It's American Thanksgiving!!! Which I specify because I just discovered that they celebrate a different day for Thanksgiving in Canada. I wasn't even sure any country celebrated a Thanksgiving day outside of America. I will be spending my day working, which isn't bad for me because I'm away from home anyway due to my job in the entertainment industry. I'll be working on maintenance type stuff for the show this afternoon and we have one show this evening so everyone here in Beaumont, TX can stuff their faces, watch some football, take a nap, and then come to see Cirque Du Soleil's Dralion! Anyway, I'm off to work and hope that everyone has a great turkey day!! 
I'm in Beaumont, TX this week. The bus ride was short and I did a little bit of reading before I passed out from exhaustion. Sundays are a lot of work for me because we generally pack up the show into the trucks after presenting one or two shows. However, Mondays are almost always a day to relax and rest. I've been surfing around blogs fro a while and I'm going to check out some sets here in a little while. I hope everyone is doing well and I may check back in before the end of the day.I'm excited for next week because we'll be in Houston, TX, which is much bigger than Beaumont.
Ok, it took me longer than expected to get back to posting blogs. The remainder of my time in the Dominican Republic was great! I had a lot of fun and I got some photos of my scuba diving trip through a photographer that guests can hire to go on the dives. However, I apparently forgot to load the pics from the CD onto my laptop before leaving for work again, so I'll be digging them up for posting later.
I'm finally moved into my new place with my brother. I bought a bed, which is something I haven't owned in around 5 years due to traveling for work and all of my belongings being in storage. I'm excited to have a place that I can go to for my tour breaks. It's in Boulder, CO, which is now my favorite place to have setup a residence. The town is cool with a busy little downtown area and it's conveniently located at the base of the Rocky Mountains. You can see them as you drive around off the western edge of town. The mountains are full of great places for hiking, skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, trail running, and just about any other outdoor activity involving mountains!! I was too busy on this trip to try any of it out, but my brother wants to try going to a ski resort the next time and I would like to go and learn how to do something on the snow. I've never been skiing or snowboarding.
I'm back at work now and we're spending a couple weeks near Houston, TX and then out to Louisiana and Arkansas before our trip up to Montreal and Quebec for the holidays. I won't be home for Christmas, so my mother sent my presents to Colorado before I left on tour and I got to open them so that I wasn't traveling wrapped christmas presents in my luggage. My most exciting gift was a Nook Simple Touch. I've been reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, but I should be finished with that soon and then I'll be looking for new books to buy and read now that it's so much easier to travel books and read them on the road. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good book to read?
I hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to check back more often so that I can see more great sets and blogs!!
I'm finally moved into my new place with my brother. I bought a bed, which is something I haven't owned in around 5 years due to traveling for work and all of my belongings being in storage. I'm excited to have a place that I can go to for my tour breaks. It's in Boulder, CO, which is now my favorite place to have setup a residence. The town is cool with a busy little downtown area and it's conveniently located at the base of the Rocky Mountains. You can see them as you drive around off the western edge of town. The mountains are full of great places for hiking, skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, trail running, and just about any other outdoor activity involving mountains!! I was too busy on this trip to try any of it out, but my brother wants to try going to a ski resort the next time and I would like to go and learn how to do something on the snow. I've never been skiing or snowboarding.
I'm back at work now and we're spending a couple weeks near Houston, TX and then out to Louisiana and Arkansas before our trip up to Montreal and Quebec for the holidays. I won't be home for Christmas, so my mother sent my presents to Colorado before I left on tour and I got to open them so that I wasn't traveling wrapped christmas presents in my luggage. My most exciting gift was a Nook Simple Touch. I've been reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, but I should be finished with that soon and then I'll be looking for new books to buy and read now that it's so much easier to travel books and read them on the road. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good book to read?
I hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to check back more often so that I can see more great sets and blogs!!
Well, my last two weeks have been amazing. The show got sell out crowds both weekends, which brought an amazing energy to everyone who was working.San Juan, Puerto Rico has a large venue so our largest crowd was around 9,000 people, which is pretty amazing. The building we put the show into in Santo Domingo was smaller, dirtier, and less accommodating in some departments, but we didn't have a single show with under 5,000 people in attendance for our 8 shows in 4 days.
In the short break between cities, I took off with some friends and we went to an all inclusive resort in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic and had a great time! I got in a couple hours of snorkeling, so I could watch fish and urchins. There were hundreds of sea urchins in and around all sorts of rock and coral formations. I also got to see a puffer fish, some spotted eels, a small spotted ray, some slippery dicks (the fish not the anatomy part), some blue tang, and some triggerfish from what I can remember off the top of my head.
After working extra hard to work with locals who only spoke spanish (I can't really speak it and can only mildly understand it when it is spoken to me), we got the show back into trucks in 6.5 hours and said our goodbyes over beer as everyone has two weeks to do whatever. I personally am in the middle of taking a couple days at an all inclusive in Bayharibe, Dominican Republic before going to my new home in Colorado where I will unpack boxes and buy a bed and settle in for about a week before going back on the road for 10 more weeks.
I used my new scuba certification to go one two scuba dives this morning and I will be going on two more tomorrow. I would have more pictures, but my underwater camera spring a leak or something and is out of service until I get back to the states and figure out how to file a warranty claim with Olympus. It certainly wasn't full of water, but there is now some corrosion on the battery contacts and the rear screen doesn't work.....oh well, it'll get sorted out. I hope everyone is doing well and I'll be back soon.
In the short break between cities, I took off with some friends and we went to an all inclusive resort in Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic and had a great time! I got in a couple hours of snorkeling, so I could watch fish and urchins. There were hundreds of sea urchins in and around all sorts of rock and coral formations. I also got to see a puffer fish, some spotted eels, a small spotted ray, some slippery dicks (the fish not the anatomy part), some blue tang, and some triggerfish from what I can remember off the top of my head.
After working extra hard to work with locals who only spoke spanish (I can't really speak it and can only mildly understand it when it is spoken to me), we got the show back into trucks in 6.5 hours and said our goodbyes over beer as everyone has two weeks to do whatever. I personally am in the middle of taking a couple days at an all inclusive in Bayharibe, Dominican Republic before going to my new home in Colorado where I will unpack boxes and buy a bed and settle in for about a week before going back on the road for 10 more weeks.
I used my new scuba certification to go one two scuba dives this morning and I will be going on two more tomorrow. I would have more pictures, but my underwater camera spring a leak or something and is out of service until I get back to the states and figure out how to file a warranty claim with Olympus. It certainly wasn't full of water, but there is now some corrosion on the battery contacts and the rear screen doesn't work.....oh well, it'll get sorted out. I hope everyone is doing well and I'll be back soon.
So, I got an added bonus from last weekend: an ear infection! Luckily, I either have a high tolerance for pain in my ear or it got partially blocked before it started to hurt, so I'm not suffering from a lot of pain. However, I'm a little worried about my upcoming flight to the next island on Sunday night and this fluid in my ear. Puerto Rico has been great and I'm going to be enjoying one more day off today while everyone else is at work because this is my week in the rotation for a day off on a show day. The clouds are hanging around, but maybe they'll just hang around enough to keep the temperatures down a little bit. I'm still going to be extra careful in my application of sunblock. I didn't put any on my back and left it exposed while I was preparing to go scuba diving and get myself a nice shade of red on my white skin....ooppps!
It has been great to wakeup and find views like this:
It has been great to wakeup and find views like this:
I have successfully finished my Open Water Diver Certification!
This is a picture of the three of us who just finished in the water. We had just been down to 60' for our final dive of the certification. I had a great time and saw some awesome fish in their natural habitats. In the last couple of days I've seen sea urchins, lion fish, scorpion fish, fire coral, fan coral, and blue tang, but those are just my favorites that stick out in my head. We saw many other fish as well down here in Puerto Rico.
I also tried some fresh coconut water.
At the moment one of my inner/ middle ears isn't cooperating with the rest of my body, but it doesn't hurt. It just sounds like I still have some water in there, which I suppose is possible if some got in there while I was equalizing, but I have no idea how to get it out, so I"m letting my body take care of it and if it starts to hurt, I will seek medical help. I'm still in Puerto Rico with work, but I have Friday off and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my time. There are so many tourist options such as zip line tours, rain forest tours, horseback riding, snorkeling, or more scuba diving. I'm also excited to visit Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic next week for work and then a couple days just to myself before going home to Colorado to start setting up my new apartment.
I hope everyone is doing well and I will check back in later.
This is a picture of the three of us who just finished in the water. We had just been down to 60' for our final dive of the certification. I had a great time and saw some awesome fish in their natural habitats. In the last couple of days I've seen sea urchins, lion fish, scorpion fish, fire coral, fan coral, and blue tang, but those are just my favorites that stick out in my head. We saw many other fish as well down here in Puerto Rico.
I also tried some fresh coconut water.
At the moment one of my inner/ middle ears isn't cooperating with the rest of my body, but it doesn't hurt. It just sounds like I still have some water in there, which I suppose is possible if some got in there while I was equalizing, but I have no idea how to get it out, so I"m letting my body take care of it and if it starts to hurt, I will seek medical help. I'm still in Puerto Rico with work, but I have Friday off and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my time. There are so many tourist options such as zip line tours, rain forest tours, horseback riding, snorkeling, or more scuba diving. I'm also excited to visit Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic next week for work and then a couple days just to myself before going home to Colorado to start setting up my new apartment.
I hope everyone is doing well and I will check back in later.
In the morning I'm going to the dive shop, here in Puerto Rico, with some friends and I'm going to get my PADI Open Water Scuba certification. It's my first time trying Scuba, and I've got high hopes for it. We should squeeze in enough dives in the next two days to finish the certification. I've spent the last three days working, celebrating my birthday, and studying the Scuba classroom material. I'm super excited, but I'm going to bed so that I'm well rested for our possibly long day tomorrow. 
It's my Birthday! I'm now going to bed after a couple of beers, but I'll check in later with something more interesting....
So, I just walked in the door from work, but my mind is still at work. It has nothing to do with the actual work this time, but instead is about one of the building employees. She found a way to introduce herself to me and we chatted briefly a couple times throughout the day, but I was a little shy and didn't make the right move. Now, I'm sitting in my hotel room and thinking about her big beautiful brown eyes. I'm really hoping to see her again tomorrow and hopefully find some time to have a couple drinks with her before I leave town on Friday with the flight to Puerto Rico. I rarely have people get stuck in my head like this, but there's nothing I can do about it now because I'm at home and I highly doubt i could find her still at work because most of the people she supervises have gone home. Oh well, life goes on and I will hope for another chance.
This week stands to be really short for me. We arrived last night and we're setting up the show today for performances Tuesday through Thursday, but then we're packing up the show in Gainesville, FL and shipping it to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The company has decided to fly us to Puerto Rico on Friday and is giving us Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to do whatever we'd like to do as days off. I think I'm going to try and find a place to teach me scuba diving!
Well, I'm about to run out the door and catch the bus to the venue for set-up today and hopefully I will be home (the hotel) by about 1:00am. I hope everyone has a great day and a great week. Oh and my birthday is on Thursday, so I'm thinking of the time off in Puerto Rico as a birthday present from the company.
Well, I'm about to run out the door and catch the bus to the venue for set-up today and hopefully I will be home (the hotel) by about 1:00am. I hope everyone has a great day and a great week. Oh and my birthday is on Thursday, so I'm thinking of the time off in Puerto Rico as a birthday present from the company.
