September Treats
**Long Post Warning**
Did a small amount of data entry on Thursday, then vacuumed and dusted and worried over MFF.
Our distro sheet was sent out, and I was tempted to "Reply All" with my MFF link, but held off.
I really hoped my buddy from production would send this email because something coming from "@troika.com" is not going to go to spam or get deleted. An email coming from random old me will probably be totally ignored.
Actually, maybe I'll just write it up and do all the work for them, then they can send it out. Yeah, maybe that's the answer.
So ok, I did that, wrote a draft invite and sent it to my production person.
Now all she has to do is send it from her fancy Troika email.
No response yet, but they are in rehearsal today.
It was a slow and rainy day. I wanted to go for a walk but it was stormy.
I practiced, chatted with Jameson, bookmarked Tootsie sites and info, and picked up dinner when it was time.
In the evening I had GLAAD training for Tootsie, which was about the same as last year's.
I ate the last piece of Itaki cake (yes, it was still hanging around somehow) and we went to bed early.
--------------------------------------------------
Despite going to bed early, I didn't actually get to SLEEP until after 1am because just as we got settled in my phone started going OFF.
My production friend had sent the email, and people were joining my foodie group!
I scrambled to add the first few people, then hurried to drop a "Join" link in the company WhatsApp so people could add themselves.
That's sort of a WhatsApp catch-22: you can invite people to join a group, but only AFTER you create the group, which you can only do AFTER you've invited at least one person manually. Kinda goofy.
Anyway, sharing the auto-join link made things a lot easier, but then I had to get things set up.
I got a cute icon, wrote a group description, and tried to generally make people feel welcome while explaining what the group was for and laying some minor ground rules.
When I went to sleep seven people had joined.
When I woke up this morning there were seventeen!
That's very good; the company chat only has 30 people in it, so I've got more than half!
The company chat is also mostly made up of cast members (actors), so I will continue to make a strong effort to reach out to stage crew, lighting, sound, wardrobe, and other groups that normally experience exclusion due to not being in that clique. I do see that all members of wardrobe have joined, and at least one sound guy, so maybe word will spread.
Another quirk of WhatsApp, newly-joined group members can't see past posts.
So when I shared info last night only seven people saw it; I had to repost it again this morning for the other ten who joined later.
Anyway, despite having little sleep I got up bright and early because our friend Lea wants one of my banana pups.
(There are six banana plants in this picture)
Bananas are not a true tree, they are an herb. They are also a rhizome.
This means that the way they reproduce is to duplicate themselves below ground, putting out shoots that grow into little clones of themselves.
The little clones (called "pups") are attached to the mother tree, and they share nutrients.
So to dig up a banana pup for Lea, I had to saw the clone away from it's connection to the mother tree underground, and then dig straight down around the pup to get as many roots as possible before ripping it up.
This is a very labor-intensive process with a lot of digging and hacking, so I got up at 7am to get on it.
More mosquitoes but less heat, and I wouldn't lose time out of my day.
It took almost exactly an hour from start to finish. Yes I know the pot is too small.
Lea came to get it later in the afternoon, I helped her load it into the car. She's naming it Herb.
When I had sufficiently decompressed and cleaned myself up, I drove to our local farmers market for freeze-dried candy but the vendor wasn't there. So I made the long trek to Whole Paycheck for salmon, asparagus, cream, lemons, and dill for our lovely sous vide salmon tonight.
Back home I cleaned the bathrooms, had lunch, and created some Google Map links in the MFF document for Rochester.
My Aunt called and we chatted for a bit, she's had some health issues but nothing serious thankfully.
My uncle is recovering well from knee replacement surgery.
About an hour before dinner I put the salmon in the sous vide, and while that was going I made the lemon dill cream sauce and asparagus.
I started the sauce too soon and/or did something wrong, because it got too thick and kinda weird.
The salmon was good, but again, still need to work on that sear.
I have this unrealistic expectation that my food will somehow magically be chef-quality without any consistent practice on my part.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday. Holy cow, THREE DAYS until I go on tour. It does not feel real.
I had breakfast and checked my social media, where an unexpected mansplain caused my blood pressure to pop up a few notches.
Did a load of laundry, washed our bedsheets, and after Jameson left for a haircut I practiced trombone without a mute and made the bed.
When he got back I made us a little snack, airy fryer Boursin Bites.
Another one of Jameson's finds on TikTok, this was easy to make once Boursin Bites became available at our local Target.
Freeze the cheese so it won't melt into a puddle.
Bread it like you would any fried thing: flour, egg, crumbs/panko.
I only seasoned with a little black pepper because Boursin Bites are already so flavorful, didn't want to mess with that.
I tried 380 for 10 minutes, checking at the 8-minute mark for safety (they were done at 8 minutes no question).
I only ate two (they're the size of mini marshmallows) and they were lovely.
Jameson enjoyed the rest with his lunch.
Didn't do much for the rest of the day, had planned to weed and scrub the shower but decided to put it off.
Continued the air fryer trend with wings and pizza for dinner.
Air fryer wings are one of Jameson's favorites, and this was my last chance to make them for him until December.
We tried a new sauce, peach bourbon habanero. Damn delicious!
I felt guilty for being lazy today, and for eating not-so-healthy things, but Jameson reminded me that I'm going to be doing a lot of walking on tour, steaming a lot of my food, plus he pointed out that I haven't gained any weight over this break despite cheesecakes and pizzas and all kinds of indulgences. He, on the other hand, has gained five pounds, which he chalked up to a lot of factors but the main ones being having covid for two weeks followed by nearly a month of inactivity after hernia surgery. Considering that, he's done quite well by only gaining five pounds.
He gently chided me for being part of the cause as well, and though he was joking, I admitted that I need to be more considerate of his eating habits when I cook and food shop.
I make us a lot of healthy meals with lean meats and veggies and whole grains.
But I also make things like cheesecake and cheesy potatoes and pulled pork.
I often bring home treats for us, cookies from Whole Paycheck or interesting gummies, or candy to have around.
For me it's not a problem because I have the self-control of a psychopath.
But Jameson is normal. So when he passes a bag of gummies, he grabs a few simply because they're there.
I could make a stronger effort to remove temptation, is what I'm saying.
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, after breakfast I made a batch of caramels for Andrew who was previously the Tootsie Tour Manager and has since been promoted to General Manager. He loooooves my food pics and mentioned wanting caramels several times last year, so I promised to whip him up a batch.
Still kind of unsure how this will play into my luggage, but I'll do my best and hope TSA doesn't help themselves.
This recipe has never let me down, it came out perfectly as usual.
It cooled on the counter all day while I weeded the yard, practiced trombone, ate lunch, and made a to-do list for tomorrow.
In the evening, Jameson and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary!
He's been before but I haven't. We lucked out on the weather, it only drizzled once and only a little.
It was incredibly humid but that's well expected.
First stop after parking was to Casey's Corner for some hot dogs.
Despite growing up in a town that hosts an annual fair, I've somehow managed to make it to almost 40 without once having a corn dog!
So I got these adorable corn dog bites. Yum!
Very good with both ketchup and mustard. I can see why corn dogs are a popular food!
Jameson got a big ol' chili dog.
Next we rode some rides, Haunted Mansion of course, and Pirates, Winnie the Pooh, and Little Mermaid.
The lines were not bad at all, I think the longest we had to wait was 20 minutes.
Around 7pm they started booting regular passholders out of the park.
To stay for Mickey's not so scary, you had to have a wristband. We were also handed a little tote bag for trick-or-treating!
There were "treat stations" set up throughout the park, and we casually visited these but mostly focused on the rides and the live entertainment early in the event. Our friend Lea (the one who came to get my banana pup earlier this week) is playing one of the Sanderson Sisters in the Spelltacular, so of course we had to go watch her show!
She's an incredible actress and did a fantastic job!
Everyone else was amazing too, especially the dancers.
It was great fun seeing a lot of Disney villains on stage as well.
Maleficent was probably the most popular (no surprise there), but Oogie Boogie was a close second, and Jafar and Shadow Man were popular as well. My favorite part was the holographic projection onto the castle. Ever since they've installed that technology, I've been obsessed. It just looks so damn cool.
Here are some highlights from the Spelltacular as well as Jack Skellington's part of the fireworks show.
Mostly I was fixated on the castle animations. Scroll with the little arrows on the right to see more clips and photos.
https://instagram.com/p/CiaEAMRAHrf
For the fireworks and also the parade, I didn't record much because I didn't have the best vantage and also I wanted to experience these things without a phone in my face. The parade was really cool, my favorite float was the whole entire Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean turning onto the main drag, it was so impressive and huge. The Wreck it Ralph floats were also great fun, with a candy theme of course, but they even shot out candy-scented smoke from their tailpipes! And the dance routines were just awesome, especially in Florida heat, just so impressive. My favorite there was the "gravediggers dance", all of the dancers were gravediggers with shovels, and they used the shovels in the dance, clapping them together or scraping them on the pavement to throw up sparks in interesting patterns.
The live entertainment was the best part of the event tbh. It saddens me that Disney is uninterested in hiring more performers, either for the regular or holiday seasons.
For our end-of-night treats we got ice cream.
Jameson had the not-so-poison apple shake: apple pie milkshake with green apple foam, spice donuts, and a poison apple marshmallow. It was very tasty, especially the green apple foam! But the shake was mostly fluff, not ice cream. Jameson said he would have been happy with just the donuts and whipped cream, and I agreed.
I got the candy corn soft serve. They were out of the candy corn sprinkle topping (go figure!) but we all know I count calories anyway so I didn't mind. This was tasty and hit the spot, but as far as actually tasting like candy corn it didn't really make the cut. Still, a yummy treat to end the night on :)
Not pictured: we got to enjoy a VERY special event: a meet and greet with ALL of the villains from the Spelltacular!!
This was thanks to Lea, who as a performer was able to invite us.
We got a big group photo with the villains, but we're not allowed to post it online or Disney will send Chernabog demons to rip our faces off or something. Well, we were told in no uncertain terms that anybody sharing pics would be in big trouble, so you'll just have to imagine how cool to be surrounded by Oogie Boogie, Shadow Man, Jafar, Cruella, Maleficent, the Sanderson Sisters, Hades, the Evil Stepmother, Captain Hook, and the Evil Queen from Snow White.
It bears mentioning that we also ran into two great friends, Dustin and Brandon, who were clowns with us on Ringling Brothers!
We just happened to be in the same place at the same time at Disney. Wild!
They're doing well, both working very hard and they did seem pretty tired, but they'd been at the park for a lot longer than us.
We only got to briefly catch up, but it was awesome to run into them :)
As the Halloween event wound down we started taking our trick-or-treating more seriously, because the treat stations were double-fisting loads of candy into the bags at the end of the night. My bag was PACKED full of candy! I swear there was a whole store-bag worth of mini Snickers in there! When we got home I did the classic kid thing and poured out my haul onto the counter to admire it :D
I put a lot of the Snickers in the freezer because they're great for air frying. I gave my Skittles to Jameson, and hid the rest away so that he won't be tempted to eat it while I'm gone (he's got his own haul to eat, and maybe he can use mine for actual Halloween to give to trick-or-treaters). I'll bring a few pieces of candy with me, but not much.
This was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that Jameson took the time to plan this for us.
It's our last outing together before I leave on tour.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's now Monday morning, and I woke up at 8:30 despite having gone to bed nearly at 2am.
Today I will prep the homemade caramels for transport to Rochester, do some final cleaning and packing, put gas in my car, throw out any uneaten food, and reserve a cab for tomorrow's trip to the airport. I've checked in for my flight. I have snacks so I won't have to buy much at the airport. I feel prepared, but also a little surprised...the layoff flew by, and somehow I was expecting something to ruin this for me.
But it's really happening. Tomorrow I'll be in Rochester, and Jameson will be in Vegas on his much-deserved solo vacation.
Off we go...hope you're ready for the ride!
Did a small amount of data entry on Thursday, then vacuumed and dusted and worried over MFF.
Our distro sheet was sent out, and I was tempted to "Reply All" with my MFF link, but held off.
I really hoped my buddy from production would send this email because something coming from "@troika.com" is not going to go to spam or get deleted. An email coming from random old me will probably be totally ignored.
Actually, maybe I'll just write it up and do all the work for them, then they can send it out. Yeah, maybe that's the answer.
So ok, I did that, wrote a draft invite and sent it to my production person.
Now all she has to do is send it from her fancy Troika email.
No response yet, but they are in rehearsal today.
It was a slow and rainy day. I wanted to go for a walk but it was stormy.
I practiced, chatted with Jameson, bookmarked Tootsie sites and info, and picked up dinner when it was time.
In the evening I had GLAAD training for Tootsie, which was about the same as last year's.
I ate the last piece of Itaki cake (yes, it was still hanging around somehow) and we went to bed early.
--------------------------------------------------
Despite going to bed early, I didn't actually get to SLEEP until after 1am because just as we got settled in my phone started going OFF.
My production friend had sent the email, and people were joining my foodie group!
I scrambled to add the first few people, then hurried to drop a "Join" link in the company WhatsApp so people could add themselves.
That's sort of a WhatsApp catch-22: you can invite people to join a group, but only AFTER you create the group, which you can only do AFTER you've invited at least one person manually. Kinda goofy.
Anyway, sharing the auto-join link made things a lot easier, but then I had to get things set up.
I got a cute icon, wrote a group description, and tried to generally make people feel welcome while explaining what the group was for and laying some minor ground rules.
When I went to sleep seven people had joined.
When I woke up this morning there were seventeen!
That's very good; the company chat only has 30 people in it, so I've got more than half!
The company chat is also mostly made up of cast members (actors), so I will continue to make a strong effort to reach out to stage crew, lighting, sound, wardrobe, and other groups that normally experience exclusion due to not being in that clique. I do see that all members of wardrobe have joined, and at least one sound guy, so maybe word will spread.
Another quirk of WhatsApp, newly-joined group members can't see past posts.
So when I shared info last night only seven people saw it; I had to repost it again this morning for the other ten who joined later.
Anyway, despite having little sleep I got up bright and early because our friend Lea wants one of my banana pups.
(There are six banana plants in this picture)
Bananas are not a true tree, they are an herb. They are also a rhizome.
This means that the way they reproduce is to duplicate themselves below ground, putting out shoots that grow into little clones of themselves.
The little clones (called "pups") are attached to the mother tree, and they share nutrients.
So to dig up a banana pup for Lea, I had to saw the clone away from it's connection to the mother tree underground, and then dig straight down around the pup to get as many roots as possible before ripping it up.
This is a very labor-intensive process with a lot of digging and hacking, so I got up at 7am to get on it.
More mosquitoes but less heat, and I wouldn't lose time out of my day.
It took almost exactly an hour from start to finish. Yes I know the pot is too small.
Lea came to get it later in the afternoon, I helped her load it into the car. She's naming it Herb.
When I had sufficiently decompressed and cleaned myself up, I drove to our local farmers market for freeze-dried candy but the vendor wasn't there. So I made the long trek to Whole Paycheck for salmon, asparagus, cream, lemons, and dill for our lovely sous vide salmon tonight.
Back home I cleaned the bathrooms, had lunch, and created some Google Map links in the MFF document for Rochester.
My Aunt called and we chatted for a bit, she's had some health issues but nothing serious thankfully.
My uncle is recovering well from knee replacement surgery.
About an hour before dinner I put the salmon in the sous vide, and while that was going I made the lemon dill cream sauce and asparagus.
I started the sauce too soon and/or did something wrong, because it got too thick and kinda weird.
The salmon was good, but again, still need to work on that sear.
I have this unrealistic expectation that my food will somehow magically be chef-quality without any consistent practice on my part.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday. Holy cow, THREE DAYS until I go on tour. It does not feel real.
I had breakfast and checked my social media, where an unexpected mansplain caused my blood pressure to pop up a few notches.
Did a load of laundry, washed our bedsheets, and after Jameson left for a haircut I practiced trombone without a mute and made the bed.
When he got back I made us a little snack, airy fryer Boursin Bites.
Another one of Jameson's finds on TikTok, this was easy to make once Boursin Bites became available at our local Target.
Freeze the cheese so it won't melt into a puddle.
Bread it like you would any fried thing: flour, egg, crumbs/panko.
I only seasoned with a little black pepper because Boursin Bites are already so flavorful, didn't want to mess with that.
I tried 380 for 10 minutes, checking at the 8-minute mark for safety (they were done at 8 minutes no question).
I only ate two (they're the size of mini marshmallows) and they were lovely.
Jameson enjoyed the rest with his lunch.
Didn't do much for the rest of the day, had planned to weed and scrub the shower but decided to put it off.
Continued the air fryer trend with wings and pizza for dinner.
Air fryer wings are one of Jameson's favorites, and this was my last chance to make them for him until December.
We tried a new sauce, peach bourbon habanero. Damn delicious!
I felt guilty for being lazy today, and for eating not-so-healthy things, but Jameson reminded me that I'm going to be doing a lot of walking on tour, steaming a lot of my food, plus he pointed out that I haven't gained any weight over this break despite cheesecakes and pizzas and all kinds of indulgences. He, on the other hand, has gained five pounds, which he chalked up to a lot of factors but the main ones being having covid for two weeks followed by nearly a month of inactivity after hernia surgery. Considering that, he's done quite well by only gaining five pounds.
He gently chided me for being part of the cause as well, and though he was joking, I admitted that I need to be more considerate of his eating habits when I cook and food shop.
I make us a lot of healthy meals with lean meats and veggies and whole grains.
But I also make things like cheesecake and cheesy potatoes and pulled pork.
I often bring home treats for us, cookies from Whole Paycheck or interesting gummies, or candy to have around.
For me it's not a problem because I have the self-control of a psychopath.
But Jameson is normal. So when he passes a bag of gummies, he grabs a few simply because they're there.
I could make a stronger effort to remove temptation, is what I'm saying.
------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, after breakfast I made a batch of caramels for Andrew who was previously the Tootsie Tour Manager and has since been promoted to General Manager. He loooooves my food pics and mentioned wanting caramels several times last year, so I promised to whip him up a batch.
Still kind of unsure how this will play into my luggage, but I'll do my best and hope TSA doesn't help themselves.
This recipe has never let me down, it came out perfectly as usual.
It cooled on the counter all day while I weeded the yard, practiced trombone, ate lunch, and made a to-do list for tomorrow.
In the evening, Jameson and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary!
He's been before but I haven't. We lucked out on the weather, it only drizzled once and only a little.
It was incredibly humid but that's well expected.
First stop after parking was to Casey's Corner for some hot dogs.
Despite growing up in a town that hosts an annual fair, I've somehow managed to make it to almost 40 without once having a corn dog!
So I got these adorable corn dog bites. Yum!
Very good with both ketchup and mustard. I can see why corn dogs are a popular food!
Jameson got a big ol' chili dog.
Next we rode some rides, Haunted Mansion of course, and Pirates, Winnie the Pooh, and Little Mermaid.
The lines were not bad at all, I think the longest we had to wait was 20 minutes.
Around 7pm they started booting regular passholders out of the park.
To stay for Mickey's not so scary, you had to have a wristband. We were also handed a little tote bag for trick-or-treating!
There were "treat stations" set up throughout the park, and we casually visited these but mostly focused on the rides and the live entertainment early in the event. Our friend Lea (the one who came to get my banana pup earlier this week) is playing one of the Sanderson Sisters in the Spelltacular, so of course we had to go watch her show!
She's an incredible actress and did a fantastic job!
Everyone else was amazing too, especially the dancers.
It was great fun seeing a lot of Disney villains on stage as well.
Maleficent was probably the most popular (no surprise there), but Oogie Boogie was a close second, and Jafar and Shadow Man were popular as well. My favorite part was the holographic projection onto the castle. Ever since they've installed that technology, I've been obsessed. It just looks so damn cool.
Here are some highlights from the Spelltacular as well as Jack Skellington's part of the fireworks show.
Mostly I was fixated on the castle animations. Scroll with the little arrows on the right to see more clips and photos.
https://instagram.com/p/CiaEAMRAHrf
For the fireworks and also the parade, I didn't record much because I didn't have the best vantage and also I wanted to experience these things without a phone in my face. The parade was really cool, my favorite float was the whole entire Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean turning onto the main drag, it was so impressive and huge. The Wreck it Ralph floats were also great fun, with a candy theme of course, but they even shot out candy-scented smoke from their tailpipes! And the dance routines were just awesome, especially in Florida heat, just so impressive. My favorite there was the "gravediggers dance", all of the dancers were gravediggers with shovels, and they used the shovels in the dance, clapping them together or scraping them on the pavement to throw up sparks in interesting patterns.
The live entertainment was the best part of the event tbh. It saddens me that Disney is uninterested in hiring more performers, either for the regular or holiday seasons.
For our end-of-night treats we got ice cream.
Jameson had the not-so-poison apple shake: apple pie milkshake with green apple foam, spice donuts, and a poison apple marshmallow. It was very tasty, especially the green apple foam! But the shake was mostly fluff, not ice cream. Jameson said he would have been happy with just the donuts and whipped cream, and I agreed.
I got the candy corn soft serve. They were out of the candy corn sprinkle topping (go figure!) but we all know I count calories anyway so I didn't mind. This was tasty and hit the spot, but as far as actually tasting like candy corn it didn't really make the cut. Still, a yummy treat to end the night on :)
Not pictured: we got to enjoy a VERY special event: a meet and greet with ALL of the villains from the Spelltacular!!
This was thanks to Lea, who as a performer was able to invite us.
We got a big group photo with the villains, but we're not allowed to post it online or Disney will send Chernabog demons to rip our faces off or something. Well, we were told in no uncertain terms that anybody sharing pics would be in big trouble, so you'll just have to imagine how cool to be surrounded by Oogie Boogie, Shadow Man, Jafar, Cruella, Maleficent, the Sanderson Sisters, Hades, the Evil Stepmother, Captain Hook, and the Evil Queen from Snow White.
It bears mentioning that we also ran into two great friends, Dustin and Brandon, who were clowns with us on Ringling Brothers!
We just happened to be in the same place at the same time at Disney. Wild!
They're doing well, both working very hard and they did seem pretty tired, but they'd been at the park for a lot longer than us.
We only got to briefly catch up, but it was awesome to run into them :)
As the Halloween event wound down we started taking our trick-or-treating more seriously, because the treat stations were double-fisting loads of candy into the bags at the end of the night. My bag was PACKED full of candy! I swear there was a whole store-bag worth of mini Snickers in there! When we got home I did the classic kid thing and poured out my haul onto the counter to admire it :D
I put a lot of the Snickers in the freezer because they're great for air frying. I gave my Skittles to Jameson, and hid the rest away so that he won't be tempted to eat it while I'm gone (he's got his own haul to eat, and maybe he can use mine for actual Halloween to give to trick-or-treaters). I'll bring a few pieces of candy with me, but not much.
This was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that Jameson took the time to plan this for us.
It's our last outing together before I leave on tour.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's now Monday morning, and I woke up at 8:30 despite having gone to bed nearly at 2am.
Today I will prep the homemade caramels for transport to Rochester, do some final cleaning and packing, put gas in my car, throw out any uneaten food, and reserve a cab for tomorrow's trip to the airport. I've checked in for my flight. I have snacks so I won't have to buy much at the airport. I feel prepared, but also a little surprised...the layoff flew by, and somehow I was expecting something to ruin this for me.
But it's really happening. Tomorrow I'll be in Rochester, and Jameson will be in Vegas on his much-deserved solo vacation.
Off we go...hope you're ready for the ride!