Keith at Irvine Spectrum -- Saturday, 07Dec2013

The parking lot was jammed when I got there, so I was expecting lots of people, but they must have been in the stores. But the people I did see were lots of families, so I played "Jingle Bells" a *lot*.

But apparently it was Weird Tip Night. There was a girl walking around selling roses, like you see in fancy restaurants sometimes. After a while, she came by and laid one on the stage. First rose tip I've ever gotten.

And later on, a guy came over and asked me to play Happy Birthday for his friend -- but not yet, she's on her way. So I eventually got the cue, and played it, no problem. Candles out, cake being cut, my job is done. But then after a while, he came over and laid a piece of cake on my table. I can't really eat while I'm playing of course, but at the end I tried it and it was an amazing chocolate thing from the Cheesecake Factory. Non-trivial to bring home, but worth it. First cake tip, too.

I was playing "Little Drummer Boy", and this guy was just staring at me. At the end he was very enthusiastic, and came over to the table and pulled out a Sharpie (he carries around his own Sharpie?!?), and announced that he was going to autograph a few of my CDs. Um, really? I thought *I* was supposed to autograph 'em. But off he went, and scribbled on one of each of the three of them, along with Bible verse notations.

I didn't catch his name, and his signature is illegible, but from what I could catch of what he was telling me and some Googling, he's some hyper-Christian football player who's played all over but considers himself a "49-er", despite not actually being on the team anymore. I guess he thought he was giving me some valuable items in those autographs, but I'm not sure how to cash them in. I can't really eBay some "CD cases with some probably-semi-famous guy's autograph on 'em". He said he was granting me this boon because I was "playing the Lord's music". Really? "Drummer Boy"?!? Well OK, I suppose Jesus is in there as a supporting character...