Field Trip! Wrentham Village Premium Outlets!

So, we are right in the middle of what I have been calling "Hell Week", and today we caught a little break.
Hell week consists of  9 shows in 7 venues over a span of 9 days, most of them in different states, which means that we are on the bus every morning to do a show in a new theatre pretty much every night.  On the upside, many of these cities have thus far been reasonably close  together, and to be honest it is already getting hard to keep the cities straight in my head.

Today, because we only have a 2 hour drive between New Bedford MA, and Springfield MA, Keith, our Rock star Company Manager arranged a little excursion to help pad the time between when we had to check out of one hotel and when we could check in to our next.  The tour bus dropped us for a two hour shopping trip at the Wrentham Village Premium Outlets here in Massachusetts.  Up until this point, I have always thought that Walmart trips while on tour were highly entertaining - everyone rushing off to acquire all the goodies that they need to make life on the road a little easier in a strict one hour time limit.  Today was that same sense of urgency and frantic excitement multiplied by a thousand degrees.  All most  everyone immediately scattered to scour the stores for the best deals.  Some of the cast were on personal shopping missions, snapping up great deals on hot fashions for themselves, while others, myself included, focused on early Christmas shopping for all the folks back home.  Banana Republic, Coach, Kenneth Cole, and Gap were big hits!

People were frantically bargain hunting right up to the wire, spending per diem cash hand over fist.  It was awesome. 
The best part of the entire experience was the little fashion show that happened at the back of the tour bus as we were about to hit the road.  Everyone eager to show off their new acquisitions, and see all the great finds everyone else had snapped up.

It was a fun distraction from Hell Week, but now we are back on the bus rolling through the rain for our next stop. 
Check back soon for more updates.

Today's lesson about the legal system.

So in mid May a uniformed police officer rang my doorbell and handed me a suponea.  I had been summoned to appear as a witness in the trial of the individual who rear ended me last December.  (If you don't know that story, see my blog post "An Atypical Friday Night").  Apparently he was fighting the charges of careless driving and failure to provide the proper information ( Ala insurance).

The date of the court case was Friday July 27th, at 10am at the courthouse in Cambridge.
After a quick check of my work schedule, I breathed a sigh of relief, I would be working out of town, 3 hours North in Penetang, but my show schedule would allow me to attend the trial without having to actually miss any work.

So last night, after doing 2 shows I jumped in the Escape at 11pm, and drove the 3 hours home to get a few hours sleep.
I was up at 7:45am to shower and prep for the day, determined to make it to the courthouse early, since I wasn't entirely certain where the courthouse is located.

At 9:15am I arrive at the courthouse, verify I am in the right spot, and take a seat in the waiting room of courtroom 103.  The aid I spoke with told me to check in with the prosecutor once the courtroom opened.

At 9:30am a gentleman came into the waiting room and asked if anyone was there for a 10am trial who hadn't checked in yet.  I flagged him down, and showed him my paperwork, only to be told that my case was of a different nature than the ones he was working, and another prosecutor would be working my case.  She walked in the door at exactly that moment, and the gentleman informed her that I was one of her witnesses.

She came over and sat next to me, verified my paperwork, then told me that they were going to stay the charges in the case as they had a plea on other pending charges (which I assume were the impaired, and the leaving the scene).  She thanked me for coming in, told me my civil duty had been done, and I was free to go.

Free to drive the 3 hours back to Penetang, without ever actually having made it into the court room.

While I was partially relieved to not have to sit on the stand, and go through the whole process, a big part of me would have appreciated a phone call informimg me of this before I made the 3 hour drive down in the first place...

I politely thanked the prosecutor...I figured as a civil servant she has to deal with enough idiots, why get upset about it?...she was just doing her job, so I jumped back in the car and hit the highway.

I could tell it was going to be a long day.