Doing SO Much
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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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.)
Click to viewWhen I left (non-closing shift) they were only a few hundred away from the sales goal, so maybe they hit it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.