Yesterday, I met with some friends at the Louisville Street Faire (here in Colorado, we pronounce the “s” in Louisville, because we are not Kentuckians) for talking, drinking, and live music. The fair happens each Friday through the summer with a different live band each week. While dancing around to a southern-rock band that had a very slight touch of country thrown in, it occurred to me that I've lived here long enough that I consider myself to be a bit of a local. I know about the local little events in the various towns I've lived in, as opposed to only knowing the huge tourist events, even though it's been a few years since I lived in Louisville.
The Street Faire is full of vendor tents, weak margaritas, overly-tanned women in short shorts and Birkenstocks, and men wearing Hawaiian shirts and cowboy hats. I'm always secretly amused by cowboy hats because Colorado does still have a streak of “westerner” going on while wearing Birkenstocks. I guess I think of most Coloradoans as a Cowboy-Hippie hybrid...which means most of them look like normal people who wear strange accessories from time to time, depending on where they are on the Cowboy-Hippie spectrum.
There was the stereotypical “Yee-HAW!” from various parts of the audience whenever the band started a new song, which also greatly added to my amusement. This happened even when the band played Grateful Dead covers. Yee-haw, indeed! In spite of all this, people were very much enjoying themselves, as opposed to the self-conscious enjoyment that can happen in a bigger city when folks go to “one of those quaint little festivals.”
And as a large of chunk of Louisville was out together drinking margaritas, dancing (some even swing dancing) to loud music in the open air, I was reminded that sometimes community events actually do build a sense of belonging, even if it involves cowboy hats.
An Erinku:
lounging
on couch
putting off
paper writing
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Tales From the Vault
Tonight, in between practice sessions, I popped over to my new place. I was accosted in the hallway by one of my many middle-aged, toothless, male neighbors (I assume something is wrong with the water here. I've had friends promise that if I start looking like a midddle-aged, toothless male, due to showering in/drinking the water here, they will make me move).
Accost is a strong word. He saw that I was bringing in a box of my exceedingly cheap wine and offered to buy me a drink at the local dive bar. I was taken aback and mumbled something about cello-playing across the street. The problem with mumbling an excuse is it sounds completely fake and rude even if it's 100% true. So. Now. I'm still many months away from the end of my lease and I have one neighbor a few doors down that promises months of awkward encounters. Alas.
It is a good thing that I practice across the street until bizarre hours (last night I was there until 1:30 a.m.). And while I'm currently listening to the concerto I have to learn this summer, I realize I have at least 60 pages of articles to read, a three page paper to write by this weekend, and that it's time to put my new couch to use as a place to hold my butt while I do homework. Sigh. School...
An Erinku:
couches
as butt-holders
it's funny
every time
Accost is a strong word. He saw that I was bringing in a box of my exceedingly cheap wine and offered to buy me a drink at the local dive bar. I was taken aback and mumbled something about cello-playing across the street. The problem with mumbling an excuse is it sounds completely fake and rude even if it's 100% true. So. Now. I'm still many months away from the end of my lease and I have one neighbor a few doors down that promises months of awkward encounters. Alas.
It is a good thing that I practice across the street until bizarre hours (last night I was there until 1:30 a.m.). And while I'm currently listening to the concerto I have to learn this summer, I realize I have at least 60 pages of articles to read, a three page paper to write by this weekend, and that it's time to put my new couch to use as a place to hold my butt while I do homework. Sigh. School...
An Erinku:
couches
as butt-holders
it's funny
every time
Friday, June 11, 2010
One Word
USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. It's really hard to only use one word answers.
1. Where is your cell phone? floor
2. Your significant other? cello
3. Your hair? annoying
4. Your mother? awesome
5. Your father? interesting
6. Your favorite? books
7. Your dream last night? running
8. Your favorite drink? coffee
9. Your dream/goal? creativity
10. What room you are in? front
11. Your hobby? writing
12. Your fear? black-hole (the hyphen makes it one word)
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? invigorated
14. Where were you last night? homework
15. Something that you aren't? certain
16. Muffins? yes!
17. Wish list item? muffins (dammit question 16)
18. Where you grew up? unconscious-beauty
19. Last thing you did? read
20. What are you wearing? toga (are you doubting me?)
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? fish
23. Friends? inappropriatelyawesome (sometimes I talk fast. It counts as one word)
24. Your life? adventurous
25. Your mood? sassy
26. Missing someone? Skype!
27. Car? feet
28. Something you're not wearing? shoulder-pads
29. Your favorite store? local
30. Your favorite color? all
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? days (sad books are sad)
35. One place that I go to over and over? Reno
36. One person who emails me regularly? K.
37. My favorite place to eat? your house (two words and a self-invite for food, it doesn’t get more efficient than that!)
An Erinku:
Steve Miller Band
others like you
I have four words:
get off my Pandora!
1. Where is your cell phone? floor
2. Your significant other? cello
3. Your hair? annoying
4. Your mother? awesome
5. Your father? interesting
6. Your favorite? books
7. Your dream last night? running
8. Your favorite drink? coffee
9. Your dream/goal? creativity
10. What room you are in? front
11. Your hobby? writing
12. Your fear? black-hole (the hyphen makes it one word)
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? invigorated
14. Where were you last night? homework
15. Something that you aren't? certain
16. Muffins? yes!
17. Wish list item? muffins (dammit question 16)
18. Where you grew up? unconscious-beauty
19. Last thing you did? read
20. What are you wearing? toga (are you doubting me?)
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? fish
23. Friends? inappropriatelyawesome (sometimes I talk fast. It counts as one word)
24. Your life? adventurous
25. Your mood? sassy
26. Missing someone? Skype!
27. Car? feet
28. Something you're not wearing? shoulder-pads
29. Your favorite store? local
30. Your favorite color? all
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? days (sad books are sad)
35. One place that I go to over and over? Reno
36. One person who emails me regularly? K.
37. My favorite place to eat? your house (two words and a self-invite for food, it doesn’t get more efficient than that!)
An Erinku:
Steve Miller Band
others like you
I have four words:
get off my Pandora!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The Great Cheese Crisis of 2010
Today, the world had its weird on. There were a variety of bizarre occurrences in the last little while that, somehow, culminated in my sort-of saving the day with American sliced cheese. There was a BBQ in need of rescuing, me hiking up my skirt so I could take big-girl steps, and a little old lady wandering over the rocky parking lot landscaping with her cane. I wish I could make more sense of these images, but sometimes life isn’t a cohesive story.
A few weeks ago, I had to go to court due to my rear-ending a trailer hitch. I was aiming for the bumper, I guess, but got the hitch instead. Since the police showed up, instead of a ticket, I got a summons to court to pay my fine. At court, I stood in the long line of folks who all received tickets/summons that same day. When I got to the front of the line, I was able to move to another line to pay the fee instead of seeing the judge. The lady behind me, however, had to go to court. She was very upset by the fact she couldn’t just pay the fine. She was getting louder and crankier and as she walked past, she bellowed, “I should be able to just pay the fine like everyone else! I only hit a pedestrian!”
I thought of this while the little old lady in the parking lot from paragraph 1 (above) was slowly walking behind a variety of cars. And how I didn’t want to hit her, since later I would feel the need to defend myself in a loud fashion about only hitting pedestrians. And then, with the savior cheese in my front seat, a pack of 15 bike-riding police officers rode past in the opposite direction. I thought, “It would only take a semi-truck with brake problems to wreck the local police force; they should spread out.” After counting the number of them in the pack, I looked up and saw a semi-truck heading in the same direction as they were. The world had its weird on today.
An Erinku (in slight confusion):
the best dessert
in the world
appears at all
potlucks here
A few weeks ago, I had to go to court due to my rear-ending a trailer hitch. I was aiming for the bumper, I guess, but got the hitch instead. Since the police showed up, instead of a ticket, I got a summons to court to pay my fine. At court, I stood in the long line of folks who all received tickets/summons that same day. When I got to the front of the line, I was able to move to another line to pay the fee instead of seeing the judge. The lady behind me, however, had to go to court. She was very upset by the fact she couldn’t just pay the fine. She was getting louder and crankier and as she walked past, she bellowed, “I should be able to just pay the fine like everyone else! I only hit a pedestrian!”
I thought of this while the little old lady in the parking lot from paragraph 1 (above) was slowly walking behind a variety of cars. And how I didn’t want to hit her, since later I would feel the need to defend myself in a loud fashion about only hitting pedestrians. And then, with the savior cheese in my front seat, a pack of 15 bike-riding police officers rode past in the opposite direction. I thought, “It would only take a semi-truck with brake problems to wreck the local police force; they should spread out.” After counting the number of them in the pack, I looked up and saw a semi-truck heading in the same direction as they were. The world had its weird on today.
An Erinku (in slight confusion):
the best dessert
in the world
appears at all
potlucks here
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