My experience in Tacoma

Well, the Tacoma Gift show is now over with. I had a really fun time playing at the Tacoma Dome. One of the funniest things that happened was when these two little kids about 3 years old came up and asked me to play Jingle Bells. I told them, "I'll play a little different version of Jingle Bells, it's called Santa Claus, Light my Fire." So I started playing, and the kids went berserk, it was hilarious! They started screaming and jumping like they were in a mosh pit and were wiggling their arms and running around in circles. It was by the door of the front entrance, so people were exiting the building, and their mom was trying to keep them from getting in people's way. After I played it, I said "How about I play something soft and pretty now?" The mom said thanks, and I played the calm "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" but they were still pretty wired from the last song.

I met some nice people in Tacoma, one of them was another pianist that was selling music at his booth in the exhibition hall. His name is David Templeton. He was really nice and humble. He gave me some ideas on how to keep my fingers from falling apart. I was on the piano bench playing for about 40 hours from Wednesday through Sunday, and I had started to develop some callouses on the outside of my thumb and pinky, and my index fingernail started to separate a little bit, but all is well, they held together! I also met another guy from Salt Lake named Jake, and we hung out Friday night, got some dinner, and then played ping-pong at the hotel game room.

I'm now getting ready for the Salt Lake show, this show will be shorter. It's from November 13-15th at the South Towne Expo Center. It should be another fun time. I'll be by the entrance to the exhibit hall again.