Long Holiday Weekend, Part 3 (fin)

The primary reason for us to travel to Arizona was so Jay could attend an Indiana Fever game. Getting to hang out with Deejo's family was just a bonus. Like most sports enthusiasts, Jay's a rabid fan of Caitlin Clark, and bought tickets last December when they became available. It was a win-win situation - a long weekend hanging with my brother, and getting to go to a game.

Since it was an evening game, Jay and I had time to kill. Deejo and Mrs. Deejo had to return to work, which left us free for the day. Not to worry, Jay had plans for us! One of the toy stores that he has purchased collectibles from is only about thirty minutes from Deejo's place, so off we went to visit Retro Exchange. (Collectibles is what you call toys when you're using your adult money.) It's a gem that's kind of hidden in plain sight in a strip mall. In fact, despite using GPS and our eyeballs, we drove past it the first time and had to double back.

Very unassuming and easy to overlook.

I think I've mentioned that we basically live in a toy store at home, with all of Jay's collectibles. We have cabinets full of Star Wars collectibles. However, I can't completely blame Jay, because I have found some joy in finding John Wick, The Walking Dead, and Supernatural toys as well. Our house is an eight year-old boy's dream. I wasn't looking for anything in particular when we went to Retro Exchange, but was looking forward to just enjoying looking at all the toys from my childhood. It was amazing!

They carried more than Star Wars, but those are the ones I gravitated to, given who I've married. We spent a good bit of time wandering up and down the aisles a couple of times, seeing something new with each pass.

Connected to the toy store was a comic book store. I don't really do comics, never understood the draw, but between Jay and Monster, I'm becoming comic book curious. I was flipping through the bins, idly, just to waste time. I saw a table labeled "TV Show comics" and headed over there, thinking I could find some X-Files or something that was interesting. Boy, did I find something interesting! Supernatural comic books!

Guess part of my Feral Fifties now includes comic books.

I knew about them, and had casually looked whenever we went to Mile High Comics, but hadn't any luck finding them. There are a total of 24 comics, so I've got 18 more to hunt and find. I've already pre-ordered the first one of the new series coming out, so I guess this is a thing I'm now doing.

By the time we were finished at the toy store, it was already triple digits out, so we headed back to Deejo's to enjoy the air conditioning.

We were lucky enough to get to spend a few minutes with Deejo before we left to the game, since we likely wouldn't see him before our flight out the next day. He leaves for work about 4:30 a.m., and our flight wasn't until late morning.

I think the last time I was at a live basketball game was the Nuggets many years ago, when my kids were playing rec ball and they got invited to go play on the court before the game. That had to have been ... almost thirty years ago. I've never attended a WNBA game, and it was thrilling!

We were surrounded by other Fever fans, though definitely outnumbered by the home team fans. There was one player who caught my eye for both her defensive and offensive skills, number 10, Lexie Hull. While she's not super flashy, she's steady and hardworking, just the type of player that draws my interest. Even though the Fever lost, and Jay didn't get to see Caitlin play, we had a blast! I'm looking forward to more games. WNBA is in post-season play now, their season has just about wrapped up, but college ball is starting up, and those tickets tend to be more reasonably priced, so maybe we'll get to go to one.

We've been home from Arizona for a couple of weeks, but a surprise showed up for me the other day!

Jay ordered me my own Lexie Hull Fever jersey! Now we have to go to a game next season.