Only in Tucson...

Seriously.  Where else would this happen?

Yes, we attended this.  And yes, it was awesome!  The place was completely packed.

Go here to see videos of the top finalists from each week of the competition thus far.  I think we just may have to go back again for the final competition in a few weeks!

Chacos Over Chaco

Everybody knows how much I love my Chaco sandals (and if you don't, see An Ode to My Beloved Chacos).  The Chaco company holds an annual photo contest in which people can showcase both their sandals and their sandal tanlines, both of which I have proudly shown off for years.  So, this year, we are entering the contest!  Here is the photo we have entered:  

Chacos Over Chaco.  What could possibly be more appropriate for the theme of "Most Idyllic Location"?!  So, I need everybody to go to this website, and vote for our photo.  (By voting, it means that you have to click the "Like" button.)  Unfortunately, I think you can only vote if you are a Facebook user... but really, these days, who isn't?

We could potentially win new awesome Chaco sandals, or even a week-long river rafting trip.  So, hop to it folks!   (And, thanks.)   

:)

Don't Stop Believin'

Most of my friends probably know that I have an affinity for cheesy music.  Specifically, I have an affinity for cheesy music of the hair band variety.  And I especially love Journey.  Anytime, anyplace, I am all about some Journey.  So naturally, when I found out that Journey Unauthorized ("The Most Authentic Recreation of the 1980's Journey You'll Ever See or Hear") was coming to one of the local casinos, I immediately purchased tickets for Josh and I to attend.  [He didn't really get a say in the matter.  But whether he'll admit it or not, I don't think he minded at all.]

Given that this concert was A) at the casino, B) only $10 per person, and C) promoted with this incredibly goofy band photo pasted on bus stop benches all over Tucson, I figured it was probably going to be a pretty amazing experience.  The way I saw things, it was either going to be pretty damn good, or pretty damn terrible.  Either way, it was probably going to be a lot of fun.  Just for reference, here is a photo of the actual band Journey:

Dead ringers, huh?

Josh and I decided to make a night of this event, so we arrived to the casino early to partake in the $7 all-you-can-eat buffet.  It turned out to be worth way less than that.  Yuck.  Then we spent a while losing money at both slots and Blackjack.  I, of course, only lost five dollars because that's all I was willing to spend in the first place.  Those 2¢ slot machines are a total rip-off, let me tell you.

The concert itself did not disappoint.  It was so bad it was great.  From the moment the band walked on stage, it was painfully obvious that they were all wearing wigs, and none of them (despite their national tour in which they presumably wear these wigs every night) seemed to know exactly what to do with their long hair.  The lead singer awkwardly swung his entire upper body from side to side in an attempt to throw his hair over his shoulder, and was constantly tugging at the back of the wig to keep it in position.  The guitarist's mop of long curls seemed to get soggier and heavier with sweat as the night went on.  The bassist rocked a pretty awful fake mustache which almost matched the color of his wig.  The keyboardist looked like he was wearing a hairpiece created for a Lego person.  Of the entire band, the drummer was the one who looked the most natural in his 80's hair and costume... and of course, he was the one person you could see the least of.  Go figure.

In the audience, there were some families, lots of couples, quite a few retirement-age groups, and a decent amount of heavily made-up, tight-clothed, intoxicated, middle-aged women.  Great people-watching.  There was a young kid sitting next to me who knew every word to every song, and was seriously rocking out on some air guitar and air drums.  Why and 8-year old knows every word to every Journey song, I have no idea.  On a couple of occasions, the lead singer ran down into the audience.  There were at least two large groups of the aforementioned middle-aged women who practically threw themselves at him-- arms waving, hair swinging, drinks spilling.  These ladies really wanted something from this guy, although I'm not quite sure what exactly that could have been.  A couple of them seemed pretty thrilled when he let them sing into the microphone.  I wonder if they realized that they were squealing for a guy who was wearing a bad wig and pretending to be a guy who was popular thirty years ago.

You know how in big concert arenas, they often will have video screens beside the stage so that people in the back of the audience can still see close-ups of the band?  Well, they attempted to do something like that during this show.  In reality, it looked more like the kind of video that you see on the local public access TV station that shows the high school drama productions.  Strange side-angles of the stage, washed out by spotlights.  It really added just one more level to the badness of this whole experience.

In general, the songs were pretty good.  The band itself was not bad at all, and they played all of the songs exactly as they were originally written.  The lead singer had some difficulty with some of the high notes on a few songs, but I think most people in attendance were probably singing along too loudly to notice.  At one point, he yelled for everyone to hold their lighters up and sway from side to side, and the ushers and security guards immediately began to run all over the auditorium asking people to put out their flames.  Then the same thing happened twice more.

For the $10 price tag, I think I definitely got my money's worth out of this concert.  It wasn't very good, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The band played all of the classic Journey hits, and whether the songs are played perfectly or not, that is always enough to put me in a good mood.  The bad wigs, the awkward staging, the hilarious crowd... all of these things just added to my amusement.  I'll keep my eyes open from now on for more 80's cover bands-- given that such bands are probably pretty exclusive to casinos and state fairs, I predict that they  might all be just as wonderfully bad as this one was.

Twenty-Seven

Spending all of my time with a bunch of 20-year-olds last month made me feel pretty damn old.  They looked at me like I had three heads when I admitted to knowing nothing about Pokemon or the Twilight series, and none of them had ever seen Fraggle Rock or Punky Brewster. Sad state of affairs, this new generation of college kids.

(Now get off of my lawn!)

I was pretty unhappy about turning 26 last year.  This year, I don't really seem to care how old I am.  I guess 26 was the transition into my "late 20s", and now that I'm already in that category, 27 seems pretty anticlimactic.  Until the big 3-0, maybe I'm pretty safe from birthday-induced stress.

I had a nice and relaxing birthday this year.  We threw a party Friday night for both myself and my friend Liz, whose birthday is two days before mine.  There was a great turn out of friends, we grilled in the backyard, and there was even a pretty kickass pinata.  [You'd be amazed at the array of interesting pinatas available in a place like Tucson... it's pretty impressive.]  In addition, Josh-the-tech-geek-camera-guy set up a photo booth in our dining room.  We had everybody go in and take photos of themselves throughout the party, which proved for some interesting pictures and lots of fun.  Pretty crafty, that guy.

On my actual birthday, Josh took me to a Ben Folds concert.  Great show!  We had grand plans to do lots of bike riding over the course of the weekend (I got a fancy new GPS bike computer that I was itching to take for a spin), but the absurd heat and monsoon humidity kept us mostly indoors.  So, lots of lounging around and watching movies.  I can think of much worse ways to spend a weekend.

    

Back to the real world..

I've been home for a few days now, and am finally starting to feel recovered.  The first night back I was unable to get any sleep in my soft, comfy bed because I had become so adjusted to sleeping on the ground in my tent.  But a few nights of increasingly better sleep, some good sushi, long showers, a pedicure, and some lounging around with the dogs have helped to restore my mental and physical exhaustion from the last five and a half weeks in the field.

Here is a link to our end-of-the-season slideshow.  This includes photos from numerous people's cameras, and we showed it at our 4th of July party the night before everyone left camp.  We had a pretty terrific group of students, and the level to which everyone got along with each other was pretty fantastic.

Now it's more or less back to the same old grind for me.  I'll be picking up work again starting next week, and hopefully can keep myself busy enough to get by until the next field stint, which should be sometime in late August.  Of course I'll be trying to ride my bike as much as possible in between the rain and wind (we're actually having a real monsoon season in Tucson this summer!), maybe picking up a softball game here and there, and Josh and I plan to do quite a bit of hiking and camping when possible.  You know, typical summertime stuff.