Twelve Hours

I packed a lot of adventure into just 12 hours yesterday with my friend Liz.
She's taking off for Europe today to go see her favorite band W.A.S.P. play eight shows in eight days.

Before she left, she wanted to pick up a gift for a friend of hers from Italy. He's a big Motley Crue fan, so she wanted to get a signed 1st edition copy of Nikki Sixx's new book, "The Heroin Diaries".
Nikki was doing a booksigning at Barnes & Noble in Seattle on Saturday at the University Village.

I told her that we'd probably want to get their early so we could get a good place in line, but she didn't think that there would be much of a crowd for him at a bookstore. Ha! Boy was she wrong!
The place was practically over-run with fans of the rockstar who came out of the woodwork to get their book, CD's, records, etc. signed by him.
The B & N staff was very friendly though and despite the nature of the crowd, everyone was well-behaved.

When we got there about noon, they were giving everyone wristbands to signal your place in line.
Our's were labeled "D", which means we were in the 400 group (the fourth group of 100 people). They ran out of bands at the "E" group and people were STILL showing up to get his signature.

After we got our wristbands but before we could get in line, we had about 3 hours to kill, so we walked around the shops and got something to eat.

We got to talking about things she had planned to do before her trip, but was running out of time for.
One of them was going to Jimi Hendrix's grave to make some tombstone rubbings to give to friends in Europe at the concerts. I told her I'd never been to his grave, even though I'm from here. Since she lives close to the cemetery (and I had to give her a ride home, anyway) we decided to stop and do that when we were done for the day.

We finished eating, then wandered around for a while outside. It was an awesome Autumn day. The sky was clear and the air was very crisp. A little too warm for a heavy jacket, but a little too cool for just a light jacket.
Here's a little 'artsy' photo of one of the fountains in the shopping center:

Our group got called into line around 3:30 and by the time we finally got to meet him it was almost 4:30.

A few minutes after she got the book signed, they announced that they would have to end the signing in another 10 minutes. We were VERY lucky to have made it in line when we did.

We left the the shopping center and promptly got stuck in traffic leaving from the UW Huskies game.
It wasn't too terribly bad, and we were soon back towards the Eastside to get to Jimi's grave.

We had taken her car to Seattle (I HATE driving into downtown), so when we got back on the Eastside we switched cars so she could drop hers off for some work while I drove for the rest of the day.

She had to pick up her concert tickets from a friend who was originally going to join her, but wasn't able to go.
So a quick drive to a local Starbucks and the ticket transaction took place.
(Heh-heh! LOCAL Starbucks. They're all over the place. You can't throw a rock without hitting one. They are ALL local!)

Then we headed south to go to Fry's Electronics. I was there the night before with G-rod, but forgot to pick up the one item I specifically went there for... a new DVD-RW drive to replace my old one that stopped working.
She heard they had a digital camera for under $100 and wanted to get it for her trip, because she couldn't find a replacement battery for her current camera. (by the way Liz... you can get it here)
Yeesh! The service there is HORRIBLE! You'd better know what you're going there for and where it's located because the service staff there is totally no help whatsoever.
Unfortuantely, they did not have any more of the cameras nor did they have the one battery she needed to replace on her current camera.
I, however, was able to get a nice new DVD-RW drive and a couple other things while I was there.
Score: 1 - 1.
Edge: No one

It was just a short trip from Fry's to the cemetery, so we headed there next.
By this time it was dark and a heck of a lot colder.
The cemetery was 'closed' but since they didn't have a gate to close off the parking lot, we went in and parked and went about our business.
Luckily I had my headlamp in the car, so we were able to navigate around in the dark.
We got to the gravesite and taped some paper on the tombstone to make a rubbing.

We did a few when we saw the flash of a car's headlights swipe by us.
"Uh-oh. It's probably security coming to kick us out of here", we thought.
Then the car parked, the doors opened and closed and we heard the 'chirp-chirp' of a car alarm.
I said, "I don't think it's security or police. They don't set their car alarms when they're coming to get you."
Sure enough, it turned out to be a young couple from Seattle who came to visit the site also. Not "The Man".
We each took some pictures, then they left and we got back to our project before it got much later.

I wanted to get to a Kinkos to print up the pictures of the day's events so Liz could take them with her on her trip. So further south we drove until we got to Southcenter Mall to get to a Kinkos.
Got there, made copies, and then we went to Taco Time to get something to eat.
(Mmmm... Taco Time! The only other place for more authentic Mexican food is Taco Bell)

After that, it was getting pretty late.
And by 'late' I mean it was after 9:00 p.m. and I still had to get her home so she could pack and I could drive back to my place.

It all wrapped up 12 hours after it started.
We both had a really fun time and I'm looking forward to hearing how her Euro-trip was when she gets back.
(I also want to find out what her friend's reaction was when she gives him the book!)