home sweet home

The last show of the production went off without a hitch. I say that, because there COULD have been a quite uncomfortable hitch..that being..me not arriving in time for the show.
You see, we had 3 days off in between performances so I decided to take a trip home.
Another singer had an audition in ITALY so I figured my 2 hour train ride wasn't too far away.
Until the rail strike, that is.
I arrived at the correct track for my 7:29am train -- supposed to arrive at my final destination with no changes...in 2 hours.
Well, one stop later, we get a nice little announcement over the intercom in 5 languages saying- due to the train strike we have no idea when we will be moving again or why we are really stopped.
THANKS!
Now, I had well over 9 hours to arrive back at the show...but I'm sitting on this train, unable to sleep since I'm on pins and needles no knowing if we will move. We are first stuck at a pretty large city/station. So I'm thinking- do I get off? Do I try to rent a car? Do I go the the AIRPORT?
TWO and a half hours later, we're on the move. Again, not knowing whether at the NEXT station stop, we will also sit on the tracks for a while.
In the end, everything turned out ok (of course it did, I just said the last show went well!), and I made it back by 12:30pm, managed to sleep for 3 hours, woke up in the mid-afternoon from my nap feeling like SHIT, and said to myself-- ok ..one more. I can get it together for this.. but really, I had NO idea if the F's would want to come out and play. I couldn't even talk in a normal speaking voice without cracking, that's how tired my body was.
But, I took a shower. For like 35 minutes. Steam. Heat. Does wonders for the body and voice.
Started warming up lightly in the shower and before you know it...I'm just fine.
Feeling energized again, warmed up way past the F, and voila- no worries for the show.
The show was great, the colleagues were lovely, the weather was a bit dreary most of the time, and I had a really nice 'artistic' time..even though I COULD have done a lot more studying of future-scores on my days off. As I've said before, I think it's pretty tough to motivate other music-learning while on a gig. But at least now I have a month and a half until the next one.
Until then, auditions are already lined up, beginning with travels to the south next week.
And in all of my time 'off' in between I'll be looking at 3 scores/4 roles.
Good to be home.