Aly, Griff, Books, and Jazz (Tucson 2013 pt 3)

Okay, so this is late. Oops. For simplicity's sake, and to keep the posts a manageable size, I'm going to combine the next two days of my trip too.

My balloon painting! :D

On the 8th, I got up and painted with Bompa. I've always loved hanging out with him in his paint studio. Back when my grandparents lived in Logan, Utah his studio was a tiny room off the storage part of their basement. I used to go in there, play with some of his paints (on paper, no canvas for me) and listen to Bompa's music of his stories. It was really fun. Now that they're in Arizona, his paint studio is in a building with a bunch of other offices. Bompa set me up with a paint shirt and a canvas (!) and we painted. I used some of his old acrylics (he paints with oils now) and just played around a bit. I had been going to try and paint one of my pictures from Ireland, but it proved too daunting (I'm a terrible painter) so I went with a balloon against a sky. Bompa worked on his wolf some more. We even listened to Jesse Cook, just like we used to in Logan. I managed to finish my balloon, with Bompa's help. It was a nice way to start the day and I'm so glad I got the chance to do it.

After painting, Aly came in from Mesa to hang out for a little while. She and I went out to lunch at Beyond Bread (which I had heard about just the day before). We got sandwiches. Mine was pretty good, except that the bread had a really hard and pokey crust which made it kind of hard to eat. Still, it was fun to chat and catch up.

When we were finished, Aly still had some time before she needed to head back so we went to the Foothills Mall. I found an arcade by accident and then we had to go in and play a couple of games. We played this taiko arcade game I'd only ever seen in Japan before, and, of course, some DDR. We also played air hockey (she beat me) and a couple of token games. We only got a few tickets so we gave them to a couple of little kids who were there.

Pharaoh Shannon and China Man Aly ^_^

Aly and I went to a party store next. We had fun trying on silly hats and looking at the wigs. I told Aly about wanting Griff to shave his head except for two Mickey Mouse ear shaped puff balls on top. She ended up getting him afro puffs (now he doesn't have to shave his head! :D) and a red wig for herself. We also had to get pixie sticks because... well, how can you say no to toxically colored powdered sugar?

We sat in Aly's car and talked for a while longer before she finally had to take me back to my grandparents' house. It was really fun to see her and super nice of her to come all that way just for a couple of hours. Thanks Aly!

It was getting close to time to head towards the airport to get Griff (now you see why we got busy and I didn't get to post until now), but I got a text from Griff saying his plane had been delayed right before we walked out the door. We sat back down and waiting for a bit longer before heading out in search of food. We tried a Red Lobster, but it was too full. We ended up at a restaurant in a hotel right by the airport. Bompa got a hamburger that he seemed to like okay, but me and Nana's soups were quite yucky.

When we got to the airport, Griff was already off the plane. We found him, grabbed his bag and got back in the car. Griff said he wasn't hungry, so we went back to Nana and Bompa's house. Nana and I were still hungry so we decided to have some food. Griff ended up eating with us.

I gave him his afro puffs (he was thrilled, as you can imagine :P) and his Riker figurine from Bookman's. (We've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and both of us were surprised to see Riker beardless in the first season. Griff remarked that it made him "sparkly" and since then I have take great delight in giving him a hard time about it. So when I found the figurine, I just knew that he needed it. ^_^)

Griff went to bed and I started working on Nana's iPad. It needed a system update, but first I had to make sure everything was synced with the computer. It turned out to be a bigger job than I'd hoped, but in the end I got the iPad and all the apps updated.

Jodi Picoult! 

The next day, March 9th, we all went to the Tucson Festival of Books to see Jodi Picoult. Picoult is one of my favorite authors and I haven't had the chance to see her before, so this was a cool opportunity. Before her presentation Griff and I each bought books and we got a copy of her newest book, The Storyteller, for my dad.

It was pretty crowded in the room she was speaking in, but I could still see okay, and I managed to get a few pictures that turned out okay. She's a good speaker and the stories she told about working on her newest book (mostly) were really interesting. I hope I get to read it soon.

When she was done speaking she relocated to a tent outside where she signed books. The line was pretty long, but it moved at a good pace (not like standing in line for two hours waiting for Tamora Pierce). I got my book and dad's book signed and Griff got his signed. Jodi Picoult was really nice about it all.

We needed to get a late lunch/dinner so we could get home and change before the concert. But first we had to stop at a Target and get Griff a new white shirt, since he forgot his at home. We got lucky and found one that fit him really well. For food, Griff and I voted for In-N-Out Burger. I've only been to one once before and didn't really remember it, but I know it tends to be a big deal with California-to-Oregon transplants. It was pretty good.

The concert we were going to see was Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center orchestra. Honestly, I'd only had a little contact with jazz before that night, mostly in the form of my high school's jazz band. It's not really my favorite genre of music. But I wanted to give some professionals and try and it sounded fun. Before the concert, we listened to a talk by Yvonne Ervin. She got to meet a bunch of the big names from way-back-when and she had some really great stories (even though I hadn't heard of most of these people).

My favorite story was about Woody Herman and Serge Chaloff. Serge was in Woody's band, and he was a drug addict and a drunk. Serge managed to get everyone else around him addicted to drugs too. And Woody got tired of it. So he was going to fire him. Woody told Serge before a show they were doing that after that night he was done. They played the show and afterwards, Serge grabbed Woody saying he wanted to show him something. Serge pointed to something in the river and asked if Woody knew what it was. Woody says something to the tune of, "I don't know, it looks like some trash floating in the river." And Serge goes, "That's the bari sax book. And I'm the only one who has it memorized." It took Woody six months to find someone to transcribe the book. Once it was finished, Woody fired Serge. Yvonne didn't tell us what happened when Woody fired Serge, only that it wasn't nice, but she said we could ask afterwards if we wanted to know. I wanted to know so Griff and I asked. Apparently, Serge showed up to a shower absolutely hammered. He was swaying around and slurring, but still insisting that he wasn't drunk. Woody got pissed, no pun intended, and he peed on Serge's leg. Then he fired him. By some miracle, neither of them got kicked out of the club they were playing at that night. Quite the story, no?

Me and Griff all dressed up

Any way, we got into our seats and the concert started. It was pretty good, I mean you could tell these guys were good musicians, but I just... I just don't like jazz I guess. The solos sound cacophonous to me. More like stacking two songs on top of each other, not accenting and adding to the basic beat or melody. There were parts of each selection that I liked, and I did like the one that was inspired by Dante's "Inferno" though. Griff liked the whole thing a lot, which was good. (You know, even to this day, I still think of Marsellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, even though I never did see the whole movie, every time I heard Wynton Marsalis? Griff said he has the same problem. Kind of awkward, but kinda funny too...)

Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra

Afterwards, Griff and I wanted milkshakes, but the only places still open were on the wrong side of town. So, when we got home I decided to go for a jog. Griff wanted to tag along and so we set off for Safeway. I assumed it would still be open, because it would have been in Oregon. Oops. Apparently Safeways in Arizona close at 11:00pm. Since it was two miles away, it took us until 11:40 to get there. Still in need of shaving cream and wanting a snack, we decided to keep going to a convenience store that was another mile farther out. They were, fortunately, still open, so we got snacks (no luck on the shaving cream) and started the trek back.

Griff and B'loon

On the way we found a random balloon floating above a side street. It had a really long ribbon that Griff was able to reach, so he grabbed it and brought it along. As we got closer to Nana and Bompa's house, Griff decided to set it free again. When he let it go, it drifted sedately across the street and disappeared again.

When we finally made it back to my grandparents' house we had gone almost 6 miles (we were supposed to do like 3.6) and we were quite tired.

I'll do the last two days of our trip hopefully tomorrow. Any way. Good night!