...and a plane ticket and a bell case.

That's the first verse of "The Twelve Days of Tour," Sonos style. We made up a goofy version of "Twelve Days" many years ago, long before we'd ever been to Japan, but as this tour is 12 days, it seemed to fit. Now, of course, the big challenge is figuring out what the rest of the jingle is! So, instead of actually trying to remember, we just chucked out the old one and made up our own. :)

The beginning of these tours is always the hardest part. It's insanely expensive to park at the San Francisco airport, so invariably I end up trudging to our nearest public transit station (in the rain - why does it always rain?) with a huge suitcase, juggling my video camera case and an umbrella. Oh, yeah, and I'm pretty much always late, so I'm doing the "speed-walking" thing in a vain attempt to make my train. ::sigh::


Once I sit down on the BART train (one of our many, utterly fragmented regional transit systems), it's pretty much smooth sailing from then on out. We get to the airport and do the "Sonos huddle," with all of our luggage and the bell cases smushed together in a huge conglomeration of stuff; our Tour Manager (David Kail, once and future Company Manager) hands out the plane tickets, and we each grab a bell case and our one piece of check-in luggage and hit the lines.


Well, that's the *theory*, at least. What actually happens is that we have some huge crisis right at the onset. Somebody's lost. Somebody's stuck in traffic. Somebody forgot their tux and had to go back home to get it (::ahem::). Somebody's name doesn't show up in the airline's computer. Somebody forgot their allotment and brought *two* check-in bags (horrors!). It's always *something*.

This year Fate played the "not in the computer" card on us. We snagged a Campanoid this year, Sunghee Kim, to reprise her role ("ringer 9") with us, and apparently the confusion as to which was her *first* name (is it "Sunghee Kim" or "Kim Sunghee"?) was sufficiently challenging for United to blow it. David, our "firm but polite" negotiator immediately plied his skills on the hapless attendant. Actually, we also enlisted Kathie's aid; I don't think her "juvenile parole officer" style was needed, but I think Sunghee was relieved to know Kathie was in reserve. (I personally liked Michele running through the airport with a laptop yelling "I've got it, David, I've got it" doing her oft-requested "screamer" impression, but that's just me.) Once they got the name switcheroo worked out, Sunghee was ready to go in a jiffy.

Pretty much everything past that was a piece of cake, or maybe I should say a piece of tuffet, because that's about all we did for the next 13 hours or so - sit on our duffs, eating whatever curds & whey United fed us. (Honestly, though, the beef *was* pretty good. And the attendents were very patient with my "Water, please" routine every 15 minutes. I figured they'd go all "Oliver Twist" on me eventually, but they never did!)

As I write this, we're about an hour away from the Osaka airport, where our Nipponese odyssey will take off (er, sorta). I miss my wife, Diane; it's my second tour of the land of the rising sun alone since she retired from Sonos. Right now she's probably asleep, with our kitty, Bella, resting on her legs. Sleep tight, sweetie - I'll be home before you know it. :)

Tomorrow - our first combined rehearsal with our Japanese ringer, Taiko Otsubo! Woo-hoo!

---Jason