving six unwanted PMs this morning, all from men who can't be bothered to read what I posted or have any consideration for my time, was finally too much. I have tried to be gentle, I have tried to be polite, I have tried to be responsive despite the idiocy of the questions and the time it takes me to spoon-feed responses to these people one by one. But with Ringling coming back, there are plenty more announcements to come, and with a second tour of TOOTSIE on the horizon, I am just not going to be able to handle more and more private messages from this demographic. PMs are fine, when we are actually conversing. But that's not what this is.
So I made a short, kind of whiny TikTok, in which I begged anyone engaging with my content to please think a minute before asking a question that could possibly already have been answered by the very content that I posted.
Now, that is VAGUE considering the actual issue that I'm dealing with, which is PMs from a specific demographic.
But I am still trying to be gentle. I am still trying not to pick a fight. I am still hoping that some people are capable of changing their behavior.
Plus, I absolutely reamed out several of these men via PMs yesterday so those should have gotten the "hint" now that I'm not so cutesy and subtle. I doubt anyone will actually stop messaging me with stupid questions, or stop expecting me to dedicate chunks of time to their neediness each time I post something. But at least now I can say I've tried.
After dusting my hands of that, I took myself to the State Capitol.
There was some kind of administrative press conference thing going on on the lawn, so I couldn't get the distance I needed for a decent photo of the building. But it was nice to wander around. There's a garden attached to the capitol grounds with lots of very large trees and interesting flowers.
They had a small rose garden; most of the roses are about spent, but there were still some looking fresh.
There was a desert plant section, where some of the cacti were in bloom.
This cool little orange flower is called Lion's Tail, and it's related to mint.
I had never seen a "Chinese lantern" like this!
They were growing all over a large bush.
These pretty red coral flowers grow on the branches of a big stout tree:
But my favorite flower of all was not a part of the garden: a milk thistle standing proudly at an intersection, spiky and good.
It was getting to be around lunchtime, so I took myself to Solomon's.
(photo courtesy Visit Sacramento)
This used to be an Empire Records store, and the restaurant is now a tribute to that legacy.
It was unfortunately rather depressed-looking, perhaps because it was a weekday, but I got 1/4lb of house-smoked lox to take home and enjoy with my Algonquin bread and some egg whites and some chopped bok choy.
The evening show was just fine, we had a large crowd.
There's a line in our show, "I don't think you should be telling me what I can do with my body", that is getting a LOT more applause than usual thanks to current events.
Covid tests are now taking place after shows on Tuesday and Friday, so I got those and then walked home.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, we had matinees.
I managed to sleep in until eight, woohoo!
A slow breakfast and the realization that I'll have to go get groceries again, I'll be out of protein and fruit soon.
I'd like another jug of water too as it's so hot here.
Vegas will be even hotter, with daytime highs above 100F.
I decided to walk to Target before the matinee, and got my groceries and the water.
On the way back I figured, why not hit Frank Fat's for their famous banana cream pie?
It's a Chinese restaurant but for some reason they have the best banana cream pie in Sacramento.
Oh yes, it was just as good as it looked!
The bananas were somehow magically perfect, not over or under-ripe.
There was enough custard to coat the bananas and not much more, giving them almost a candied or glazed appearance and texture.
Topped with a big fluffy mountain of real whipped cream, sitting on a flaky yet strong crust (it HAS to be strong to hold all that!)
Man it was good!
I ate half with lunch and half with dinner.
Both of our shows went well, I didn't do anything else special between shows.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, I woke up a bit nervous because of a job interview later in the morning.
I had breakfast and scheduled a laundry pickup with SudShare; I have tried to use this app before but the particular hotel that I was staying in would not let me leave items at the front desk for pickup. There are many cities where laundry services are not readily available, so I want to get used to using this app once in a while, and this seems like a good week to test it out.
My interview was at 10:30 and it went shockingly well.
It only took about ten minutes, and it was basically to ensure that I'm a Real Person who really can do some data entry.
MY concern here was to confirm that the job was fully remote, and that the work can be done at any time of day, as long as it actually gets done, and the answer to both of those was a strong "yes". This means that it's a job I can do both during the twelve-week layoff AND while on tour. Yay! I've never done remote work like this before, but it sounds like it could be a good fit.
While I was in the interview a Sudster picked up my laundry at the front desk, so now we wait and see what it's like to get the clothes back!
To celebrate supposedly getting a job, I took myself thrifting!
First to a Goodwill that was not on the map as "boutique" but was definitely boutique.
I was surprised to see such nice stuff in a Goodwill; prices are higher, but you also don't have to paw through a warehouse-load of clothing to find your hidden gems. I tried on several things but in the end nothing was a keeper.
There were two more vintage/thrift stores nearby so I visited each, where I found many fabric patterns that I absolutely adored but just my luck, everything was either the wrong size or wrong style. Plus their dressing rooms weren't open, so there were lines of women in front of the mirrors, all of us struggling to cram blouses over our t-shirts and try to guess if they fit well. I did find one nice blouse, a shiny black with red flowers, that I think will be good for post-tour work. Ten bucks.
By then it was well past lunch time and I was very hungry, so walked back to the hotel.
I got a message from SudShare:
That was quick! The next message was from my Sudster saying they'd drop it off in a few minutes.
I had just enough time to throw my bag in my room and scoot back down to the lobby before he showed up with my laundry.
Look how nicely folded! And the underwear was separated neatly in a smaller bag inside.
This service was WELL worth it.
Without using SudShare I would have paid $20 to Uber to the nearest laundromat (or alternatively, spent 30-45 minutes walking in 90-degree weather carrying all of my clothes to get there, then paid $7 to wash and dry, plus spent the next two hours trapped at the laundromat getting harrassed by random men while I waited. Then another $20 Uber back to the hotel (or alternatively walking back in the heat with all of my clean clothing against my sweaty body). The total cost would have been $27 plus 2-3 hours of my time. Just for one load of laundry!
But instead I paid $20 for someone to pick up, wash, dry, fold, package, and drop off my laundry while I went thrifting.
That's a good deal!
I will definitely keep this app and use it again.
Typically I have no problem walking to a laundromat or spending a few hours at one to save some money.
And a lot of hotels do have laundry facilities.
But every once in a while you have a city like this where paying someone with a car and a washer to help you out really is the best option.
Anyway you get the idea. I put the clothes away and ate lunch, then was going to take a nap but a live band started rocking out in the park across the street, go figure. Instead I watched a little Netflix and did a little Vegas research.
The evening show was nice. Our trumpet chica Yael volunteered to do a "Tootsie Takeover" on Insta, so she was making little stories throughout the day and as the night went on. I was briefly in one, awkward as usual, which you can see on this week's TikTok.
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Saturday, I woke up earlier than I wanted to. Weird dreams about baby quail kept me up. Sounds cute, but it wasn't.
Breakfast, a little internal moaning because I'd intentionally "forgotten" to get some small grocery items and would now have to walk to Target...I do this kind of thing to myself on purpose because without a reason to exercise, I often won't, and "Unless you go get that food you're going to be very hungry today" is a good way to bully myself into a walk.
So the morning was spent savoring the quiet cool of my hotel room, then huffily walking to Target for literally just a banana and some protein, then cleaning up and heading to the theatre for the matinee.
The show went well, both shows went well, nothing to report except that for the first time on this tour I had to run to the bathroom in the middle of Act I because I'd chugged a coffee right before the show started (so amateur, I REALLY should have known better!). But it didn't impact anything thankfully, and it happens to literally all of us at least once. Once in a blue moon matter does trump mind.
On the way back to the hotel I chatted with Adam (bass) who said he'd been back to Osaka-ya to try more of their manju, and that he really enjoyed it. I resolved to give them another chance tomorrow morning.
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Sunday, only one show today!
I ate breakfast and started packing, then walked back to Osaka-ya.
They did indeed have a better selection, and some fresh sushi as well, so I picked up two manju and a bento.
The manju were chocolate-filled chocolate mochi, and a sort of dorayashi (sweet pancake) wrapped around a piece of peanut mochi.
Both were quite good. The sushi was "futomaki", which is a type of vegetarian sushi roll containing picked vegetables and seasoned egg pieces. That was also really good, the flavors were sweet and sour and nostalgic. I'm glad I went back to try more of their food!
We had our one show and it went by quickly.
Really lovely audiences here in Sacramento, lots of laughter and each night a handful of people stuck around to applaud the band, which doesn't happen often and makes us feel special :)
I was happy to spend the rest of my night packing more, eating a dinner of random leftovers in my room, drinking tea, and watching anime.
In Vegas, the food situation is going to be "rags to riches".
On one hand, I have some exciting restaurants to visit including a taiyaki stand in Chinatown; a new Italian restaurant in the Arts District serving handmade pasta; a bar in Container Park that sells Hot Cheetos sliders; and an old favorite cafe, Makers & Finders, that has a really exciting and eclectic menu.
On the other hand, we are staying in Old Vegas and will have nether refrigerators nor microwaves in our rooms, meaning the rest of my meals for the week are going to consist of delicacies like canned meats and vegetables, shelf stable fruits, dry goods like nuts breads and jerky, and single-serve meals cooked in my electric skillet. Yum, yum. Going without a fridge sucks, and I'm bummed, but will make the best of it like everyone else.
Let's ROLL them dice!
