taz_39 | Entries tagged with today's hat

So much happened. SO MUCH.

JANUARY:

Started the year with a layoff from My Fair Lady (I can't believe that tour happened this year?! It feels like ages ago!) During the layoff I got sick with a flu, and so was feeling crappy and on misc medications when I experienced The Worst Travel Day of My Life.

TL;DR: tornado weather in NOLA, and our plane tried to land in it twice before finally giving up and rerouting to Tallahassee. From there the touring company expected us to fly out the next day...by which point the tornado weather would be over Tallahassee. Being sick, on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to flight anxiety, and not interested in an incredibly turbulent flight again, I dug into my own wallet and paid for a rental car (which turned out to be an excellent choice.)

Here is Jim (Production Management) holding my trombone at the NOLA airport where it magically appeared on the same night that we were rerouted.

Jim (Production Management) holding my trombone, which somehow landed in NOLA on the same night that we were diverted to Tallahassee.

Also in January, I gave my first-ever masterclass in Columbia, SC! Talking to a group of students about what it's like to be a touring musician, tips for how to get into that line of work, and Q&A ranging from health on the road to favorite anime to watch. It was a very rewarding experience, and I hope to do that again someday.

FEBRUARY:

Getting to spend my birthday week with my stepmom and sister in Pittsburgh!

Later in February, my siblings arranged a 40th birthday trip to Mexico for us! An amazing treat, and finally an opportunity for Jameson to meet my wonderful siblings. All of us together :)

My siblings, Jameson, Jonah's girlfriend (now fiancee), and I.

Another magical experience on the Mexico trip was a visit to Rio Secreto, an underground river and cave system. We weren't allowed to take photos, but here is a stock image. If you're ever in Mexico this is a must-see.

MARCH:

It was women's month (or something like that) so the ladies of the pit orchestra got together for a photo. In touring shows, having six women in the pit is exceedingly rare.

Left to right we have Eileen (French horn), Victoria (Flute/reeds), Amanda (Violin), Me, Ellen (Cello), and Laura (drums).

We had an incredible sit in Chicago during St. Patrick's week. I was able to visit Eataly, experience "omakase" sushi for the first time, eat "omurice" for the first time, shop at an Amazon GO, visit a massive 3-story Asian grocery, and try a fantastic flight of Russian vodkas! And much more :)

The river dyed green for St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.

Almost forgot to mention that in Albuquerque New Mexico, I got to visit with my dear childhood friend Lauren, and spend time with my stepsister Kayle and her beautiful children!

Lauren and I. Lauren is a violinist and has taught hundreds of students in the Southwestern US.

APRIL:

Visiting the Pacific Northwest for the first time. Seeing the incredible Spokane Falls. (CLICK HERE to see the video, LJ won't let me embed.)

Other April events: finding out that I'd be sublisted with the Main Street Philharmonic! Getting and then losing a digital court reporting job (they required certification and couldn't be bothered to tell me that before offering the job.) Meeting an LJ friend,

geminiwench . And the end of the My Fair Lady tour. The show had been expected to continue on to China, but Annie the Musical took that slot instead.

A goofy photo on stage:

Photo op at the closing party :)

And back home, my beautiful vanilla orchid bloomed for the first time :)

Finally, Jameson took me to Disney's Animal Kingdom for the first time this month! There were many wonderful things about this visit, but what I remember most is getting to meet the cast of the Finding Nemo live stage show. Amazing!

MAY:

Filling in on a Florida Orchestra pops concert! It's been a long time since I did a symphony gig, so this was a very big deal for me.

Also during May 2024, my first performances as a substitute musician with the Main Street Philharmonic at the Magic Kingdom. This was...I hardly have words for how I felt. I have dreamed of performing for Disney since I was in high school, and here at the age of 40 it finally happened. It felt like a miracle.

Keith (the full time 1st trombonist) and me (his sub.)

A short reel of highlights from my first full day as a trombone sub in the park. Jameson got sunburnt, following us around all day and making sure to take footage. What a hero!

JUNE:

A happy month for me, with Main Street Philharmonic rehearsals or sets around once a week. Later on we'd find out that the budget had been cut and I'd get far fewer calls. But I was grateful for the time that I got with the band.

Other highlights from June included getting new toilets in the house, my banana tree finally growing some fruit, and finding another Williams trombone in the hands of a guy who was willing to trade for my Minick trombone!

JULY:

I was sublisted with the Orlando Philharmonic, an orchestra I've been trying to get into since moving to Orlando six years ago.

I also lost my data entry job to AI, tried my hand at being an Uber Eats driver, and a few weeks later was hired part time at a Disney Springs hat shop. Got a firefly petunia (genetically engineered to glow in the dark.)

Ate at Skyline Chili for the first time too!

Chili dog, red birch beer, cheesy fries!

AUGUST:

Hurricane Debbie, which blew through with minimal damage to us here in Central Florida.

In addition to the hat shop job, also started doing Papa Pal, which is a service to help the elderly with housekeeping, errands, and companionship. It was often difficult or emotional work, but fulfilling and paid pretty decently too.

SEPTEMBER:

Getting used to work at the hat shop, and taking Hat-A-Day pictures in the back stockroom.

Finding out that I'd be going on tour with Elf the Broadway Musical!
Going to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights with Jameson!
Disney's Food & Wine Festival at EPCOT for the first time, to see Jameson perform:

Started my federal transcription job. I was so nervous! Still kinda am haha.

Got ready to harvest my bananas!

Just two months later, and the firefly petunia was in full bloom and glowing SO BRIGHTLY. I was using it as a nightlight.

Hurricane Helene, which again did not impact Central Florida too badly but was devastating to coastal areas :( All we had was a few tree limbs, debris, and this adorable baby turtle who got blown up onto our screens.

OCTOBER:

Hurricane Milton. It's been a stormy season. This storm was the scariest of those we've endured, howling winds and damage to trees and some house fixtures, but overall we weathered it very well.

I was able to harvest my bananas right before the storm, and they were excellent.

Continued work at the hat shop and Hat-A-Day:

Voting. Not that it did any good, apparently.

Kicking off Elf the Musical in Richmond, KY.

NOVEMBER:

Getting some cool new Delta trading cards:

Jameson started rehearsals and performances of Jollywood. He also decided that he's going to have surgery to address the nerve issues and atrophy in his right arm.

Jealous that he spends time with these ICONS.

Pretty much my only Foodie Find during the Elf tour was this Japanese grocery in Stamford, CT. I could have happily eaten there every day.

An insane 48-hour journey in which I flew from Red Bank NJ to Orlando for Candlelight rehearsal, then flew out at 5am to Milwaukee for an Elf performance same-night. And all I got was this (pretty cool) enamel pin!

And then, Thanksgiving and going to see Wicked with Jameson and his parents in Milwaukee!

DECEMBER:

Elf went down to NOLA, where I didn't see much due to loads of transcription work, but got beaned by this cute Etch-A-Sketch prop in the pit!

Wanted to keep it but they took it back. Killjoys.

Completed 10+ transcription jobs. Jameson and I both got rejected from misc jobs and auditions that we were really looking forward to :/ Many times on this tour I was given my own dressing room, which is very rare and thus worth mentioning. Held a cacao pod for the first time.

If I even knew where to start with one of these I'd get one

Got to visit with my incredible, beautiful Aunt, my mom's sister. I love her so much.

On December 19th I got some incredible, incredible news which I can't share yet, but hopefully soon. Unexpectedly bought a bass trombone. Met a facebook trombonist in person by complete happenstance. Flew home to spend Christmas with Jameson, then drove up to Charlotte to finish the final shows of Elf the Musical.

It's been QUITE the year. Mainly lots of musical opportunities resulting from onboarding with Disney via Candlelight in October 2023. Going on tour with My Fair Lady was a great experience, and getting to tour with Elf was also an unexpected pleasure.

But music is not very lucrative, and financially I was a bit in the doldrums this year. Really hoping to pick myself back up in 2025.

Plant-wise, watching the vanilla orchid bloom and eating bananas that I've grown myself were the definite highlights!

Where Jameson is concerned, his year was not nearly as fun as mine. I'm hoping that 2025 will be kinder to him, and will reveal opportunities and new paths for him.

Thanks for joining me for 2024. Here's to a great 2025 for all of us, wherever we may be, whatever our circumstances. <3

Wednesday's hat:

Comfortable and fluffy. Just what I needed today.

Hat shop was normal. It was rather busy so we met our sales goal. I was annoyed because at the end of the night the keyholder was nitpicking how the hats looked on the shelves, so we didn't get out of there until nearly midnight (closed the store at 11pm.) But whatever, that's retail, and I have to accept that an employer who doesn't care how late I get home is just a part of life.

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Thursday, I got up an hour early so I could start reviewing my transcription project earlier. There was a LOT to do today plus a 7-hour hat shop shift.

Today's activities:

- Reviewed, edited, and submitted transcription project. It took two hours. Phew.
- Publix for pumpkins for carving tomorrow and cheap sushi for dinner
- Called my Aunt back (she'd called yesterday while I was at work) and caught up with her
- Impromptu final load of laundry so I could pack all of my clothes for tour
- Practiced and marked my book for Elf
- Measured ingredients for overnight crock pot oats and laid them out to assemble when I got home from work
- Chopped down dead banana trees
- Packed snacks and dinner for work
- More tour packing

My original firefly petunia, and cutting.

I think it may die before I leave :(
It got some kind of root rot or fungus, the cutting has it too, and nothing I do seems to help.
Oh well...it's been a fun and beautiful plant.

My large cutting, though, is currently doing very well though also suffering from being outside in temps above 85°F (29°C). I don't expect it to survive while I'm gone.So here it is while happy. I want to remember it like this.

A big swallowtail that was resting on my neighbor's banana.

Today's hat:

It was my last shift at the hat shop, and I couldn't decide which hat to wear.
I brought my own, a stegosaurus hat I'd gotten from Etsy one year. But was quickly told I wouldn't be allowed to wear it after too many guests asked where I'd gotten it.

This was probably the weirdest day I've ever had working retail.
( Hat Theft )

All of this DID make me calm down and feel better. But damn. What a way to end my two-month employment with Chapel Hats.

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I barely slept because I was worried about the overnight oats. I had assembled them right when I got home at midnight, but something troubled me about them. And then in the middle of the night I realized what it was: last time I made them, I'd set an alarm for 4am and had started them THEN. In other words, by starting them at midnight, I'd overcooked them :(

The good news is that they were still perfectly edible and flavorful. The bad news is that the fruits were overcooked and essentially became applesauce with very soft oats on top. To try and counteract this I got up at 7am to cut up a fresh apple, toast some pecans, and run to a gas station for a Nature Valley bar to crumble up (those f*ckers are super crunchy haha)

Adding crunchy items did help. I had mine over Greek yogurt.

I wanted to go back to sleep, but there was too much to do.

After breakfast I got to work on the pumpkin and seeds. A messy business as usual, but those seeds are so worth it!

I carved the orange pumpkin, put a Skellington face on the white, and put them outside with the squash that Kate sent me last week.

My carving is a derpy li'l guy!

Cleaning up from that took a while, then washing our bedsheets, putting them on the bed, and folding Jameson's laundry as a small surprise for him while he worked (it's his least favorite chore.) I also packed to 98% completion, cleaned up the guest bedroom, and put the sheets on the guest bedroom bed. I'd meant to weed out front but felt too tired.

Was glad to splat in front of the TV for a bit with Jameson. I will miss him while I'm away :(

I'm doing all this "extra" Fall Stuff because it's our only chance to do it before I leave.

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Saturday. Cannot believe that there's only one day left before I'm supposed to fly off.

To be completely honest...I have never felt so negative about going on tour before.

Usually I look forward to the freedom...being in places I've never been before, discovering foodie finds, networking with other musicians, playing a fun new show. I think this time is different because it's only a short two months. It feels less like an adventure and more like sacrificing the holidays so that I can make up some of the money I lost over the summer. Maybe once we get started it'll feel better about it, but right now I'm just anxious.

After Jameson left for a massage, I

- Cleaned both bathrooms including bathtub and shower
- Vacuumed
- Watched part of my step-Grandpa's funeral online (grateful that they thought to stream it for those of us who couldn't be there in person)
- Wiped down the kitchen
- 90-minute drive to Whole Paycheck for wings because I want to make them for Jameson one last time
- Dusted
- Weighed luggage
- Wrote out contact info, important dates, and plant care info for Jameson. I do this every time I go away.
- Weeded out front

I'd intended to practice a bit today too but was not feeling up to it. Considering I'm about to be in rehearsals every day for a week, I think it'll be ok. Famous last words.

Dinner was a pizza, air fryer wings, and a glass of wine. I feel so stressed haha :/

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Sunday, Jameson slept in for as long as he could. Overnight Jollywood rehearsals begin for him this week, and that's gonna be really hard on him.

I was up at the usual time for breakfast, and also to review travel info for tomorrow and my contract for the tour. Briefly researched the hotel and found that they've got free breakfast, hooray hooray. Because I hustled yesterday and got pretty much all of the cleaning done, today all I had on the docket was

- Descale hot water kettle
- Brief practice session
- Overnight oats for tomorrow's breakfast
- Water plants a final time
- Pack anything remaining to pack
- Put away anything remaining to be stored
- Give homemade caramels to our neighbors
- Neighborhood walk with Jameson

All of these things got done, and we had Pub Subs for dinner. I am nervous and excited for tour to start, and Jameson is nervous and excited for Jollywood. We're a mess but a good mess haha.

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Monday: Travel to Richmond, KY

Tuesday: First day of tech rehearsals for Elf

Wednesday: Hopefully, a special surprise involving chestnuts + tech rehearsals

Thursday: I think we'll already be in Wandelprobe, jeez

Sunday's hat:

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

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

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

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

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

Today's Stuff:

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

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

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

(stock image)

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Tuesday, Jameson was up early for Jollywood rehearsal.

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

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

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

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

Vote, y'all.

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

What's still on my To-Do List:

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

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

Today's activities:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LJ friends, Once again I ask for your forgiveness for interacting less, or just "liking" things and moving on rather than commenting. A lot on my plate again.

Thursday morning and the reality has set in: 11 days until I go on tour!

Good grief, where does the time go.

It was nice and chilly out this morning, thank god, so I opened the screen to enjoy it, rushed through breakfast, and began transcription. I won't be able to accept new jobs for the entire week of tech rehearsal, so need to get this job submitted early so I can squeeze in one more before I fly out.

Worked on it all morning, stopping for lunch. I'd planned to practice but instead repotted all of the firefly petunias. It's cool out (for now), I can leave them outside today and tomorrow, and I'd rather do it now and deal with the wilting myself than leave Jameson with a bunch of newly-potted, distressed plants.

Before:

After:

Then I finally dug out my suitcase. Time to start throwing stuff in there.

Luckily I've left it as a sort of time capsule from the last tour, so a lot of things that I need are already in there. But this year I've got new stuff to bring like my shockingly heavy transcription pedal, and several mutes that I haven't used in the past. I'll have to do some finagling.
And then, night shift at the hat shop.

Today's hat:

Getting into the spirit I suppose.

My custom Kathy Jeanne hat finally came in! I was excited, but when I saw the custom interchangeable trims my heart sank. My boss had already looked at them, and must have seen the look on my face, because he nodded and said, "Yeah, they're not what I was expecting either."

It was supposed to be just their normal ribbon-and-flower, removable.
Here's how it looks on their hats typically:

Here's what they sent me:

The immediately noticeable issues are

1 - For some reason they have made the flowers detachable from the ribbon. Nobody asked for that. This meant putting a heavy felt backing on each flower, then bulky metal clips. I have no idea why they decided to do this.

2 - With the felt backing and metal pin attached, the flowers are now very heavy. Because of that, the standard ribbons used for trim are no longer strong enough to hold the flowers. Especially that navy blue one...WHY did they make that one half the size?? When I attach the flowers, the trim ribbon cannot hold the weight and is pulled away from the hat, causing the flowers to lean away from the hat as well.

3 - The pink flower is not the color that I asked for at all. It was supposed to be fuchsia (a darker purplish-pink.) This is like Barbie-magenta. Unusable.

4 - The quality of the trims is very poor. There's visible glue, the ribbons have loose threads, and the elastic on the blue ribbon is already coming apart. I'm not sure that either trim is actually realistically usable. Did anyone even test these designs??

The silver lining: The hat itself is perfect (it's the same straw hat as the stock image above.) It fits perfectly, it's handmade, it's their usual high quality hat base. This is wonderful because I can attach my OWN trims. I'll get a black ribbon to make a Panama-style trim; I'll go to the thrift store and find interesting scarves to adorn it with. Or to a fabric store to get wide satin ribbons, or jeweled laces, or patterned fabrics...or frankly anything that appeals! Getting my hands on the Kathy Jeanne base hat without trim is actually awesome for customization. Considering I purchased this essentially at wholesale price, it was worth it just to have the plain base hat.

Overall I'm disappointed and exasperated with Kathy Jeanne's sad attempt at removable trims. There's no way they'll be able to sell the current effort as a product line. But now that I'm leaving, that's a problem for my boss. I hope he just drops the topic with them. Clearly these people were not ready for such a revelation haha. A shame. We were so excited for our idea!

Unrelated: in our company hub (Sling) my boss has listed me as "OFF from October 24 - January 5." In other words he won't be removing me from the employment roster, and wants to consider me for potential rehire in January. It's good to know that he want's me back once tour is over (it would be nice if I didn't HAVE to go back, but we'll see. It was a good job as far as retail goes, so I'm very grateful!)

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Friday I was up to type this post up and plow through transcription.
I got it done right before lunch, then after lunch went to get a deep tissue massage.
I don't get massages often because I don't like to be touched, but once a year or so I'll suck it up and go do it.

Maybe deep tissue was a bad choice, because I came out of there sore, dizzy, and feeling a little sick. I've since read that this is pretty normal for that intensity level, so will have to remember for next time. I tried to compensate by resting and drinking lots of water, but felt like crap for the rest of the night.

Had meant to practice but didn't, the aftermath of that massage made the idea of fine muscle movements for two hours seem impossible. Instead I wrote to my aunt, texted my step-aunt and grandma to see how they're holding up after my step-grandpa's death, and did some more packing including pouring misc toiletry fluids into travel-sized containers and gathering some clothing that I want to bring.

When Jameson was done with work we went to Lowe's for a new pool skimmer, then to Chick fil a to pick up dinner and come home. I had some wine to console myself from feeling sore ;)

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Saturday, my shoulders feel like ground meat but I don't feel as yucky as yesterday.

Breakfast, reviewing my transcription (the audio is two hours long so that's about how long it took me) and submitting it so I can receive another job. Before lunch, a trip to Target for Tour Things: Travel Clorox wipes, travel-sized dish soap, a sponge, laundry detergent sheets, ginger candies for motion sickness...stuff like that.

Lunch and then playing through my Disney music for a change. Then more packing.

By the time all that was done, the new transcription job had come in. This will be my last job until after tech rehearsal for Elf in Kentucky. Tech rehearsals are a messy business, usually 8-10 hour days and last-minute scheduling changes, so it's a bad idea to commit to other things during that time. Hopefully after tech, transcription will slot right into tour life.

But for now, off to the hat shop.

Today's hat:

I'd originally planned to wear a purple cloche, but that was too much purple; and then I wanted the white version of this hat, but it had been sold out. Ah well, the black is fine anyway.

It's homecoming for some of the local schools, and Disney Springs was packed with kids in fancy dresses and sharp suits. We quickly met our sales goal, but also spent way more time than usual putting hats back in their places as big groups of kids (and adults) kept coming in to do photo ops, flinging the hats wherever when they were done, and then leaving without buying anything. I kept my little NPC retail slave mouth shut and picked up after people.

My boss was there for part of my shift, and gave me a real-life in-person SMH for leaving him in a week :p
He reiterated that he wanted to keep me on the employment roster: "You're a good one."
Yay, that's what I want. Whether I come back to work here or not, I want them to want me back.

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Sunday I woke up dreading my hat shop shift after a restless night of weird dreams. But what can ya do.

Breakfast, starting transcription, packing dinner, random small errands until it was time for work.

Spoiler alert: Sunday's "today's hat" will be my new Kathy Jeanne hat, but with one of the hat bands we sell in the store instead of those sad glue-covered messes that they made me.

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This next week is my last week at home. After that it's off to Kentucky to begin eight weeks of Elf the Musical!

Monday and Tuesday: Two days off in a row! Lots of tour prep, lots of transcription, definitely doing at least one walk and cooking dinner once. Some sleep would be kinda nice too.

Wednesday and Thursday: My last two hat shop shifts. Also hopefully completing my transcription job and being mostly packed for tour.

Sunday's Hat:

I was delighted to find these among the winter hats! Wearing it drew a lot of interest, and several people tried it on throughout the night. Finally someone bought one, which pleased me greatly as that was the first sale of that hat since they've arrived. "Wear the hat you want to sell!"

It was very busy all night, but we were fully staffed for most of it so we got through it. And because there were more hands to help with closing tasks we got out of there more quickly too.

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Monday's activities:

- Mailing the condolence letters to my step-aunt and stepmom (aaaand it's Indigenous Peoples Day so the letters sat out there all day.)
- Requesting a new vote-by-mail ballot as mine was sent on 10/03 and either never appeared or I threw it out accidentally
- Laundry
- Trombone practice with a focus on mute changes (such a pain argh mutes)
- Making the caramels I've promised to send before going on tour
- Sweeping hurricane debris from the pool patio
- Meeting w/transcription QA person

For the first time in a really long time, I messed up my caramels.

Near the end of the process, just as the temperature of the candy was starting to hit remove-from-heat stage, I smelled burning. But there was nothing I could do with only three degrees to go; I just kept stirring and then removed from the burner as soon as the correct temp was hit.

Upon pouring out the caramel I saw that one small crescent-shaped sliver on the bottom of the pan was truly burnt, like my spatula hadn't even touched there.

What I believe happened is that I used a different spatula today, and it's the wrong shape.
The purple spatula is the one I used (it's also discolored after only one use which is disappointing.)
The red spatula is the kind I've used in the past (I went out and bought it from Publix after realizing what had happened.)

You can kinda see that the purple one doesn't have as much surface area at the tip because it's so strongly curved. The red one has a defined flat surface area, if that makes sense. I think I was doing my normal stirring pattern, but the new spatula wasn't reaching an area of the pan, hence it burned.

Anyway the caramel is still good, but it's not **PERFECT** so I feel disappointed :(
After tasting it myself and making Jameson taste it, we agreed that it doesn't have a burnt flavor/aftertaste.
So if you're getting caramels from me: I'm so very sorry. They're not the best example of what I can do, and I wanted you to have the BEST caramels I could make :( :( But hopefully you will still enjoy them, and you will let me try again after the holidays?

The transcription meeting was to let me know that I've done well enough to be allowed to turn in work without direct supervision/correction from now on. YAY! This is a type of work that I very much enjoy, and it's important to me to do an exceptional job. They seem well pleased and that was wonderful to hear. There are still quite a few things that I need to work on, but many of them are experience-based (I will understand things better as I go.)

This bucked up my mood from the earlier caramel fail.
The rest of the night was quiet.

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Tuesday's doings:

- Setting up and starting my new transcription project
- Processing the caramels (cutting and wrapping them, forgot to photograph this process)
- Lowe's for a hanging basket for one of the petunias
- A local car repair shop that has serviced my car many times, to drop off caramels I've promised like four times lol
- Checking on my vote-by-mail ballot (it'll be here soon)
- Grocery for ingredients for tomorrow's dinner
- Shipping caramels to an LJ friend :)
- More transcription
- Closing shift at the hat shop

Today's hat:

Yes I've technically worn this hat already in a different color, but that was on Hurricane Day and there were almost no customers, so I feel it's OK to have a repeat just this once :p

It was moderately busy and we beat our sales goal by over $1000, yay (we don't get commission, just $1/hr extra in pay for that day, which frankly is the equivalent of finding five bucks in your coat pocket.) At the end of the night I was less cheery than usual because my back was hurting again...I don't suppose it could be because after straining it, I then swept and mopped at the hat shop two shifts in a row, and also spent 40 minutes sweeping our pool deck. DUH. Well, hopefully the massage on Friday will work that out.

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Wednesday was the first "cool" day of "fall" here in Florida. It was about 68°F (20°C) when I woke up. I opened the screen door to enjoy it while eating breakfast.

Today I didn't have a to-do list because the transcription work trumped everything else.
Worked on it all morning, ate lunch, practiced Elf.

After lunch Jameson and I went out back and breathed the cool air. I'm from the northeastern U.S. and Jameson lived in the north for a significant time as well, so we both often long for cooler, drier weather. In 48 hours it's supposed to be back up to the mid-80s. We will savor this cool weather while it lasts and what a treat it was today. Never thought that I would view temperatures in the mid-60s as a rare treasure, but here we are.

For dinner I made us butter chicken meatballs with brown rice and peas, naan on the side.
The sauce was so good I could have drank it! Jameson liked it a lot so I'll be making it again.

We left the patio door open to enjoy the cool air for as long as we could before going to bed.

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Not a lot on the docket for coming days...I've still got the to-do list but am also not sure if my hat shop boss will continue to schedule me, or decide to cut me loose early. I've got a massage on Friday and of course continued tour prep.

Friday, slept poorly and had to be up early.

When moving the plants back to the patio, I made the idiot decision to lift my small lemon tree--it's in an incredibly heavy and smooth-sided cement planter--starting from a squatting position. Needless to say I pulled or strained something in my lower back, like right above my hips. It doesn't "hurt," but the feeling is uncomfortable and kept me up. I'll have to be careful bending and lifting for a bit.

Rehearsal at the Magic Kingdom was lovely. It was about half the regulars and subs, and the other half will come in to rehearse on a different day. We all checked in with each other: "How'd you weather the storm?" "Do you have power back yet?" and "Do you need anything?" What a kind and cool group of musicians :)

Additionally, our boss Mike kept the rehearsal very casual, taking into account that many of us would be tired or strained from dealing with hurricane recovery. We played through the Christmas music, first the parade sets and then the show sets, but with frequent breaks and time to get up and stretch.

Here are the little trombones conspiring together in our towel hamper during one such break :D
From left to right, Keith's trombone; my trombone; and Cory's trombone.

(this is a "backstage" photo, please do not share/distribute.)

Several of the songs involve literally singing some of the carols, and the guys yelled them enthusiastically or sang them falsetto or interjected "creative" lyrics. Honestly it was a lot of fun, and before I knew it rehearsal was already over!

Though it was fun, I was relieved because I wasn't feeling well again. Not sure what's going on but typically when I feel haggard or run down and can't put my finger on a cause, I blame it on stress. I stopped at the grocery on the way home, then at home the solar guy was there to repair some pipes (our pool is heated via solar panels) so I handled that. Then prepped ingredients for dinner.

Meanwhile Jameson had been rehearsing Jollywood over at Hollywood Studios (it's so cool that we both got to be Disney musicians today!) When he got home he was in a foul mood, having been diverted all around Disney due to flooded roads and downed trees from the hurricane. The drive usually takes him 20-30 minutes; today it took an hour! I'd be pissed, too.

While he went to check on his online students, I laid down on the floor and dozed. This is very unusual for me, so I must be very tired.
We had taco salad for dinner, and I did feel a little better after eating and resting. But there is so, so, SO much to do and it feels overwhelming. Now that the hurricane is past, I feel frantic inside.

Some things that need to be done yet:

- Make banana bread so as not to let these home-grown bananas go to waste!
- Buy and wrap Jameson's birthday presents
- Acclimate the petunia outside (I think this should happen next week)
- Make and send caramels (also going to happen next week)
- Memorize Disney Christmas music, even though I'll probably never get to play it
- Find out whether I'm attending my grandpa's funeral
- Give notice at the hat shop (doing it tomorrow)
- Continue working at the hat shop and doing transcription jobs
- Start actually packing for tour
- Reserve tickets for friends and family along the tour route
- Get a massage (now that I've wrenched my back it really is needed)
- Plan a pumpkin carving day with Jameson, and roast the seeds (our tradition, I won't skip it!)
- Make Jameson's birthday treat, since I won't be here to celebrate with him

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Saturday doesn't feel like Saturday. The storm threw off my sense of time.

I got up at 8am, would have loved to sleep until 10.
Went to get bagels so they'd be here when Jameson wakes up.

Put my large petunia outside because it's yellowing; I think I've overwatered it + I'd moved it away from the grow light to make room for the cuttings and that's had a negative impact. It's still too hot for it to live outside but I want it to dry out a bit. It doesn't look THAT bad, but watch, it will wilt today from being outside (sure enough it did.)

Next was the cringey task of writing my Letter of Resignation for Chapel Hats.
I always feel bad to write these, and especially now because just after the storm a lot of people are abandoning their shifts to take care of personal problems. But it's got to be done.

That sent off, I got to work making banana bread using the mini-bananas from my tree! Jameson had requested "pumpkin spice" banana bread, and there IS such a thing so that's what I'm making! It was lucky we had two eggs left in the fridge because there are no eggs to be found around here right now (many gas stations also still don't have gas.) The only change I made to the recipe was to exclude 1/4 cup of pumpkin, and replace it with 1/4 cup of sour cream.

The bananas, smooshed:

The completed bread. Needless to say it made the house smell fantastic. The bread was perfectly moist and springy. Definitely banana-forward, but with all those great fall spices. And the walnuts for a nutty crunch.

Just as I'd sliced us each a piece, our neighbors came over with chocolate chip cookies to thank us for the bananas I'd given them! How sweet! We each had a piece of warm bread and a cookie, and it warmed my heart :)

After lunch Jameson got an interesting job offer involving fake-playing the piano for a commercial, which pays big bucks for him to just sit there and act. It did have a rather extensive audition process, and I helped him to film a few parts of it. Then cleaned up from baking, ran the dishwasher, packed my dinner, added a bunch of flight confirmation numbers to my tour itinerary, emptied the dishwasher, checked the mail...and took a nap on the floor again. I just---I don't think I'm getting adequate sleep lately. Maybe tomorrow I can force myself to sleep in extra.

Today's hat:

This is a new Kathy Jeanne hat, sort of an angled top hat with this massive magnolia flower on the side. In fact the flower was so heavy it pulled the hat sideways all night haha. It doesn't suit me, but despite that it got loads of compliments and interest. In fact four different people tried it on and seriously considered it!

At least three people abandoned their shifts last night--literally called out with absolutely zero notice or time to find replacements--so it was me and Jordan alone. I agreed to stay an hour later to close the shop, plus he managed to get the sock kiosk employee to work with us for three hours, then got another part-timer to come close the store with us too. It made me feel bad to tell them that I had given notice (my boss hasn't responded to my email and apparently hasn't told anyone yet either) but it was also a relief to be able to talk about going on tour instead of having to bite my tongue every time someone asked about my holiday plans this year.

It was very busy at the Springs but we managed. I have a longer closing shift tomorrow and am not looking forward to it.

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Sunday, I did allow myself to sleep-and-doze until 8:30-9.

Breakfast, typing this up, adding the tour travel itinerary to my tour spreadsheet, adding musician contact info to my phone. Even though I don't know these people yet, it's good have their numbers in case someone is late to rehearsal or a message needs to be conveyed quickly. You'd be amazed how many times the task of mass-messaging has fallen to me simply because I bothered to put everyone's numbers in my phone.

I intentionally tried to make myself relax and "do less" before work today. It didn't really work.
There's a lot to do, but it's no good feeling frantic about it.

So ultimately: practicing Elf. Grocery shopping for cheap sushi for dinner, random household items that we need, wrapping paper, and condolences cards for my stepmom and step-aunt. Filling out the condolence cards to be ready to go out in Monday's mail. Wrapping Jameson's birthday presents. Giving the large petunia time in the sun and bringing it inside when the temp got too high.

Generally still getting stuff done, but trying to keep calm and centered until it was time for work. Jameson's presents (there are five things in here, mostly little things but one is a commissioned piece that I hope to share with y'all later!) I have no idea how I'm going to manage getting Christmas presents arranged while jumping between time zones this year. Sigh.

As usual, Sunday's hat will be in the next post since I'll get home too late to share it tonight.

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To-Do:

Monday: A day off. Make caramels, practice, weeding and cleaning up outdoors post-hurricane. Expecting to receive a new transcription job.

Tuesday: Package the caramels and possibly ship them. Practice, start the transcription job if I have one, closing shift at hat shop.

Wednesday: Day off. Transcription, getting the suitcase out and beginning the packing process.

Sunday's hat: the buffalo hat!! There was only one left so I snatched it and wore it all night. Not excited AT ALL.

Sales were abysmal because it rained for the entire night. It's supposed to rain from now until Milton hits.

Monday. Jameson's alarm went off at 8 because he's got Jollywood rehearsals in the mornings all week. He's very excited and nervous :) I'm happy for him and sorry that he's got to kick it off with a cold.
I'm feeling better...I have steps that I take when I think a virus is after me. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but this time it seems to have worked temporarily.

Monday was a day off for me but I have so much to do that it didn't feel like one. It was 72 degrees out which was a blessing. I savored the feeling of "chilly air" on my skin as I brought the bananas inside. Then:

- Laundry
- Running the dishwasher
- Subsequent folding of laundry and putting away of dishes
- Planning dinner
- Breakfast and two hours of transcription
- Lunch and to the grocery for dinner ingredients

Since this hurricane is now a Cat 5 I used that as a psychological excuse to drive all the way to Whole Paycheck and get some of my favorite treats. They have a new flavor of Koia: matcha latte! Maybe it's dumb to buy perishable stuff right before a storm like this, but oh well.

Back home I decided to once again skip practicing so I could focus on transcription and prepping dinner. I made Chicago dog salad: pretty much all the toppings on a Chicago dog but mixed together in a big bowl with romaine and coleslaw mix, like a salad. Then I cooked the hot dogs in slices and mixed them in too. Instead of buns we sometimes use russet potato skins, which I roast in the oven with celery salt and black pepper. Turned out very good.

Jameson got home and immediately had to do his online teaching work, so I delayed dinner and did more transcription.
After dinner we discussed what to do about the hurricane.

The tough thing is that it's a Cat 5 now, but it's "probably going to" weaken to a Cat 3 by landfall. Probably.
We agreed we'll have to wait and see what happens with the forecast.
If it looks like it's going to hit as a Cat 4 or 5, we'll throw some things in our cars (we decided to drive separately to have double vehicles and double gas and more room for stuff) and GTFO. We'd aim for North Carolina; my aunt lives there and I have good friends there who would take us in. Jameson's brother lives in Georgia, but he has kids and also didn't offer to host us.

Right now, though, we're not planning to evacuate. We've stocked up on food and snacks, water and toilet paper. We're charging our battery packs, bringing anything loose on the deck into the garage, and filling our tanks with gas (I forgot to get gas so will have to do it tomorrow morning.) We're packing small "flee-bags" in case we can't take our time packing.

...I think that's all we can do.
Meanwhile, I still have to work at the hat shop tomorrow.

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Tuesday morning I was up early to go get gas, and was glad I did.
There is a run on gas stations even here in Orlando. I had to queue up, which I've never had to do around here, and wait my turn to top off my tank. But now it's done and one less thing to worry about.

Jameson had rehearsal again this morning, and as he was leaving we conferred again about whether we need anything and what needs doing. The main thing today is picking up anything we think we will need + moving stuff from the deck to the garage.

We shared the first ripe home-grown banana as well. It's so cute! Very sweet, sweeter than store-bought, and the texture is a little more...dense, I guess? But it was quite delicious and definitely a success. Hooray, after 3+ years of cultivating I've successfully grown bananas!!!

They are ripening extremely quickly, so we will just have to eat them as little snacks and I'll freeze some if we don't lose power.

After Jameson left I moved my plants and the outdoor furniture cushions to the garage, and pushed the wicker furniture up against the wall instead of the screens. It took all of 10 minutes.

I drove to CVS for quick oats and candy corn and two extra jugs of water "just in case."
Not necessities at this point but oats can conveniently be eaten just by soaking in water, and you can never have too much water around anyway. It was chaos out there. The CVS was out of propane, gas stations were running out of gas.

Back home I checked our battery supplies, packed my dinner for work, and dusted.
Practiced some of the Disney Christmas music, then finished my transcription job although it took forever because I was constantly interrupted by alerts, texts, calls, and messages from family, friends, the government, and workplaces about the hurricane. I am grateful that there are people concerned for our wellbeing!

But the result was that I felt very scatterbrained and flustered for most of the day, like I should be doing something but kept getting pulled away to receive updates or reassure loved ones.

In fact, I was so flustered today that I forgot it was the anniversary of my dad's death (this also means that my mom's death anniversary is tomorrow.) But my sister Kate remembered. And she sent me a beautiful, thoughtful package which arrived today:

She and our stepmom were able to have a lovely fall outing recently, plus it was the Bloomsburg Fair, and she wanted me to have a taste of our traditional autumn in Central Pennsylvania :)

This is
- decorative squash and corn
- A fresh apple from Rohrbach's Orchard
- Buckwheat honey and apple butter made locally
- Caramel apple and whoopie pie from Rohrbach's
- Apple pie filling made and canned by my stepmom
- A painted wooden decoration from my nephew Declan <3
- Honey sticks and a Cow Tale candy
- Hard ginger candies, which they know I love
- Roasting chestnuts (I've never roasted chestnuts before!!)
- Cloves (the container has holes in it, so this is meant to be for scenting the room)

In addition, several big sheets of locally-made beef and venison jerky from the Bloomsburg Fair!!
I've already eaten some and it's fantastic. Nothing beats homemade.

There was also a large Ziplock full of leaves, acorns, and nut shells, direct from trees in our hometown.
I was so incredibly touched by this. I mean...it really IS my hometown's autumn, in a box!

When I was still a toddler, my mother and I would go for walks and collect all sorts of little nature-things.
In the fall we'd find pretty leaves, and press them between the pages of books.

As soon as I saw the leaves from my sister, I remembered something.

This is a book I've had since before I could read.
And my mom and I used it to press leaves.

That's right...this leaf was pressed in 1987.

I texted my sister, told her about the book, and sent her pictures of me adding her new leaves to the book.
Alongside our mother's leaves, pressed so long ago.
Doing this today, on the day my dad died and a day before my mom died.
On the day before we're hit with a hurricane.

I will remember this.

And then it was time for work.

Today's hat:

We recently got these knitted cloches in, and I was very interested in this deep teal color. Lucky me, my shirt matches almost perfectly! Not that anyone noticed or cared. The few customers that we did have seemed more interested in Disney's hurricane prep than in hats. Interestingly (and perhaps reassuringly) most people in the Springs were refugees from Tampa. This means that people believe it's safer here; that they can ride out the storm here.

I hope they're right.

We closed the store 1/2 hour early.

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Wednesday I was up early to review and send my transcription job. I'm very pleased to find fewer and fewer errors with each job I submit.

Turned it in nice and early and alerted my supervisors that I might be unreachable in coming days.

In order to keep this post short, and have it up before we lose power, I think I'll end it here.
This week, because of the hurricane, I'll do some "Live From The Shit Show" posts, so that I can just update whenever I have power and also not have one long gigantic post that no one will read because no one reads any more.

Here we go. Stay safe y'all!

Thursday morning was a bit weird.

I shot out of bed at 7:45 because my phone rang and, not wanting to wake Jameson, hustled out to the living room with it at the speed of someone holding a cat about to throw up.

It was UPS calling to explain why my aunt's firefly petunia cutting hadn't been delivered yesterday as scheduled. Turns out the house number was wrong...but not really because A) I've been sending stuff to her for years and haven't had a problem before, and B) when you google either her house number OR the house number that UPS has on file, both take you to the same house. Which is SO WEIRD.

But like, whatever guys! If it's the same location for you, just deliver it please!!

And they did. I must say that it showed up looking a heck of a lot better than mine, when I first got it :p
Frazzled but otherwise seems fine.

After that I was awake whether I liked it or not, so had breakfast and tried to figure out what I should try to accomplish in the coming weeks before tour. I ended up

- washing the guest bedroom sheets
- digging all of my mutes out and getting them ready for use
- packing dinner for work
- taking the car for an oil change and once-over since it won't be driven for two months
- getting a car wash (the vacuums were broken so I'll have to do that separately, booo)
- closing one of my credit card accounts which I never use any more
- thinking about practicing trombone and then not doing it
- rescuing a small frog that got into the house
- filling out more paperwork for tour
- eating leftover lasagna
- listening to Jameson tell me about his interview between coughs and blowing his nose

Aah yes I hadn't mentioned that. Jameson has a head cold, is being inundated with work and also rehearsals for Jollywood starting next week, AND he was surprised by a last-minute interview this morning with Carnival, for the producer(?) job he'd applied for weeks ago. They STILL haven't made an offer so he's probably not going to take the job. The main issue is that we'd have to move, so he'd have to sell the house while finding a new house AND working both nights and days AND commuting to Orlando for Jollywood. I don't think it's realistic at the pay rate they're offering, and neither does he. He's trying to think of it as a good practice interview.

After all of that, today's hat:

I was feeling snarky about the winter hats. WHY do we have winter hats, when it won't be cold until at least December? WHO do they think is gonna buy these? When it's 90 degrees out, who's even gonna want to try them on? I thought maybe if I wore one it would draw attention to them...and it worked a little. At least, someone did try on the same style I was wearing.

Sales were kinda slow but I managed to help a guy find a top hat for his Halloween costume, and then he got two flat caps besides. Sometimes when sales are slow and I make a decent contribution, Maui's "You're Welcome" pops into my head (ironically of course.)

When I left (non-closing shift) they were only a few hundred away from the sales goal, so maybe they hit it.

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Friday I slept very poorly, my nose kept closing up and suffocating me in the night plus I was exceedingly hungry and woke at 4:30am ready to eat a whole alligator by myself. Endured the hunger for three more hours, then got up and made myself an egg sandwich with turkey bacon, tomato, and cowboy candy on a wheat English muffin. That was nice :)

I was definitely not feeling great. Jameson's cold may be trying to launch an invasion on me. But I'd rather get whatever-it-is now, than two weeks from now when I'm about to go on tour.

Today's doings:

- Watered the petunias
- Practiced trombone
- Travel planning for Christmas (the tour gets into Charlotte on the 23rd but doesn't perform until the 26th, so I will try to fly to Orlando instead, spend Christmas with Jameson, then drive up to NC with my own car to finish the tour out)
- Vacuuming the car at the local RaceTrac
- Confirming my first two company flight options for tour (I guess this is really happening!)
- Hat shop Zoom meeting at 3. It was super lame but we were paid for it, so, whatever.
- Main Street Philharmonic Christmas tunes added to my iPad (we have a rehearsal next week)
- Received and reviewed feedback from previous transcription job, and received a new job to start
- Ate many snacks
- Picked up Panda Express for Jameson and I

- Rescued a gopher tortoise who was crossing the road! The two cars in front of me went right over him and he was RUNNING, clearly terrified. I didn't care that it was rush hour, I stopped and put my 4-ways on, ran out and picked him up (he was heavy!) He flailed as hard as he could and hissed at me--I didn't know tortoises did that!--and I plopped him in the grass to continue on his way. He was absolutely adorable but there was traffic queuing up behind me so no time to enjoy him. That's like the third animal rescue this week, wtf is going on haha

(stock image since I didn't have time for a photo)

Now that the flight info is rolling in I'm starting to feel that this tour is upon me, and how hectic it's going to be.

I mean...I'll be performing nightly in a different city every week, while doing transcription work and keeping up on my Main Street Philharmonic and Candlelight music. Then in November I'll have to fly from New Jersey to Orlando, rent a car, rehearse for Candlelight that same night until 3am, drive straight to the airport, and fly to Minnesota to perform the next night (absolutely zero sleep.) Somewhere in there is Thanksgiving, and Jameson's birthday. In Greensboro I'm visiting my aunt and my former college roommates. Then for Christmas I'll fly to Orlando, celebrate with Jameson, retrieve my car and drive 10 hours up to NC, perform the last shows of the tour, drive back down, and have New Years.

Also keeping in mind that on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or New Years Day, I could be called to perform with the Main Street Philharmonic or Candlelight with no notice.

And then when it's all over, I'll be out of work again.

...why didn't I become like a dentist or something :P

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Saturday I committed the crime of sleeping in until 8:30am, which meant I didn't start on transcription as early as I wanted and was a bit huffy about it by the time Jameson woke up. But this was just me not being kind/patient with myself.

Today's doings:

- Transcription
- Picked up a new water filter for the fridge, Brach's pumpkins for Jameson, and premade grocery sushi for me
- Packed dinner and snacks for work
- Practiced trombone
- Cleaned the bathrooms
- Took out the trash
- Went to work.

Today's hat:

Finally wore the Panama hat! It's a $180 hat, and was surprisingly uncomfortable, not very ventilated at all.

I also have to mention THIS majestic addition to our offerings:

A buffalo hat! I was absolutely GUSHING over it, and when I found out we'd only gotten six of them in and hadn't yet ordered more I was SO MAD. My boss was like, "I can't believe you're so excited about this hat," and I was like, "EVERYONE is going to be excited about this hat!"

And I was right. The buffalo hat was on the sales floor tonight for the first time, and by the end of the night we had sold four of the six. And the only reason we had two left is because one was kept hidden in backstock and the other was on my coworker's head all night. The two of us glared at our boss and said, "You must order more of these." He got the hint :p If there are any left for my shift tomorrow I will wear one, but I doubt they'll still be there.

Around 10:30pm we noticed something odd. People began leaving Disney Springs...in crowds.
The area doesn't close until 11:30pm on weekends, so we were very confused. Was there some special event going on at the parks?

But no, we figured out that it was because Governor DeF*ckFace declared a State of Emergency over Tropical Storm Milton. I hadn't even known another storm was coming for us, but indeed it seems to be brewing in the Gulf and aiming right for us this time. Expected to be weaker than Helene, but the coastal cities are still trashed from Helene's fury and with the storm coming directly across Florida even Orlando will experience damage.

Driving home reinforced the theory that people had left Disney Springs early because of the pending storm. Traffic was absolutely crazy around the Walmart near our house, it was actually backed up almost to the highway exit with people trying to turn left into the Walmart AT MIDNIGHT. People had left early to rush to the store and stock up.

When I got home Jameson had been following it too, and he suggested we pick up some supplies in the next few days before it hits. He has lived in Florida for 20+ years and I trust his judgement that we will indeed need to weather this one. We already have candy, booze, and water, so imo need very little else :p

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Sunday morning I woke to the sound of rain. It was also significantly cooler than it has been...75°F (23.8°C) at 9am, a miracle! Still humid as hell, though.

Before work I wrote this post, did a few hours of transcription, packed dinner, booked a massage for next week, and was gonna practice…but then I looked outside and saw that the bananas were ready!

See, that one near the top turned yellow. That means it’s time.

My neighbor Tom was outside so I hollered over to him. He brought us a beautiful pineapple last month, and in return I’d promised bananas.

I chopped ‘em unceremoniously off the tree.

They were oozing a terribly sticky sap, so I washed them and laid most of them to dry on a sacrificial towel, handing Tom a bunch for he and his wife to enjoy. Not sure how long they’ll take to ripen. But hey! My first banana crop!

I also gave Tom’s wife a firefly petunia cutting, which she’s very excited about :) And then I had to clean up quickly and rush to work.

As usual, you'll have to wait to see today's hat since I have the late shift at the hat shop.

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Monday: Finishing my transcription job + more tour prep + cooking dinner.

Tuesday: Transcription review and submission + hurricane prep + night shift at the hat shop.

Wednesday: Day off and potentially a hurricane. We will see what happens.

Sunday's hat:

A lacy sun hat, we are back into triple-digit heat indexes this week and I started off with a felt hat but it was just too uncomfortable.

It was a pretty chill day at the hat shop, busy at normal levels. At closing I was allowed to leave after chores were done instead of having to wait around for the keyholders to finalize the registers, which was nice.

Jameson had been to a concert at House of Blues at Disney Springs, it was Lawrence the Band with Jukebox the Ghost as the cover. I don't know much about either band except that they've got heavy Queen and Ben Folds influences, which is why they're right up Jameson's alley. Apparently a lot of local musicians went to see them, there was a lot of chatter online about the concert.

Jameson And Friends swung by the hat shop after the concert, but that was literally five minutes from closing time so I had to sort of rush them through a tour of the shop and then kick them out.

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Monday. Here it is, the last day of September!

Breakfast and messing with the firefly petunias.
I moved the two cuttings to get more light and the mother plant to get less. Trying to cram everyone in under these lights is very annoying, and I really wish it would stop being horrific outside so I could put them out.

After breakfast a trip to the grocery for dinner ingredients, then transcription until lunch, practicing and more transcription. I finished the project today, which is great because Tuesday was my original due date. Now I know that even if I hadn't asked for extra time I would've been "ok," though it would have been a closer call than I'd like. As it is, I will both be able to turn in the project early and also spend quality time checking it carefully for errors.

For dinner I made us avocado tuna melts, recipe from Dude Diet Dinnertime.

These are a healthy version of a classic tuna melt: avocado in place of mayo, whole wheat English muffins, and crispy turkey bacon bits mixed in for texture and smoky flavor. Other ingredients include Old Bay, shallots, dijon mustard, sweet pickle relish, lemon juice, salt and pepper, hot sauce, tomato, and cheese. They were very delicious.

During dinner prep my aunt called, and she's ready for her petunia now so I'll try to send it ASAP.

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Tuesday, October first.
The countdown begins.

I woke up early all in a tizzy to get that firefly petunia in the mail! One less pre-tour chore to worry about :p

After breakfast I packaged it up and repotted the other two cuttings as well, essentially moving the next-largest cutting into my aunt's cutting's previous pot, and the next-smallest into that one's pot, etc etc. In the process of doing all of this I noticed that my pineapple crown that I planted last week had rotted, so I threw it out :( The lemon tree also does not look good, I think everything just got way too much water this summer.

Shipped the plant, it was INSANELY expensive but it's a gift so I'm not thinking about that, lalalala.
Back home I prepped food for work, washed our sheets, changed the bedsheets, and reviewed my transcription work.
After lunch Jameson went to the gym so I vacuumed and swept the tile, then more transcription review. I decided to forego trombone practice so that I could complete and submit the assignment today, and hopefully get another assignment going. Then it was time for work.

Today's hat:

This is the 30th hat I've worn, so I have made a social media post of all the hats I've worn up to this point. You all have gotten the sneak peek, but CLICK HERE if you want to see all of the photos together in one place :)
Most people don't have any idea I've been working at a hat shop, so I guess this is the big reveal.

It was slow at Disney Springs tonight, I sold what I could but it rained for over an hour and that killed what little custom there was.

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Wednesday after breakfast it was 76 degrees (24.4C!) so I went for a walk! (The heat index is still around 86)

During the walk I contemplated many things. In ten days I'll give notice at the hat shop, and also let the transcription company know that I'll be going on tour. 14 days after that, I'll have three days to pack and get ready to fly to Kentucky for tech week. There is still a lot on my To-Do List between now and then. It feels overwhelming and I wonder how much I can realistically do on top of work.

Right as I was rounding our block, I saw movement in the middle of the road. It was a rat with his head in a trap.

He was stumbling around in circles, poor guy, probably in great pain. There was a car coming so I stood by the rat until it passed, then inspected the trap and found it was just a snap-type, a lot like THIS. This meant that all I had to do to release him was squeeze the other end. I tried to do it with my foot/shoe first, but the trap skidded out from under my shoe and frightened the rat. So I decided the risk was worth taking and grabbed the trap with my hand, watching the rat carefully, and squeezed to open it.

The rat shot away immediately, staggered across the road, got himself together, and ran into the bushes.
There was no blood on the trap and he looked "ok," so I think he's all right.

With how many hawks and snakes are in this neighborhood, I can't believe that someone needed to set a trap outdoors.

Anyway. Inside I washed up and ate lunch, then to the grocery for lasagna ingredients, then mixed up the cheese filling ahead of time and made a salad for a side. A small rest and trombone practice, then I got to work on the lasagna because cooking the meat sauce and assembling the pasta takes a while, followed by an hour or so in the oven. It tasted good, normal lasagna.

Jameson thinks he's coming down with a head cold, so we're taking it easy tonight.

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Thursday: Night shift at the hat shop. Maybe I'll have a new transcription job by then too.

Friday: Day off. I'll probably take my car for an oil change or try to knock out some other pre-tour chore.

Saturday: Night shift at the hat shop.

Sunday: ???

By the time you read this it'll be the last day of September.

I have many hopes for October, but cooler weather tops the list.

Thursday I was up at 7:30 to eat breakfast and prepare for a long work day in the midst of a Hurricane-Sort-Of.
The storm was a Cat 2 but still a long ways from landfall. It was rainy and windy this morning but that's not really a reason for businesses to close, you know? So after breakfast and packing up everything I'd need for the day I trundled off to Disney.

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(image thefted from DisneyFood Blog)

The park was more or less fully open and it didn't even rain, it was just blustery. We did two sets and a full parade. I was grateful to get so much playing time :) The only accommodation that we made for the weather was removing the feather plumes from our hats to avoid having them blown off our heads.

I brought all of my transcription stuff and was able to access Disney wifi. I didn't get a lot done but did set up all of my cover pages. This was more of an experiment to see if I COULD do this work here, and I can!

Our third set was canceled because at that point there were wind gusts above 30mph (48kmh) and while the trumpets and trombones can weather that, sousaphones and drums not so much :/ I used the extra time to take a shower under the castle so I'd be somewhat refreshed before my hat shop shift. Hurricane Helene was now a Cat 3, but nothing here in Orlando was closed. It was pretty clear that the storm wouldn't be reaching us, just some of the outer bands.

Today's hat:

I took this picture as I was clocking out to go home. There were a lot more people out and about than I expected in this weather...but who wants to buy a hat during a hurricane? As a result I was sent home early, at 9pm instead of 11pm. So ultimately the hurricane only cost me two hours of a 12-hour work day. Which says a lot about how concerned Central Florida felt about this hurricane (not at all.)

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It was wind and rain all night, but nothing worse than that. In the morning I was up before Jameson and went out on the lanai to see if there were any screens missing. Not only was nothing damaged, even my sad broken banana tree was still standing, complete with fruit.

And then I saw this little fellow clinging to our lanai screen! Finger for scale. Google says he is a baby box turtle, but I think Google is wrong and that it's a striped mud turtle.

More pictures of his face and tummy and shell. He is so cute!!

Not sure how he got up onto the screen. Maybe he was blown by the storm, or climbed to avoid a predator. After admiring him I let him go among some mulch where I thought he'd be well camouflaged while he made his escape. When I went back later to see if he was still there, he was gone. Either he's pretty speedy or a predator got him after all.

I fertilized the petunia and had breakfast, then did transcription for an hour or so. Ate lunch and drove aaaallll the way out to Apple at Millenia Mall to see if they could either fix or replace my phone.

The store was insanely busy. See THIS video to get a taste of what my day was like, and what it's like to shop ANYWHERE in a tourist/hospitality city. The video was taken during "the holidays" but this is exactly how busy it was today.

Anyway, I had to wait for someone to become available in that noisy, crowded store. 30 minutes after my appointment time a young man came around to help me out. Without hesitation he picked up my phone, turned it on it's side, and pointed to the edge where the screen meets the metal body. The screen was bulging outward ever so slightly (like this.) Because my phone is always in it's case, I hadn't even noticed.

"Your battery is swollen," he said.
WOW I felt stupid for not having seen it!

But I also felt angry at Best Buy all over again (see bottom of previous post). This was a problem you could SEE, and those f*ckers hadn't even bothered to look! How they get to call themselves "Apple authorized" is beyond me.

I texted Jameson to say that my phone was in repair and I'd be unreachable, then handed my Literal Connection To All Things In This World to the associate and wandered off into the mall in "analog mode." I hadn't brought any other devices: no extra phone, no smart watch, no ipad or tablet or laptop. Nothing. It was me and my water bottle.

The main thing that shocked me, out here in Analog Mode, was realizing that there are no clocks, anywhere. I did two laps of the mall, both floors, and did not see one public wall clock, not even on the LED directory screens.

The other exasperating realization was that without my phone, I had nothing to DO. I should've at least thought to bring a physical book for f*ck's sake. As I walked I noticed an elderly man reading a real paper newspaper, and felt actively jealous!

But you know what? Other than an occasional pang of anxiety at the thought of someone needing to reach me and being unable to, being without my phone was actually quite nice. I walked at random and looked at stuff. I felt no pressure to post or share. I sat and openly people-watched, because everyone was, of course, on their phones, and so no one NOTICED that I was people-watching.

As an 80's kid, of course I remember growing up without technology. And also the gradual, decades-long timeline of becoming more and more dependent on technology. All the way up to today, when being without my phone for a mere 60 minutes forced me to realize how much I rely on it for REALLY important things, like staying in touch with family or getting directions to or from a place. Or checking the damn time!

When my internal clock piped up ("It's probably been about an hour, right?") I went back to the Apple store and gave one of their display iPads a poke. It told me that indeed, my internal clock was right and I'd killed 50 minutes. I queued back up with my repair ticket, retrieved my Literal Connection To All Things In This World, and checked my texts. Thus ended 60 minutes of phonelessness.

I stopped by Total Wines to see if they had a certain rum that Jameson likes (they didn't) and had a snack from a nearby Thai place, then drove home through rush hour traffic. The whole thing took about four hours, two of which were the drive. Sigh.

Back home I swept hurricane debris from the driveway, emptied the dishwasher, had dinner, and received an email from NETworks asking me to download a specific app which they use to send ALL tour information. See, SEE how integral phones are? Without my phone/this app, I couldn't see my coworkers' contact info, the rehearsal schedule, the travel schedule, the hotel bookings, and loads of other extremely important information that I need to do my job. Isn't that crazy when you stop to think about it?

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Saturday I got up early to get bagels from my favorite shop. While waiting for Jameson to wake up I did a little transcription, then switched to tromboning because it was bugging me that I haven't practiced Elf in like a week. After that back to transcription.

I'd meant to cook dinner but wasn't feeling it, so we had Chuy's taco salads.
After dinner I worked on my Foodie Finds for Elf, now that we've got the hotel info that gives me more context.

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Sunday, I was up early to do transcription, pack work snacks, and make overnight oats for tomorrow before Jameson was up. Once he was up I'd planned to switch to practicing trombone, but changed my mind and just stuck with transcription for the morning. By noon I had only 30 minutes of the two hours of audio remaining, which I think is good considering the thing isn't due until Saturday. My goal in getting the extra processing time (aside from feeling stressed) was to have time to listen to the WHOLE case a second time and check it for errors. I won't always be able to do that, and figure if I do it at least once I'm bound to learn things and find mistakes which I can try to remember for future cases.

Anyway, lunch and then tromboning and getting dressed for work.

Today's hat will be in the next post since I've got the closing shift at the hat shop tonight.

In closing, have a firefly petunia pic from a few nights ago.
I'm starting to feel stressed about moving it outside, and wish it would just get below 90°F outside ffs!!

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Monday: Finishing the transcription, trombone practice, cooking dinner.

Tuesday: Hopefully reviewing my work + trombone practice + night shift at the hat shop.

Wednesday: Submitting my transcription job + tromboning and getting some kind of exercise I hope.

Thursday: Night shift at the hat shop.

Sunday's hat:

A Kathy Jeanne which we've been calling "The Ladybug Hat." I didn't sell it but did sell another Kathy Jeanne, lending more credence to the idea of wearing the hat you hope to sell.

It was a weird night at the hat shop, we had lots of customers but a very difficult time making any sales. I got cornered no less than three times by people who just seemed to want to talk my ear off about their lives...I guess it killed time nicely but unfortunately we didn't meet our sales goal. There was also an issue with one of our new employees having "visitors" while on the clock; it seems like her partner or a good friend(?), and I have noticed that he is in our store every time she's working. He was here again tonight and stuck around for at least an hour with her while it was busy and she should have been helping customers. I guess management decided tonight was the night to confront her, because when I came back from my break she was crying and a keyholder was talking gently to her.

All I overheard was, "I feel like I've been criticized non-stop here!" and then I had to turn away and organize hats so as not to roll my eyes. She has probably not worked much retail. if you take corrections in the workplace personally, you're going to be weeping every few minutes lol. Supervisors will always find something to nitpick, either because they WANT to or because they HAVE to to make it look like they're busy, and either way it has nothing to do with you. (unless it's malicious and in this case it definitely wasn't.)

In all honesty, I was ALSO feeling over-criticized that night. First I was corrected on a very minor and subjective choice of hat organization, and later I was chided for sweeping while there were many customers in the store (there was spilled popcorn and candy on the floor, and imo a food spill is a good justification for a quick spot-sweeping no matter how busy it is. But next time I will leave the spill untouched for people to trample, and I will reference tonight's events if anyone asks why I didn't take care of it. Ahh the joys of retail.)

But sorry chica, inviting friends and romantic partners to come distract you at work makes your supervisor quite well justified in correcting you. She's lucky not to get a write up. She'll either figure that out and buck up, or quit I suppose.

She did end up leaving three hours early due to being upset (sigh) so we were shorthanded for closing. But it was two keyholders + me, a former retail boss, so we easily crushed all the closing tasks and were clocked out early.

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Monday I slept until 9am. I needed it, and it still wasn't enough either.

Had just coffee. My guts are being weird, probably from A) stress and B) being sedentary on the days that I was doing transcription and C) having to eat dinner at 3pm on closing nights at the hat shop. Waited around to see if I'd get corrections on my transcription job, then when they didn't show by 10:30 I practiced my Disney trombone stuff.

Lunch, running some small errands, packing for tomorrow, checking on my banana. The fruit looks ok and that's all I can ask for. We're also supposed to get a tropical storm/hurricane this weekend so it may be a moot point.

I felt low-energy so spent two hours lying down, reading or watching TikTok. Didn't even eat snacks, just had tea.
These times where I feel bad tend to coincide with extended periods of stress and lost sleep, so it's no surprise any more.

Oh yeah, and look what I found at Walmart today! What the hell is Dawn thinking!!

More fool me for actually buying it...but you know what? It's not bad. It's a very mild scent, so I am finding that I like it more than some of Dawn's citrus scents which are often very strong.

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Tuesday I was up at 7:30 only so I could have quiet time to myself before this extremely long day. Packed a bag with hat shop clothes, toiletries for showering, and meals and snacks for the whole day, then off to the Magic Kingdom.

Here are the guys performing their first set in front of the castle. It was 90-something degrees (32C).

Everyone seems to be doing well. Tony, one of the full-time trombone guys, is into gardening and we've talked at length about our mutual hobby. He immediately asked how my firefly petunia is doing. Since he is so interested and clearly a good gardener, I am going to bring him a cutting on Thursday, the day I'm subbing for Keith. I could tell he was trying very hard to hide his excitement about getting a cutting, it was adorable :) I have a small one growing in an Italian ice cup with holes punched in the bottom, he can have that one.

There is some sort of "recycled items" competition going on for Halloween, where each competing department makes something spooky out of recycled materials. Here is the band's super-weird entry (please do not share/repost):

It even has a styrofoam brain inside (I guess Keith made it):

Good luck with that, ya weirdos :p

In other spooky news I was able to play the Halloween music in the parade today!
The Halloween charts are "Cruella DeVille," "Grim Grinning Ghosts," "Pink Elephants," and "Poor Unfortunate Souls." It felt slightly early in the season to be playing these, but the red/orange/yellow fall decorations all over Main Street USA were helpful for creating the proper mood :) I was very grateful to get to play the Halloween stuff today because it may be my only chance with the storm coming on Thursday.

I also did one set, finally getting to play the Mary Poppins Medley in the park for the first time.
Before Flag Retreat I took a shower in the locker rooms under the castle, knowing that I had a full shift at the hat shop that night and having gotten quite sweaty and gross while performing.

I wonder how many people can say they've taken a shower under Cinderella's Castle!
It was amusing to think about.

At 5pm I drove to Disney Springs and clocked in to find that we were deeply shorthanded, with three people having called out including our boss. And it was pretty busy too. It was just Jordan and I in the shop, and we did our best, but even so we were $100 short of the sales goal when 10:30 rolled around. After a brief discussion we decided to stay open right up to 11pm, and if a sale was meant to happen, it would. The result was a mob of annoying teens coming in at 10:57 to do selfies in hats...but right behind them came a couple who were looking for cowboy hats! It turns out the man was an undercover cop who wears them for his work, and his wife just wanted one for the beach. Jordan worked on counting/closing one of the registers while I worked with the two customers to find them hats they'd like. And we made our sales goal after all! I felt good to have sort-of been a part of that.

Today's hat. It's hard to tell but it's actually orange just like the pumpkin on the bag behind me. The lights and iphone camera washed it out. And interestingly, continuing the trend of "Wear what you want to sell"...I sold one of these orange hats tonight.

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Wednesday, thank god it's a day off. I woke up feeling rough due to the long workday yesterday.

The tropical storm is a hurricane but so far still a Cat 1. I kind of wonder if all the hype about this is just fearmongering and herd-mindset tittering. Sure seems like it right now, but I'm also not totally ignorant and know that the Gulf has the conditions for rapidly escalating storm systems.

Yesterday while at Disney I received both a review of my first transcription job, and a new job assignment that is twice as long. This sent me into a bit of a panic because I'm working multiple jobs this week plus the tropical storm coming through. It made me cringe to ask, but I requested an assignment with a later due date. To my surprise they simply moved the due date for this assignment about four days forward, which is absolutely perfect because now I can start it on the weekend, after both my 18-hour workday and the tropical storm have passed. Phew!

There were many things that I wanted to do today but I was thwarted when my phone suddenly decided to stop working. It's easy to forget how dependent we are on our phones until we don't have them.

You can see here that there's something wrong with the battery. The charge keeps dropping drastically (those red lines are when the phone crashed on me) and/or it's not charging fully.

After talking with Apple support I decided to try taking it to Apple-certified techs at Best Buy, per their recommendation. The phone crashed partway there, leaving me to guess the way to the store (how did we used to get ANYWHERE?? omg.) When I got there they wouldn't even look at it, just said, "You'll need a new phone" and quoted me $640 for it! I was shocked and angry; the Apple tech had made it sound like the problem could be fixed or at LEAST looked at. But they didn't even touch my phone or attempt any diagnostics.

I tried calling Apple again and set up a new appointment for one of their actual stores, even though it will cost me another afternoon. Then went to an AT&T to see if they could cut me a deal as they're my phone carrier. They quoted me the same price, adding that I'd have to pay off the remaining balance on the broken phone as well. I don't think it's at all fair to ask someone to pay the full cost of a phone that stopped working of it's own accord after only two years of use, so I decided to keep the broken phone and deal directly with Apple on Friday. If they can't help me out with either a repair or an exchange, this will be an expensive lesson learned and possibly an Android phone in my future.

Other things that I managed to do today:

- Reviewed the feedback for my first transcription job and asked questions of the proofreader
- Bought dinner for myself and Jameson for tonight
- Packed meals, clothing, and another all-day bag for myself for tomorrow's 18-hour day
- Threw away my dead jalapeno plant and black sapote tree
- Did laundry
- Messaged/Emailed family and bosses to let them know to email me with anything urgent, since my phone is acting up
- Set up my phone and computer to use Disney wifi, so that I can hopefully do transcription tomorrow if the band gets rained out
- Appreciated the Giant Mountain of Candy, which is what's getting both of us through this hectic week

And instead of practicing trombone I allowed myself to rest, which is just as needed as everything else.

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Thursday: Hurricane Helene but she's not supposed to get here until evening, and I'm scheduled to perform at the Magic Kingdom, AND I'm scheduled to work the hat shop at night. We will see how many of those things actually happen.

Friday: Transcription, visit to the Apple Store.

Saturday: Transcription, probably cooking us some meals and cleaning.

Sunday: ???

If I am not engaging with your posts at the usual levels it's because this week is crazy for Jameson and I. There's yer disclaimer.

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I wanted to get up at 7 on Thursday to work on transcription, but was incredibly tired and ended up sleeping until 8:30. FOR SHAME.

Breakfast and right into transcription. Well, formatting came first.
Just the formatting--JUST the formatting!--took about two hours!

This is because I have no idea what I'm doing + I REALLY want to do a good job. For everything I did I ended up re-watching training videos, taking more notes, reviewing and reviewing. I also had to set up misc signatures and auto-inserted data, which right now is a pain but will save time later. I haven't done my shorthand hotkeys yet because I want to do a case without them first, but I can already see how they'll save time and am itching to add them.

You probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the ACTUAL transcription and see how that goes.

After that I went to the tailor again because he'd screwed up the velcro placement on my pants. Then to Target for shampoo, then lunch, then mixing up the crab Rangoon filling. A little more transcription prep, an hour of trombone practice, and a short time for a rest and a snack before cooking dinner. Along with the Rangoon we had char siu chicken thighs and sugar snap peas. The chicken was very good, I only wish they could've been done in the air fryer for a more crispy exterior. The rangoon were "ok," for Chinese-American authenticity I'll need to A) use imitation crab next time and B) more cream cheese.

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Friday I managed to get up a little after 8 and had started transcription by 9:30 or so.

My pedal was not acting normally so I wasted probably 45 minutes troubleshooting and getting outside help with that. Then my case needed additional unexpected formatting, so another hour of watching training videos and applying the correct changes. Then I ended up deciding to program the hotkeys/shorthand after all, because I couldn't stand copy/pasting the speaker names over and over!

The result was after two hours, I had actually transcribed only five minutes of audio. Argh!
But it's ok, it's ooooook. There are always technical issues and troubleshooting early on, for any job. I feel very tense, but the truth is I have plenty of time, a whole week. Future transcriptions will go a lot faster because I'm taking extra time to learn now. I need to calm down about it and give myself grace/permission to go slow. Easier said than done.

I had to stop transcribing after lunch to practice trombone, pack dinner, and go to work. Before leaving I happened to glance outside and was devastated to see that the banana tree with the fruit had broken. GO FIGURE!!

You can see in the pic I've moved the support closer to the fruit...I don't know what else to do. I could cut them off but would have to hang them somewhere else and hope they ripen. In that case I think they may as well stay on the tree and suck up whatever nutrients they can.

Today's hat:

During my shift Keith, the trombonist whom I sub for on the Main Street Philharmonic, asked if I could do a rehearsal on Tuesday and then cover for him this coming Thursday. I was very excited for the work (and I'll get to play the Halloween music!! WOOOOO!!!) but I am also scheduled to work at the hat shop on both of those days.

This means on both Tuesday and Thursday, I'll have to be at the Magic Kingdom from 10am-5:30pm performing outdoors all day (yes it is still in the low 90s here), then rush over to Disney Springs to clock in at the hat shop by 6pm and work until midnight. It's going to suck.

This also means I'd better be finished with transcription by Tuesday.

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Jameson went to Mickey's Not So Scary last night. He and friends dressed up as the Fairy Godmothers from Disney's Sleeping Beauty! Look how frickin' cute they are!

He got back after the midnight fireworks show and wasn't in bed until 2am, so I hardly got any sleep.
HOWEVER he brought home two absolutely massive bags of candy, so I couldn't possibly be upset :p

I'm so anxious about transcription that I was up at 7:30, and after breakfast (and yeah a mini Milky Way) I got right down to it.

Pros: my pedal worked; I got most of the actual transcribing done; I learned a lot during the process.
Cons: I ran into a lot of formatting issues that I don't understand; it's the weekend so no one is available to help; it literally took me all day, from 8:30am to 5pm, to get 90% of the way through this one hour of audio.

Since I have questions that need to be answered before I can submit my work, I won't be able to finish until Monday. I hate that it took me DAYS to process just one hour of transcription. I really, really hope that this is just a learning curve, and that things go a lot faster by leaps and bounds on future jobs.

And I'd love to feel less stressed about this. Normally transcription is enjoyable to me but there's too much going on.
I didn't have time to practice at all.

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Sunday I was up early again by necessity even though it's closing shift at the hat shop tonight.

After breakfast I finally actually FINISHED the transcription job. Phew!
After receiving some feedback and help, I was even able to submit it! I Should have waited another day and reviewed it more carefully, but I've already taken so long just to get through it that holding it for even one more day is abhorrent to me. I've got a really good idea of which parts are going to have a lot of errors. And also, if this is something that I want to take on tour there will be many times where I won't get to review as thoroughly as I'd like. So I'd better learn to do a better job up-front.

After that I got groceries, practiced my Disney music, packed dinner, and prepped some things for Tuesday.

Today's hat will have to wait until Monday since I'm closing tonight.

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Monday: A day off. Hopefully getting a review of my transcription job with corrections/errors to go over. Practicing for Disney, packing an all-day bag and meal planning for Tuesday. Resting as much as I can.

Tuesday: Disney rehearsal, hat shop.

Wednesday: A day off, I'll probably be dead on my feet but will need to practice and probably start another transcription job, among other things.

Thursday: Same as Tuesday.

Sunday's hat:

In just a few more shifts I'll have 30 hat pictures! I'll post them all on socials at that time I guess.

The shift was fine, it was crazy-busy at Disney Springs for some unknown reason so for the first time all week we were able to meet and exceed our sales goal. That felt good, though not much comes of it at the bottom-feeder level really. I surprised myself by selling one of the "My Fair Lady" hats, the one with the gigantic brim.

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Monday I was up at 8, breakfast and goofing off until 9:30 or so, then transcription practice. As I get closer to finishing I feel more and more nervous about actually starting the work. It'll be fine, it's just that the unknown is always intimidating.

After an hour of transcription Jameson was awake so I cleaned our bathrooms, then popped to the grocery for a pork tenderloin. Got it marinating at home, ate lunch, and practiced. I'd meant to have a sort of Repotting Party for my indoor plants but time got away from me.

Instead I ended up unexpectedly harvesting my pineapple. It had turned golden yellow and smelled fantastic, so I knew it MUST be ready....but it hasn't gotten any bigger in the months I've had it, and is about the size of a softball....

...and yet the crown is GIGANTIC. It looks absolutely ridiculous! I couldn't stop sniggering at it.

It's like, I don't know....a little pineapple comet with a giant tail haha.
Why didn't the fruit get bigger? Why is the crown so huge? I've never grown pineapples before and have no idea. But it's hilarious, and judging from the mouth-watering smell coming off the fruit it'll still taste wonderful. I'll probably try and plant the crown too.

For dinner I made a pork tenderloin rubbed in brown sugar, rosemary, coarse mustard, sherry, salt, and pepper.
I used a new meat thermometer, the kind that goes in the oven while the meat cooks, and as a result the tenderloin was cooked PERFECTLY. The only thing I messed up was the crust, but I think starting that process earlier will give better results next time.

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Tuesday 8am, same as yesterday, breakfast and transcription.

Ordered misc things from Amazon: a container for shipping the firefly cutting to my aunt; a measuring tape because mine broke; two small toiletry containers for tour; fermented red bean curd because Jameson expressed interest in air fryer crab Rangoon and I want to make char siu chicken to go with it, which involves the curd, which I can't get anywhere but the Asian grocery stores an hour away.

I finished all of my training modules, and must now take the tests. YEEK.

Did a load of laundry; went to Lowes for an outdoor light timer (for the petunia while I'm on tour) and perlite; Publix for a PubSub; home to eat lunch, process the pineapple, dry and fold the laundry. Planted the pineapple crown and we'll see if it roots.

Checked on the banana. The new flower has opened, and the bananas are looking more plump. Waiting is hard.

Did some air tromboning over some difficult sections of my music.
Went to work a closing shift at the hat shop.

Today's hat:

My boss was there for the closing shift, which I don't mind because he's cool...but I disliked having to endure the social construct of "Everyone be on your best behavior, the BOSS is here!" Like.....how I work every day, IS my best behavior for that day. I'm not going to change how I act or work just because of "the boss." If I have to do that, something's wrong. And if I'm not performing to company standard, I'd rather someone tell me than "fake it" when he's around and continue to do a bad job. Eh, maybe this is what happens when you get old, you don't give two f*cks :P But it IS a construct, and a rather ridiculous social expectation, and any time I get to either ignore or stomp on a construct it pleases me greatly. Perhaps it's not an age thing after all, but an INTJ thing.

Anyway I worked like I normally do, and no one complained :p

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Wednesday Jameson and I both woke up nervous. Him because of his interview with Carnival Cruises; me because I was taking my transcription tests. His interview took about an hour and seemed to go really well. They gave him more info about the job, but didn't specify pay or set up a secondary interview. To me that says the next time they reach out it would be to make an offer. We will see.

I completed my quizzes and did an OK job, only getting one answer wrong (I should have gotten NO answers wrong because I could reference my notes, sigh.) I was then offered my first transcription job, due a week from today. I am terrified and excited! My QA guy took the time to make me a video on how to get started with my case, so I am encouraged by his help and support. I wanted to start right away, but know that this is the kind of thing that requires undivided attention. Instead I focused on side-chores.

I went to both Sprouts and Whole Paycheck for ingredients for dinner for the next two nights, that took two hours (40-minute drive both ways.) Lunch, then putting chicken thighs in a char siu marinade and finally having that Potting Party.

It doesn't look like much but it did take a while. My philodendrons are pitiful and scraggly, and needed to be untangled and trimmed, then painstakingly dipped in rooting hormone and potted in new soil. Then I took one more cutting from the firefly petunia, potted that, watered everyone, and cleaned up. I couldn't have been outside for more than an hour but the petunia was already wilting when I brought it back in. Thanks Florida.

For dinner I made simple caprese sandwiches, toasting ciabatta rolls and brushing them with pesto, adding fresh basil and tomato and fluffy mozz, topped with cracked black pepper and balsamic glaze. They were so good and refreshing, a last taste of summer :)

After dinner Jameson had a lot to deal with (in addition to the interview he got slammed with more work and also has a friend's show, Jollywood, and Candlelight to practice for) so I took the trash out, showered, cleaned the shower, and typed up this post. This week has felt very hectic but some weeks are like that.

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Thursday: Starting my first transcription job, going to the tailor again (he messed up one pair of pants), doing misc chores, making air fryer crab rangoon and char siu chicken for dinner.

Friday: More transcription (finishing the job would be ideal here) and night shift at the hat shop.

Saturday: A day off. Probably going to start gathering things for the thrift store and/or online selling.

You see, I am typing this on September 12th.
We are already nearly halfway through September.

Got up at 6:30am on Thursday, did NOT want to be up that early but life is life.

Did about 1.5 transcription modules, had breakfast, did another 30 minutes until it was time to get ready for work.

Today's hat:

A leather flat cap, handmade in Belgium and selling for around $130.
It's the only flat cap in the shop that looks "ok" on me. I am eating lunch super fast because I was offered a paid 15 in place of an unpaid 30, and took it (money is money.)

It was a very slow shift, I sold what I could but most people were just coming in to kill time before their meal reservations.
At 4pm I clocked out and drove 10 minutes to Epcot.

The Food and Wine Festival is going on right now, so there is Remy and Ratatouille decor everywhere.

( Night at Epcot )
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Friday, I got up at 8 to get as much done as possible before my hat shop shift.
Something I ate or drank last night did not agree with me; I didn't feel nauseous but (TMI WARNING) my body definitely wanted something to get out, ASAP. I suspect the kabob or the carrot salad, it's hard to believe the drinks would've had anything to do with it.

Anyway, those "interruptions" messed up my timeline a bit, but I still did an hour of transcription training, washed our sheets and made the bed, practiced the first act of Elf, and packed myself dinner. I felt exhausted but also know that tomorrow is a day off and maybe I can allow myself to rest a little extra.

Today's hat:

As soon as I walked in Rin, the quietest retail worker I have ever worked with, jumped in front of me in a full-on goth red-and-black getup, 13s painted under her eyes, flapping her arms excitedly. "HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH!" she said. Oh! I hadn't realized...but I'd conveniently worn red and grey with black shoes, so thought, why not do a novelty hat to celebrate!

The day started out unfortunately slow but picked up after 8pm thankfully.
And I had a wonderful surprise!

As I finished checking a customer out, a woman came up to the register and said something like, "I hope this isn't weird but...I'm bringing you a part of your digital life, in person!"

It was

brittdreams from DreamWidth!!! She lives nearby and happened to be at Disney Springs, and thought she'd drop in to see if I was working!! AAAAAAAH this was such a treat! I've only ever met my LJ and DW friends a few times in person, but each one of them has been absolutely wonderful. And I admire brittdreams SO MUCH. Like most of us on these blogging sites, she writes about her work and her general life, outings and travels and day-to-day. But in doing so, she shares a deeper look at the challenges that she, specifically, faces, as a black woman. Reading her blog has revealed to me many areas where I've been blind to my entitlements...or rather, society's built-in entitlements. That aside, she also works damn hard at everything she does, and shares her travel adventures (especially what she gets to eat!), and all of this means that I look forward to her posts and root for her endlessly on the interwebs :)

We chatted a bit, as much as we could; the store was kinda busy and she had to get home. But we got to meet in person!! Really made my day!

Before I knew it the shift was over. And back home, Jameson had two pieces of amazing news!

1 - His masters degree arrived in the mail! He's going to get it framed :)

2- While he was holding his degree and pondering what opportunities he could now apply for with it, his phone rang. It was Carnival Cruises, inviting him to interview with them for a music production position!!! He applied for this job over a month ago, really wanted it, and was elated to finally hear back from them today!! I am SO EXCITED for him!!

Of course, we have both had bad luck and let-downs when it comes to exciting interviews/auditions, so my excitement and hope are tempered with bracing myself for the aftermath if he gets rejected. But at least he's got an interview and a chance. This job would take him to Miami, either a few days a week or we'd have to move there (we need more details.) This is actually a factor in our favor, because being touring musicians with no children or pets, we are more flexible than most when it comes to relocating. But again, we need to wait and see.

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Saturday, I was up at 8 to type this post and harvest my jalapenos.

I'm making cowboy candy! It's just jalapenos boiled in sugar and spices, and it tastes fantastic as a topping for eggs, sandwiches, etc. Think spicy pepper jam. Good stuff.

In firefly petunia news, one of my cuttings (the smallest one, that I started out in a dish of water) has survived and is now growing exponentially!! I will repot it before going on tour, and would like to give it as a gift to my Aunt. She has always been so supportive of me, and I'd love for her to have my first cutting from this rare plant.

It glows very nicely, though being so small it's hard to get my camera to focus on it :p

When Jameson went to the gym I worked on transcription modules, then hit the grocery before lunch.
After lunch I practiced and then made the cowboy candy.

Sugar, apple cider vinegar, chili powder, garlic, celery seed, turmeric, and ginger.

The sliced jalapenos and garlic are added to the slightly thickened syrup.

The finished jars. I'm not water canning them, so they'll go in the fridge and last a month or so. We are supposed to wait a week before eating them, to let the flavors mingle. Yum!

Cleaned up after that, vacuumed and mopped the floors, and chilled for an hour. I ended up doing more transcription modules after dinner. I'm now more than halfway done.

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Sunday...I was up at 8 because there's so much to do :(
Would really like to sleep in one of these days and have eight hours of sleep.

The firefly petunia (the main plant) was the brightest I've ever seen it last night.
I had to put it on the floor so I could sleep!

This is the most blooms it's ever had too. I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible because once I go on tour it will probably have to live outside, it will not be getting full care, and I expect it to either die off or die completely. In fact tomorrow I'm probably taking another cutting, since I've promised the first one to my aunt.

Anyway I won't bore you with the rest of my day. In summary: typing this post, doing transcription modules, going out to get printer ink, installing said printer ink, getting cheap sushi for dinner, practicing Main Street Philharmonic stuff, and going to work the closing shift at the hat shop. "Today's hat" will appear in the next post since I have to post this before work tonight.

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Monday: A day off. I need to catch up on cleaning, take a petunia cutting, and other chores.

Tuesday: Hoping to take my transcription tests + closing shift at the hat shop.

Weds & Thurs: Days off. Jameson's Carnival Cruise interview. I might pick up some Papa Pals, and I plan to possibly make a batch of caramels and send them out just so I can check it off my To-Do list. Definitely making dinner one of those nights. And definitely expect to be taking the transcription onboarding tests by then.

Monday I received some onboarding stuff for transcription and got started on that, then slammed down breakfast, then called someone at NETworks and left the most awkward voicemail in the world asking if I could break away from the tour on 11/25 to attend the Disney overnight rehearsal. I felt it needed to be a phone call so that I could adequately explain the situation and answer any questions. But the guy didn't answer, so I had to leave a message and then follow up with an email trying to explain myself anyway.

Having to ask for accommodation right off the bat terrifies me. The fearmongering part of my brain insists that they'll decide I'm more trouble than I'm worth and find someone else for the gig. But the logical part of my brain insists that's unrealistic. I hope the logical part is right.

I'd meant to make a nice fish dinner but that bubble was popped when I drove all the way to Fresh Market and they didn't have halibut OR a good substitute for it; the nearest Publix didn't either; and a check of Whole Paycheck's inventory showed that even THEY didn't have any, not even a thick cod fillet. Is halibut seasonal? I never knew. So I threw up my hands and got frozen pollock and fries. Lame, but oh well.

Back home I practiced Elf, chatted with my Aunt on the phone, and had a brief onboarding with the transcription company QA guy. He was super nice and informative. I found out that I WILL be able to take this transcription job on tour with me!! Excellent!!

Jameson had Hooligans rehearsal in the evening, and up until he left I sat down with a cup of tea and tried to get my life together. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed but making lists is very helpful for seeing that, yes, I CAN handle all of these things if I do them a little at a time.

My current To-Do before going on tour:

Complete transcription training (6 hours) and the two tests, and start the job (20 hours per week max.)
Learn Elf music including mute changes BUT! Be prepared to receive and learn a new orchestration in October.
Continue upkeep on Main Street Philharmonic memorized music in case they call before tour starts.
Confirm that I can attend Disney Candlelight rehearsal in November while on tour, then buy flight tickets for that.
Continue working at the hat shop through 10/14.
Make plans for firefly petunia, banana tree, and other plant care while I'm gone. This includes a watering and fertilizing schedule, and making a trunk support for the banana tree.
Make "cowboy candy" because the jalapenos are almost ready!
Make a batch of caramels to send to people (you promised!)
Go through personal belongings and take unneeded items to the thrift store.
If the transcription job works out, list and sell the equipment that you bought for the digital reporting job.
Buy, wrap, and store as many Christmas and birthday presents as you can now since you'll be on the road for the holidays this year.
Plan pumpkin carving and seed roasting with Jameson before going on tour.
Take car for service and clean it inside and out in preparation for storage.
Pack for tour. Includes buying anything needed and planning for items like extra mutes, transcription equipment, etc.
Once packing is done, clean the guest bedroom in preparation for Jameson's parent's visit.
Book a massage and haircut.

That's about all I can think of right now, there's definitely more than that involving cleaning and yard work and cooking/baking things for Jameson. But you get the idea. I have from now until the end of October to do all of this, so it'll get done bit by bit.

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Tuesday, fertilized the firefly petunia. It's looking great after resuming indoor life. It's gotten pretty big!

And of course still glows softly every night.

After breakfast I did laundry, ran the dishwasher, folded the laundry, put away the dishes, and worked on my first transcription training modules. Additionally the banana trees, one with fruit and one with a new flower, are BOTH leaning, so I really needed to get that tree support ASAP. You can see a banana flower coming in on the second tree, and the first tree is actually touching that flower, interfering with it's path. I needed to get them a bit apart.

I went to Lowes and ended up with two very thick 8-foot poles...bamboo would have been preferable and PVC would have been cheaper, but there was no bamboo and I was worried that PVC would be too slippery. I got the poles home and immediately realized they were too short; I should have gotten the 10-foot (if there were 12-foot I hadn't seen 'em.) Ah well. You are supposed to put the "x" directly under the banana fruiting stem but since the poles are too short I did it further down. I think it will still prevent the tree from falling, though it may not help the fruit stem if that decides to break.

You can see that the second banana flower now has room to drop next to the fruiting tree, instead of being obstructed.

From another angle.

I put my whole body weight on the poles to get them in the ground, but it's sandy soil back there so not sure if it'll be enough the next time it rains. We will see. The tree is still leaning but it's not, like, imperative that it be vertical, just that it not collapse.

After lunch I practiced, Jameson went to his first Hooligans performance, I filled out new tour paperwork. Still no word on whether I'm allowed to separate from the tour for that Disney rehearsal but I got an employee handbook that seems to have a provision for buyouts (an option to travel separately from tour) and this puts me at ease.

Eventually it was time for work.
Today's hat:

I've been away from the hat shop for three days, and since then we've gotten a pile of multicolored berets. I've never worn a beret before but as soon as I walked in my coworker plopped one onto my head, so in the spirit of trying new things I kept it on. Not really the hat for me, but fun!

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Wednesday I woke with a blazing headache, likely from the barometric pressure/humidity. It is INTENSELY humid right now, fluxing between 96% and over 100% (yes, that's possible) so a headache is not surprising.

Breakfast, packing lunch and dinner, and finally buying flight tickets for my Disney rehearsal on 11/25. In the Elf paperwork that I got yesterday, the provision for buyouts means that the tour DOES allow people to handle their own personal travel. This tells me that they have no reason to prevent me from going to that rehearsal, as long as I show up on time for sound check the following day. It'll be a VERY long day, but I've done it before and can do it again :)

After that I did a big chunk of transcription training, then went to work for my afternoon shift.

Today's hat:

"It looks like a Cinnabon," said Jameson.
Another customer said, "I can't tell if that's multiple hats, or one hat?"
Both of them have a point!

It was a normal-if-slow shift. My boss gifted me another shift tomorrow, which I accepted but haggled to leave an hour early so I can get to Epcot before 5pm and watch Jameson perform. Excited for that!

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Thursday: Transcription training, hat shop shift, then going to Epcot to see the Hooligans (and Jameson) perform!

Friday: Night shift at the hat shop.

Saturday: A day off. Possibly making "cowboy candy."

Sunday: ???

The firefly petunia was glowing mainly from the leaves and stems last night. I like when it does that :)

Jameson told me all about his haunted house adventures when he got home (around 2am, good GRIEF, he's a night owl for sure!) and said the Insidious house was amazing. Also that he didn't have to wait more than 50 minutes for any of the houses, meaning next time we need to make sure we don't book our trip on a holiday weekend. He and I were only able to see three haunted houses because of the crowds; by contrast he and his friends were able to see seven houses plus a stage show last night. Jealous!

Despite being awoken at 2am I was up at 8am for breakfast. It had rained hard last night so I took the opportunity to fertilize the bananas while the soil was still wet. They are looking good, though they may be ready to harvest while I'm on tour!

The second tree also has a banana flower now!! But I suspect it's coming too late in the year to bear fruit. We'll see.

The rest of the day was a day off. I hope that doesn't make me lazy.
I worked on Foodie Finds, watched anime, wrote a letter to my grandma, received a mute from a friend who's letting me borrow it, ate snacks, and generally WAS lazy. Working at the hat shop is not difficult, but it is 5-7 hours of standing and moving around and, well, WORK after all. For dinner I made us Dude Diet Cheeseburger Fusilli which we've enjoyed many times before.

Before bed I received onboarding paperwork for Elf. Once that's processed I'll get an official contract. Eeeeee!

Near the end of the onboarding paperwork was the question, "Is there anything else that you'd like tour management to know?"
I said, "I am willing to make and eat Buddy the Elf's Breakfast Spaghetti."

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Friday, I slept poorly again. Latent tension or anxiety I'm sure.

Jameson got his official offer and schedule for Jollywood Nights. The event is being extended an extra week this year which is great, more money for him and more enjoyment for guests.

I got my official Elf contract offer and payroll setup paperwork, and filled them out right away.
It's official. Looks like we both have our holiday gigs lined up!
Here are the cities for Elf on Tour. You can see dates and get tickets HERE.

The week of Thanksgiving Elf happens to be in Milwaukee, which is very close to Jameson's parents. He's hoping to fly up to visit, and then we can all be together and they can see the show. That would be awesome, I really hope it works out!

Then came the cringey task of letting Main Street Philharmonic and Candlelight know that I'm no longer available for Nov/Dec. I feel bad about it, but if all they're able to offer me is substitute work (as opposed to actual scheduled performance dates,) I'm sorry but I can't just wait around hoping for calls from Disney that may never come. Hopefully they can understand that.

And in October I will give two weeks notice at the hat shop. Thankfully none of those people follow or check my social media (to my knowledge) so I should be able to share the news online without serious consequences.

Anyway. Spent the morning filling out the paperwork and contract. Jameson went to the gym and for a haircut, and I went to the bagel shop and to Skechers for lightweight black sneakers for tour. I'd meant to practice but air-tromboned instead.

Today's hat:

I hadn't planned to wear another cloche, but the sun hat I'd picked out wasn't right.
It turned out to be a good choice because just a few minutes into my shift a woman walked in, saw my hat, and immediately lost her absolute mind over it! She not only bought the hat I was wearing, but also two more Kathy Jeanne hats and FOUR hat boxes, for a total sale of $600. I was the hero of the shift lol.

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Saturday, I received an email from the transcription job that I've been approved to start training!
I'm very nervous about it, especially with the tour coming up, but am going to plow ahead and do my best. I could certainly use the money and the new skills set.

Disney's Candlelight coordinator also got back to me, and said that if I want to remain on the call list despite my unavailability I need to attend at least one of the three overnight rehearsals. The only one I could possibly make would be on 11/25 because that's a travel day on the tour. And to make it I'd have to fly from Newark to Orlando, rehearse overnight from 6pm-3am, then basically go straight to the airport and fly to Milwaukee in time for the afternoon sound check and evening show. It's....a lot. I'll have to see if NETworks will be cool with it.

Things I did after breakfast: filled and sent transcription paperwork; practiced the 2nd act of Elf; dropped some pants off at the tailor for hemming; got wings and hot sauce for dinner. I'd meant to do more but the tailor took longer than expected. There's a lot to do before I go on tour such as cleaning, preparing my car for storage, prepping the plants for my absence, packing, learning the music of course, and gathering some Christmas presents in advance. Not to mention the hat shop, starting the transcription job, and maintaining my memorized Main Street Philharmonic music. There's plenty of time, but also two months can fly by quickly so I gotta stay on top of stuff.

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Sunday I had taken the day off from the hat shop because our friend Alan (a sound guy that we worked with on Ringling Bros) was doing a Queen tribute show in Melbourne and we wanted to meet up!

During the day I practiced my entire part for Elf, washed my trombone, and made us some air fryer bagels as a mid-meal snack.

We found the recipe on TikTok but it's pretty simple:

   - Slice a bagel like you would a pie, in eight chunks/"slices", making sure NOT to cut all the way through the bottom.
   - Fill the cuts with cream cheese of your choice.
   - Brush with a butter glaze.
   - Air fryer at 400°F/204°C for 8 minutes.
   - Let cool a bit and enjoy!

Here's a plain bagel with garlic herb cream cheese and parmesan butter brush, before and after air frying.
(We also brushed it with butter again after I took this pic.)

And here's a cinnamon raisin bagel with honey cinnamon cream cheese and a cinnamon sugar butter brush.

Both were fantastic! Different than toasted bagels because they were more crisp on the outside, the cheese got crisped on the outside too, and the insides of the bagel were soft and saturated with liquid and flavor from the butter and cream cheese. This was super easy to do. I can think of many other great combos like chocolate chip bagel and strawberry cream cheese; blueberry bagel and lemon or strawberry cream cheese: cheddar jalapeno bagel with chipotle or BBQ cream cheese. Etc etc.

We drove the 1.5 hours to Melbourne and retrieved Alan for dinner at a burrito place together. He seems to be doing well, in fact has hardly changed at all since we last saw him seven years ago! I don't have a pic but Jameson took one (he's asleep as I type this) so may post one later. We got caught up on our doings. He's having fun with the Queen tour and says they're extremely popular in France.

After dinner he took us backstage to meet the Freddie Mercury impersonator, who turned out to be an older Scottish dude with a VERY thick accent and a fantastically crass sense of humor! He and Jameson yapped it up, swapping stories about the time they met Brian May or the time they've performed Queen's works. It was clear they'd hit it off, and later Alan sent the guy's contact info so they'll be able to geek out even more haha.

This was the tribute band's last show and it ended up being a great audience despite Melbourne having sort of an "older demographic." Lots of standing up to dance and cheer just like at a rock concert :) Jameson is a Queen superfan so I was worried he wouldn't like them, but he had loads of good things to say (some critiques, of course, but he said he was nitpicking.) I'm not a Queen superfan, but could tell that the impersonator had put LOADS of research and effort into emulating Freddie Mercury. He was very impressive, and the band sounded great.

Afterward it was load out for Alan, so we waited a bit while he packed his equipment and then went outside to hug goodbye. It was very cool of Alan to take us backstage, get us tickets to the show, and spend time with us! Glad we got to see him again :)

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I completely forgot to post this blog before the concert last night, so am speed-typing the last bits this morning.
Our pool solar heater broke last week, and the pool guys came to look at it this morning while Jameson was sleeping, and said they didn't have the right part (I swear he took and sent a picture of the exact part -_-) They'll try again next week.

Today: practice, starting transcription training, calling NETworks to see if I can go to that Disney rehearsal, making dinner, Jameson has a rehearsal for a Hooligans gig at Epcot.

Tuesday + Wednesday: Hat shop shifts. I'll also practice, and will probably have more transcription training.

Thursday: Another day off, not sure what will happen.

On Sunday night Jameson and I went to Universal's Halloween Horror Nights!

A good time was had. We started with dinner at Cowfish Grill. Jameson got his usual bento box and I tried the cold sweet potato noodle salad. It was very good but I would've liked a hot sauce option for it.

We both had one boozy drink, and splurged on boozy milkshakes (I'm lactose intolerant so this is HIGHLY unusual for me, but YOLO) He got a banana peanut butter one, I went with a moonshine mudslide. They were wonderful :)

Now it's gonna be hard to ever go to Cowfish again without getting a shake!

From there we entered the park. I didn't take pictures.

It was absolutely PACKED in there. Jameson was terribly annoyed because there were SO many high school kids! Probably because it was a holiday weekend they were out in droves. We only had one bad experience, a gaggle of young boys who were play-fighting in front of us in an 80-minute queue for a haunted house. They were extremely loud, rowdy, jostling everyone around them, farting and making loud gagging/heaving noises...adolescent boy stuff. Tolerating 80 minutes of that would be hard on anyone. After that no one bothered us...but Jameson continued to be annoyed by the mere presence of so many kids. I figure this is a sign that we are getting old and cantankerous.

We were able to do three haunted houses: the Quiet Place house, the Eternal Bloodlines house, and a candy-themed house. The Quiet Place house was of course based on the scary movie series; we haven't kept up on it and only saw the first movie, so this was our first time seeing the actual monsters (they were revealed in later movies.) The jump scares and staging were very high quality in this house; in our experience the "branded" houses often have a larger budget for creating accurate scenes and such.

Eternal Bloodlines was interesting; the plot was that Van Helsing's sister was out to avenge her brother by killing the vampires who killed him, and she enlisted the help of other monsters to do it! Bride-Of-Frankenstein, for example, popped out at one point with a stake screaming about vengeance :D We weren't told the plot, it was given through the acting in the haunted house, and if we could figure it out just from that they did an amazing job! We couldn't figure out why there were so many mummies in that house though lol. There was one in almost every room and no real reason given.

The candy-themed house was just plain fun. Taffy made of human entrails, people dissolving in vats of sugar, insane candymakers and murderous factory workers, stuff like that. They were also pumping candy smells into the house. This wasn't really "scary" but it was very much fun, and we enjoyed the creativity of it :)

We walked through several scare zones on the street, including the obligatory "Chainsaw Gang" and "Zombie Hordes," all well done. Our favorite was a medieval torture scare zone, featuring plague doctors coming at you with scalpels; people entrapped in iron maidens and breaking wheels; and even a stage show where someone got "beheaded" in front of an audience!

Before leaving we walked through a souvenir shop but didn't buy anything.
Fun spooky night :)

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Monday was Labor Day so Jameson spend most of it chilling out and playing games with his friends.

I also took it easy but practiced Elf up until the entr'acte, then worked on Foodie Finds.
Since this will be for my personal use, you can see it HERE. I'm still working on it and there are parts copy/pasted just to keep the formatting, if that makes sense. But it should be finished by the end of this week.

I haven't been given a real contract yet so maybe it's too optimistic to plan, but I'm doing it anyway because it gives me something to feel excited and motivated about.

Today's hat:

Jameson says it looks like Lady Dimitrescu's hat from Resident Evil lol. Though hers is not red, and though I'm not 12ft tall with massive bewbs, I can see what he means! I had to take the photo at a sharp angle like that because the brim was putting my whole face in shadow under the one weak bulb back there.

It was a pretty normal shift, not as busy as expected for Labor Day but first of all people have work/school tomorrow, and secondly the main crowd for the drone show happened to be across the lake instead of on our side so we didn't get the post-show rush. Oh well.

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Tuesday, still tired but I let myself sleep in until 8:30.

Worked on Foodie Finds and practiced Elf and Disney stuff, had lunch, went to Target for cheap sushi and random household things, chilled out until it was time for work.

Today's hat (yes I'm making a stupid face, so what):

It's a steampunk novelty hat with goggles, feathers, a faux stopwatch, clock gears, chains, and a sort of trailing veil attached. We also have these in black and grey/silver, and in a "marlow" top hat shape. Since they're novelties they fit rather poorly, and I had to take it off several times as it was squeezing my forehead pretty hard and giving me a headache.

It was a rainy day, but despite that we met our sales goal which is nice as we get a little bonus. I also got to spend about two hours running the sock kiosk at the end of the night. The kiosk is fully outdoors and very humid at night, but much more relaxing than the hat shop. I appreciated the change of pace. And also used my employee discount to buy six pairs of socks (there's a "buy 5 get 1 free" promo right now) for birthday and Christmas presents for people.

We got a new shipment of Kathy Jeanne cloche hats. A lot of them are rather strange colors, and put me in mind of Dr. Seuss. I want to wear all of these except that pea-soup-and-mustard one, I find those colors hideous and can't image what I could wear that could make that look good lol. But the others are nice! If nothing else, I'll bet an off-white shirt would work with most of them...a black shirt for the "ladybug" one.

We were a bit shorthanded and ended up closing late, so I didn't get home until after midnight. That's retail for you.

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Wednesday I was very tired, barely slept.
Packed myself a dinner to bring to work, was unproductive for most of the morning, and chose not to practice in order to conserve energy. Eventually ate lunch and got ready for work.

Today's hat:

It's the cranberry-colored cloche pictured above. Yes I know I promised to give the cloche hats a break, but then we got five new HANDMADE ones :p It was an extremely slow sales day, the slowest day since I've started working here. When the store was empty we restocked, organized hats, cleaned, polished sunglasses, etc., but after a while there really was nothing left to do, so we stood around and chatted to kill time. There were a few small rushes and I managed to sell a leather cowboy hat and a Panama, but nothing else of note.

On the way home I stopped for groceries. Jameson was at Universal again with friends, and he should be able to get into the Insidious haunted house so I'm looking forward to his critique of it. The rest of my night was doing some basic chores and then relaxing with a cup of tea.

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Thursday: a day off. I'll practice, make dinner, and maybe clean/garden.

Friday: night shift at the hat shop.

Saturday: a day off, more tedium.

Sunday: Going to see a friend at a Queen tribute show in Melbourne.

I woke up later than usual, must have needed a little extra sleep.

After breakfast Jameson wanted to go for a walk so I joined him. We talked about this and that, and speculated about a house in our neighborhood where the mail and trash have been piling up, the car parked in the driveway has not moved in months...and we're starting to wonder if we, or someone, should call the cops for a wellness check. A younger guy used to live there, or that's who we saw coming and going. We don't really know what to think but, if the next time we walk past the house nothing has changed we might call it in.

Back home we cleaned up and I practiced while Jameson packed an overnight bag. He's celebrating a friend's birthday in Miami, and will be taking the new Brighline train from MCO! He had a 40% off coupon for the ride, so splurged on the all-inclusive which includes a free lounge before the trip. It's about a four hour train ride, and I'm very excited to see how it goes for him! He plans to spend most of the day on the beach with friends, then they'll go out for a fancy dinner. Glad he's getting a daycation!!

For dinner I made us THIS RECIPE from Half-Baked Harvest, crispy buffalo chicken.
It was VERY good, and I'll probably make it again, in fact I'd like to try this breading on some air fryer wings!

(photo from Half-Baked Harvest, mine looked just as good as this and it was so easy to make!)

Jameson and I were relaxing in front of the TV when an unexpected TOUR OFFER fell out of the sky and landed in my inbox!

Yep, Elf the Musical!

The tour is through NETworks Presentations, whom I've only worked with once before and a very long time ago (circa 2010!) Incidentally that was ALSO a seasonal holiday/Christmas tour called Handel's Messiah Rocks. It was an abject failure as a show, but the soundtrack was actually quite good and won two Emmys. CLICK HERE for a compilation of some of the songs.

Ever since that tour in 2009, I have consistently applied for every available NETworks touring opportunity...and have never once received a response. Until today. Never give up, kids :p

I'm going to accept the offer. As usual, the pros of touring out weigh the cons and include gaining musical experience, networking, and of course, adventure. It's also a chance to visit with family, as the route has several NC and PA cities. And any time there's paid work in music available, I'm still gonna take it.

The biggest con is that I won't get to spend the holidays with Jameson :( I will get Christmas Eve and Day off so will be home for that, but that doesn't give me time for baking cookies, picking out a tree, or the other activities that tend to make that holiday special. The next-biggest con is that I won't be available for any Disney work this holiday season. That said, they DID choose to sublist me once again after I gave them my full availability, so if I look elsewhere for work it shouldn't be a surprise.This tour is so short that I can't (and won't) take time away from it for Disney like I did with My Fair Lady. Finally, I'll have to quit my hat shop job after only three months of employment. They'll get two weeks notice, and I'll try to do a great job so that they'd consider taking me back after the tour is over.

Anyway. I can't tell you how shocked I was to open my email and randomly have a sudden job offer.

I spent the rest of the night in a sort of bewildered shock. I still have the hat shop and Papa Pals and other stuff to do...but now I gotta think about being packed and ready to travel by October. Wild.

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The coordinator sent my contract summary right at midnight, so of course I barely slept because all I could think about was going back on tour! Jameson was tossing and turning next to me too, excitement for his trip.

We both got up early and I hugged him goodbye, then dusted our bookshelf (it's very large and cluttered so I only do this 1-2x per year) and vacuumed. Went to Marshall's hoping to find a few cheap work shirts but no luck. Ate lunch, received and email from the Elf coordinator letting me know that the orchestra parts are being reorchestrated so they won't be sending them until a few weeks before tour starts. So instead I pilfered it from a previous trombonist (this is why it's good to network), and got to work indexing it on my iPad and finding a bootleg video to practice with. Lucky for me, a clarinetist on the 2014 national tour took a full pit recording of the show!! This is so super rare, and the absolute best practice track! I added timestamps to about 1/3rd of the video and had to quit because I got tired and needed a mental break, but listening to the music and seeing that it fit with my part was a big relief.

Today's hat. I wore this specific shirt with this specific hat in mind.
The purples didn't *exactly* match, but I think it's all right.

Of all the hats I've worn so far, this one got the most compliments and exclamations from both men and women. So due to popularity this combo will probably make a repeat appearance. It turned out to be a hard sales day overall. I did sell more fascinators than usual, and a new cream-colored felt fedora (that is now my favorite fedora in the shop, it's quite beautiful.)

Quick Story: One of the fascinators that I sold was to a little girl. She wanted a green one for a Halloween costume. I asked what the costume was, and she described it: she's gonna be a pumpkin, and the green fascinator is her "leaves." That's cool but check this out: her friends are ALSO going as pumpkins, wearing hair accessories like green fascinators or bows or scrunchies. And they're gonna get a green jump rope, and run it through their green hairpieces...and that will be their "vine" that they are growing from!!

How adorable is that? And what a cool costume idea!

Back home it was a kinda strange going to sleep without Jameson, but I managed.
It looked like he'd had a nice dinner with friends and a lovely day on the beach. Wonder how burnt he'll be when he gets back!

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Saturday I was up very early for no reason.

Coffee and fertilized the petunia, then worked on Elf timestamps and practiced the part for the first time. I can only describe it as "manic," almost circus-like with a lot of vamps and cuts based on what's happening on stage. But that's a fun challenge, and it's probably the style of music that I'm most familiar with at this point. After lunch I felt tired and sort of dozed, packed a lunch and started working on a "Foodie Finds" for Elf.

If you have followed this blog for my previous tours (Tootsie and My Fair Lady) you'll know that I've done a food recommendations group for my coworkers on tour, called Megan's Foodie Finds. This time I'm just doing it for me, firstly because the tour is only ten cities long and secondly because this is a new production company for me and I don't have the internal resources to promote a company-wide group here. It feels nice, actually, to just make a selfish list and not have to think about what others might like :p

After that I napped, then drove to work.

Today's hat:

Peanut butter themed again, this time with a tan cloche to go with my peanut butter + banana shirt.
I'm taking a cloche hiatus after this haha. I love them but need a break!

Disney Springs was absolutely PACKED today, because of the holiday weekend and because for once it didn't rain and because it's the final weekend for the drone show. It was so busy that at times the shop felt claustrophobic and overwhelming, but I hung in there. Sold three fascinators to one lady, and cowboy hats to every single member of a five-person family (I'm talking LEATHER cowboy hats, $$$), plus a bunch of other hats throughout the night. My keyholder supervisors were right pleased with me and even included a note in their nightly email to corporate to say that I'd done a good job :)

Back home Jameson had returned from his day trip to Miami and told me all about it! He said riding the Brightline there and back had been the best part of the trip. He showed me pictures of the new train stations and lounges, which looked spacious and included snacks and free drinks/booze! He also got free snacks and lunches for the four hour ride, and said that even with shared seating he had plenty of leg room and working wifi for the entire trip. The train departed and arrived on time both times, and his ticket included a voucher for Uber rides to and from his hotel! Overall it sounded like a great experience, and I'm now looking for excuses to take a train ride to Miami lol. He said the birthday celebration was all right, but he's not really a beachy guy and some of his friends like to bar hop more than he does, so the highlight was really the train.

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Sunday I was up way too early again. Having such trouble sleeping lately too, not sure why :(

After breakfast and once Jameson was up and about I practiced for quite a while.
Then did some research on Detroit, as it's on the route list for Elf and I've never been there before.
Gotta get an authentic slice of pizza, but will probably pass on a coney dog.

Later in the evening Jameson and I went to Universal for Halloween Horror Nights, but that will be in the next post since we'll get back too late to post about it tonight.

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Monday thru Wednesday: Hat shop, two closing shifts and a day shift. Probably won't pick up any Papa Pals this time.

Sunday's Hat:

Yes, I've worn the baseball cap version of this bejeweled bucket hat, with the same shirt.

We got a load of new cloche hats for fall. Cloches are good on me so I'll definitely try them all.

The shift was "normal," nothing to report. I helped to close the store...Carter (keyholder) went to the sock kiosk to help them close, Jordan (keyholder) finalized our drawers and re-sorted most of the sized hats, and I swept, mopped, wiped the mirrors and windows, and helped with hat re-sorting.

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Monday I checked on all of my plants. Will have to bring the pineapple and lemon in under the overhang of our roof for the next few days, they've had more rain than they'd like. It feels like the bananas have been growing forever; I keep checking them to see if they've started yellowing but so far they're all still green. I wonder how much longer it'll be. (Edit: Have looked back, and it's only been about two months! They've got at least 2-3 months to go!)

The petunia is not doing well outdoors, it's yellowing and wilting so I'm bringing it back inside. Very annoyed because I've been following "internet advice" about how to care for it, and every time I take that advice my plant seems to get worse. Most people are probably thinking of their own climates and needs when giving advice, not considering, you know...FLORIDA.

Today's hat is one of the new felt cloche hats in grey and black. Sadly it's not a great fit but I do like the style anyway.

The big excitement today was a guy who bought two Panama hats from me, then came back later and bought three more! Each Panama hat in our store is AT LEAST $120, most range from $180-$300. And he casually bought five. Needless to say we reached and exceeded our sales goal primarily due to this Panama Hat Mogul.

I also discovered my pet peeve about working at the hat shop: large organized groups (bridal showers, birthday parties, etc) packing into the shop not to buy anything, but to have a free photo op.

We had two such groups last night and despite my best effort to smile and put on a good face I could not have been more angry and annoyed. It's between 8-20 people cramming into our tiny shop, all wearing matching "I'm with the Birthday Girl" shirts or those stupid bridal shower sashes or whatever; then going to the shelves and grabbing the zaniest hats they can find, ripping the delicate handmade fascinators off their clips and damaging them, throwing hats on the floor or on random shelves after each photo. Taking up a massive amount of floor space to do photo ops, forcing everyone to squeeze around them. Twenty grown-ass adult women, screaming and squeeing and making duck faces for the camera. And then they leave the store in an absolute mess that we have to clean up while actual customers are waiting to be helped.

"It's my special day!" is not an excuse to devolve into a selfish pig.

When the second group like this came in last night (a bunch of teens, for someone's birthday) I stayed as far on the opposite side of the store as possible and made myself busy. Not sure if my coworkers noticed my avoidance, and I don't really care. I signed an employment contract to sell hats and provide excellent CUSTOMER service, not to babysit. If someone's there to shop or ask directions or even complain about something, I'll always be kind, and I'll be happy to clean up after people. But I'm not going to hover around these groups who are obviously NOT shopping and force a smile while they damage the merch right in front of my face for a photo op.

The social expectation, I'm sure, is for us to be good little retail slaves, bend over, and take it. But I think everyone who has followed this blog knows that when it comes to socially-expected groveling, sugar-coating, and spoon-feeding, I'm pretty much the worst.
Anyway. Majority of the night was fine and writing about this gets it off my chest for the moment.

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Tuesday I was up early for Papa Pals. Both visits were at the same memory care facility that I visited last week.

( Papa Pal Visits )

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

On the way home I stopped for groceries, treating myself to these huge muscadine grapes.

We had a wild muscadine in the backyard when I was little, and my sisters and I would eat them while playing outside. They were small, tough, and chewy, with tart fruit and sweet but tannin-filled skins that made one's mouth feel funny. But they tasted great and I loved the chewy texture of them. These are not as tart or chewy as my childhood grapes, but the skins taste the same and they definitely give me nostalgia to eat :)

For dinner I made keto empanadas again, in which the empanada dough is replaced with ground chicken and filled with whatever-you-feel. Last time I followed a recipe that was jalapeno popper inspired; this time I invented my own "pizza poppers," filling each one with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, little mushroom pieces, and pepperoni. Coated them in parmesan cheese and spices, and air friend 'em. They were pretty good but next time I want to season the chicken better.

Before bed I got a message from a coworker asking if I'd cover his shift. Yes! That would bring me up to 29 hours for the week and I could use the money.

Now that the petunia is back inside I'm doing some photo ops again :)

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Wednesday I woke to find that my coworker had taken his shift back so I was stuck with my day off again. Not that I don't appreciate a day off, too. I'd planned to cram in all sorts of chores and some exercise, but it was thundering by lunchtime so I practiced trombone for longer than usual, watched the Cubs game with Jameson (it was a riveting one,) and kind of didn't do much all day.

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Thursday: The plan is to go for a walk, practice, shop for cheap shirts and fall scents at Marshalls, and cook dinner.

Friday: Jameson is going to a friend's party in Miami for the night, so while he's gone I'll dust our bookshelf and vacuum, practice, night shift at the hat shop.

Saturday: No plans except night shift at the hat shop.

Woke up to glorious, glorious rain and a temperature below 90. Hooray!

I was scheduled for a rehearsal day at Disney, and it was doing an all-day drizzle when I arrived. We went out for the first set and as soon as the door opened there was a peal of thunder. Nope! We all piled back downstairs. We ate our packed lunches, and I played through my Halloween stuff. The guys played Rochut etudes or drum exercises, watched YouTube, chatted.

I got caught up with Keith (full time trombonist) and he’s doing well. Most of the guys are. They were able to do the second set which included two songs that I had wanted to record for choreo purposes, so that was great for me.

And the Fall decor is up, which makes me feel a bit nostalgic and also wistful for cooler temperatures.

For the parade they did the “dog bone” which is a shortened route that is shaped like a dog bone, hence the name. I placed myself at the “When You Wish” stopping point. Two of the trumpets have found me in this photo lol.

Also took a look at the spooktacular merch on Main Street. Tempting stuff! Sent a lot of pics to Jameson’s mom. (Reminder that you can enlarge images if you want a closer look. This is a tiny fraction of all the spooky merch in the shops.)

I was supposed to do the 3rd set but it got rained out, so instead I practiced and read my book and showed off pics of my glowing petunia to the guys. Overall I was a waste of space today, but am VERY grateful for, essentially, the free money and free Fall vibes. It must be nice to be a full time member of this band.

Back home, dinner and chill.
Jameson got an email from Disney's Candlelight Processional offering him a performance date.
I got an email from Disney's Candlelight Processional informing me that I'd be sublisted again, to fill in if a regular member is out sick or wants to be with their family. It would be lying to say I'm not frustrated and feeling inadequate, for having part-time work and gig economy contracted work instead of a "real job." But I need to remember to be grateful to have these opportunities at all, because many people do not. And if it's hard for me as a 40-year-old to be earning the same wage I earned in high school, imagine being a high schooler in 2024 with 2024 prices, and earning 2006 wages :(

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I was still in a mood on Friday morning re: always a last-resort musician and never a first call, so while Jameson was at the gym I dusted and then mopped so aggressively that I broke the Swiffer and will have to get us a new one (well, the truth is I got it jammed between a desk and the kitchen cabinets and yanked it free instead of being patient, and the head snapped off.)

At Disney Springs before going to work I swung by Sephoria for a sample-sized Commodity Milk perfume. I don't wear makeup or have any skin care routines, so have not been in a Sephoria before and don't care to go again. I've simply got heartache for Autumn Things, and am hoping that this perfume smells like chai. And as a Disney Springs worker I get a discount that makes it worth trying.

Today's hat:

You needed to see the shirt to understand why I chose the peanut butter-colored hat :p
I got just as many complements on this humble bucket hat as on the fancy derby hat last week. Just goes to show that the right hat at the right time is always a good fashion choice haha.

It started off moderately busy, but a big thunderstorm rolled through and cleared everyone out pretty quickly between 7-9pm. It rained very hard for quite a while. Though the rain was nice it made the night seem to drag on; I'd rather it be at least a little busy to make the time go faster. Though I did have time to notice, for the first time, that our lights lining the ceiling are fashioned from bowler hats!!

Highlights of the night included selling a Panama hat for $180, and my boss dropping in and telling me that Kathy Jeanne is working on my hat, they'll send it to our store so I can buy it at the employee discount + contribute toward our sales goals, and that we are just waiting for the owner of Chapel Hats to see if he'd be willing to go in on a new "interchangeable trims" product line with Kathy Jeanne. Either way, I'll have a hat with removable trim which I think will come in very handy. There are the two custom trims; then there are also elastic trims in the store that I could put on it; and then there are the fascinators which may be pinned to it. I intend to get a lot of use (and marketing for misc products) out of this hat.

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Saturday, I couldn't sleep so was up at 7:30am for no reason.
Made iced tea, swept the front walkway, took care of the petunia and cuttings.
When Jameson woke up I washed and changed our sheets. Made a quick trip to Target for a new Swiffer.

Watched The Boy and the Heron, finally. It was hurtful to watch. I suppose it's a lot of symbolism of grief, and processing personal trauma. It came across very "What Dreams May Come," which if you've ever seen that I'll bet you were only able to watch it once, that's how painful THAT was.

Our friend Rebecca was in town, she's Head of Wardrobe with Feld Entertainment and a total bada$$.
(CLICK HERE to learn about our friend Rebecca)

She lived on the band's train car in our Ringling days (mid-2010s.) We have a lot of great memories together :)
Jameson and I picked her up and we went to dinner at The Stubborn Mule, all of us getting the prix fixe for $40 each. I decided to live it up and have two glasses of wine because "it's been a week," what with hospice visits and retail work and feeling low in the self-esteem department.

I had the Korean sticky ribs, ratatouille with rice, and chocolate cake. Ratatouille not pictured because it was just a mess of veggies over rice, it was tasty just not very photogenic.

The ribs, despite being a starter, were a half-rack! So I ate three and took three home. Can't wait to fight Jameson for them later :p

Cake was cake. Can't complain about chocolate!

We talked about ALL things: our past together in the circus, all of the countries Rebecca has traveled to with Feld shows, some drama and experiences she's had on those shows, spilling tea on what circus friends and family are up to these days. It was really good to connect with her, we haven't seen each other for YEARS, probably close to a decade! I'm annoyed that I didn't think to ask for a group photo before we parted ways. She's currently doing the new Feld show, called "Let's Dance!" It's still in rehearsals but there will be performances this coming weekend, I work but maybe Jameson can go.

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Sunday, I woke up feeling those two glasses of wine a bit but nothing some water won't fix.

Late breakfast and then practicing trombone and packing dinner for work.
I'd wanted to go for a walk but didn't get up early enough before the heat hit.
Picked up two Papa Pal visits for Tuesday, both at the same memory care facility I'd visited last Monday. I didn't see any for the hospice place this time.

Visit 1 is a dementia patient who's hard of hearing and likes walks, watching TV, and games.
Visit 2 is a mid-60s guy in a wheelchair who rolls around with a speaker and loves listening to music and chatting it up.

Not sure what to bring them but sure I'll think of something.

I'll be doing a closing shift at the hat shop tonight so Today's Hat will be in tomorrow's post.

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Monday: Probably a walk, closing shift at hat shop.
Tuesday: Papa Pal visits, possibly cooking dinner.
Wednesday: A day off, not sure what I'll do with it yet but probably chores.
Thursday: Also currently a day off.

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taz_39

June 2025

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Page generated Jun. 3rd, 2025 12:50 am

goofball on a train

(adventures of a touring musician)

Entries tagged with today's hat

My 2024 in Pictures

Hats Off, Seeds Out

Pre-Tour Panic

I Ain't Reading This. Not Enough Pictures

It's Easier to Breathe When It's Temperate Out

Need to Decompress? TOO BAD

October Memories, Looming Storm

Doing SO Much

Hats, Rat, Tuna Pat

Baby Turtle Pics You Guys

It's Fall Somewhere

Transcription for Days

I thought gardening was supposed to be relaxing

"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do." - Walt Disney

To-Don't

A Little Bit of A Lot of Things

Halloween Haunted Houses, Hats, Ho-Hum

They Don't Grow on Trees but They Do Fall from the Sky

Get Off My Lawn

What's 'Good Enough'

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June 2025

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