Kidnapped!
I would have Parrot Grande completely reported on except I was held hostage this weekend and kept in Tucson. Scary stuff but I managed to escape and make my way home.
It started out innocently enough. I headed down to Tucson on Friday afternoon to meet up with Norene at her place. I was planning on a one night stay. We had a couple beers, looked over my Parrot Grande pics and caught up on everything (a surprisingly lot of everything considering that we'd only left each other 5 days previously). Then, we were off to Russ and Tamyra's for Mark Mulligan's House Concert.
We pulled into their driveway around 6:45 for the 7:00 PM show. The place was already jammed packed. I got to give Mark one hello hug before he started. It was a very emotional first set. He started out with a few special songs as he did at Parrot Grande then segued into his love songs. I hadn't realized how many songs he has that mention his wife and kids and how much he loves them. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.
On the break, I got to say hi to lots of my Southern Arizona friends. Trish and Steve, Jeff and Becky, Jim and Dori. They were all there and it was great to see them.
The second set was more upbeat and everyone enjoyed seeing Mark. His brother Dave showed up for a bit, too. I told Mark he was in trouble because he hadn't told me Dave was going to be there. I would have dolled up if I'd known.
After the show, some of us stayed and hung out. I met Tamyra's parents, Jim and Sonora. Jim was a hoot. I asked him what he was drinking and he said, "Shwine." He's from Texas and I have to admit there was a resemblance to Tipsy Tommy in more than one way.
Mark hung out, too. He was going to stay for just a half of another Rum and Diet. When he joined me on the patio, his glass was completely full. I had to tease him about the "half drink" at that point. It was good to see him kicking back and relaxing.
Somewhere at this point, the kidnapping plot was hatched. Jim and Dori were making plans to meet on Saturday afternoon to go Halloween costume shopping. At the time, it seemed to make sense to hang out, shop and go for dinner with the gang on Saturday instead of going home.
Come Saturday morning, Norene and I headed out in her car to one of our favorite haunts, Olive R Twist. It's a sports bar with awesome waffle fries and no other customers at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. They don't do breakfast which works great for me and Norene was in need of a cheeseburger since she was feeling a bit "under the weather". She asked me if we should have a hair of the dog and I gave her the answer I always do, "Absolutely!"
We hung out and had a couple of Miller Lites. I did my thing that bugs her and Sugar Daddy. It's when I talk to strangers and get their whole life stories, or at least some stories. In this case, I chatted up the crabby bartender about opening early on Saturday and why it wasn't cost efficient. That led to a story about how he had closed the place the night before, how much sleep he'd gotten, etc. Norene kept giving me the 'stop talking to him' look, but I ignored it.
I think that's when she slipped me the mickey because before I knew it, it was nearly 2 and we were in the car heading to Jim and Dori's. I have no recall of agreeing to go, I plainly didn't have a chance. When we got to their place, we got into Jim's car so now I was two cars away from mine with no idea where I was.
Since I am a Princess and always a possible kidnap victim (and a neurotic nutjob), I've taken note of what to do. I tried to memorize our path so I could retrace it later with the authorities. I do recall going by the so-called University (and still have a bad taste in my mouth from it) but there were too many curves in the road. I do know that we ended up on 4th Ave which is Tucson's version of what Mill Ave in Tempe used to be.
There are lots of head shops, used clothing stores and somewhat divey bars on 4th Ave. The patchouli smell and swamp cooled air kept me in my drugged up state so I couldn't make a run for it. My Tucson friends can rave all they want to about how it's better than Phoenix but we have this modern convenience called central air conditioning. The folks down south may want to try it sometimes.
We hit a local bar called Maloney's. My captors allowed me to go to the bathroom on my own but only because they knew there was nowhere for me to go. The bar is a former lumber store with lots of solid brick walls with no convenient windows to escape through. The servers clearly sensed the tenseness of our situation since they avoided even making eye contact with our group leaving me no way to signal for help. Dori got us some drinks from the bar and I went along with it all, still looking for my chance to flee.
After Maloney's, they took me for what I feared was my last meal. We went to a place called Caruso's. With a name like that, I figured it had to have mob ties. For sure, it had excellent Italian food and a beautiful outdoor patio. Again, the waitress seemed to know something was up since she avoided us then left the bill without a pen to sign it. Perhaps she thought I would use it to stab my way to freedom?
After dinner, I was taken back to Jim and Dori's then transferred to Norene's car. I was able to make a call to Steven and asked him if he'd gotten a ransom message yet. He replied, "I have no idea what you're talking about." I assumed the FBI was there telling him to try to draw out the conversation so they could trace my location.
Back at Norene's, it was an early night in my cell, err guest room. I woke up at 6 AM on Sunday and thought about making a break for it but read the paper instead. I did sneak away around 8:30 and hightailed it back to Phoenix with wet hair, wearing dirty clothing and hoping no one would see me.
The authorities are still investigating the incident. I was able to snap a picture of two of my kidnappers and I expect an alert to be put out soon so they can be taken into custody.
It started out innocently enough. I headed down to Tucson on Friday afternoon to meet up with Norene at her place. I was planning on a one night stay. We had a couple beers, looked over my Parrot Grande pics and caught up on everything (a surprisingly lot of everything considering that we'd only left each other 5 days previously). Then, we were off to Russ and Tamyra's for Mark Mulligan's House Concert.
We pulled into their driveway around 6:45 for the 7:00 PM show. The place was already jammed packed. I got to give Mark one hello hug before he started. It was a very emotional first set. He started out with a few special songs as he did at Parrot Grande then segued into his love songs. I hadn't realized how many songs he has that mention his wife and kids and how much he loves them. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house.
On the break, I got to say hi to lots of my Southern Arizona friends. Trish and Steve, Jeff and Becky, Jim and Dori. They were all there and it was great to see them.
The second set was more upbeat and everyone enjoyed seeing Mark. His brother Dave showed up for a bit, too. I told Mark he was in trouble because he hadn't told me Dave was going to be there. I would have dolled up if I'd known.
After the show, some of us stayed and hung out. I met Tamyra's parents, Jim and Sonora. Jim was a hoot. I asked him what he was drinking and he said, "Shwine." He's from Texas and I have to admit there was a resemblance to Tipsy Tommy in more than one way.
Mark hung out, too. He was going to stay for just a half of another Rum and Diet. When he joined me on the patio, his glass was completely full. I had to tease him about the "half drink" at that point. It was good to see him kicking back and relaxing.
Somewhere at this point, the kidnapping plot was hatched. Jim and Dori were making plans to meet on Saturday afternoon to go Halloween costume shopping. At the time, it seemed to make sense to hang out, shop and go for dinner with the gang on Saturday instead of going home.
Come Saturday morning, Norene and I headed out in her car to one of our favorite haunts, Olive R Twist. It's a sports bar with awesome waffle fries and no other customers at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. They don't do breakfast which works great for me and Norene was in need of a cheeseburger since she was feeling a bit "under the weather". She asked me if we should have a hair of the dog and I gave her the answer I always do, "Absolutely!"
We hung out and had a couple of Miller Lites. I did my thing that bugs her and Sugar Daddy. It's when I talk to strangers and get their whole life stories, or at least some stories. In this case, I chatted up the crabby bartender about opening early on Saturday and why it wasn't cost efficient. That led to a story about how he had closed the place the night before, how much sleep he'd gotten, etc. Norene kept giving me the 'stop talking to him' look, but I ignored it.
I think that's when she slipped me the mickey because before I knew it, it was nearly 2 and we were in the car heading to Jim and Dori's. I have no recall of agreeing to go, I plainly didn't have a chance. When we got to their place, we got into Jim's car so now I was two cars away from mine with no idea where I was.
Since I am a Princess and always a possible kidnap victim (and a neurotic nutjob), I've taken note of what to do. I tried to memorize our path so I could retrace it later with the authorities. I do recall going by the so-called University (and still have a bad taste in my mouth from it) but there were too many curves in the road. I do know that we ended up on 4th Ave which is Tucson's version of what Mill Ave in Tempe used to be.
There are lots of head shops, used clothing stores and somewhat divey bars on 4th Ave. The patchouli smell and swamp cooled air kept me in my drugged up state so I couldn't make a run for it. My Tucson friends can rave all they want to about how it's better than Phoenix but we have this modern convenience called central air conditioning. The folks down south may want to try it sometimes.
We hit a local bar called Maloney's. My captors allowed me to go to the bathroom on my own but only because they knew there was nowhere for me to go. The bar is a former lumber store with lots of solid brick walls with no convenient windows to escape through. The servers clearly sensed the tenseness of our situation since they avoided even making eye contact with our group leaving me no way to signal for help. Dori got us some drinks from the bar and I went along with it all, still looking for my chance to flee.
After Maloney's, they took me for what I feared was my last meal. We went to a place called Caruso's. With a name like that, I figured it had to have mob ties. For sure, it had excellent Italian food and a beautiful outdoor patio. Again, the waitress seemed to know something was up since she avoided us then left the bill without a pen to sign it. Perhaps she thought I would use it to stab my way to freedom?
After dinner, I was taken back to Jim and Dori's then transferred to Norene's car. I was able to make a call to Steven and asked him if he'd gotten a ransom message yet. He replied, "I have no idea what you're talking about." I assumed the FBI was there telling him to try to draw out the conversation so they could trace my location.
Back at Norene's, it was an early night in my cell, err guest room. I woke up at 6 AM on Sunday and thought about making a break for it but read the paper instead. I did sneak away around 8:30 and hightailed it back to Phoenix with wet hair, wearing dirty clothing and hoping no one would see me.
The authorities are still investigating the incident. I was able to snap a picture of two of my kidnappers and I expect an alert to be put out soon so they can be taken into custody.
These two have been named 'persons of interest' in my abduction.
