Travel Diary

It was then 4:30 AM once again.

It almost felt like Groundhog Day. I got up and checked Uber and Lyft. Lyft had $14 listed as the price to get to the airport which was EXCELLENT, but as usual, a few minutes later, the price had drastically changed and was about 50% higher. I guess I missed the early window because it was now around 5 AM. It was pretty annoying, and I ended up taking Uber, so Lyft lost the entire fare.

The driver arrived in six minutes and got me to the airport in 10. Security was light and while they do have Touchless ID, it wasn't even necessary. Yeah, I was pretty amazed at how fast security sometimes goes, especially these days. I killed a little bit of time and we finally boarded. I was in first class once again.

After takeoff, I ordered the old-fashioned another time and had the bagel sandwich, which was almost the same as the other one just a different type of bread. I gotta stop ordering that option. It's just not very good. I really just wanted a bagel and cream cheese. I also made use of T-Mobile’s free in-flight texting and data. This will come in handy a lot!

It was a nice flight to Seattle and I finished watching the second half of “The Housemaid,” which is a decent movie. It took up most of the flight time, and soon we were landing in Seattle. With no luggage, I was able to go straight to the train station and got lucky because the train arrived pretty much as I was getting up the stairs (it’s an escalator, but I use them as stairs). It was then a long train ride to Capitol Hill and I walked home from there. A very fast vacation/work trip. Not even 24 hours in Cali.

Notes:

It is challenging sometimes to do this, especially the fast day trip shows. “Space” cost me on health as I got very little sleep, and it was a very exhausting day.

Financially…well, the gig paid $125, plus $5 tip, so $130. But… Flight was 5k each way in miles and $12. Value of the miles is about $200, but since I have massive miles, I will only count the $12.

Lodging was free, but I left my friend $10.

Train fare was $6. One Uber trip needed for $22.

For food and drink it was a beer for $13 and some broccoli for $10.

So that’s $73 in expenses against $130 income. Profit of $63.

Bottom line is we perform for the love of performing not for the big payday. But still, I will try to avoid these whirlwind trips for the public shows at least. Private gigs do pay a lot more.