I lay on the couch staring up at the ceiling. It was a little after three oclock in the morning and I was having a hard time getting comfortable. Oddly enough, sleeping on the couch is not a foreign event for me. My wife Trina seems to think that it is some sort of punishment but I tend to think of it more like camping so I am ok with it. This time though I was trying to replay the events of the past few days and figure out what exactly it was that triggered this particular camping adventure.
It all started right after Memorial Day. I was hanging around surfing like I usually do, bored with the carbon-based life forms that I was interacting with and looking to see if the silicon-based people were any more interesting. Since the Diamondbacks game did not start for a few hours I had time to kill. I decided to wander over to the Hot Wheels Collectors web site and see if they had anything new going on over there (man cannot live by Disney alone). So while I am cruising through their forums, I happened to notice that there was going to be a cross country race from Los Angeles to Miami called Bull Run. It was basically a way for a bunch of euro-trash to break the speed limit and race across the United States. Not only was this a race but it was also a roving party where the drivers could kick up their heels at various places along the way. Well this sounded kind of interesting so I checked the schedule. Sure enough, there was a tour stop in Phoenix Arizona so I thought what the heck I might as well check it out. Two of the sponsors of this event were Mattel and Krispy Kreme. I figured I would take my son Dakota and we would go look at some cars and score some donuts. Somewhere in this forum thread there was a request asking if anyone would be interested in taking some pictures. I thought, Hey Im going to be there anyways I could point and shoot some Kodak moments. So I sent an email and then moved on. A couple of days later I get a reply to the email I sent thanking me for my offer and that Mattel would like me to be the official photographer for the Phoenix stop and could I get some pictures of the cars, fans and celebrities.
So the race was to arrive in Phoenix on Sunday June 6 at the Phoenician resort. Now this is not your average Motel 6. These guys are a closed resort where you have to have an invitation to even get in their parking lot. I go cruising up to the guard and try explaining to Barney Fifes sister that I was here for the Bull Run thing. She says something like Sorry folks the moose outside should have told you no wait, different story Sorry that is a closed party you cannot enter. So I said, oh I think I was supposed to take some pictures. At which point she asks my name, apologizes and tells me some valet will park my car. It was valet not ballet because no one in a tutu was anywhere to be found in the parking lot. So I go to where the Bull Run guys are hanging out and all of a sudden there are like Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley, BMW and Vipers flying through the streets trying to get to a spot in the parking lot where there stood some dude with a clipboard. So I spent the evening shooting film of some whacked out dudes spinning cookies in the parking lot of a 5-star resort. Dakota thought it was pretty cool since he got to hang out with the drivers and sit in a Lamborghini. Dakota also got to meet some of the Hot Wheels designers and they gave him some cars which were worth like $35 a piece.
Well last Monday I went in to work and I was trying to tell the guys what I had done the night before. No one believed me and thought I was definitely more whacked than usual. So I said, Fine lets go down there. I took one of the guys at work and we went back to the Phoenician. The guard once again let us in and said the race was scheduled to start in about an hour. We walked around the parking lot among 12 15 cars worth more than what I would earn in a decade. So I am shooting a few pictures because I am the staff photographer and I stop by this Rolls Royce. There is this blonde chick packing her stuff and asks if I can help her. Well I remembered that my mom always said that you should offer to help a lady so I set my camera down and load her trunk. When I get back to where my co-worker was standing he said, Dude, that was Paris Hilton! So I shot a few pictures and tagged about 3 dozen donuts.
When I got home, I started working on the pictures resizing them and packaging them up to send off to the race teams. Trina comes up and starts looking over my shoulder. I am at this moment modifying the color and size of the picture of the Hawaiian Tropicana girls. Out of no where I get smacked in the head. Within 5 minutes a pillow and blanket are falling from the second floor of our house landing at the foot of the stairs. So here I am trying to figure out what the heck did I do to deserve this? I mean this could have happened to anybody, right?
Jeff
