Tuesday March 22 2022

Waking up kind of early at 10:45 a.m.

 

Breakfast Bar. Tea.

 

Rebecca and I drive out to Nigel’s house for a band meeting along with Jimmy the Greek. We have much to debrief from the last string of shows and to prepare for the next. There’s a list to address dealing with merch and various band drama. Being the micro manager that he is sometimes it’s hard to deal with but Nigel is usually reasonable. Meanwhile, one of his grandbabies is marching around the house.

...

After leaving the house we ride back towards Hilltop. Something that was said in the meeting offended Rebecca. We try to sort it out all the while rushing back to make her 2:00 lesson time. Meanwhile, I discover I left my bag at Nigel’s, which has my car keys and the Music Makers phone and such. Boy, what a day this is turning out to be.

 

Back home for some lunch – I ended up walking.

Eggs. English Muffin. Spinach. Coffee.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers.

Popcorn.

 

Right after we have a meet up with some of the kids that will be doing some choreography for The Wall show this Saturday. Rebecca helps me orchestrate it – even though it’s late we have a good time figuring it out.

...

Chatting with Rebecca outside, I sense how troubled she is about the meeting earlier today and what was said – it really brought her down and made her feel reactive and defeated. She was grateful for the iced chai latte I brought her considering there wasn’t any time for her to grab decent food. I just want her to feel appreciated and try to sort out what’s going on in her head.

 

Back home. Making some quick dinner: Edamame with Vegan Sausage, Zucchini, and Rice.

 

Monday March 21 2022

Waking up around 11:45 a.m.

 

Breakfast Bar. Tea.

 

Catching up on scheduling.

 

Running errands.

 

Dropping off the phone and stuff to Music Makers. Rebecca had a few cancellations early on – on a whim she drives us out to The Giving Tree chiropractor off Rosemont for some much needed adjustments. Then, dropping by Alpha Music to grab a few cables.

 

I’m home for a minute to eat lunch: Eggs, English Muffin, Spinach, and Coffee.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers.

 

Afterwards, we’re supposed to have Modern Day Warrior band practice but it turns out to just be Megan and Billy. We run some Bohemian Rhapsody harmonies and such – Rebecca helps Megan get out of her shell.

 

Back home. Warming up some dinner: BBQ Lentils, Cauliflower, and Quinoa.

 

Catching up on business.

 

At the 104 space doing a late night workout.

 

Pineapple, Blueberries, and Yogurt.

 

Sunday March 20 2022

Waking up around noon or so.

 

Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Blueberries, Flax Seed, and Almond Milk. English Breakfast Tea.

 

At Music Makers coaching 3 bands with Andrew and Rebecca’s help.

 

PB&J break with an Apple and Coffee at some point.

 

After all rehearsals are over Rebecca and I plan and talk out the next ELO trip and other related discussions. There’s always so much to sort out.

 

Back home. Enjoying some Bangkok Garden for dinner with Ana (Chicken and Broccoli with Jasmine Rice).

 

Catching up on business.

 

Organizing my computer desk.

 

Saturday March 19 2022

Waking up around noon.

 

Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Blueberries, Flax Seed, and Almond Milk. English Breakfast Tea.

 

At the studio doing a couple one-off lessons with Chase and Jaden. Rebecca and I both teach them cause they’re supposed to be performing at the next MMLIVE show.

 

Afterwards, Rebecca and I meet with Jimmy the Greek from ELO to get a game plan together to tackle issues we need to address as far as tour stuff goes.

 

Back home.

Spinach Salad with Eggs, beets, and Tomatoes. Sourdough Bread. Coffee.

 

Catching up on business.

 

Raspberries

 

Running night errands.

 

Leftover Pasta with Vegan Sausage and Veggies.

 

At the studio organizing things and getting rid of this old organ – practicing drums.

 

Cookies.

 

Friday March 18 2022

Waking up around 11:45 a.m.

 

Breakfast Bar. Tea.

 

Running errands – returning that god forsaken garment rack to Wal-Mart and purchasing a nicer one at Target.

 

Taking care of chores and things at the house.

 

Later, after Ana gets back from the horse farm, she drives us out to Norfolk – grabbing lunch at Mr. Shawarma’s (Falafel Pita Wraps and Fries) – then exchanging some clothes at Nomad’s down the street – dropping by Smartmouth to say hello to Jordan and collect some Lava tickets – grabbing a loaf from Chelsea Bake House.

 

While Ana prepares dinner I construct a garment rack for Music Makers new t-shirts.

 

Back home. Eating dinner together: BBQ Lentils with Roasted Veggies and Quinoa.

 

Cleaning up the kitchen.

 

Thursday March 17 2022

Waking up around 11:40 a.m.

 

Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Blueberries, Flax Seed, and Almond Milk. English Breakfast Tea.

 

At Soul Haven Studios to track some quick piano for new ELO songs – Nigel is here with Edwin, Jimmy, and John – they’re filming behind the scenes stuff and recording a whole string section.

 

Running errands – stopping by Alpha for some cables – thrift store where I find new blank shirts and show shoes.

 

Eggs. Spinach. English Muffin. Coffee.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers.

Afterwards, Aaron and Zach show up to practice Mae songs. Meanwhile, Rebecca and I talk business for a bit.

 

Back home. Making a quick a dinner: Naan Pizza with Salad.

Watching Sorry to Bother You (2022).

 

Wes and I ride out to Norfolk for Ladada practice. Working on the latest new songs and jamming out.

 

Wednesday March 16 2022

☼▬

I’m somewhere outside of a house at night. There’s some kind of commotion going on inside – I see through the window Rebecca standing at the sink washing dishes and cleaning up from a dinner party. She’s wearing that purple bow in her hair from waking life yesterday. I run in cause it feels like something bad has happened – maybe there’s hostility from another person.

“This is ridiculous!” I exclaim. “None of this is fair! I’m not gonna take this generational curse anymore! It stops right now!”

Everyone looks at me in shock – my mom is there all of a sudden.

▬☼

 

Waking up from some crazy dreams at 11:17 a.m.

 

Catching up on business.

 

Running errands.

Dropping and picking things up from the tailor. JoAnne, the nice Korean lady, shows me my name in Korean.

Picking up groceries at Whole Foods. Again, I’ve been feeling so emotional lately – that Joe Cocker song “With a Little Help from My Friends” comes on the PA speaker and I start crying while staring at the maple syrups.

Then at Wal-Mart to get a clothes rack.

 

Spinach Salad with Eggs, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Carrots, and English Muffin.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers.

 

Afterwards, meeting with Carol and Rebecca to talk about Broadway for the rest of the year – I brought Chic-fil-A for Rebecca and I to eat cause it’s our dinner time! Carol is dealing with a lot right now cause her mom doesn’t have long to live – she vents to us about all the family drama around it.

...

Later on, I organize some things at the studio. Ana drops in with a mission to ruffle my feathers. But we retreat to the 104 space where I tinker on the piano – meanwhile, she expresses her feelings about us and everything. I try to soften the room with music. Eventually, she hops on the drums and we jam out to an original piano idea.

 

Back home. Snacking on some Corn Tortilla Chips with Hummus.

 

Later, Ana comes into my room still very unhappy about our relationship. The arguments get so bad I have to storm out of the house and go for a walk. The problem is she keeps pushing me and pushing me to tell her “the truth”.  But there is no truth that I haven’t already told her. Whatever I tell her she doesn’t believe me anyway cause she doesn’t trust me – she never has. I don’t know what to do.

 

Tuesday March 15 2022

Waking up around 11 a.m.

 

Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Blueberries, Flax Seed, and Almond Milk. English Breakfast Tea.

 

Catching up on business.

 

At the Rec trying to get some of a workout in. While listening to some CCR on way home through Hilltop I find myself getting real emotional and cry – not sure why – I guess lately things have been rocky.

 

Eggs. English Muffin. Spinach. Coffee. Banana.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers.

Apple.

 

Back home. Eating a dinner that Ana prepared before she went off to work.

Pasta with Vegan Feta Cheese, Tomatoes, Kale, and Peas.

 

Catching up on all kinds stuff at the computer – researching new eyeglasses – emails – planning.

 

Cleaning up the kitchen – laundry.

 

Monday March 14 2022

Waking up around 11:40 a.m.

 

Oatmeal with Cinnamon, Flax Seed, and Almond Milk. English Breakfast Tea.

 

It’s nice to be home and take a shower with my own beautiful Chantytown water pressure!

 

Running errands – getting groceries.

 

Eggs. English Muffin. Spinach. Coffee. Pineapple.

 

Teaching lessons at Music Makers then coaching the Modern Day Warrior band – it’s just Thomas, Megan, Luke, and I. We work on the music of Bohemian Rhapsody.

 

Back home. Making a quick dinner: Salad with Sardines, and Pita/Hummus.

 

Catching up on business.

 

Intertwined with chores Ana pursues an argument with me about the relationship – I’m mostly listening as she accuses me of not listening and not caring. I’m very frustrated but choose to remain calm. We’ve really hit a low point that I don’t know how to get out of.

 

Sunday March 13 2022

 

Waking up reluctantly at 11:15 a.m. in the hotel room.

 

Linking up with our crew downstairs in the lobby – grabbing some hot tea and munching on a breakfast bar with Rebecca.

 

We all take the rental cars to the airport and thus begins our airport adventure day. Rebecca and I get held up shuttling to the terminal – the guy stops to pick up all kinds of people – we barely make it to the gate just in time – then another problem comes up – Jimmy uses my digital boarding pass instead of his cause we both have James as first names – but finally we settle into our seats – the 3 R’s as we call it (Ron, Robert, and Rebecca).

...

St. Louis to La Guardia. The three of us are mesmerized by a nearby guy flicking his fingers vigorously at a Rubix Cube. Ron starts timing his solves. High up in the air we can see the land start to turn white with snow – we’ve seen all kinds of extreme temperatures on this tour. I try to sleep but end up doing the “resting my eyes” thing mostly.

...

At La Guardia. We’ve got about a 2.5 hour layover but then all the weather delays change it to almost 4 hours. Jimmy goes off on his own while some of us grab some pizza in the food court. Later, finding a recharge station to catch up on business while we wait – Rebecca and I both pull out our laptops and type away – working out some business related things. Meanwhile, our flight keeps getting delayed and delayed. Apparently, computers all over the world had issues yesterday – something to do with the war in Ukraine.

 

 

After doing some physical activity on a city themed playground we finally make it on board the flight to Norfolk! Only a 45 minute ride and we’re home.

 

Back home. I walk in on Ana vacuuming and cleaning the living room. Enjoying a PB Pita and some of her homemade Apple Pie. She’s not thrilled with the lack of communication between her and I while being gone. We can’t seem to find a middle ground.

 

Saturday March 12 2022

Waking up around 1 p.m. It’s super nice to be able to sleep in real late after driving so much yesterday.

 

We’re here in the River City Casino in St. Louis. Grabbing a Bagel and Tea downstairs.

 

 

Setting up the stage in the events center room, which is honestly a bit of a step down from all the beautiful theaters we played recently. But we manage to get everything together. It’s a tighter space and the morale isn’t very high during sound check. Nigel’s tweaking things with the lighting people. Kevin’s trying to rush us through the songs. Jimmy Wiseman is mad about his monitor mix. It seems like one thing after the other.

 

Later on, I grab a Fish n Chips from the restaurant nearby but they get the order wrong. It’s a whole thing but the ladies are super nice about it and let me keep the mess up order – I give it to Edwin.

 

Trying to get into a better headspace up in my room.

 

Back downstairs in the concert hall – the show is sold out. The band as a whole is in a much better mood and ready to put on a show – so am I. Gotta put on that performer face and roll into the music. There’s such an energy in this show that makes it special. Afterwards, we do a meet and greet – it’s chaos cause we have no merch people helping except for Jimmy the Greek. We all try to help out as much as we can while simultaneously signing autographs and shaking hands.

 

Afterwards, everyone corrals to the nearest burger joint around the corner (all this being inside the casino) but everything closes at weird hours and they stopped serving people in line – Rebecca got the last milkshake! We try to avoid the smoky casino room. Upstairs hanging out in Rebecca’s room. The others get drunk/high in the party room while her and I just chill on the bed watching and analyzing footage from tonight and having existential conversations about everything – mostly complaining about things in the band, all the different dynamics between everyone, and how we can improve. I joke how our “parking lot” conversations have upgraded to “bedside” conversations. But it’s all platonic and innocent.

...

At some point Casey makes her way from the “high” room and I stumble off to bed.

 

Friday March 11 2022

Waking up bright and early at 9:30 a.m.

 

We hit the road in the rental leaving the Holiday Inn behind.

Breakfast Bar. Tea.

Ron takes the wheel and drives us through the sunny but cold Iowa plains. Passing an endless field of wind turbines – we later find out from a gas station cashier lady that the energy produced from them gets sent to New York City.

 

About 3 hours later we arrive at Kansas State University. Setting up in the McCain Auditorium, a massively tall theater with a maze of corridors and doors to navigate.

 

Setting up everything on stage – sound check – dinner (Chicken, Potatoes, Salad, Veggies).

 

Before show time I try to get in a better head space – I’ve got a headache and just not feeling enthused. But after the first few songs in the set performer mode kicks in for all of us and we put on a stellar show as usual.

...

Doing the meet and greet afterwards talking with all the fans and signing autographs. Then, we gotta pack it up and get out of there.

 

No local hotel for tonight – most of our crew decides to drive all the way to St. Louis. With Casey, Ron, and Rebecca in our Kia rental. Casey drives the first half and late Rebecca drives the rest of the way (about a 5 hour drive or so). I sit in the passenger seat queuing up songs and keeping ourselves awake through the night.

 

Finally we all arrive at the River City Casino – it’s a whole ordeal just finding our way to the hotel room registration and parking the cars. But eventually we make it to our semi fancy rooms.