Working For A Living Chapter 10

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The Trainyard Night Club, Norfolk, Va.:
Jackie covers her yawn as they enter the SUV hired to pick them up. She is feeling the jetlag from spending several hours aboard the plane. They just landed at Norfolk Airport and are heading towards their hotel room in downtown Norfolk.

Kassidy covered up a yawn and could tell the rest of the band was also feeling the jetlag. Since leaving California after their vacation, they have been busy playing at nightclubs and outside events. They had four events in Virginia and have been hired to play. Two events were in Richmond, and they had a gig in Hampton where they would play.

Jackie looks at their new road manager and notices she is busy on her tablet. When she visited them in California, she joined them in Fallon, Nevada. She still hasn’t found a place in Fallon, not that she had much time to look.

The ride to the hotel they were staying at took about twenty minutes from the airport. Since they arrived in the middle of the night, there wasn’t a lot of traffic. The SUV pulled in front of the hotel and unloaded their carry-on bags and instruments.

Some don't even change clothes when they are given their hotel rooms. Jackie, Kassidy, and Shawna shared a hotel room, while Tony, Jerry, and Cindy shared a hotel room. Their road manager, Janet Curtis, had her own hotel room, mainly because she always arranged things and ensured everything was ready for them.

It’s late in the afternoon when Kassidy wakes up. Shawna was still asleep, and Jackie was too. She stumbles towards the bathroom and does her morning business by the time she is done and has taken a shower. She stepped out of the bathroom and noticed everyone was still asleep. Since they weren’t to appear at the nightclub until later, she puts on a dress and heels and grabs her purse. She leaves a note informing everyone that she is stepping out for a while.

Since it was around one in the afternoon, Kassidy decided to go and get lunch. Exiting the hotel, she noticed it was down by the water. She headed to the building next to the hotel called Waterside and went inside.

Inside was a steakhouse restaurant. Since she hadn’t eaten anything since catching the airplane in Colorado last night, she stepped inside and was shown a table. Her waitress was a woman a little older than herself, and she brought her a menu. The restaurant looked busy as she looked at the menu.

When the waitress comes back with her drink, she places her order and waits. While Kassidy is waiting, she thinks about changing her look for the four shows. She’ll have to get with Shawna and discuss it with her. Normally, she and Shawna share a similar look. She noticed that Jackie had already decided on a look for herself, and she had to admit that it blended well with how everyone else looked.

While Kassidy is waiting on her food, she organizes the songs they are going to perform tonight. Since leaving California, they have come up with several new songs. One was Hurricane, which was becoming popular, followed by their version of Roxette's, Look. They were moving away from a lot of the cover songs they did to more of the songs they wrote themselves.

After a while, her waitress returns with her steak lunch. Kassidy takes a bite and enjoys it. It is a little different from what she gets in the Midwest, but it is still good. The tea was a lot sweeter than she usually got.

After lunch, Kassidy paid her bill and left a generous tip. Since this was her first time on the East Coast, she decided to explore. Downtown Norfolk had a few unusual places. There were a few high-end clothing stores, but nothing like those on the West Coast.

She noticed a casino and figured she better warn Jerry and Tony not to go there. She discovered that most of downtown Norfolk was banks and businesses. Sure, there were a few other places, but nothing like in some of the places they have been.

She noticed that Norfolk had a bus service, so she figured out which bus to take to the area where they were going to play. Sure, she could take a cab or Uber, but sometimes it was nice to be normal.

After some searching, she discovered that the area where the nightclub is located used to be where a lot of trains used to come through. According to the website, Norfolk was redoing many areas, trying to improve them.

She also learned that the Hampton Roads area had several military bases, and most of the area's income came from the military's presence. Across the bay was the Veterans Hospital and the Hampton Coliseum, where their new road manager was trying to get them booked for later in the year.

After a few hours of exploring and visiting the nightclub, Kassidy heads back to the hotel where they were staying. Janet texts her, asking where she is. She texts back, informing Janet she is back at the hotel.

She receives another text from Janet, letting Kassidy know she and the others are at a nearby coffee shop. She gives directions to the coffee shop.

Kassidy turns around and leaves the hotel, following the directions to the coffee shop, which is only a block down the street. She spotted her bandmates and Janet sitting outside by the water. She walks over to them and sits down at the table.

“Where did you go?” Tony looks at Kassidy and notices he has a big cup of coffee and a bear claw.

“She went exploring, Tony. You know how Kassidy is when we get to a new town.” Shawna saw the note Kassidy left her and Jackie.

“Did you see anything interesting?” Cindy was curious.

“Not really. Downtown Norfolk seems to be more suited for business than anything else. There were a few nice restaurants to have lunch at, but nothing to write home about.”

“Sounds boring.” Cindy takes a sip from her coffee cup.

“So, did you visit where we are playing tonight?” Jerry knew Kassidy liked to peek at the venues where they would play.

“It wasn’t opened when I went by, but it had a bunch of excellent restaurants and shops near it. There is plenty of parking.”

“Do you think you guys will pull in customers there?” Janet was curious.

“I think so. This is a navy town, after all. Plus, just from looking around in that area. It seemed to be popular with the college crowd as well.”

“Do you have your lineup of what songs you’ll be playing tonight?” Janet knew Kassidy always had a list of what songs the group would perform.

“Yep, and I think No Guts, No Glory should be one of our first songs, followed by Hurricane, Candle Stick, Wild Man, and Tony’s favorite, the Gambler. Afterward, some of the remixes of our favorite songs.”

“Sunset Rider should allow you guys to end the night.” Cindy liked the song they wrote together.

“I agree. It’s pretty much become our ending song.” Kassidy knew everyone in the group loved that song.

“It sounds like you have everything planned out. I'll see if I can get you some air time with the local radio station since we're in their backyard now.”

“We are?” Jackie looks at Janet with a puzzled look on her face.

“Yep, right over there.” Janet points to the building near their hotel.

“There’s a radio station in there?” Kassidy looks towards the building as well.

Everyone else does the same thing. They didn’t know the shadow of the building they were sitting in had a radio station.

“Cool. So, when are you going to meet with them?” Jerry looks towards Janet.

“In about two hours. Be ready to give an interview later or tomorrow.” Janet hopes she gets the radio station to interview the group.

After the meeting, everyone heads back to the hotel to double-check everything and make sure they don’t need to make any last-minute additions.

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Comments

Wahhhh?

You can get jetlag flying the continental US? I barely got jetlag flying to Norway and back. Now, driving it killed me, but that's a lot more hours, on roads that are wildly varied. Flying is like kicking back and cruising on a pillow! ;-)

PS: Radio stations like tall buildings in downtown areas. They get a more centralized broadcasting area and a height boost. It gives them a free boost in their signal focused where the consumers/listeners are.


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

Jet-lag

Even just changing two hours in a very short time can cause jet-lag. And the continental USA (at least the lower 48) has a spread of four time zones, and when you add in the rest of the continental USA (a.k.a. Alaska) you get a spread of five time zones. Meanwhile Canada has a spread of six time zones from coast to coast.

Technically you get jet-lag any time when your body clock gets out of sync with the legal clock for your location. So many people experience at least some mild symptoms of jet-lag when switching to and from day-light-saving-time.

The trick is

Having no reference point for my body clock. It just goes where it wants. Bedtime can change as much as 16 hours from day to day. My waking and sleeping times are not tied to any clock or sun position. Came in very handy when I was in Norway. Nearly 24 hour days in the summer and 24 hour nights in the winter. It worked out to be about 22 1/2 hour days in the summer and 22 1/2 hour nights in the winter. It never got fully dark in the summer or fully light in the winter, more of a twilight/dusk.

I'm always baffled when people complain about the effects of DST. I'm like "Huh???".


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin