Adventures with Anna:
1. BJ's Bayou. Enough said.
2. With just an hour until my class started, we decided to go on a Quest for Milkshakes in Ashton, Idaho. Ashton is 20 minutes away, so we had to speed. Well it turned out the place I went to years ago that served the best milkshakes in the world was now closed. So we went to the Ashton grocery store where I had a faint recollection of dangerously huge ice cream cones. Just entering that place was an adventure. It was the filthiest, most run-down grocery store I'd ever seen, with a lady working at the deli who looked like a zombie and was dishing up mashed potatoes with an ice cream scoop. Anna was quick to point out the mystery fuzz growing out of the wall behind her. Well, I had to know if this was the place with huge ice cream cones, so I ordered a double just to see what would happen. I was disappointed. It was a lot, but not nearly as much as it used to be. Then Anna informed me that she didn't want any! How was I supposed to speed back to class in now snowy conditions with this enormous ice cream cone? So I pushed the top scoop off into the dirt next to the store. It was "Moose Tracks." In the dirt it looked like a big poo. And then as I tried to eat the rest of it on the way back it dripped and left all these little moose tracks on my crotch. And then I stepped into my combo class with the last half of the cone in my hand saying, "Sorry I'm late, I had an emergency... (everyone looked at the cone) ...date. An emergency date." Luckily the whole combo was a bunch of guys and they were all like, "It's cool man. We understand."
3. Getting kicked out of the St. Anthony's Veteran Memorial Park by the police.
Adventures with Liz:
Liz and I decided to go on a Denny's run last Sunday at midnight, with the help of the Baxter soundtrack, Brazilian drum circle music, and New Orleans street funk played way too loud. I had the most amazing French toast I've had in a long time. The Guitar Hero Super Star (see three posts ago) was there with a guy when we walked in and still there when we left. Apparently Denny's is the place to have long cuddle sessions. And then we got to listen to the 18+ couple sitting behind us on what sounded like a first date, and the guy was explaining the details of the short stint he'd served in jail. She sounded impressed. And as I was thinking how bizarre the midnight Denny's crowd was, I caught myself dressing up my water glass with my napkin and licking my lip incessantly because of its strong mysterious tangy flavor, and it occurred to me that I was not actually an exception.
Adventures with Kurt:
1. I got pulled over TWICE a couple weeks ago. (Sorry Mom, I didn't tell you about the second time.) The first time I was in the car with Wilson and Kurt on our way to a rehearsal in IF. It was funny because I've been in Wilson's car when he's been pulled over like three times. He told me to tell the cop that he was distracting me, which I didn't because it totally wasn't true. The second time was two days later with Kurt and Kevin coming back from the premier of the Wolverine movie at like 2:00am. Both times I got off with a warning because I was "straight forward and honest with them." And there's a lesson to be learned from this: warnings don't get recorded! The second cop totally would have given me a ticket had he known that I'd been pulled over on the same road just two days before. Oh yeah, and be honest and stuff.
2. The next week Kurt and I went to the Southeast Idaho Jazz Society jam session at the Cellar in IF. I went the speed limit. Unfortunately the jam was pretty lame. Nice folks though.
3. Kurt and I drove to Salt Lake on the 12th to play at Sarah's 27th birthday party. Brandon cummings happened to be our drummer, which was an awesome surprise, and the bassist was really good too. A lot of people showed up, and Brandon led a toast to Sarah, whom he had just met. Afterward we went to TGIF's where Kurt ordered a lemonade with some kick. We all took a sip, and the vanilla flavor was very strong. Upon further examination of the drink description on the menu, we discovered it was because of the vanilla vodka. Ok, actually we all took a sip AFTER we discovered that, but that's beside the point. We had met up with Emily who's going on her mission to Brazil soon and she took the TINIEST sip, like only wetting her lips, and pretty soon she was like, "Guys, I think I'm getting a headache." We left Salt Lake for Rexburg at 11:30pm because Kurt had to work at 7:00am, so we blasted music the whole way so Emily and I could stay awake while Kurt attempted to get what sleep he could. It was fun though.
Adventures with Rexburg's Underground Jazz Alliance:
So for the past few weeks Melinda (the graduate vocalist we use on gigs a lot), Kurt, and I have been planning Main Street Jazz, a weekly jazz club-type event. It's been Melinda's pet project because her husband has a top position at APX Alarms, and the APX building is empty all summer. Because it has tables, chairs, a bar, Love Sacs, big open room, lots of windows, and on Main Street, and because APX said we could use it for free, it's the perfect place for something like that. Melinda has done most of the work figuring out the logistics of it all and buying all the materials while Kurt and I have mostly been in charge of the music and advertising, but the three of us are every day bouncing ideas off each other and working out the kinks. We spent all last Monday evening setting up and getting the lighting just right using white Christmas lights and paper lanterns from the dollar store. Melinda had found a former bartender to work the bar, so we had all this stuff to make all these fancy fruity mixed drinks. Everything looked awesome.
Our first show was last Wednesday (May 13) and it was a huge success. We didn't actually think many people would show up, so when we set up for like 60 people we were afraid there would be a lot of empty chairs. We were surprised and frankly a little panicked when 115 people showed up. Melinda's husband was scrambling all over setting up more chairs and hauling up all these couches from all these little rooms downstairs. There was a constant line to the bar because we said the first drink was free for opening night. But it was awesome and we had nothing but good feedback. The band was me, Ryan on trumpet, Aaron on bass, Kurt on keys, and Derek on drums. Good band. And Jay Lawrence even showed up and sat in on a few tunes. Melinda, who had been really worried because she'd spent way more than she had budgeted, made most of her money back that night. She was so happy she paid the whole band and the bartender even though most of us had agreed to do it for free.
We spent a long time tearing everything down that night because that was the agreement with APX, but the next morning when they found out how successful it was, they told us to leave everything up. Really? You couldn't have told us that before? But now we get to do it all over again next week, and I'm really excited. Hopefully it's not like, everyone went last week so now no one is planning on it this week. But I was checking on our posters around town today and the waiters at Gringo's said lots of customers have been talking about it and all the waiters were planning on going too. Fingers crossed!
