back from the road blog -
after a nice week home I shipped out Monday and just returned from the godless Los Angeles area yesterday for a couple days in MN before leaving again. I knew this stretch of travel was going to be rough, some days it's best to just wait until it's over before thinking about it.
Days of the week have ceased to have any meaning when I'm gone for pretty much whole weeks and the festivities happen randomly on a Wednesday night.
The gig this week was in Anaheim, right across the street from DisneyLand and pretty much like any other. Arrive, work, get done late and try and carve out some fun to break up the hours of sitting in the dark. We ended up cabbing to the nearest In-N-Out Burger and walking back to the hotel (which meant going around DisneyLand, about 4.5 miles on the new boots) and wandered up a sidewalk and into Downtown Disney through an employee gate. That was surreal.
Actually when we left we were directed out another gate that said "cast members only" so apparently something about us just said "pay no attention to these guys, they belong backstage"
Tuesday was, of course, St Patrick's Day and I not only spent it away from the Irish wife, I spent it working. It's an odd holiday since it's not a day off for most people but employers all go into the day knowing they can only do so much before their people just leave to start getting drunk. It's basically the one day all the tendencies hardcore alcoholics spend all their time hiding get to come out in the open and every just has to deal with it.
We spent the day in the same room, same spot and walked to a little strip-mall Italian joint for a pizza before grabbing a drink in the hotel bar and turning in early. Lame? possibly. But it was nice to be in better shape than pretty much everyone in attendance at the meeting the next day.
Doors opened at 7am and the grey-eyed and hungover were assaulted with pounding, driving house music and thundering bass as they walked in. I'm positive the sound guy was trying to get blood to come out of their ears. Normally meeting pre-show music is some light jazz or some noodly Eric Johnson - oh no. It was Beyonce all the way, really anything with a beat that felt like a punch in the head.
You might make the crew work late on a holiday but they will have their revenge.
Wednesday night was the big fun - another guy from the NY office flew into LA and friends were all at iO West either tending bar or performing so we cabbed it up from Anaheim to the City in what could only be the Jedi-Cab. We were warned repeatedly that the trip would take anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours plus. This guy did it in just under 40 minutes and never less than 70 mph. Amazing.
The show was fun, if not a little weird. Hanging out in the bar after was a welcome change from hotel bars and 4 mile hikes to get to the nearest anything. Everyone drank like pirates and the bill was suspiciously small but the tips were all in cash. Not bad. Great to see everyone, even for a couple seconds. Even better to do something that felt human.
I got my sleep-to-scotch ratio just right and got in a cab for the airport, opting out of going back to the hotel, and slept on a bench until the place opened and then lumbered into the plane and awoke in MN to find all the snow missing and one of my boys sick and his mother on-edge from lack of sleep because of it.
Today is home alone and trying to get the most out of the short time I'm here before we do it all again - literally. Next week is the same show for the same people in a different city and I'll be getting out to do a guest-set at a different improv joint before sleeping in the airport and flying home in recovery mode.
The only thing missing will be the wonderful proof of culinary perfection that is the In-N-Out Burger. The Claremont Lounge will have to do....
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