it is the east

this weekend is full of festivals and activities. today i conquered the pecan street festival and the accordion competition [AKA the big squeeze] with patrick. pecan street is what sixth street [now the party street] once was. it runs through the middle of downtown and they shut it down and line it with vendors of all kinds for the weekend. pg and i decided we aren't the target audience. it's full of candles, soap, incense, ceramics, tacky plaques, expensive texasy paintings and light switch covers. we'll check back in 30 years.

the accordion competition was supposed to be good, but we missed the competition section. accordions blow my mind. it must take a lot of coordination to move your arms in and out while playing a keyboard and singing.

this evening i called bank of america after my debit card was rejected for the third time and they said my card 'might have been subjected to a massive scale attack' and i would receive a new one in the mail some time next week. the sound of the guy reading off the form letter and saying the words 'massive scale attack' with zero enthusiasm just made me laugh.

volunteered at austin shakespeare's play in the park tonight. they did a midsummer nights dream with kind of a 60s style. as an english major, i feel like i'm betraying my kind when i say that i have never enjoyed shakespeare because of the way they continually suck the life out of it throughout school. but i think i may have come to terms with it tonight. old english isn't so bad if you actually listen.

garden tomorrow!

p.s. fun facts. they used this term over and over in water for elephants, which is a fast, entertaining read. perfect for a poolside summer book: First of May — A term also used in the carnival, meaning a novice performer in his first season on a show. Shows used to leave winter quarters for their opening spot on the first of May, and there are always some new workers hired on the first of May who have never worked shows before [wikipedia].