goofball on a train

Monday I had a lot of trouble sleeping.

In general I find that there's an adjustment period to living in hotels. It takes me a while to let go of tension, and let strange noises fall to the background, so that I can sleep through the night. So this is ok, just a bit annoying in the moment.

Regardless, I had a full day planned.

First was my self-administered rapid Covid test.
While the timer was counting that down I cooked my breakfast in the Itaki and scheduled a SudShare pickup.
There are laundromats here, but not within easy walking, and it was worth the extra money to me not to spend 2-3 hours of my day at a laundromat. The SudShare person couldn't pick up until afternoon, and then it started to pour. I had planned to walk to Wegman's and to Village Bakery for lunch, but had to scrap that and borrow one of the band's rental cars instead.

I drove through the rain to Wegman's, where I picked up my final groceries for Rochester. Mostly proteins.
Of course, as soon as I'd finished shopping I got an email saying that we'd be FLYING to Rochester instead of bussing.
Drat. The benefit of bussing is that you don't have to worry about luggage weight or leftover food, you can just bring it along to the next city.
Hopefully I didn't overbuy my groceries. We'll see.

Next was lunch at Village Bakery. I'd preordered my sandwich because they only make so much bread each day, and I wanted to guarantee myself a house-made roll. My sandwich was hot and fresh right when I got there.


I did a Build-Your-Own, using their Veggie Sandwich as a base.
Roasted eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms, balsamic red onion, and basil with mozzarella, to which I added egg whites and pesto on their house roll. It was very delicious but very messy because of all the juices from the veggies. I could easily make something like this at home. Will have to remember that.

I also bought a carrot cake cupcake and a vanilla bergamot kombucha to take home.

Back at the hotel I unpacked and updated my meal plan for the week as best I could, then ran downstairs to hand my laundry off to the SudShare person. Once that was done there was nothing keeping me at the hotel plus the rain had stopped, so I walked to two different thrift stores. Didn't find anything but it's always fun to look, and to get outside for a bit. I got a 3-mile walk in anyway.

Made a little TikTok update when I got back: CLICK HERE to watch

Then we got an updated hotel sheet, so I worked on updating MFF while sipping a glass of cheap wine.
When dinnertime rolled around I had some Greek yogurt and my cupcake.


It was good, but nothing to write home about. Having now made stabilized whipped cream myself, I felt that I could recognize gelatin in the frosting on this cupcake, and that it was gummy instead of smooth and creamy. All that said it was a nice treat, just didn't make my top ten.

The rest of my night was spent chilling out, watching Food Network remotely with Jameson, and planning for the week.

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Tuesday, I struggled with sleep again and woke up early.
Hopefully the next hotel is better.

Breakfast in the Itaki, then I cooked both of my fish meals because raw fish goes bad quickly and it'll last longer cooked.

Cod with capers, artichoke hearts, spinach, and butter sauce: CLICK HERE to watch

Teriyaki salmon with mushrooms and peppers: CLICK HERE to watch (wonder if I'll EVER get to embed video on DW)

We were called for rehearsal at 3, and mostly just gave support for the actors as they ran through things.

Somewhere in there I realized that my high heels (which I haven't worn for probably a decade) were rather LOUD.
Turns out, the heel rubbers had fallen out sometime, somewhere, without me noticing.
I shyly poked my head into Wardrobe and asked for help. They were so kind!
Not only did the Head of Wardrobe offer to repair my shoes, she also lent me a pair of nice black dance shoes for the meantime.
I'm very grateful. She has no professional requirement to work on my personal clothing. I'll have to find her a thank you gift.

Anyway, the opening night show was at 7:30.
We arrived in the pit to discover a goodie bag for each of us. How thoughtful!
I'm always surprised to be given gifts on opening night, though I guess it's custom.
This year we were given a Tootsie-logo umbrella, tote, plasticware set, lapel pin, some chocolate, and some thoughtful cards.


I was thrilled with the umbrella and was playing with it before the show. Bill (trumpet) took this photo for me.


Though this was a smallish theater, it filled up pretty well. And the audience had fun, which was the whole point.
CLICK HERE to hear the laughter :)

Afterward we had our opening night party!


The actors got all dolled up as usual, while the band showed up in our pit blacks (why get changed?).
I'm not very social, but enjoyed a drink and chatting with people for about an hour before heading off to bed.
That's it, this tour is officially out of rehearsals and underway. Wild.

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Wednesday I woke unfortunately early again.

My laundry was back, so I put it away.
Breakfast and catching up on emails and food logging before walking to the highway overpass to steal fruit.

Getting the apple was harrowing; there was a tight squeeze through a rusted fence, which put me inches away from stepping into thin air and falling onto the highway below. But when doing stupid things I am still cautious and slow, so I made sure to have a good grip on the fence and watched carefully where I was placing my feet, and it was fine.

I retrieved two apples and some of the Siberian crabapples as well.


Our drummer, Paul, is just as excited by "overpass fruit" as I am, so I was sure to send him pics.
He advised cutting the apples open to check for worms, which I did and found them nice and bug-free.
The apple was watery and a bit tart, much like an underripe store-bought apple. Not very good.
Paul says they may need a good cold snap to get better flavor (makes sense, that's how my lemons work too).

I'll try the crabapples later.

Next I had an appointment to get new in-ear monitor molds.
The ones I use now are circa 2015 and are discolored and worn, definitely overdue for some new ones.

I drove to the wrong location, thinking my appointment was downtown.
It was actually 20 minutes away. So I drove like a maniac and rushed in the door 20 minutes late, super stressed.
Luckily the doctor was a patient dude with a calm demeanor. His calmness calmed me, and I got the molds made and shipped and paid for within the hour. Unclear whether I'll get them while on tour, but they're going to try to catch me somewhere in Grand Rapids.

A 30 minute drive back to the hotel and picking up a new parking pass from the front desk (they expire after a week).
Then up to my room to eat cold teriyaki salmon. It was quite good, even cold.
After that I cooked up my two remaining raw chicken breasts from Wegman's in the Itaki.

Somewhere in there my Mackie food scale got delivered.
I had pussyfooted around getting one of these because thus far I've gotten along fine without one.
But this week after being confounded by serving sizes for my proteins for the umpteenth time, I decided to suck up the cost and get it. 
"One chicken breast" can mean anything from 3oz to 2 pounds. This is the easiest way to know for sure.

FINALLY, after all of that, I got to chill out a bit.
Watched some anime, tried unsuccessfully to nap, and updated this post.

Our show was at 7:30 again.
Drove in early to pick up the next covid rapid test and to see if the Head of Wardrobe had had time to fix my shoes.
She did! And they looked great. Rubber, textured heel tips. She doesn't like sweets so I'll have to make her a gift of coffee.

The show went well, and the creatives are leaving so we'll likely not have rehearsals unless we choose to as a band.

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It's now Thursday, and I've got the whole day free except for the evening show.
I've passed the rental car off to the drummer, who wanted to go shopping I think.

Today's plans are to do a lot of walking. It's 60 degrees!! Magical!!