"Oh what a night" as the high school prom song goes. I'll take you through my past couple of days backwards, because I'd like to start with the joy. let's see... well I had the evening show here at CWU in ellensburg, wa last night and they totally revamped the place. last time I played here, it was just a games room, with a couple pool tables and some popcorn... now they've got this little pizzeria, and a huge screen tv on the wall where everyone was watching history being made for the Red Sox of Boston. I was thrilled when I got there, because I knew that they were up 6-0 by the 2nd inning from checking online at this here coffeeshop. I love this wireless internet thing. I love my new laptop. I hope it stays with me forever. Anyway... so some peeps were watching the game, and it wasn't over by 8pm which was when I was supposed to start, so the girl said to me, "gee, I'd hate to turn this off when you go on.." I said, "are you kidding? I don't want you to turn it off... just turn down the sound, so I can play, but I want to watch... for shizzle" okay, I added the shizzle part, but you get the idea...
so I started jamming out, opened up with "longday" by mb20, for reasons which you will realize shortly.
(just before that)
I got a call to my phone, saying that my belongings had just arrived at the hotel I stayed at the previous night. So I had to go pick them up so I would have clean clothes and my own guitar for the evening show (remember this entry is going backwards). so I went to the comfort inn, and picked up all of my belongings, clothing, etc, and my guitar and harmonicas... everything... and then on my way back to my new one-night residence, I dropped off this guitar I rented at a local guitar shop called Boogie Man...
(just before that)
I awoke at around 8:30am, thanks to a wake-up call, after about 6 hours of sleep. I knew I had to get ready and figure some things out. so I showered, brushed my teeth with a complimentary toothbrush from the front desk, complimentary toothpaste, and they gave me a little stick of deoderant too... after cleaning myself up, I had to put on my same clothing from the 20 hour, 4-flight trip from the day and night before, and head out into the world of ellensburg to look for a guitar and some clothing. I was referred to a little guitar shop, but I guess it had been completely closed... so that sucked, but then I found a place called the Boogie Man, which didn't open til ten. I had to be there around 11am for the afternoon show at the SUB. so I waited, and as soon as the guy unlocked the door to open the store, I followed him, probably scared him, and informed him of my situation. He said they don't typically rent guitars out, but he could sell me one, then buy it back for a reduced price. I had little choice, so I accepted. I went to play the afternoon show in the exact same everything, including flip flops, "don't mess with texas" t-shirt, and playing a slightly out-of-tune guitar, which was different than my baby, with no harmonicas, and just a stool (guitar strap was with everything else). Somehow it came out all right. the wildcats of cwu understood my situation, and treated me okay, even though I had no cds to sell, just stickers and the mailing list.
(my situation)
I got up in Detroit about 8:30am ET. got a ride to the airport from a nice gentleman named Al, who works for a transportation company. it was nice vehicle. although not a limo, I still felt pretty cool sitting in the back seat and all. trying to shut my eyes for an additional half hour of sleep if possible. Arrived at the Detroit airport for a quick flight to chicago, to catch another after a 2-hour layover to San Diego. first flight wasn't so bad, but I knew I had a long day of travel in front of me. Caught the 2nd flight to SD. Many crying babies the entire time. I had trouble sleeping even though I was tired, and I'm always reluctant to recline the seat when there's someone behind me. I mean they could have a ginger ale on their tray table or something. hot coffee... it could be anything. so I struggled through that, the longest flight of the day. arrived in SD about 6:35pm ET. then I had to claim my baggage, and immediately check it back in for my flight to SEA, which went through sacramento first, another connector flight. So I got my bags. checked them in, just as my cousin Kevin rolled up to the terminal.
so I walked outside, and we went back so I could check out his place in the hour I had to spare. checked out his new place, ordered some middle-eastern food from a place called Alladin. we ate quickly, cos we took our time and I didn't want to miss my flight. so I made it back in time. we boarded. everything was going fine until... I noticed we were waiting a while to take off. Now I had a connector flight 25 minutes after this one was supposed to land. We were delayed 30 minutes due to weather in sacramento. so I thought, great, I'm going to miss this freakin' connector, and be screwed, 'cos I had to not only make it to seattle, but get my rental car, and drive 2 hours to ellensburg, and perform in just a number of hours after I land on the campus at noon. Good news. they held the connector flight because there were 14 people on our flight relying on this connector. so once we landed in SAC, we walked straight across from our gate, right to the other gate (it literally took less than a minute, and we found seats, and were on our way promptly. Not only were there more crying babies on this flight, but there was this apparent child mollester right behind me. he kept talking (very loudly) to this young girl, must have been like 6. her mom was just sitting there, and the guy wasn't even saying anything to the mom, just the girl, asking her what school she goes to, where she's from. I thought it was very inappropriate, and caught a couple glances from the mother, her face showing a bit of confusion... so once the lights went down, he finally stopped interviewing the young girl and shut his trap. We arrived in seattle, and I thought my journey is almost over.
waiting for baggage claim was routine. they always tell you which baggage claim station is for your flight, and it's always the one next to that one, but we figured it out. I noticed niether of my bags came through; my bag of clothing and everything else, and my guitar. in looking around, I noticed 13 others still waiting their bags (the connector). I knew I wasn't getting my bags. they decided not to put them on the flight from sacramento. I mean, I guess when you see a guitar, you figure, "this guy probably doesn't need this, let's just send it in tomorrow morning." Well they also assumed that everyone was staying somewhere near the airport or metro seattle area. I had to drive two hours east to Ellensburg, and I let them know where I was staying, and that I need this stuff now, let alone asap. I wasn't angry though, I was kind of laughing. I wasn't surprised either. so I went to Hertz to get my rental car. after confirming the reservation, and presenting my ID and credit card. the guy says, "ohhhhh... hmmm... you're not 25, are you?" No sir, I'm 24 and 5 months. "yeah... we can't rent to anyone under 25."
Are you kidding me??
so I had to go down the line to every rent a car place and find a place that would rent to me, with a $25/day fee for being a YOUNG DRIVER. I finally settled on Alamo. they said it would be about $55/day total for 4 days. plus tax of course, no big deal... little did I know that in WA they charge 30% tax... THIRTY PERCENT. $70 extra in taxes... unbelievable. so I again had no choice, and added to my growing credit card balance.
so there I was driving to Ellensburg to my hotel. when I called for the reservation, they said they only had one room left, and it was a suite. it was over a hundred bucks, and I knew I was arriving late, so I knew I wouldn't even be able to take advantage of it, because of the limited sleep I was to get, especially given the journey I had to take the next morning to find a guitar, and clothing. again... no choice, I'll take the room... so that basically brings us up to speed in the "why me?" story of making it out here for the shows at Central. in the end, everything worked out okay.
After the evening show, I ended up selling close to 20 cds... also close to a new record, the first of which was started right here at CWU during my first ever afternoon show last fall... as a bonus, a young man bought me a strawberry-banana smoothie after the show. so thanks Tor. It's swedish for thor.
anyway, last night was the first ever "freeze tag" theme show, and also the first ever "jimmy trivia" rather than the traditional movie or game show trivia...
whew...
JJA
