Five Months Later
Jun. 8th, 2025 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Thursday,
EPIC STUFF
I was up early of course, and since our sets were an hour later this week I was able to visit Whole Paycheck to get my favorite Lemon Pepper Tofu Bites :)
At the park everything was normal except there were two trios there today! One set of us was there to work as usual, and the other was there to train our new subs! So of course the subs were there too and we got to meet them all. It was so cool and strange to have FOUR female trombonists sitting across from me in the breakroom! And I am very glad that our third party managed to find them. Hopefully they'll have fun at this job.
We had normal sets all day, with larger crowds than usual which was nice.
For one of the middle sets the subs came out to watch. The trombone ladies put themselves right in the center and cheered for basically everything I did, which was both flattering and terrifying haha. I didn't want to make any mistakes; I wanted to set them a good example! One tongue-in-cheek thing that I did for them was during the clarinet-heavy number. I have a lot of boring sustained notes in that piece, so I took one and popped it down an octave to make it sound big and fat. They REALLY cheered for that! Fun trombone nerd stuff :p
--- --- --- --- --- ---
JAMESON STUFF
Meanwhile Jameson was on his third day at Disney corporate. He updated me during his lunch break to say that things were going very well although he was insanely busy, basically doing introduction meetings all day long. But he is very excited about the projects he'll be on, and I am so happy to see him engaged and enthusiastic for the first time since covid. Thank god! He's needed this.
Here's the cruise ship he'll be "producing" on for a week at the end of this month! In the Bahamas! Lucky dog!
(photo courtesy disneyparksblog)
--- --- --- --- --- ---
EPIC TEA
Another interesting tidbit from today: apparently the queue for the Ministry of Magic ride has been so ridiculous (often a 5 hour wait!) that Universal decided to try opening the Wizarding portal an hour before all the others so that the queue could form early. We weren't on the schedule that early, but when we came in everyone was talking about how the queue had wrapped around the entire park TWICE...
...and the wait time was EIGHT HOURS.
(stock artistic rendering)
The ride went down shortly thereafter, causing people to give up on waiting and "reducing" the wait time to "only" 5 hours...but either way, who WANTS that? That's LITERALLY the whole day spent waiting for a 4-minute ride!
I mean, Monsters Unchained is also a dark ride with a similar design, it actually works most of the time, the visuals and tech are just as incredible, and the queue is average for a new ride (2 hours or less.) Eh, whatever. I was blown away by how nutty things have gotten surrounding MoM. I know it's great but...c'mon.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
POOL DECK STUFF
After work I got home and Jameson and I caught up with each other.
Sadly, the guy who sealed our pool deck did mess up after all (I had suspected something was wrong but he's the professional, so...) He fully admitted the mistake, and spent several hours this afternoon scraping and chipping the bubbled-up hardened sealant from between our pavers. I felt very bad for him, but also grateful that he is fixing the mistake instead of just screwing us over. He'll be back again next week to finish scraping.
Last few activities before going to bed included submitting my last transcription job,
taping up my trombone and equipment to ship to Schenectady tomorrow,
and drafting "thank you" emails to both Universal and our third party management for Epic Universe.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday,
LAST DAY AT EPIC UNIVERSE STUFF
I was up extra early so I could load up the car and be at UPS right when they opened to ship my tenor trombone and equipment. Hopefully it all arrives on time and intact. From there I drove to Walmart and bought a bunch of treats for the other members of Place Cachee Jazz as a thank you/going away gift. I got full-sized candy bars, mini KIND bars, and assorted sweet and savory mini bags of crisps and cookies.
I was in for a surprise as well. When the boys arrived later on, Joe (clarinet) presented me with a small box.
Inside was this beautiful rose gold-colored Parker pen.
But even better than that, and very touching, was that most of the cast and management had signed the box!
On the other side of the box was this lovely quote that almost brought a tear to my eye. Goodness.
Working for Epic has not been easy. We essentially learned our show in a construction zone.
We were there before the buildings were painted.
We dodged cherry pickers while learning our choreography.
We yelled our lines to be heard over jackhammers.
Our very first audiences were the construction workers (and they were a great audience too!)
It was intense, stressful, and exhausting.
But the hardships were all worth it in many ways. I got to meet all of these wonderful, professional, hardworking musicians. I got to learn how to act for the very first time. I got to see the birth of a theme park...how many people can say they've been a part of that?!
I'm grateful for what I learned, and still amazed that I got to do this and be a part of something so rare and special.
And now, it is finally June. The time has come for me to close out my chapter in this story.
It has been fun, and I am grateful. But to be honest...I have QUITE the adventure ahead of me now, too!
The rest of the day was normal. We played sets for decent crowds, I made sure to say goodbye to as many people as possible, and wrote and sent "thank you" emails to both Universal and third party management. I received many wonderful compliments and well-wishes, which I don't totally feel I deserve as my heart was never here to begin with (Friends Only people, iykyk). But still...these are great people, and I'm very proud to have worked here. It was a perfect last day for me.
The best part of all was that as soon as we started our final set of the day...it began to rain!!!
We cannot stay out in even a light drizzle when Plume (our expensive animatronic creature) is with us, so the set was immediately ended and we got to pack up early! Wheee! What a great Last Day treat for meeeee! I hugged the boys goodbye, took one last look around...and walked out.
Thus ends my time with Epic Universe (for now at least.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was very chill. I got up too early, answered some emails, and didn't get much done at all until before lunch when I went to get ingredients for dinner. While Jameson was at a massage I practiced bass and finally started packing "for real," which at this point mostly means packing clothes and kitchen supplies. For dinner I made basic spaghetti with bolognese and a salad, and for dessert we had Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake bars because they're nostalgic and I'd wanted them.
That's pretty much it.
Oh, I wrote a big long blog post asking readers to do this-and-that when it comes to tour tickets/visits and avoid this-and-that when it comes to interacting with me. You might think I'm neurotic, but try putting yourself in my shoes for a minute. My lifestyle means that this is NOT a normal blog. Try to imagine what I see when I open my LiveJournal.
I learned some hard lessons when I joined the circus and my blog suddenly got HUNDREDS of readers. Every day, all day, I had messages and questions and ticket requests to respond to, usually from complete strangers or long-silent acquaintances who crawled out of the woodwork to beg for freebies. These interactions are the reason why I now have all these pet peeves around my writing. There are a lot of amazing and good people in this world, and I'd like to continue interacting with those. But there are also a lot of selfish, thoughtless, hateful, and creepy people, and I need to take steps to protect myself from those.
Ultimately the TL;DR is that I want to be treated like a human being on LiveJournal. I am not a TV program, a ticket dispenser, an AI chatbot programmed to answer endless questions, or a soapbox for others to stand on. I'm a real person, just like you, writing about her life. It's a weird and exciting life, but I'm still just a woman that eats and sleeps and cries and gets annoyed like everyone else.
Anyway there ya go.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, up too early again. It is hard to sleep when every time I wake up in the night my brain whispers about Beauty and the Beast.
When Jameson got up we went for a walk together. Talking about this and that, but mostly about our hopes and dreams for our new jobs. Jameson's grandmother passed away a few nights ago (they weren't close) so he'll be flying home after I leave for the funeral. Mariah (trombonist at Epic) is looking for a new car and is interested in using mine in the meanwhile, so I'm gonna research how we can make that happen. Just things going on with our lives.
We got back and cleaned up and had snacks. I packed a little and practiced for a scant 30 minutes.
I'd thought to use today to go shopping or clean, but this is essentially the last day that Jameson and I will have fully together, so instead we just chilled quietly in each others' company, ate pizza and my much-loved air fryer wings, and watched the Tonys.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday and Tuesday: Jameson has partial and full days at Disney respectively, so I will be using these two days to do my final tour prep. Cleaning around the house, doing some final shopping, packing, tying up lose ends.
Wednesday: Flying to Schenectady. Holy crap!
EPIC STUFF
I was up early of course, and since our sets were an hour later this week I was able to visit Whole Paycheck to get my favorite Lemon Pepper Tofu Bites :)
At the park everything was normal except there were two trios there today! One set of us was there to work as usual, and the other was there to train our new subs! So of course the subs were there too and we got to meet them all. It was so cool and strange to have FOUR female trombonists sitting across from me in the breakroom! And I am very glad that our third party managed to find them. Hopefully they'll have fun at this job.
We had normal sets all day, with larger crowds than usual which was nice.
For one of the middle sets the subs came out to watch. The trombone ladies put themselves right in the center and cheered for basically everything I did, which was both flattering and terrifying haha. I didn't want to make any mistakes; I wanted to set them a good example! One tongue-in-cheek thing that I did for them was during the clarinet-heavy number. I have a lot of boring sustained notes in that piece, so I took one and popped it down an octave to make it sound big and fat. They REALLY cheered for that! Fun trombone nerd stuff :p
--- --- --- --- --- ---
JAMESON STUFF
Meanwhile Jameson was on his third day at Disney corporate. He updated me during his lunch break to say that things were going very well although he was insanely busy, basically doing introduction meetings all day long. But he is very excited about the projects he'll be on, and I am so happy to see him engaged and enthusiastic for the first time since covid. Thank god! He's needed this.
Here's the cruise ship he'll be "producing" on for a week at the end of this month! In the Bahamas! Lucky dog!
(photo courtesy disneyparksblog)
--- --- --- --- --- ---
EPIC TEA
Another interesting tidbit from today: apparently the queue for the Ministry of Magic ride has been so ridiculous (often a 5 hour wait!) that Universal decided to try opening the Wizarding portal an hour before all the others so that the queue could form early. We weren't on the schedule that early, but when we came in everyone was talking about how the queue had wrapped around the entire park TWICE...
...and the wait time was EIGHT HOURS.
(stock artistic rendering)
The ride went down shortly thereafter, causing people to give up on waiting and "reducing" the wait time to "only" 5 hours...but either way, who WANTS that? That's LITERALLY the whole day spent waiting for a 4-minute ride!
I mean, Monsters Unchained is also a dark ride with a similar design, it actually works most of the time, the visuals and tech are just as incredible, and the queue is average for a new ride (2 hours or less.) Eh, whatever. I was blown away by how nutty things have gotten surrounding MoM. I know it's great but...c'mon.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
POOL DECK STUFF
After work I got home and Jameson and I caught up with each other.
Sadly, the guy who sealed our pool deck did mess up after all (I had suspected something was wrong but he's the professional, so...) He fully admitted the mistake, and spent several hours this afternoon scraping and chipping the bubbled-up hardened sealant from between our pavers. I felt very bad for him, but also grateful that he is fixing the mistake instead of just screwing us over. He'll be back again next week to finish scraping.
Last few activities before going to bed included submitting my last transcription job,
taping up my trombone and equipment to ship to Schenectady tomorrow,
and drafting "thank you" emails to both Universal and our third party management for Epic Universe.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday,
LAST DAY AT EPIC UNIVERSE STUFF
I was up extra early so I could load up the car and be at UPS right when they opened to ship my tenor trombone and equipment. Hopefully it all arrives on time and intact. From there I drove to Walmart and bought a bunch of treats for the other members of Place Cachee Jazz as a thank you/going away gift. I got full-sized candy bars, mini KIND bars, and assorted sweet and savory mini bags of crisps and cookies.
I was in for a surprise as well. When the boys arrived later on, Joe (clarinet) presented me with a small box.
Inside was this beautiful rose gold-colored Parker pen.
But even better than that, and very touching, was that most of the cast and management had signed the box!
On the other side of the box was this lovely quote that almost brought a tear to my eye. Goodness.
Working for Epic has not been easy. We essentially learned our show in a construction zone.
We were there before the buildings were painted.
We dodged cherry pickers while learning our choreography.
We yelled our lines to be heard over jackhammers.
Our very first audiences were the construction workers (and they were a great audience too!)
It was intense, stressful, and exhausting.
But the hardships were all worth it in many ways. I got to meet all of these wonderful, professional, hardworking musicians. I got to learn how to act for the very first time. I got to see the birth of a theme park...how many people can say they've been a part of that?!
I'm grateful for what I learned, and still amazed that I got to do this and be a part of something so rare and special.
And now, it is finally June. The time has come for me to close out my chapter in this story.
It has been fun, and I am grateful. But to be honest...I have QUITE the adventure ahead of me now, too!
The rest of the day was normal. We played sets for decent crowds, I made sure to say goodbye to as many people as possible, and wrote and sent "thank you" emails to both Universal and third party management. I received many wonderful compliments and well-wishes, which I don't totally feel I deserve as my heart was never here to begin with (Friends Only people, iykyk). But still...these are great people, and I'm very proud to have worked here. It was a perfect last day for me.
The best part of all was that as soon as we started our final set of the day...it began to rain!!!
We cannot stay out in even a light drizzle when Plume (our expensive animatronic creature) is with us, so the set was immediately ended and we got to pack up early! Wheee! What a great Last Day treat for meeeee! I hugged the boys goodbye, took one last look around...and walked out.
Thus ends my time with Epic Universe (for now at least.)
------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday was very chill. I got up too early, answered some emails, and didn't get much done at all until before lunch when I went to get ingredients for dinner. While Jameson was at a massage I practiced bass and finally started packing "for real," which at this point mostly means packing clothes and kitchen supplies. For dinner I made basic spaghetti with bolognese and a salad, and for dessert we had Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake bars because they're nostalgic and I'd wanted them.
That's pretty much it.
Oh, I wrote a big long blog post asking readers to do this-and-that when it comes to tour tickets/visits and avoid this-and-that when it comes to interacting with me. You might think I'm neurotic, but try putting yourself in my shoes for a minute. My lifestyle means that this is NOT a normal blog. Try to imagine what I see when I open my LiveJournal.
I learned some hard lessons when I joined the circus and my blog suddenly got HUNDREDS of readers. Every day, all day, I had messages and questions and ticket requests to respond to, usually from complete strangers or long-silent acquaintances who crawled out of the woodwork to beg for freebies. These interactions are the reason why I now have all these pet peeves around my writing. There are a lot of amazing and good people in this world, and I'd like to continue interacting with those. But there are also a lot of selfish, thoughtless, hateful, and creepy people, and I need to take steps to protect myself from those.
Ultimately the TL;DR is that I want to be treated like a human being on LiveJournal. I am not a TV program, a ticket dispenser, an AI chatbot programmed to answer endless questions, or a soapbox for others to stand on. I'm a real person, just like you, writing about her life. It's a weird and exciting life, but I'm still just a woman that eats and sleeps and cries and gets annoyed like everyone else.
Anyway there ya go.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, up too early again. It is hard to sleep when every time I wake up in the night my brain whispers about Beauty and the Beast.
When Jameson got up we went for a walk together. Talking about this and that, but mostly about our hopes and dreams for our new jobs. Jameson's grandmother passed away a few nights ago (they weren't close) so he'll be flying home after I leave for the funeral. Mariah (trombonist at Epic) is looking for a new car and is interested in using mine in the meanwhile, so I'm gonna research how we can make that happen. Just things going on with our lives.
We got back and cleaned up and had snacks. I packed a little and practiced for a scant 30 minutes.
I'd thought to use today to go shopping or clean, but this is essentially the last day that Jameson and I will have fully together, so instead we just chilled quietly in each others' company, ate pizza and my much-loved air fryer wings, and watched the Tonys.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday and Tuesday: Jameson has partial and full days at Disney respectively, so I will be using these two days to do my final tour prep. Cleaning around the house, doing some final shopping, packing, tying up lose ends.
Wednesday: Flying to Schenectady. Holy crap!
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