A very long day at the "office"

6am: alarm goes off, after a restless and very short night
6:30am: i leave my house and step out into pre-dawn New York, to walk over to port authority
6:45am: i ask the info clerk at Port Authority where the bus to La Guardia stops. She points me in the wrong direction
6:50am: Coffee and a cookie, stepping to the wrong curb waiting for my bus, asking another person there who tells me this is the right spot
7:05am: asking another person about the bus stop because of unexplained feeling of unease, find out that the bus leaves on the other side of the building, on 42nd street.
7:06am: running towards the bus which is scheduled to leave at 7:10am, sloshing coffee all over myself and dropping my precious cookie
7:10am: i catch the bus!!!
8am: arrival at la guardia, smooth and easy check-in
8:15am: more coffee, meeting up with the rest of the rumbatap crew. the sun is up by now
9:30am: take-off towards chicago o'hare
11:30am: chicago o'hare, transfer to moline, part of quad cities
1pm: arrival at moline, il, picked up by supernice Lance and driven across the mississippi into iowa and davenport, where the theater lies
1:30pm: meeting up with max, chikako, james and paul, who have already been through an intense week of 3 shows a day and are in the middle of figuring out the light issues in the theater
2pm: lunch of tasty and necessary sandwiches, coffee
2:30: rehearsal of brandnew band tune, while max is doing more lighting stuff in the main theater
3pm: prolonged sound-check due to some technical issues
5pm: tech/light rehearsal, where I get my major brain farts over with
6:45pm: protein bar and nuts (can't do the pasta before the show, people!!!)
7:30pm: Rumbatap show starts - we're psyched
10pm: Rumbatap show ends to a standing ovation and an encore!!!
10:10pm: pasta!!!
11pm: checking in at the "Austrian/Alpine"-themed hotel, which, quite honestly, would be the perfect backdrop of a horror movie, complete with dark wood paneling, portraits of obscure royalty on the wall and a huge wooden chandelier in the entrance hall.
11:30pm: time for a post-show beer at the local bar, with lively political discussions with Lance and a general rehashing of the show
2am: bed! dead to the world for about 4 hours, then only intermittent sleep
10am: getting ready for the trip back to NYC
so long, Quad Cities, it was a fun trip!!!
Photo by James L. Shipp