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As I write this I am listening to the dulcit sounds of cars, wind, people, and buses which can only mean one thing - I'm back in Queens! We left Boston on Monday a little later than we expected because Jeremy got out of load out late, but arrived in Queens that night and checked into our hotel in Maspeth. Considering this is New York, the hotel was clean, big enough, and in a good neighborhood (even though there was a HUGE cemetery across the street. I'm talking nearly Arlington sized but creepier). Come to find out this hotel was the same one that my family and I stayed in when I moved to NY for the first time (talk about creepy...). The next day we woke up, ate breakfast downstairs, and packed up to go to the trailer lot. On the way, I had Jeremy drive through Woodside and past my old apartment. I nearly cried -mostly because when I lived there I thought I'd never get out of there, but I did and now think the place has a certain charm about it. The lot is in Fresh Meadows, Queens, which is about a ten minute drive past Citifield. If you don't know NY, that is code for IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Everything around us looks like a suburb, and it's a 30 minute bus ride to the END of the F line. Getting anywhere the next two weeks will take some serious planning...

We got here before our camper because I have to help park everyone when they get here, so we hung out in someone's personal trailer for a while becasue it was raining. Eventually though, everyone started showing up (all at once, I might add) so standing in the rain was inevitable. Jeremy ran out to get some Chinese food from a Kosher Chinese place (only in NY), and I proceeded to join the synchronized swimming team. After two changes of clothes, including shoes, we were done for the night and went into our camper to enjoy the lack of rain and heat because even though everything was hooked up and the lot power was run no one had turned on the generator. Awesome. It's at times like that when I think to myself, I'm turning into my mother because all I can hear in my head is a combination of, "You're going to get sick" and "My idea of roughing it is a hotel without a pool." Both of these things are true. (I've been sucking down emergen-C and tea like it's my job.)

Load in here takes 2-3 days. This makes sense and no sense at all; it does because we have to set up a tent and seats on top of the show, but it doesn't because the show is so much smaller than ringling. I hate to tell the guys here, but their job is so easy when it comes to manual labor. Maintenance has is pretty bad, but other than that (and I hate to say it because I don't like playing the "my job is harder than your job" game, but...) these guys have it SO easy!

We're still fighting to get our water hoses hooked up properly becasue we don't have the correct equipment, so the camper is disgusting right now. We can use our toilet, but there's no water in it; we can use the sink, but no water comes out of the faucet. Luckily the show has a surplus of gallon jugs of water that we've been using for purposes other than drinking.

A lot of people have gone in and out of the city already. I've been suck in the office and Jeremy has been loading in, so I get to watch the artistic coordinator's doberman pinscher while he's in Manhattan. She's really sweet, terrified of Jeremy, and only speaks French. (raises eyebrow) I know how to say "hello," "come here," "good girl," "please," "shit," and some of the words to "Frere Jacques" in French. I think the dog is listening to me out of pity.

Load in will be done after today, and we start shows Saturday. My day off is Sunday and Jeremy's is Monday, which is no fun. I think we're going to see a Mets game Tuesday night and then HAIR on Wednesday night. (Gotta do SOMETHING in the city!). If you're reading this and are in NY, let me know!