adrienne's Tour Diary

3/11/04 I have pinkeye in both eyes. I look like I've been crying for ten hours straight. Medicine: work now.

Woke up on the floor in front of a Nintendo in Jonathan's house that he shares with his grandma. One eye was stuck shut. The eye opened up in the shower. I am glad that I can sleep on the floor. I am sure now that I can sleep anywhere if my eyes are glued shut.

We walked the very wide streets of the neighborhood, past cacti and through strong warm winds, to Walgreens where I bought instant hand sanitizer to protect those around me from this eye nightmare. We continued in the shopping plaza to Ike's, the coffee shop where Jonathan works, that has free wi/fi. Spent a lot of time on the computers, each of us staring into illuminated laptop screens as Tucson went overcast. I got a good burrito kind of sandwich from the nearby grocery store which is a doppleganger for Whole Foods but is called Wild Oats Market. Checked email for new tour dates in April. Called my mom.

Dan and I went clothes shopping near the uni. before we all loaded up the van and drove 2 hours north to Phoenix to the Emerald Lounge. It was hard to find, attached to a place offering "wings & things." We drove north. We drove south. We found the club and it was the easiest load-in ever into a smoke filled dark room. Turned out there weren't any mic stands or cables. Chris G. hung his mic from the ceiling w/a borrowed cable. Then Gilbert, the guitarist of Spaz Kitty, the Phoenix ska band who headlined, saved our set from being a long instrumental jam. We played in a cloud of smoke penetrated by the colorful stage lights. My eye medicine added blurriness for a total out-of-it experience. Had to rely the senses of hearing and touch. The audience was attentive and enthusiastic. Afterwards, I shook some people's hands and two people in town for a Renaissance Faire asked us to sign their CDs, which we did with a big Sharpie pen I acquired at a temp job.

Dan and I went to Circle K: he got a chicken burrito and I had a yogurt. We ate between the cars in the parking lot and the weather was perfect, but we learned later that we missed Spaz Kitty singing "Happy Birthday" to Chris G. After Spaz Kitty played, the Emerald Lounge bar was open until 1 and we got Taco Bell, 7 bean burritos and more. We returned to the club, only to be told by a woman that "the cab drivers here are scary. One just tried to suck on my toe." I met a woman named Rachel who told me she is "a citizen here, a resident abroad." "Where?" I asked. Spaz Kitty shared the percentage of the bar with us and then Chris G. drove us up to 7000 feet, to Flagstaff. We got here at 3 a.m. and the front desk man was listening to rock music in the lobby. We promptly passed out in Rm. 104 of the Quality Inn and Chris W. was snoring so I put in earplugs.