musicians – kristilynk

Whisked away…

If you read my last post, you know that my husband is getting ready to embark on a pretty extensive European tour with his band mates. His departure date is fast approaching..he flies out this coming Tuesday..September 3rd.

With all of the preparations entailed in putting this tour together, it’s been a tough couple of months for us both.

Making sure all the travel arrangements have been made, hotels overseas booked, merchandise..designed, printed, purchased and shipped, venues booked (of course venues and hotels being setup by their booking agent overseas), videos produced, interviews completed…you get the picture. On top of that..Jason and his electrical contracting partner had to complete jobs, hire an apprentice and make sure all is good on that front.

Amidst all of this..my sweet..thoughtful guy..took the time to book a romantical night for just him and me.

He had told me, a week or so ago, to make sure I kept my night open for Saturday the 31st. I tried to get the secret out of my daughter but she stood her ground and wouldn’t give in to the pressures of my prying.

Around 1600 hours on Saturday, Jason says, “O.K., let’s go..pack a bag. Throw in a swimsuit, maybe a long sleeve shirt and what you’re wearing is perfect.”

I followed instructions and soon enough we were en-route on our secret field trip!

A few miles from home Jason says, “It’s nothing too extravagant but I booked a room for us at The Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs. I wanted to spend time with you before I leave. We could have done so at home but this takes us out of our element and I thought this would be nice.”

How sad is it that my second thought ~ of which I voiced aloud ~ was, “OH!! The room will have air conditioning!”

We have a leak in the refrigerant line of our central air conditioning unit at the house and have been having to turn it off and on periodically because it keeps freezing up. It’s a bit miserable, especially..in the middle of summer in Arizona.

Someone was set to come look at it on Sunday, finally!

Notice I said “second thought”..my first thought was, “How awesomely sweet is he”!

The drive was quick ~ the hotel is only about a fifteen minute drive from home, bonus! An escape from reality so close to home!

Surprisingly…I did not take but three pictures and those three pictures are on my cell phone and I don’t feel like connecting the phone to the laptop to export them and post.

Yes, I am that lazy today. 😀

You will have to make do with the photos I snagged off the internet.

Even such a short distance from home, you can see how this getaway spot is nestled all snug like in the mountains of the Phoenician desert.

Driving through the resort to get to the registration office was a little challenging. The hills are pretty steep and there were so many people walking and so many cars parked off to the side of the narrow roads. We managed, we checked in and were off to our quiet spot higher up on the hill.

I cannot even imagine driving a stick shift through this hotel road set up! Being the hotel was packed ~ most likely booked to capacity ~ there were not many spaces left for parking but we lucked out and found a spot right below our third floor room!

As soon as we opened the door a burst of ice cold air was the first thing we noticed. The thermostat read 69 degrees! Coming in from the 30% humidity of 110 degree temps outside we were more than happy to be greeted this way. 😀

After getting settled we changed and took a super short walk to the secluded Sunset Pool area.

This was a tiny little pool area equipped with a tiny little pool and a tiny little hot tub.

Perfect! We had the place to ourselves! I am not sure how many pools this establishment has but I am certain it is more than six. The main pool, after our many stays here, I have never been to. I hear the pools are huge, surrounded by man made waterfalls and packed with people.

A lot of locals make a day trip to the pool, I think you can pay at hotel registration for day passes. I bet it makes for a perfect family funday on the weekends. For us? Not so much, we like to stay in the rooms close to the smaller less crowded pool areas.

The water was luke warm..not very refreshing..but after a few minutes..it was better than nothing and when I stood up there was just enough of a breeze to genuinely cool me off. We floated around and talked for about an hour or so then decided it was time to go to dinner.

The draw back of this was..we both wanted sushi which meant we would have to go back into the car and drive about two miles and yes…lose are prime parking space.

It was so worth it though, we found a little hole in the wall sushi restaurant called “Wild Tuna”. The place is a small, family owned business with deep blue walls decorated appropriately with fish paintings and accented in my favorite shade of green.

We ordered green mussels, a philly roll, tuna rolls, yellowtail sashimi and unagi. The prices were totally reasonable but the rolls could have been bigger 🙂

I will admit, it was all so good but the yellowtail stole the show. It was abolutely amazing!

Bellies full, we set off to the store to grab some Perrier, a bottle of wine and some chocolate.

We lucked out, yet again, and scored a parking spot close to our room. Again, I will remind you, the hills are so steep trying to get out the car with the car door smashing me in the face was a chore.

We both decided…we could never live in San Francisco 🙂

Back in the ice cold room, YAY, Jason said, “I’m going to the ice machine so we can put the wine on ice”.

I, having watched way to many scary movies, gave him a sideways glance of fear that he won’t come back simply said, “O.K”.

He came back safely within in two minutes, phew! He did say the area where the ice bin was located was really creepy – it was in a corner and dark and there was a hallway looking structure that went back about ten feet…and it was also dark.

Once the wine had chilled, we poured some into an empty can of Perrier (yes…I know..pretty classy, right?) In our defense..we wanted wine to sip while we were relaxing under the stars in the hot tub..so don’t judge. I thought it was pretty clever.

I turned the dial for the hot tub timer as far as it would turn. Fifteen minutes. I thought to myself, “Fifteen minutes? That’s really not very long”

We eased into the HOT tub and began to relax, sip wine and chat. Mid conversation I realize Jasons forehead is beginning to bead up with sweat and started to giggle at him..literally a minute later I started feeling drips of my own sweat coursing down my forehead. It was time to get out.

I told Jason my earlier thought of the fifteen minute timer not being very long and said, “What do you think? We’ve been in here maybe ten minutes?” He laughed and said, ” I think only five”. We got out and jumped into the much cooler pool ~ before I got in though, I checked the timer..sure enough, we were only in there for five minutes!

Fingers and toes all pruned up, we decided to get out and dry off. While we were drying..off in the distance we noticed a gorgeous display of fireworks ~ it was neat to see from high atop the mountainside. I think the event was for a local water park (which is about 13 miles away) ~ I am pretty sure this is the end of the water park season so they are to have fireworks through Labor Day.

The cycle of pool, shower, dinner, pool, hot tub, shower and snack was ideal for stress free evening.

Waking up in the cool, dark room to the smell of coffee brewing at 0830 was the icing on the cake. 🙂

We started packing up around 1030 and headed to a local diner for breakfast. I was actually surprised at the, Mel’s Diner feel of a, restaurants menu. I figured, our options to be eggs and bacon or eggs and bacon. I had a Spinach Feta Omelette and Jason had Eggs Benedict. Not superb but good enough.

After breakfast, Jason paid the lady and we were on our way…back to reality.

What I took away from this little staycation was that even after twenty-five years of each other ~ this guy is still so thoughtful and I hope I never take that for granted.

I will leave you with this quote,

“Love is the sum of our choices, the strength of our commitments, the ties that bind us together.”
― Emily Giffin

I Normally Don’t……

Post two days in a row. I felt it was necessary, in this case, because my Friday was so eventful! Not to mention..I have THE worst memory on the planet. If I were to wait another few days, It is very likely, I would completely forget the weekend.
 Where did I leave off? Oh! yes..I left you at my pillow at three in the morning.
Three in the morning. I wish I could tell you I slept soundly until noon. That was not how the story starts, oh no, I woke up at nine a.m. Some would say (my husband in particular) “Six hours of sleep is plenty”!
No..no it is NOT. Not for this girl. I need at least seven hours, eight would even be better but that never seems to happen. I guess I can sleep when I’m dead, right?
So, yea, nine a.m and it was time to start the typical weekend morning rituals. Coffee (a duh!) and jump online to check emails and of course Facebook while I wait for coffee. 🙂
Oh, I’m rambling? Yes, because you see…I’ve already forgotten what my morning consisted of. I do remember I had to take Kiah to work – I think that was around…ah whatever. Apparently my day was extremely unnoteworthy.
Jason and I left for Tucson around four in the afternoon. Traffic was terrible, the drive from home to Tucson is not a fun one – most of the way down is only two lanes and we have inconsiderate truck drivers on the road who feel they can drive in the fast lanes. Some states have laws for truck drivers, they are only allowed in the right lanes and no passing. I strongly feel we should adopt that law. I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson and vice versa is notorious for its high number of deadly accidents involving semi trucks and four wheelers. This post is not about the law or inconsiderate drivers so no – I won’t be doing any research to give you statistics. I’m just sayin’ 🙂
When we got into the Tucson, we stopped off at our friend Don’s house and visited for a bit then went to the screamer of the bands (Kyds vs Columbus) house. Him and his wife live, work and go to graduate school in Tucson. I had met the wife the week prior but did not have a chance to talk with her. I don’t hit it off with many people very often so I was happy there was little to no effort in our conversation. We talked about the school systems and writing and had a glass of wine. Too bad she had to finish a paper (or something school related..she is a graduate student and teaches fifth grade English..if my memory serves me correctly).  
By the time I let her be to finish her work, the guitar player and his girlfriend arrived and we all talked and listened to records for a little longer.
Our next stop was a BBQ.
J and I were not feeling very social so we told the guys, ” We’re going on a walk about..see you at the venue in about an hour”. It was dark and the heat from the day had finally gone so it was a nice walk. We found a dingy Mexican restaurant along the way, stopped in to eat and enjoy some quiet. HA, not really..the club across the street was JUMPIN’ – dubstep music so loud I am pretty sure I felt our table jiggle. It wasn’t terrible, it was actually kind of amusing. The waiter was the most gracious waiter I think I had ever made contact with, maybe it was because the music across the street was interfering with his business or maybe it was because with all of the MAJOR construction going on in the neighborhood the are elated to have ANY patrons? I think it’s the latter.
Regardless, it was a nice dinner (well, I had breakfast but you get what I mean)…even nicer? Spending time talking, enjoying food and a nice walk with my Jason.
The rest of the night would be madness. 🙂
It was around nine-thirty when we got to the “venue”, I had warned the guys earlier, “This place is SMALL”. I had pulled up the venues website before we left for Tucson, just to check it out, and the website had a picture of the “space” — it was as big (rather..as small) as my living room at home. No stage, no drum riser and highly pitted concrete..similar to asphalt. There were stairs leading to a loft where they were selling thrift store clothing and shoes and….beer. mmkay?
We (the band and girlfriends/wives and friend friends) hung outside for three hours talking and waiting for the guys to go on. When midnight-fifteen came along they loaded up and I went in to catch a spot on the stairs. In between bands the majority of the people inside go outside to get air and/or smoke so I knew it would be prime time to get a good spot.
Same scenario..lighting was HORRIBLE..these are the best I could get:

Keep reading..it gets better!

What a weekend! If you remember, from my last post, I took a “vacation” day this Friday to take care of some “personal business” (still yet to be disclosed). It was so nice not to have to drive to the office and sit in a cubby hole all the live long day. I did wake up at the normal time (six a.m), got dressed and headed straight to the grocery store..I was out of coffee and needed it something fierce! I grabbed a box of hair dye as well (shhh! don’t tell my hair dresser! He will freak out) I couldn’t help it though..these crazy gray hairs just seem to pop up over night..SO..I needed to cover them up ASAP!

Coffee, hair dye and a trip to the nail salon..that was my Friday morning. The coffee did its job, the at home hair dye job did wonders but the nail salon trip? Sadly, didn’t work out as well. I am not happy with the nails but they served their purpose for the afternoon. You see, I have been a nail biter since I was an itty bitty Kristi. I quit biting a few years ago and have been doing SOOO good until my best friends puppy got Parvo. While setting up a donation site for the family to pay for the extraordinary costs of saving this puppies life..the good new is puppy Brody girl had an amazing Vet and her life was saved; the bad news is, in the process, I bit off all of my nails to the nub and have not been able to stop since. Bad habits are so hard to drop! Ugh! Because I had some “personal business” to take care of, I felt, I needed to be presentable and not show up to a meeting with potato farmer hands, I put the crappy nails on.

After the “personal business” was attended to, I drove home, showered and got ready for the night out. Jason had a reunion show with a band he played with about ten years ago called the Kyds Vs Columbus at the Yucca Tap room in Tempe, AZ.

Jason stuffed his entire drum kit into the trunk and back seat of my car around eight-thirty and we drove on out.
The place was packed and LOUD! Five bands were on the bill and the Kyds were on last..it was going to be a long night. I was glad for Jason when all three of his bandmates from his current band arrived, that meant a lot to him. I think we got there around nine thirty and the drinking commenced, well with him and his friends ( I was the driver so no drinky poos for me that night). I am pretty sure every band member was carrying a pretty good buzz by the time they hit the stage at twelve-thirty (but we would have never known, they didn’t miss a beat)

Or maybe they did, I don’t think any of us would have known. I am not a fan of hardcore style but I am a huge fan of excellent musicians and these guys are awesome to listen to and watch live. The “singer” (screamer might be the better title or maybe front man would be an even better, more professional description) is so animated and wiley during the performance. Swinging the microphone around like a mad man, I was waiting, on edge, for him to swat Jason upside the head with that thing (luckily that did not happen). He climbs on the bass drum like a monkey, swings off rafters on the ceiling and throws himself on the floor, its great fun to see.

Even after over twenty years of watching Jason play the drums, I still am in awe every time. I promise, I am not just being biased because I am his wife, he is truly a phenomenal drummer. He plays with such passion and internal rhythm it is hard not to stare with a dropped jaw. Both of the guitar players are just as passionate as Jason and the front man – they all lose themselves in the groove. My one complaint..the bass player. he hides? Ninety percent of the time, he plays with his back to the crowd and covers Jason. It looks like he is playing only…for Jason.

The crowd was insane – watching them is almost as entertaining as watching the guys play. The music is hard and fast and the people in the crowd were throwing themselves at each other just as fast and hard as the guys were playing. No fighting at all – it was all in good fun. For me a little scary none the less, I do not want to hit the floor and I do not want someone slamming into me..I do not like pain.

I tried not to move from the spot I staked claim to but I really wanted to try to get some cool pictures so I had to move from here to there. This task proved to be difficult and I had a a few road blocks. One, the place was packed. I had my size and gender on my side to make it a little bit easier to pass through.. it’s more easy for a small woman to move in and out of crowd. Two, I wanted to avoid getting pushed and slammed into the crazy crowd people and three, I am not a tall girl at all. Being short in a crowd full of tall people sure does not make being a photographer easy.

I went to the back of the room to the sound booth and asked the girl working the board if I could stand there and take a few shots. She was nice enough to help me out and I was able to stand on a stool in the sound booth and take a few good crowd/band shots. Mind you, the lighting in this place is terrible, these are not my best but they are, sadly, the best of the night.

They ended the set, left the crowd wanting more, packed up and we were on the road to home by two-fifteen. I was sober and I don’t even remember going to bed..as soon as I put my head on the pillow, I was OUT.

I had full intentions on writing about my entire weekend on this one post but I am going to be like the Kyds Vs Columbus and leave you wanting more! 🙂