Tootsie Yr2: Thousand Oaks, CA
Jameson and I got up early to take my butt to the airport.
I was worried that it would be chaos because of Memorial Day, but I guess people were still celebrating rather than traveling on Monday. So It took me no time at all to get through security, and I had 1.5 hours to kill. Made Jameson get up early for no reason.
Just four weeks and four cities left before Tootsie closes.
Thousand Oaks CA, Milwaukee WI, Madison WI, and Minneapolis MN.
I will do my best to make the most of it.
The flight was uneventful, just long. One of the flight attendants loved my phone case.
LAX was chaos, but it's always chaos. My luggage was ready right away, and I found our meeting point quickly too.
We got to the hotel in the early afternoon. I walked to get my groceries, first to Ralph's across the street and then to a Sprouts a mile away. There I found many fun foods to try, including zucchini chips, "strawberry water", low-sugar peanut butter banana granola, and brown sugar boba-flavored tea with only six calories.
For dinner I decided to use a GrubHub gift card that my stepmom got me (she wanted me to use it on tour after all).
I got a salmon bowl with kale, sweet potato, edamame, and sweet hot chili sauce from a local cafe.
It was dang good!
After unpacking I felt exhausted and was in bed by 8pm (11pm EST).
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Tuesday morning, was of course awake at 6am because that's 9am on the east coast.
The next 48 hours after a big time change like this are always exhausting.
Case in point, I fell back asleep at 9am and woke up an hour later ultra-hungry.
In the interest of taking it easy, hung around the hotel and did nothing special until rental cars were distributed, then took the car to Whole Paycheck to see what they had. Everything in California is incredibly expensive compared to the rest of the country. I got some chicken and a few single servings of powdered protein and that was it. Too $$$.
Drove myself and our guitarist to sound check.
The theatre is pretty nice, comfortable green room, roomy dressing rooms.
It was hard to get a good picture of the theatre itself, I may try again later in the week.
My spot. Psychologically I wasn't quite here yet today; my brain is already looking past this tour and on to what comes next.
But I have to remember to be present, because this has been a very fun journey, and a gift, and I want to treasure this final month of putting on this show with everyone :)
Sound check was just fine. We have a new bassist, Derrick, who joins us because Brandon was needed at home to help his wife out (being apart for long periods of time, especially when you own a home and have kids, is VERY difficult.)
After sound check and the dinner I'd packed for myself, I walked to a nearby fancy grocery store called Lassen's, just to check it out. Of course everything was too expensive, but I did get a blueberry lavender lemonade because it was only 30 calories for the whole 16oz can and it had a lot of vitamins. Will review it next week I'm sure.
Derrick did a pretty good job for his first show, and hopefully things will only get better as we all lock in musically.
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Wednesday I forced myself to stay mostly asleep until 7am.
Breakfast and finding a good bootleg of Spamalot so I can read my music along with it.
Since I'd forgotten my iPad at the theatre, I followed along with a PDF on my computer and inserted timestamps in the video for easier access later. In the afternoon I walked to a thrift store. It's surprisingly cool and dreary here, with highs in the mid-60s and overcast skies ever since we arrived. I found two pairs of pants but the store didn't have fitting rooms and didn't accept returns; luckily the pants were $6 total so I felt it would be OK if they didn't fit once I got them home (one didn't, the other did).
The evening was pretty lazy, did not do much else except confirm that my Notary application was received and was in process.
The show went well, though audiences here seem sparse.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Other stuff: Wildflowers that I encountered in California!
Treasure flower and sea lavender:
Obnoxiously pink prickly poppy and a California Tree Poppy, which I am calling Egg Flower for obvious reasons:
The biggest bottlebrush tree I've ever seen, and a close-up of a flower with a bee enjoying it:
--------------------------------------------------------
I was worried that it would be chaos because of Memorial Day, but I guess people were still celebrating rather than traveling on Monday. So It took me no time at all to get through security, and I had 1.5 hours to kill. Made Jameson get up early for no reason.
Just four weeks and four cities left before Tootsie closes.
Thousand Oaks CA, Milwaukee WI, Madison WI, and Minneapolis MN.
I will do my best to make the most of it.
The flight was uneventful, just long. One of the flight attendants loved my phone case.
LAX was chaos, but it's always chaos. My luggage was ready right away, and I found our meeting point quickly too.
We got to the hotel in the early afternoon. I walked to get my groceries, first to Ralph's across the street and then to a Sprouts a mile away. There I found many fun foods to try, including zucchini chips, "strawberry water", low-sugar peanut butter banana granola, and brown sugar boba-flavored tea with only six calories.
For dinner I decided to use a GrubHub gift card that my stepmom got me (she wanted me to use it on tour after all).
I got a salmon bowl with kale, sweet potato, edamame, and sweet hot chili sauce from a local cafe.
It was dang good!
After unpacking I felt exhausted and was in bed by 8pm (11pm EST).
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday morning, was of course awake at 6am because that's 9am on the east coast.
The next 48 hours after a big time change like this are always exhausting.
Case in point, I fell back asleep at 9am and woke up an hour later ultra-hungry.
In the interest of taking it easy, hung around the hotel and did nothing special until rental cars were distributed, then took the car to Whole Paycheck to see what they had. Everything in California is incredibly expensive compared to the rest of the country. I got some chicken and a few single servings of powdered protein and that was it. Too $$$.
Drove myself and our guitarist to sound check.
The theatre is pretty nice, comfortable green room, roomy dressing rooms.
It was hard to get a good picture of the theatre itself, I may try again later in the week.
My spot. Psychologically I wasn't quite here yet today; my brain is already looking past this tour and on to what comes next.
But I have to remember to be present, because this has been a very fun journey, and a gift, and I want to treasure this final month of putting on this show with everyone :)
Sound check was just fine. We have a new bassist, Derrick, who joins us because Brandon was needed at home to help his wife out (being apart for long periods of time, especially when you own a home and have kids, is VERY difficult.)
After sound check and the dinner I'd packed for myself, I walked to a nearby fancy grocery store called Lassen's, just to check it out. Of course everything was too expensive, but I did get a blueberry lavender lemonade because it was only 30 calories for the whole 16oz can and it had a lot of vitamins. Will review it next week I'm sure.
Derrick did a pretty good job for his first show, and hopefully things will only get better as we all lock in musically.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday I forced myself to stay mostly asleep until 7am.
Breakfast and finding a good bootleg of Spamalot so I can read my music along with it.
Since I'd forgotten my iPad at the theatre, I followed along with a PDF on my computer and inserted timestamps in the video for easier access later. In the afternoon I walked to a thrift store. It's surprisingly cool and dreary here, with highs in the mid-60s and overcast skies ever since we arrived. I found two pairs of pants but the store didn't have fitting rooms and didn't accept returns; luckily the pants were $6 total so I felt it would be OK if they didn't fit once I got them home (one didn't, the other did).
The evening was pretty lazy, did not do much else except confirm that my Notary application was received and was in process.
The show went well, though audiences here seem sparse.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Other stuff: Wildflowers that I encountered in California!
Treasure flower and sea lavender:
Obnoxiously pink prickly poppy and a California Tree Poppy, which I am calling Egg Flower for obvious reasons:
The biggest bottlebrush tree I've ever seen, and a close-up of a flower with a bee enjoying it:
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