Can anyone in here climb?

Holy hell.

Perhaps this entry should start with

"Dear Chris,
You naive idiot.
Love,
Chris"

The first two days of loading in the show has been a tad insane.  Starting back from Sunday, I had an uneventful flight down to San Diego.  Got picked up at the airport by my friend, passed out on the floor (yes, I am that classy), woke up at 5:30am, and took the motorcycle (Buell Firebolt) up to Costa Mesa.  Have any of you driven a Buell? It is like riding on top of a blender in those 'Will it Blend?' commercials.  Great torque, just very...vibracious (new word Tuesdays!). Took the 73 up to 405. The extra $5.50 was worth it for smooth, empty highway up to Costa Mesa.  I managed to overshoot the exit only once and made it to the Orange County Performing Arts Center around 7:30/7:45am.  I originally pulled in the front way of the center, looking for a giant white tent... and saw one of the 'spider legs' sticking out the back.  I continued around and found... a giant construction site with a bunch of semis. Woohoo! I found the other people who looked confused about life, and made friends. It turns out they were doing the same thing I was.

The first part of the day was spent fairly simply, unloading 2 semi trucks full of road case and speakers.  We started setting up 'soundland' 'dimmerland' 'ampland' ..etc where everything would be stored.  When we arrived on site, the cupola (top part of the tent) had already been constructed and was waiting to be loaded.  We basically just hung all the electric part of the cupola all morning/afternoon.  In order to be successful at doing so, one must also monkey around the truss that supports both the lights and the tent.  This is where my designation as Center House Theatre House Monkey was very handy. Over the course of the day it was decided that I was more comfortable high in the air, without safety cables, in precarious positions.  Apparently I am good at getting lights in awkward places? Who knew? :P  At some point after lunch, one of the tech supervisors wandered into the tent, eyed me up, and asked if I knew how to climb.  Naturally, I said yes (before thinking about the fact that I was already in the highest part of the tent, and there wasn't much else to climb).  I climbed down from the high truss inside, was fitted for a harness, then was pointed to one of the legs.  Apparently my job was to climb up halfway and feed 20+ runs of cable inside the truss to a higher point (about 30 additional feet up).  Oye.  It ended up being...well... about as amazing as you are thinking.  Each cable weighs more than a small elephant (that may be just my opinion) and there are lights/truss support and other things in the way.  The best part was when I saw the 5 piles of cable at the bottom, then got excited when we had 4 of the 5 piles pulled thru, mentioned my excitement, then had someone inform me the rest were being trucked over.  That was awesome!  :)

That first night, we broke around at 7:30pm and I was able to crawl into the house around 8pm.  I had enough energy to shower and pass out.  I think I sent a couple messages out and was asleep by the time I got responses... (about 5 mins later).  Go me.

On Tuesday morning, I was up and at Starbucks near the center by 7:15am.  It was nice to wake up early and slowly have a morning coffee/sandwich.  I met back up with everyone at the center and we started working again.  Today was mainly focused on running socapex cable (the same stuff I hauled thru the truss before) in/around/on top of the cupola truss.  So I spent the day crammed inside the truss, doing squats, and running in circles...with a 25-50lbs roll of cable in hand.  I have now decided that all work shirts must be quarantined until they can be washed.  Cable + dusty tent + sweaty Chris = ewww...

Today we got cut earlier than expected, but mainly because the tent is a giant puzzle.  Electrics on the cupola have to be done before fly crew installs the tracks (4 tracks, 2 individual pick points), before the cupola flies up to trim height and the rest of the tent/deck is installed.  Since we were waiting for fly to finish, there was not much more we could do.

On the way home I picked up my essentials - a scrubbie pad, soap, cheez-its and a bottle of wine. High society here in SoCal.

I have to end the post here.  My fingers are torn up and tired from all the crazy stuff I have been doing. Look for pictures/more posts soon. Hopefully the days will be getting easier soon.  While I have been working hard, I do not regret my choice at all.  I am having a blast and making new friends.

:D