On The Road — Page 16

Back From the Desert

August 25, 2019 at 9:54 am by Claudia

I’m back home.

I was so happy to see Don waiting for me at the airport. So happy to get back to green grass and humidity (yes, you heard me right!)

Did I like Las Vegas?

Nope.

This was the view from my hotel room window – the smudges you see are dirt on the outside of the glass. The cream-colored building is the Smith Center, an Art Deco-inspired performance center. That’s where Anastasia was playing.

The temperatures were well over 100 degrees every day and I had to walk from the hotel to that building a couple of times of day and let me tell you, it was awful. Being in Las Vegas in August is not advisable. Yes, it’s a dry heat, but who the heck thinks about that when wave after wave of hot air smacks you in the face and you can barely walk? When your skin turns to sandpaper and your eyes are filled with grit and your body can’t adjust to the extreme temperature and atmospheric change?

But more than that, the whole casino thing turns me off. I’m not into gambling. I’m not into the amusement park-like atmosphere that is life in the casinos. I stayed at the Golden Nugget, one of the older casinos, which is near the theater. It has a long history. Everywhere I tried to walk in the hotel, there were crowds of people and I mean CROWDS – no matter what time of day or night – loud music playing, slot machines, a whole world designed to keep you inside, so you’re close to the slots, the pool, the restaurants, the bars. It was constantly noisy and not at all my cup of tea. First of all, I don’t like crowds. It reminded me of present day Times Square (and that’s not a compliment), only indoors and with the addition of miles and miles of slots.

Surprisingly, my hotel room was fairly quiet. And it was spacious. So, I’m grateful for that. Not much available on the tube, but I suspect that’s because they think and hope you’ll be occupied elsewhere; betting on slots, playing cards, etc.

The thing about Las Vegas is that it’s a world some people decided to create in the desert. It’s like something a child would create with Legos, only life-sized. Like Disneyland for gamblers. I’ve never understood the appeal and I understand it even less now. Though I know there’s a whole other world beyond that of the Strip and if I had a chance to learn more about it, maybe my attitude would change a bit. I have a couple of friends who live there and love it. I can tell you that it is absolutely not the world for me.

All that being said, I watched the show on Wednesday night, fueled by a wish and a prayer as I was going on 3 hours of sleep and two late flights. But once I had a good night’s sleep, I felt better and my work with the actors on Thursday and Friday was very satisfying. I’m grateful for the work, believe me.

I quickly learned that if I wanted to explore at all, I needed to do it in the morning. I used to work with a company that did national tours of shows and I often flew off to a city that I hadn’t been to before. I love exploring cities and towns. The temperatures in Vegas were prohibitive and, of course, I was mostly working. But I did discover a restaurant a few blocks away from the hotel that had great healthy food and that served Peet’s coffee. (Most mornings I was up early and had to partake of the dreaded Starbucks in the hotel.) They also made great smoothies. The minute I found that place, I felt better.

Found on my explorations.

Ditto.

The saving grace was an independent bookstore that I discovered through a Google search. It’s called The Writer’s Block. I thought I’d have to take an Uber there, but I was delighted to find it was within walking distance of my hotel. I have nothing but raves to share with you about this wonderful shop, but I’ll wait until tomorrow to write about it as it deserves its own post.

It was like finding water in the desert.

I liked it so much I that I went there twice.

As much as I dislike this city, finding the positives in any experience is always important. And these two little oases were positives.

Anyway, more tomorrow. Don was very busy back here as he had a costume fitting in the city, audition on Thursday, and a day of filming in Greenwich Village on Friday. This series – Starling – is airing on Apple’s new streaming network and one of the producers is Sara Bareilles, who Don got to spend a fair amount of time with. He thinks she’s great, down-to-earth, friendly, and kind.

We go from no work to lots of work in a short amount of time. Crazy!

Happy Sunday.

Heading Out

January 10, 2019 at 9:35 am by Claudia

Sometimes, since I don’t always take pictures the day before, I realize I have nothing on hand and I have to grab my phone and take a picture right before I’m about to write the day’s post.

That’s what this is.

A slice of life.

I have to drive to Hartford this afternoon. I’m spending the night in one of the apartments – actually, I think it’s the one I used to stay in – and that means I have to take some coffee, filters, filter holder, and half and half with me. The amount of stuff I have to pack for just one night is mind-boggling.

It will be strange staying in that apartment, yet not immediately hanging quilts and/or rearranging the furniture. Though there might be a wee bit of that, just because I can’t help myself. In some ways, it’s easier if you’re traveling to be there for a longer period of time.

Anyway.

I’ll see the first preview this evening and then I’ll work with the actor tomorrow afternoon. Then I’ll head home in Friday rush hour traffic – oh, goodie! I’m grateful for the work, of course, and the chance to see Darko again, as well as the company manager and stage manager, who are old friends of mine. Grateful to be earning a little more money as times are tight again for us. I was just saying to Don this morning that it was nice not to have to worry about money when he was earning an ETM paycheck. We got more than a little spoiled by that, even though we weren’t doing anything extravagant. Now, it’s back to reality, with my brain constantly calculating and re-calculating what we have, what bills need to be paid, what has already been spent – basically the things that most everyone has to do on a daily basis.

I’m grateful I’m not a government worker who has been furloughed and is worried about paying the mortgage, all because a petulant child wants to get his way. I can’t imagine the stress they are going through right now.

The winds kept up for over 24 hours and even my husband, who is not bothered by wind, had had enough. The gusts were so loud last night that they rattled our bedroom windows. Now we’re headed for some very cold weather over the next four days.

I’m thinking of taking my iPad with me and not my laptop. Writing a post is way too frustrating on the iPad and I have no idea what my schedule will be tomorrow morning, so I won’t post on Friday. I’ll be back again on Saturday.

Happy Thursday.

Booking Stress and a Little Rant

September 5, 2018 at 8:38 am by Claudia

What a day yesterday! I was exhausted at the end of it. I don’t know about you, but we live a very modest lifestyle and have been through many lean years, where paying the bills and the mortgage seemed impossible. Somehow, we have always done it, but the stress was constant.

We still have very little money, but we are getting social security and pensions, so we know we can cover our basic costs every month.

So when I had to pay a chunk of money for plane fare last week and, yesterday, for a hotel in London and plane fare from Edinburgh to Paris, yours truly got very stressed. Of course, I’d already set aside those funds for the trip, but paying out what to me is a lot of money for our trip made me tense. That, coupled with the Kavanaugh hearings in Washington, was a stress-tsunami!

We’ve decided that we’ll fly into Edinburgh, go through customs, grab a bite to eat and then board a plane for Paris, where – presumably – we’ll collapse that night in our lodgings. We’re spending a week in Paris (our anniversary falls during that week) and then we’ll travel to London, spend a week there, take the train to Edinburgh, spend 2 days there, and fly home.

It all costs a whole heck of a lot more money than we are used to shelling out.

We’ve booked the hotel in London, the flights are booked, we’re waiting to hear about an apartment in Paris (Linda, we used your link) but they haven’t got back to us yet which is making us nervous. Don even called them this morning and left a message.

We haven’t booked a hotel in Edinburgh yet, or the train to London. We’ll get to that.

It’s all too much for yours truly!

The zinnias are looking lovely even in this horrible heat wave. Next week looks much better.

Hopefully, we can wrap up the Paris reservations today. The trip is in just about a month, which will be here before you know it.

In the meantime, I have been dealing with professional disappointments, jobs I thought I would have, courtesy that I expected but didn’t get, long waiting periods without any communication, all while I was waiting to book this trip, keeping a certain chunk of time open for work, trying not to conflict with any rehearsal dates, only to finally say “Screw It!” and book the trip anyway. I can’t go into any more detail than that but I’ve been hurt and disappointed. I’d even throw in ‘disillusioned.’

So we’re going when we’re going and that’s that. After 18 years of freelancing out here in the east, much of which has been lovely, by the way, I’m tired of always being the last person contacted, the one who has to constantly email or call to get someone to commit to a contract and then waiting and waiting for a response. In this world of quick emails and texts, how hard can it be to answer someone in a timely manner? I am pretty scrupulous about doing that myself and I expect others to be as well. But, they’re not. Actors have agents, directors have agents, as do designers and choreographers. There are not agents for what I do. It’s just me.

And I’m over it.

Thanks for letting me rant a little.

Happy Wednesday.

Back From the Desert

Heading Out

Booking Stress and a Little Rant

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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