A Mouse About Tucson (2013 pt 2)

Oh look! A second post! During my trip! WHAT?! No way!

I'm going to condense two days though because we didn't do much the first day I was here.

Blue!

 Most of the things we're going to do, we can't do until Griff gets here on Friday, seeing as he's never been to Tucson. So, Nana and I got pedicures at a place she likes to go to. My toes are now bright blue. ^_^ It was fun to do, particularly since I never ever bother at home and have only ever done it once or twice before, but it was also kind of awkward. I am apparently uncomfortable with people waiting on me. And I don't mean like waiters or cashiers, I mean more personal services. I like to do things myself and I feel vaguely guilty asking (even if I'm paying, I guess) someone else to do things like wash my feet, clean up the calluses (something else I never bother with), and paint my nails. It's also kind of embarrassing because I don't take good care of my feet. Granted the people at this place seem to see an awful lot of older people whose feet are probably in much worse condition than mine, but still.

Other than that, we made dinner at my grandparent's house, a frozen cheese pizza to which we added chicken, olives and mushrooms on one side, and green bell peppers on the other side (my side had the peppers and chicken), and we talked. I also showed them some computer stuff.

A wall of glass samples.
The little signs on each shelf asking people not to
move the samples were pretty funny. 

Today we did a little more. Nana needed to go to an acupuncture appointment at a place 27 miles away. Whoever's idea it was to put parts of the same town 27 miles apart was a doofushead. It takes a good 45 minutes to get out that far. But we had plenty of time, so when, as we got closer, Nana remembered a store in a pink building that she wanted to investigate, we could afford to stop for a few minutes. It turned out the pink store was a glass shop, both selling glass pieces and providing supplies and classes for people to make their own stuff. It was a neat shop and a lot of the stuff in there was really pretty. I particularly liked some of the earrings and the blown glass balls.

Clever, right?

But my favorite part of the shop was probably the little signs they had on stuff. I mean, it's all glass so it's fragile. And yet people apparently like to come in and handle everything. So on sample glass bits shelves there were little signs that said, "Please do not remove glass samples." And instead of repeating that they got increasingly entertaining-- "Pretty please!!!" "I really mean it, now!!!" "Aw, come on...Now I'll never find where it goes." (Apparently the samples have a particular order...?) "Penalty for removing glass samples $200." "Each offense after that, memorizing the order of all 1,300 glasses we carry." "Each subsequent offense: $500 plus 3 months counting scrap glass shards." "Plus you have to get all of us lunch at Beyond Bread." They made me smile. I also liked the sign over on the display shelves that said, "Lovely to look at, precious to hold, but if you break it consider it sold!" Hee hee. : )  I think the employees may have thought I was crazy for taking pictures of their signs though.

After we took Nana to the acupuncturist's office, Bompa (my grandfather. I guess I called him Bompa instead of grandpa when I was little and it stuck) and I went to Barnes and Noble and got coffee and treats. We sat there and talked about his time in Nepal back when he was working for USU (University of Utah). It was really fun and interesting. I want to learn as many of their stories as I can by heart so that I can write them down and tell them properly.

Some boots I tried on as a whim

Really fun, but really tiny shoes
Too bad Charlotte wasn't here,
they probably would have fit her.

We should have been late picking up Nana, but she had just gotten out as we drove up. She (me too) wanted to go shopping so, just for fun, I looked up thrift stores nearby and found a Buffalo Exchange. The only one I've been to was in Portland, OR and since it's a bit classier than a regular old thrift shop (some of them any way), we went there. I didn't find anything that I needed or particularly wanted, but it's always fun to look around. Every time I go into a Buffalo Exchange, I always think of my friend Becca because she used to work in one as a buyer. Her thrift store rule always echoes in my head too, "Try on anything you like, no matter the size, because you never know." And she's right. Hence the boots. (I didn't try the cat shoes or the green ones. I measured the green ones against my feet and yeah... that wasn't going to happen.)

This mirror would work really
well for Belle's hand mirror

They're kind of weird, but I also kind of
like them. Plus the colors are fun.

A couple stores down the strip mall from Buffalo Exchange is a place called Bookman's. I had never even heard of Bookman's before today, but it's actually kind of a neat place. They have lots and lots of used books, some movies, video gaming supplies, CDs and even some musical instruments. There was also a knick knack room. I found some fun stuff in there, actually. Like a hand mirror that would have been great for my fairytale objects photo project a year ago, a hippo in the style of old Egyptian figurines we saw in museum in Europe, and vases with ancient Greek style designs. The best things I found were collectible Star Wars and Star Trek figurines though. Those were super fun to look at. I actually bought a surprise from Bookman's, but you'll have to wait until Griff gets here to find out what it is.

After Bookman's we went to JC Penney's. Nana worked there for a long time so she has a permanent 20% discount which is pretty cool. I wonder if they still do stuff like that... We had fun looking at dresses and I modeled a bunch for Nana and another older lady who was there with her granddaughter as well (I think she was the lady's granddaughter any way. She was trying on bras, hence the lack of modeling). I got two dresses, one is blue with white polka dots and the other is a really bright yellow (I like obnoxious colors). Thank you Nana! ^_^

Bompa was starving by that point so we drove to P.F. Chang's for dinner. I had never been to P.F. Chang's before and all I really knew about it was that it was a kind of high end Chinese place that also sells frozen versions of their food at the grocery store. Turns out the Chinese food at P.F. Chang's is kind of like what I tried in Ireland. For example the sweet and sour pork (and chicken, but I didn't have that), had pineapples, onions and red bell peppers in it, just like the sweet and sour dishes I had in Ireland. I'd never seen it made that way in the US before. I suppose it might be a tiny bit healthier because you're at least eating a few pieces of vegetables and fruit instead of a couple extra pieces of fried pork or chicken like you would be if it was the usual American version of a sweet and sour dish. I also tried a Lucky Cat Martini, just for fun. It was WAY too strong for me. It had vanilla vodka, pineapple juice and another kind of alcohol in it. All I could taste was the alcohol and so I didn't like it very much. I also had sips of Nana's Cosmo and Bompa's Martini, both of which were also icky. Interesting to try though.

And that was my first two full days in Tucson. : ) Feel free to be impressed that I actually wrote another post so quickly.