February 17, 2019

Dateline:  Birmingham, Alabama –

And another trip comes to an end.  I went to bed early last night, intending to get a sound sleep and energy for a travel day which, of course, meant that I slept very badly, waking up every 20 minutes or so.  Perhaps it was too much red wine at dinner.  Perhaps it was the knowledge that I have to gear up for my usual life, rather than a more relaxed pace. Around 6:30, I gave up and got up.  The packing had been done the night before, the boat was already docked at Port Everglades, so there was nothing to do but have a leisurely breakfast and wait for my group to be called so we could disembark.  I must say, the cruise industry has the moving of large numbers of people down to an exact science.  Perhaps they’ve taken a course at Disney University.  They called my group at 9:15.  I was off the boat, reunited with my luggage, through customs and in a taxi by 9:50.  The airport is close to the cruise port so I was checking in for my noon flight by 10:15. I had been worried that I was cutting it a little close with that flight time.  I needn’t have been.

The flight to ATL and then from ATL to BHM were uneventful.  Birmingham was muggy and rainy and is apparently going to rain all week.  Ah well, I’ve had my sunshine quotient for the winter and my Vitamin D supplies should be replenished.  I was back at the house around four, unpacked, and then had time to run grab some dinner before my first chorus rehearsal for Tosca this evening.  I’d been eating such a balanced diet all week, that I must confess tonight was Bojangles fried chicken with dirty rice and mac and cheese.  Don’t judge, I was hungry.

Rehearsal periods for Tosca and Man of La Mancha are simultaneous but I don’t have a ton to do in either one of them so it’s mainly going to be a matter of me keeping my calendar straight so I show up in the right rehearsal hall on the right day at the right time.  Tosca is over and done with in four weeks.  Man of La Mancha opens in six.  There’s not likely to be much in the way of travelogue while all that’s going on.  I’m looking at a brief Seattle trip in late April or early May to check on the family but that’s going to depend on a lot of things falling into place.

No story tonight.  I’m finishing up moving all of these posts over to the blog site and looking to see what I’ve already talked about so I don’t get too repetitive.