Tired but hanging tough

I got to LAX around 11:30 am and went directly to the counter to see if I could get on the 2:15 flight to Orlando. The woman at the counter was pretty nice as she told me that all the early flights were sold out.

Ugh... So, I was at the airport 11 hours before my scheduled flight. 

To make a very long story short. I hung out in the airport terminal until my flight left, and landed in Orlando this morning at about 6:30 am. Fortunately the hotel had a room for me and I checked in and jumped into bed for about an hour and a half. We loaded in and worked till about 7:30 tonight. Then we had some dinner at the hotel bar, and I am now going to get some sleep. 

Basically, Yesterday my schedule was 6:30 am yesterday morning till 7:30 pm tonight with about an hour of sleep on the plane, and an hour and a half this morning at the hotel.

Surprisingly enough, I did pretty well all day. Now however, I am going to pass out. 

Good Night.

The Long Stretch

Last Thursday I flew to Burbank and caught a $65.00 cab ride to The Langham Hotel in Pasadena.

It used to be the Ritz Carlton of Pasadena, so I can't complain about the accommodations.

We loaded into the ballroom at 8:00 am and it went very well. The gear for the show came out of Phoenix, and it is being provided by my good friend. The setup was good, we had everything we needed and didn't have to sit around and wait the vendor to run back to the shop to bring back the stuff that they forgot, like we did in Tampa about 2 weeks ago.

This is a pretty long show, 5 days of show, plus rehearsals. While we did start the week out with rehearsals, there were no more rehearsals after the first show day. 

On Sunday morning we had opening sessions.

And then after some change overs for break outs, the client went to the hotel bar area, where they were having a private superbowl party. 

So, being professional AV Techs, we streamed the superbowl to the ballroom system and then raided the client's bar for food and drinks, and 5 of us watched the superbowl on a 10' x 30' High Def Screen with a JBL Pro Sound system including 18" subwoofers.

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty chaotic. The client didn't give us any info on the show, and so every day... every session, it was a guessing game as to what was going to happen next.

While there wasn't a lot of long hours or late nights, it was pretty stressful work because we didn't know what was going on. So, I am feeling a little beat up from it all.

Today is the last day of the show, and it is supposed to end around 9:30 or so. I have a flight at 10:45  pm tonight and I am supposed to land in Orlando tomorrow morning at 6:20 am and go right to the hotel to start a load in for another show.

I am going to try and fly standby on a 2:15 flight which gets me into Orlando at midnight, so at least I will get a couple of hours of sleep in a real bed. Wish me luck!

The show in Orlando should be pretty straightforward.  I get to work with some old friends, so I am looking forward to that. It is a quick turn-around show and I will be hopping on the last flight out of Orlando to Phoenix. I land at 11:00 pm and go straight to the hotel where I will load in the following morning. The show there is from Sunday to Thursday, so another good long show.
Hopefully at some point, I will get to swing by this house in Phoenix that I call home, and maybe do some laundry.