Lucky Artist Boy

 

We went on an outing to Phoenix today, driving on the freeway towards downtown and getting off at Indian School Road to go to Arizona Art Supply. I had been there just a few days ago while Christmas shopping for Jessica. She had given me a list of art supplies she wanted for Christmas, with links to an online art supply retailer. I had felt uninspired to go there. I felt no joy, as I never do during Advent and the run up to Christmas. Instead I had decided to find the coolest old art supply place in Phoenix, which was easy to find, and find as many of the items there in person. I told the woman at the store in a way, she had given me the gift of going to an art supply store with a specific need to do so.

At the time, I found about half the items she wanted, and found what I thought were substitutes for the others. I also saw a portfolio carrier I thought she would like, as she totes a lot of paper things around for her drawing class. On a whim I purchased it, thinking she would be delighted to see the surprise. Instead it turns out that she couldn't use it. I had the receipt and said I'd return it. We decided to make it a field trip together, and today we went there as planned, driving down together and parking in the same parking lot, in the complex with the Goodwill, just off 51 on Indian School.

At first the clerk told me that portfolios were nonreturnable, but the manager overheard this, and came to register. She was pleasant and helpful, and as I was bringing it back with the tags on, they gave me my money back. Then we walked around the store for a while, and it was fun this time to linger and look at paper.  I used to draw and make pastel portraits in college, and I have gone through spates of drawing since then. It is fun just to examine the types of paper they stock. It feels so tactile.

Jessica found a bunch of supplies she liked. I told her to choose a few things she night not otherwise get, that were splurges. We went out of the store with well more in value than we came in with. The manager had chosen wisely.

Afterwards we drove the street in Phoenix to a old school hamburger stand, called Lucky Boy, where we had burgers and fries, eating them in the old school dining room amidst what appeared to be many regulars at the nearby tables. The neighborhood around is one with the classic midcentury brick bungalows that were so common. They are on the upswing in value and many have undergone renovations and improvements. The hamburger stand dates from 1951.

Such is what we did this year, on the Third Day of Christmas.