Tucson Women's March

Saturday morning, I had the pleasure in taking part of the Tucson leg of the Women's March on Washington. It was a last-minute decision between my sister and I. We were both getting over illnesses and the weather was supposed to be terrible, but we rallied anyway. We both agreed that our conscious' would haunt us if we didn't try.

It was raining, actually hailing at one point, and remarkably cold for Tucson, but that didn't seem to hinder turn-out. My sister lives relatively close to the route, so we parked at her place and walked over. It was amazing getting closer and closer to the beginning of the march path and realizing everyone around us was heading to the same place. At the starting point, we slowly gathered the rest of our party of six. It ended up being me, my sister, my sister's friend, my sister's friend's male coworker, my sister's friend's mom, and one of my sister's high school teachers. We were a motley crew but it turned out to be a great, little bunch.

In the grand scheme of things, we were unprepared. We were cold and wet, but more importantly, we weren't wearing any pink or had any knit hats.

I don't know what the projected attendance number was, but the estimation of final count was above 15,000. It must have been much larger than expected because everything happened much slower than scheduled. And that was ok. The march was a slow crawl through downtown, but fortunately the route was fairly short. It gave us plenty of time to chant with strangers and read punny signs.

Going in, I really didn't know what to expect. Honestly, I had no clue. And in hindsight, that was the right way to go. It ended up being thousands of people who were tired and fed up, but positive and proactive. I saw old classmates from high school. I saw a coworker. I saw young children and their parents and their parents' parents. I saw a troop of girl scouts who sang their little song as they walked. We followed behind a woman probably in her sixties wearing a sandwich board of protest signs, a Viking helmet, banging on a tambourine. There was such a sense of comradery. After the walk, three of us grabbed lunch in a cafe downtown filled with other marchers. Even though we were done at that point, many people were still checking in on the other marches across the country. Update after update of how almost every march in the country was underestimated. That they couldn't even march in Washington D.C. because there were too many people.  

I don't know what I expected to get out of attending the march, but I feel like I got so much out of it. A purely peaceful protest demonstrating that there was still a large section of the population who wasn't just going to sit back and let the bullies win. In spite of being called 'sore losers' or being told to 'be hopeful' that things might still be ok, we were still ready for action. We would be vigilant. We would be watching.

Family Pictures...?

Back in August, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. My sister and I are usually terrible children and don't get them gifts for it (that's just how we were raised!), but since it was a biggie, a gift was in order.

I had been thinking about it a lot and wanted to give them a memento, not just a knick-knack like I like to do. After some thought, I realized that the last time, and one of the only times, we had some good pictures of all of us were from my wedding.

And it had been five years since those.

So my sister talked one of her photographer friends into giving us a good package deal and we were not horrible children for a change.

The four of us, Dan, and the photographer, Meredith, spent just over an hour on a beautiful October afternoon at Saguaro Park East. Most of the time was spent trying to not fall over as neither my sister nor myself had worn the appropriate shoes for the off-the-trial pictures my dad wanted.

That was probably the biggest surprise of the whole thing was how much my dad got into it. He had opinions on locations and angles and all that stuff. We kind of assumed he was just going to try to get through it, but he was remarkably engaged.

Now, let's get to the outcome. While my sister's friend Meredith was very sweet and has a great eye for cinematography, the direction of the 'models' left something to be desired. Maybe that's the difference between a 'real' photographer like Meredith and the people who have photographed me in the past; I am not a model. I need someone telling me constantly how to make myself look better.

Because of that, here are some of my favorites:

Images Courtesy of Meredith Amadee Photography

And we did get some very nice ones, too, out of the batch.

Images Courtesy of Meredith Amadee Photography

I feel like the weird ones sum us up better. We know we're better than how we come across, we just aren't doing a good job of it. Maybe that should be our family motto at this point...

My First Comic-Con

First of all, I'd like to say that I'm WAAAAAY behind. I haven't felt like writing much lately, but things are still happening. Things are still going on that should be written about. And since I'm feeling inspired right now, I'm going to put as much of it to 'paper' as possible before it leeches out of my brain. There will be posts about things that happened in September, October, and November, mostly out of order, too, but it's high time for me to catch up.

Back in the beginning of November, I was able to cross one of my New Year's resolutions from last year off my list: go to my first Comic-Con.

Tucson Comic-Con isn't on the scale of most cons across the country, but it was probably the perfect size for my first one. I heard attendance was roughly 8,000 people, but that was up almost 50% from last year.

I talked Dan into it at the last minute and we had no plan whatsoever. In hindsight, we should have had a plan. We should have coordinated with our friends we knew were going, but we procrastinated and just winged it.

At first, it looked like it was going to be a complete bust. After walking the entire convention center floor and finding very little that struck our fancy, we were beginning to think that we had wasted our money. We went back to a booth selling CNC-milled brass jewelry then we were going to head to the exit.

Apparently the brass jeweler (check out some of her awesome stuff here) used to work at the company I do and we got to talking for a while. That gave two of our best friends, Shannon and Jeremy, plenty of time to sneak up and ambush us.

Let me tell you, it's so much more fun doing a Comic-Con when you're walking around with the King and the Queen of the Con. After we hooked up with them, we had a fun afternoon. It was great getting to watch all the people taking photos of each other and determining which booths were full of hidden treasures. I ended up with a brass necklace and this shirt:

Image Source

We didn't see any panels or get to meet any famous people, but that's ok. Fun fact I learned: a lot of the vendors at these Cons are artists. They bring a lot of prints and pictures of their work, but if you bring a sketchbook, you can commission most of them on the spot to draw whatever you like. I didn't even know that was a thing. How awesome is that? I think I'll do that next time. Now to think up things worth commissioning...

All Souls Procession 2014

One thing Tucson is known for is it's Dias des los Muertos celebrations. For anyone unfamiliar with the Mexican tradition, it's a day just after Halloween where you honor the dead. Since I'm not hispanic, all I know of the tradition is how my city celebrates.

Every year, several days after Halloween, tens of thousands of people paint up their face and parade through downtown, the All Souls Procession. At the end of the route, it turns into all out craziness; the closest comparison is that it's like a mini Burning Man festival.

This year was my first year participating. It was both more and less crazy than I imagined.

First of all, the most important part: the makeup. It was a lot of cheap face paint, eye liner doodles, and a fabulous red lipstick.

Two tips for anyone else doing Day of the Dead makeup. First, it is possible for eye liner to stain your eyebrows. Second, face paint is worth the money you pay. It was like having a face covered in lip gloss. Just like a breezy day, my hair kept sticking to it. It almost drove me insane.

My friends and I went out to dinner beforehand, half of us already in our makeup and half not. Thankfully, I brought along my makeup for touch ups after eating and the eye liner was passed around so no face was blank.

After a bit of a walk over to the parade route, we spent close to an hour just watching the parade march past us. There aren't a lot of 'floats' in the parade, but many groups have themes and some people make elaborate mini-floats, sort of single shrines carried by just one person. There were mariachi bands and bagpipe bands and high school bands and acrobatics.

After watching for a while, we got antsy jumped in! You don't fully grasp how many people are there until you're in the middle of it. With everyone made up, you could be standing next to your sister and not even know. You're just surrounded by a sea of strangers. It actually became kind of overwhelming.

We never made it to the end of the parade. By the time we had walked out of downtown and under the highway, we had been on our feet for hours and knew we had a ridiculously long walk back to the car. So, we missed the burning of the urn filled with prayers and the music and displays. We heard mixed reviews of it later, so I don't feel that bad about leaving early.

But we didn't go straight home. Nope. We stopped at a late night diner and had us some pie. In full skeleton face makeup. I wish I had gotten a picture of us, but we were already getting enough looks as it was.

One boy skeleton eating supreme lemon meringue and one girl skeleton eating coconut cream.

Let's Take a Field Trip to the Power Plant

I still don't understand how exactly I ended up at the Tucson's power plant with all my coworkers. From what I've pieced together, one of my coworkers, Mike, met one of his neighbors at a home owner's meeting. Turns out this guy is only in town for a couple of months while he set up the new solar power plant installation. Bing bang boom. Mike has convinced him to give our entire department a private tour.

Since the power plant is no longer along my commute, I was completely unaware that they were even building anything new. To sum it up, they've basically built a 400 meter field of mirrors which they can angle to reflect sunlight at a length of tube overhead. Water runs through the tube and is heated to super saturated steam which then powers the turbine.

Our tour started with a little lecture in the construction trailer on how all this works. Then, we moved onto the fun part: walking around under the mirrors. Since the installation wasn't up and running yet, all the mirrors were facing the ground, to protect them. It made for some great pictures.

The great thing about this new solar installation is that it uses water. Other installations of this type tend to use oil and need some sort of heat exchanger, which lose efficiency. This system uses water, the same water that is already being turned into steam in the gas portion of the power plant. It means that when it's daylight and the solar power is running, less gas is needed to power the city. The new solar portion reduces the energy needed in an existing system, which is apparently a very big deal to those in the know.

The water pipes run a hundred feet in the air above the mirrors. These specially-coated tube can be serviced by a little trolley suspended below them. That is a job I would not want to have.

So, next time you're driving along I-10 and you look over at the power plant, you can say you know what that ridiculous tower and mirrors are.

Tucson Meet Yourself:2014

Every October gets crazy in Tucson. It's our one month of Autumn so absolutely everything happens at the exact same time.

Usually the highlight of this insanity is Tucson Meet Yourself. Somehow, though, I forgot about it this year. Thankfully, my friend David reminded me and we organized a big group outing to fill ourselves to the gills with food from all over the world.

For those not in the know, Tucson Meet Yourself is a cultural festival that takes place annually in downtown Tucson. It's three days of musical performances, crafts, and food stalls celebrating the diversity of Tucson.

The nickname of the event is 'Tucson Eat Yourself' because everyone who goes does so mainly for the food. It's ridiculously cheap and the portions are huge. If you aren't stuffed by the end of the night, you did something wrong.

In order to keep track of how much we ate, I took pictures of everything we had.

Potato and Cheese Pierogis

Dan's Chicken Adobo

Vegetarian Pancit

Hawaiian Ice, Dan's favorite

Pineapple Ginger Juice

Freshly made Cinnamon Sugar Mini-Donuts

It's also a great place for people watching. Where else do you see an almost pirate with a giant macaw?

It's so much fun every year. I would have been incredibly sad if I had missed it. A reminder will be set in my calendar from here on out.

Ten Best Places to Eat in Tucson

Since I've lived in Tucson my entire life, I feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on what this city has to offer. While it's constantly changing and evolving and I'm hunting the next new thing, I do know more about this city than most. Most of these places are also on the list because of sentimental reasons. Many big life events were celebrated at these places. So, this post goes out to anyone wanting to visit Tucson to see what we're all about, because, let's be real, whenever I travel to somewhere new, the first thing I look up is a good place to eat.

1) Eegee's: this is our local fast food chain, only found in Tucson, AZ. It's the place that fast food workers get their start, before moving up to McDonald's. So, the service is terrible and the sandwiches are pretty good, but the reason to stop in is their frozen drinks. Well, they aren't really drinks. It's kind of like a thicker version of a slushie that locals know to only eat with a spoon, not a straw. Three permanent flavors plus a monthly flavor are great to mix and match, especially on a hot summer day. Also, they cater and we ate like cheap kings at my bridal shower.

2) Los Beto's: OK, so Eegee's isn't the only local chain, but it's one of a kind. On the other hand, there are a lot of Mexican food chains around town, but Los Beto's is the best. You know how people go to Philadelphia and try to find the best cheesesteak and it's not in the fancy restaurants but the places where the bag goes clear from the grease? Los Beto's is the border food equivalent. {Sidenote: there are three types of Mexican food in Tucson: 1) Mexico City food, which tends to be fancier and have things like mole 2) Coastal food, focusing on seafood which aren't that great considering the closest coast is six hours away and 3) Border food which is some combination of cheese, tortilla, meat, and beans.} Their portions are huge, come in styrofoam with hot sauce on the side, and are the best bang for your buck.

3) El Charro: This is probably the best Mexico City style restaurant in town, if you go to the downtown one. It's the oldest restaurant in the state and the building has expanded with cute additions over the years. It's great to sit out on the patio on a cool night, eating the never ending baskets of tortilla chips and salsa. The food is good, but the service can be hit or miss, mainly because it's so popular. For better service, go with a bigger group. A party of two can easily be lost in the shuffle. It was the last minute location of our rehearsal dinner when our original (and cheaper) place canceled.

4) Mi Nidito's: This is the best Border style restaurant, not fast food joint, in town. Technically, it's not in town, it's in South Tucson, which is its own city just south of downtown. It can be a bit sketchy at night, which is why this is our lunch spot. Any time there is something to celebrate at work, we head here. It's got its wall of All-Star customers, including President Clinton and people line up at the door before it even opens. The food is simple, but tasty, and worth the bad parking and inevitable wait.

5) Lindy's: the best burger place in town. This is the definition of a hole in the wall restaurant, down on trendy 4th Ave. It feels more like a tattoo parlor inside than a burger joint. The burgers can be gigantic, have dirty names, and are so delicious that I get a cramp every time because I eat it so fast. The wait can be ridiculous (we waited over an hour in the cold at my Bachelorette party), but it's definitely worth it. Mmm, I'm starting to drool thinking about a Hawaii veggie burger with cheese fries...

6) Millie's Pancake Haus: I'm pretty sure this is a German pancake restaurant, annoyingly only open for breakfast and lunch. The interior is lined with duck knick-knacks, carved wooden booths, and the feeling that you're grandma is cooking in the kitchen. It's my favorite breakfast place in town when I want breakfast food in the AM. Somehow, the waffles are crispy and golden brown, yet fluffy and moist, and impossible to resist with apple topping. Even though it's so far from campus, it's where our families celebrated after Dan and I graduated from college.

7) Traildust Town: this isn't technically just a restaurant. It's two restaurants, a chocolates shop, several gift shops, a carousel, and an arcade. Traildust Town is a old western style 'town' in the center of town. You can get a great hunk of meat in their steakhouse or celebrate your 26th birthday over a big bowl of fancy pasta in their cafe. It's a wonderful place to spend the evening, especially a date night, when you want something different than dinner and a movie. Grab some dinner, ride the tiny train and the carousel, pick out candies in the chocolates shop, and finish it off with some old fashion video game rifle shooting.

8) Little Anthony's Diner: classic Americana. When I don't feel like driving all the way across town to Lindy's for a burger or when I want the best shake imaginable, we head to Little Anthony's. Great diner food and pizza. Amazing and gigantic shakes. Car shows in the summer, character cut-outs, and the best part? The comedy theater right next where you can order the full menu while watching a great performance. And for the sentimental attachment, we had our engagement pictures taken here during one of their car shows.

9) Guadalajara Grill: this is probably Dan's favorite restaurant. The food is pretty standard, yummy Mexican food. The main thing that sets this place apart is that they make your salsa for you at your table. It. is. awesome. It can be as mild or as spicy as you want it. Plan on filling up on chips and salsa and taking whatever you order home.

10) Pin-Up Pastries Food Truck: the best whoopie pies ever. This one technically isn't a restaurant, but it's one of the best dessert places in town. I follow this food truck on facebook and whenever they are within a fifteen minute drive, I grab some cash and speed off for a salted caramel whoopie pie. If I could cook half as good as their whoopie pies taste, I'd be 100% happy with that.

So, there you go. The best places to eat in town. Trust me.