Elf on Tour: Greensboro part 2
Starting this one off with a bit of TMI (it's not that bad but if reading about birth control pills makes you uncomfortable, scroll past the dotted lines:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke with a start this morning, realizing that I haven't taken ANY birth control pills since coming to Greensboro!!!
This is unheard of for me, in fact it's never happened in the 10+ years that I've been on the pill. I've forgotten single days before, a few times, but never multiple days in a row. Am I really THAT distracted lately? Surprised at myself, I took two this morning and will take two tomorrow and that will have me caught up. But it was a disconcerting thing to realize, and it's going to cause some distracting symptoms (usually spotting, bloating, weird emotions for a while)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday was breakfast, giving my trombone a bath, and enjoying one gloriously transcription-free day. I like transcription, but having jobs sent back-to-back means not a single day without it, and right now I could use a small break. Watched a little Business Insider (they have really cool educational videos on YouTube) and halfheartedly poked at some job applications.
I shared this in a Friends Only post recently: Jameson and I both experienced pretty crushing job application rejections this week. His was for a job where he had internal references and was well qualified...and he got a rejection letter within days of applying. Not even an offer of an interview.
Mine was an audition, and the rejection came very publicly in the form of a new audition notice...for the same gig...posted after I sent my materials...specifically asking for female trombonists to apply. Meaning I'm now being tagged by fellow trombonists in the comments of the listing, because I'm essentially The Only Professional Female Trombonist In Orlando, so to a lot of people I'm the obvious choice.
This has left me with the humiliating task of having to publicly respond to the tags with, "Sorry...I've already applied, so I think they must be looking for someone else..."
Anyway, I had a calm and quiet morning regardless, and was grateful for it.
For lunch I joined Todd (trumpet) and Kenny (Reed 1) for the Chinese Buffet next to our hotel. Americanized Chinese is one of my favorites! We had a nice convo and decent meal. Afterward I walked to the thrift store a little over a mile away, didn't really find anything, but there was an Asian grocery just a block over!
The usual aisles: instant noodles, and drinks in every flavor you can imagine.
There are always surprises at the Asian grocery, things I've never seen before even though I've traveled so much. Today one of those things was this "water chestnut drink!" The other side of the can says "Crunchy Bits" in English so I guess there are real water chestnut pieces in there! I did end up buying this because I HAD to know what the heck this would be like. Turns out...not that great lol. If I had bought a can of water chestnuts and sprinkled sugar on it, that was pretty much what this was. I much prefer water chestnuts in my stir fry or spinach dip, than in beverage form!
(If you've never had water chestnuts, they're like the tuber of a sort of grass/shrub, and they look sort of like chestnuts, hence the name. They are very crisp, and stay crisp even after being cooked. They either taste like nothing at all or they're slightly nutty/sweet, so they're mostly used to add texture to dishes.)
Other exciting finds include WHOLE cacao pods!! Wow! Did not think that I'd be getting to hold a cacao pod today!
And also, these chickpeas. I have never before seen raw, unshelled chickpeas!
There were so many great snacks, but I am desperately trying to save money so exercised self control and didn't get anything else. It was great fun to look at everything. These "Ube Pillows" sounded delicious, but the top three ingredients involved condensed milk/whey so it was a no-go for me.
I've seen these Orion "choco pies" in every Asian grocery store, ever. They are definitely a variety of moon pie, and come in a huge variety of flavors. These watermelon ones look adorable!
This store even had a big housewares section, with fancy rice cookers and ergonomic kitchen tools and colorful cookware :)
When I'd had my fun I got back to the hotel and started to rest, but then received a transcription review from my supervisors/a proofreader. It was quite long, with lots of corrections, which made me feel inadequate (i.e. BUTTHURT.) But I am glad that I've held that last transcription job back, because now I can apply these corrections to that job before submitting it. I read as many corrections as I could before it was showtime, but will have to spend part of Friday really diving in and giving it my full attention.
The show went "okay," I could have done better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, after breakfast I really buckled down on the transcription review. No matter how butthurt I feel that my work wasn't "perfect," the only way it's going to get better is if I set that aside and apply the corrections.
To my surprise, shortly after sending an email thanking my boss and the proofer for their corrections, I got another email from them praising me for having great verbatim/formatting skills and offering me the chance to complete "urgent jobs," which pay twice as much as normal jobs but must be turned around very quickly. I said yes to the urgent jobs, but also that I could only accept them starting in the new year after I'm done touring.
Yay! This definitely helped my mood.
After that I practiced my Disney stuff (brought trombone back to the hotel again) and ate lunch, then went for a walk through the residential behind the hotel. About that time Jameson messaged to say his surgery will be on New Year's Eve. Good lord. That means I'm going to come back from tour and immediately the next day he's got surgery. Ugh, well...I understand that he wants to get it over with, and I of course want to be there when it happens. But I would've liked to unpack first!!!
The evening show was fine except the MIDI crashed (all of our sound effects.) The drummer got to cover a few doorbell/elevator sounds, and there were some voiceovers, but it was fixed 30 minutes into the show.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, I did laundry again and started transcription. We had two shows at 2pm and 8pm.
When I got to the theater I was surprised to see the kids (actor kids) waiting for me. They handed me this nerf gun with instructions to “Shoot C (drummer) on sight!” Well okay!
And who came up the stairs just then but C! Who also had a “gun!” We had a raging nerf battle and before I knew it actors with nerf guns had joined in, foam bullets flying everywhere and theater employees running akimbo through the crossfire. It was great fun :)
My aunt came to this show so I had to call a truce in the firefight so I could go hug her. She looks good! After the show we went for chicken and waffles at a local place. It had really good reviews and the flavors were good, but unfortunately our food came out cold. Still, we caught up a little bit on each others’ lives. I would’ve liked several days with her, but we take what we can get.
Afterward they dropped me off at the theater with a box of cookies from my sister Raven, and a card hand-painted by my aunt!
I am so grateful for my small but mighty family. My aunt is my favorite person in the world, and I was so happy to see her today :)
The 8pm show was all right...we have a trumpet player who is struggling right now so musically it wasn't great. But maybe tomorrow will be better.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was up at 6:30am, for an hour of "me time" and breakfast before starting transcription. The deadline isn't until next Saturday but if I get it done quickly I can enjoy a bit of Indianapolis.
I took a Lyft to Deep Roots Market, which is just down the block from the theater, and picked up some prepackaged tuna and a salad for lunch and dinner (only $9 for both meals + bringing snacks from the hotel.) Our 2pm show went just fine.
Between shows I stayed at the theater since I have my own dressing room, and plugged away at transcription some more with a hot cup of ginger tea. By dinnertime I was pleased to have completed two of my three audio hours, which is very good progress. The evening show was fine...unfortunately not better than previous shows, so I guess we musicians are going to be crawling across the figurative finish line for these last two weeks of tour. Whatever, I can only do MY best on MY music; I can't control what others do or do not invest in putting on a good show.
After the show and while waiting for my carpool, I signed our wall tag (yes, we FINALLY got one!)
It is a very beautiful wall tag, too!
Photo:
Video showing more details:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Travel day to Indianapolis, groceries, transcription.
Tuesday & Wednesday: More transcription and probably laundry.
Thursday & Friday: Maybe I'll have time to explore!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I woke with a start this morning, realizing that I haven't taken ANY birth control pills since coming to Greensboro!!!
This is unheard of for me, in fact it's never happened in the 10+ years that I've been on the pill. I've forgotten single days before, a few times, but never multiple days in a row. Am I really THAT distracted lately? Surprised at myself, I took two this morning and will take two tomorrow and that will have me caught up. But it was a disconcerting thing to realize, and it's going to cause some distracting symptoms (usually spotting, bloating, weird emotions for a while)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday was breakfast, giving my trombone a bath, and enjoying one gloriously transcription-free day. I like transcription, but having jobs sent back-to-back means not a single day without it, and right now I could use a small break. Watched a little Business Insider (they have really cool educational videos on YouTube) and halfheartedly poked at some job applications.
I shared this in a Friends Only post recently: Jameson and I both experienced pretty crushing job application rejections this week. His was for a job where he had internal references and was well qualified...and he got a rejection letter within days of applying. Not even an offer of an interview.
Mine was an audition, and the rejection came very publicly in the form of a new audition notice...for the same gig...posted after I sent my materials...specifically asking for female trombonists to apply. Meaning I'm now being tagged by fellow trombonists in the comments of the listing, because I'm essentially The Only Professional Female Trombonist In Orlando, so to a lot of people I'm the obvious choice.
This has left me with the humiliating task of having to publicly respond to the tags with, "Sorry...I've already applied, so I think they must be looking for someone else..."
Anyway, I had a calm and quiet morning regardless, and was grateful for it.
For lunch I joined Todd (trumpet) and Kenny (Reed 1) for the Chinese Buffet next to our hotel. Americanized Chinese is one of my favorites! We had a nice convo and decent meal. Afterward I walked to the thrift store a little over a mile away, didn't really find anything, but there was an Asian grocery just a block over!
The usual aisles: instant noodles, and drinks in every flavor you can imagine.
There are always surprises at the Asian grocery, things I've never seen before even though I've traveled so much. Today one of those things was this "water chestnut drink!" The other side of the can says "Crunchy Bits" in English so I guess there are real water chestnut pieces in there! I did end up buying this because I HAD to know what the heck this would be like. Turns out...not that great lol. If I had bought a can of water chestnuts and sprinkled sugar on it, that was pretty much what this was. I much prefer water chestnuts in my stir fry or spinach dip, than in beverage form!
(If you've never had water chestnuts, they're like the tuber of a sort of grass/shrub, and they look sort of like chestnuts, hence the name. They are very crisp, and stay crisp even after being cooked. They either taste like nothing at all or they're slightly nutty/sweet, so they're mostly used to add texture to dishes.)
Other exciting finds include WHOLE cacao pods!! Wow! Did not think that I'd be getting to hold a cacao pod today!
And also, these chickpeas. I have never before seen raw, unshelled chickpeas!
There were so many great snacks, but I am desperately trying to save money so exercised self control and didn't get anything else. It was great fun to look at everything. These "Ube Pillows" sounded delicious, but the top three ingredients involved condensed milk/whey so it was a no-go for me.
I've seen these Orion "choco pies" in every Asian grocery store, ever. They are definitely a variety of moon pie, and come in a huge variety of flavors. These watermelon ones look adorable!
This store even had a big housewares section, with fancy rice cookers and ergonomic kitchen tools and colorful cookware :)
When I'd had my fun I got back to the hotel and started to rest, but then received a transcription review from my supervisors/a proofreader. It was quite long, with lots of corrections, which made me feel inadequate (i.e. BUTTHURT.) But I am glad that I've held that last transcription job back, because now I can apply these corrections to that job before submitting it. I read as many corrections as I could before it was showtime, but will have to spend part of Friday really diving in and giving it my full attention.
The show went "okay," I could have done better.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, after breakfast I really buckled down on the transcription review. No matter how butthurt I feel that my work wasn't "perfect," the only way it's going to get better is if I set that aside and apply the corrections.
To my surprise, shortly after sending an email thanking my boss and the proofer for their corrections, I got another email from them praising me for having great verbatim/formatting skills and offering me the chance to complete "urgent jobs," which pay twice as much as normal jobs but must be turned around very quickly. I said yes to the urgent jobs, but also that I could only accept them starting in the new year after I'm done touring.
Yay! This definitely helped my mood.
After that I practiced my Disney stuff (brought trombone back to the hotel again) and ate lunch, then went for a walk through the residential behind the hotel. About that time Jameson messaged to say his surgery will be on New Year's Eve. Good lord. That means I'm going to come back from tour and immediately the next day he's got surgery. Ugh, well...I understand that he wants to get it over with, and I of course want to be there when it happens. But I would've liked to unpack first!!!
The evening show was fine except the MIDI crashed (all of our sound effects.) The drummer got to cover a few doorbell/elevator sounds, and there were some voiceovers, but it was fixed 30 minutes into the show.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, I did laundry again and started transcription. We had two shows at 2pm and 8pm.
When I got to the theater I was surprised to see the kids (actor kids) waiting for me. They handed me this nerf gun with instructions to “Shoot C (drummer) on sight!” Well okay!
And who came up the stairs just then but C! Who also had a “gun!” We had a raging nerf battle and before I knew it actors with nerf guns had joined in, foam bullets flying everywhere and theater employees running akimbo through the crossfire. It was great fun :)
My aunt came to this show so I had to call a truce in the firefight so I could go hug her. She looks good! After the show we went for chicken and waffles at a local place. It had really good reviews and the flavors were good, but unfortunately our food came out cold. Still, we caught up a little bit on each others’ lives. I would’ve liked several days with her, but we take what we can get.
Afterward they dropped me off at the theater with a box of cookies from my sister Raven, and a card hand-painted by my aunt!
I am so grateful for my small but mighty family. My aunt is my favorite person in the world, and I was so happy to see her today :)
The 8pm show was all right...we have a trumpet player who is struggling right now so musically it wasn't great. But maybe tomorrow will be better.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday I was up at 6:30am, for an hour of "me time" and breakfast before starting transcription. The deadline isn't until next Saturday but if I get it done quickly I can enjoy a bit of Indianapolis.
I took a Lyft to Deep Roots Market, which is just down the block from the theater, and picked up some prepackaged tuna and a salad for lunch and dinner (only $9 for both meals + bringing snacks from the hotel.) Our 2pm show went just fine.
Between shows I stayed at the theater since I have my own dressing room, and plugged away at transcription some more with a hot cup of ginger tea. By dinnertime I was pleased to have completed two of my three audio hours, which is very good progress. The evening show was fine...unfortunately not better than previous shows, so I guess we musicians are going to be crawling across the figurative finish line for these last two weeks of tour. Whatever, I can only do MY best on MY music; I can't control what others do or do not invest in putting on a good show.
After the show and while waiting for my carpool, I signed our wall tag (yes, we FINALLY got one!)
It is a very beautiful wall tag, too!
Photo:
Video showing more details:
Click to view--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Travel day to Indianapolis, groceries, transcription.
Tuesday & Wednesday: More transcription and probably laundry.
Thursday & Friday: Maybe I'll have time to explore!