Food Truck and Cart Festival (and then some stuff I actually took pictures of)

So, Matt and I went to the Food Truck and Cart Festival at Columbus Commons, but I am a terrible blogger and have no pictures for you. Part of that is because Matt is easily embarrassed and stopping to take camera phone pictures in a crowd would have been more than he could deal with from me. The other issue was that we got there at 8:30 and it was completely dark. There were carts along the edge and these enormous lines of  50 plus people for each, but you couldn't tell what anyone was waiting in line for because there was no lighting. I guess they always park under street lights when they go out into the world at night. We were going to get a beer, but the line was insane and then we realized that the drink ticket booth had officially closed. They were out of beer at a freaking festival. I think that's a worst-case-scenario when planning these things. So we stood around the booth my work had set up. The girl running our booth was drinking booze her friend had brought for her so she wouldn't have to pay for festival beer. I think I may have underestimated the ridiculous amount of freedom my job allows.
I found out yesterday at work that most of the carts had run out of food altogether and people were asking them to make whatever they could from scraps. I am grateful that we left when we did and didn't wait in line for a tortilla with sauce squirted on it or any other such emergency recipe. They need to do this thing more often and with more food and certainly more booze.
Next time I go somewhere more interesting than work and the grocery store, I will make a more sincere attempt to take pictures. Had I not been more timid, I would have had a picture for you of that old bald guy that does interpretive dance with a cane by the music stage at every festival.

Now that I have bored you with my "I'm totally getting out and seeing Columbus because I would judge you for not getting out and seeing Providence" moment, I am super excited that this post has  a theme! Like, if Matt were involved, he would probably come up with reasons why his boat captain's hat would be appropriate, because every theme party welcomes a boat captain. I'll let you put two and two together and figure out the theme on your own.

This is one of the super cute Pattycake vegan cookies in our cookie basket at work. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a cat, but it also looks like a fox. I go with cat only because I think vegans appreciate cats more often than do other people. Take from that comment what you will. The reason I show this picture is because yesterday at work, a man who comes in regularly and, as far as I know, is of sound mind, picked up this very cookie and said, "Well look at that. That's a dinosaur, right?" I am very often at a loss for words at the coffee shop.

I saw this guy in a shop window walking home from work and said "AAAAWWWWW" really loud just as someone walked by me, so I decided I couldn't really make things more embarrassing, so it was okay to take a picture. The weird thing about this display is that it is in the window of Clintonville Outfitters, which is a hiking and camping equipment store that definitely doesn't sell toys or anything lion related. I guess they know what they're doing because no I want a hammock.

So, I don't want to bust your "Rhode Island has fancy cider with cute furry creatures on the label" bubble, but I kind of do. This was on display at Giant Eagle. It was the first thing I saw when I walked in the door. There are at least 4 kinds. If I was the sort of person to drink in a non-bar situation,  I would totally buy this. It is 100% cuter than Strongbow, and i bet it tastes better. The fact that I see hipsters drinking Strongbow leads me to believe it's the worst possible choice of cider.

Drinking Before the Hurricane

So I actually meant to post earlier this week about the impending hurricane (yay, RI has its first major hurricane in over 75 years and I'm here for it!) and the earthquake.

Let me at least say something about my very first earthquake. I was leaning over a desk, and I sort of felt dizzy. I looked over and the windows of the school were moving. Horizontally. This lasted about ten seconds, and then we all chattered nervously, "Was that an earthquake? Noooo. Check Google. Oh my God, it was an earthquake! Well what do you know." And my co-worker from San Francisco was all whatever about it.

Now they're going all crazy about Irene. They think there might be flooding and power outages on Sunday night, so we've all been instructed to prepare for the worst. Well, last night I started my preparations: I bought peanut butter crackers and went to a bar.

I met up with another VISTA at a bar on Wickenden St. (seriously one street over from me and less than a five minute walk). The bar, because people are so clever here, is called the "Wicked Den," or if you're a local, just "Wick." It's very wood-covered and apparently they serve over 100 beers because they have a club you can join where if you try every kind you get a plaque on the wall. (Or if you just get to like 50, you get a pair of underwear.)

I, because I want to learn about Providence culture, got Narragansett beer, which originated in Providence and is like a local/New England favorite. Not like you can see it, but the logo is on right. It's not very good, but it was cheap and served in a clear, honey-comb patterned mug, so I'm happy. Also there was the most divinely salty free jerky. I know you don't appreciate that, but oh my lord baby Jesus.

The only real reason I took that second picture though is something you unfortunately can't see. On the far left is this:

It's even more inspiring in person.

I don't believe in us using pictures we didn't take, but this was important. Apparently there a bunch of kinds of "Woodchuck Hard Cider," so since I probably can't get Strongbow, this might be what I end up drinking. The VISTA I hang out with really likes beer,and I'm try to, you know, learn about stuff, but I need a back-up, non-beer plan.

So I'm going to pack my Hurricane get-away bag and charge all of my devices and batten down the hatches, blah blah blah. Wish me luck.

You may not be able to see this picture at all, but when I passed by this, I went into real estate mode. You can't see it that well, but there's a full length mirror propped against the building and a dresser on its side. How do we make this classic campus scene sound ritzier?

This charming split level opens up to a spacious bonus bedroom under the stars!

Tanger Outlets with Mom

I had the most amazingly middle-America day today with my mother. We went to the Tanger Outlets (formerly Jeffersonville near King's Island). That place is so depressing. The new sign doesn't even match the colors on the buildings anymore, so you just know you're not going anywhere nice before you even pull in. I told mom I felt like I was on vacation because I kept seeing teenage boys in camo hats and t-shirts with the sleeves cut off like you see at gas stations on the way to the beach. Her response: "They's country folk." This she's allowed to say because she's from Kentucky.

 This was my name at Old Navy in the dressing rooms. I heard my mom tell the girl her name and then a pause... "Weeeeeezy?! Okay..."

The world's ugliest jacket at Coldwater Creek. It looks like someone chopped up the weird smelling chair in the corner of a cheap motel room. My mom forced me to go in and then I forced her to leave when she showed me the pleated (seriously... PLEATED?) pants she was considering buying.

Kind of the worst name ever for an outlet store. They might as well have called it "Cheap Broken and/or Misshapen Crap Mart."

This purse was at Kate Spade. I'm sure it costs more than I make in a week, but I love stuff that looks like it's made of other stuff. It looks crafty, but it's not!

After our depressing romp on the island of misfit toys, we played preteens and went to see the Glee concert movie. My mom sat down without her glasses on and said, "Whoa, double vision." Never having seen a 3D movie, she actually thought there was something wrong with her. We were the only ones in the theater until, about halfway through, an elderly couple came in and we had to stop loudly talking through it. I hope you're missing all of these exciting things there are to do in Ohio.

Challenge Heard and Met.

So I went a few major places. The first one, which took about half my morning, was the Center for Family and Human Services (or something) to get food stamps. So no pictures of that. Although, I will say about food stamps, it's just like a gold credit card, not like fun stick-on stamps or something. Oh well.

In the afternoon, after I got back from that first adventure, my co-VISTA and I went on a scavenger hunt of Providence. A lot of the places I had already heard of or seen, but I wanted to share one with you.

I didn't get outside shots, but this is the inside of Craftland, which is Providence's less squeezed-in version of Wholly Craft! And lord jesus, it's a mecca of sorts.

But the real reason I'm sharing this with you:

Stupid shirt didn't have enough room to unfold. It says:

DON'T MESS WITH RHODE ISLAND either.

And in case you couldn't tell, an itty-bitty Rhode Island is sitting in the middle of giant Texas. There were other things there, but I was with people, and you can only take so many cell phone pictures before you become a weirdo. 

So 1.) Texas shout out! and 2.) Does this count as having met your challenge?

RISD Barrington Beach/Farm

So I have been on the job for a total of four - count them, FOUR - days, but I have already gotten to experience the best part of any job: office parties. All of the summer teachers (artsy college student people with odd haircuts and armpit hair) are leaving, so the bosses drove us to a picnic. NOTE: Picnics are the second best kind of party. Mystery parties = first best. First best = real set of words I can put together.

I wish I had known about this beforehand because I would have actually brought a camera. The spread was one thing - grilled vegetables, cheesecake, berries, cucumber salad, crusty bread, mozzarella cheese, peach cobbler, the wings of far too many chickens...oh how I wish there could be a party every week - but the site might have been better.

We drove to Barrington, this suburb of Providence with an enormous golf course that is also apparently dry. (Did you know any city in America is dry? Whhhhaaatt?) In Barrington, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has this farm/beach that they use for some of their continuing education classes. (Sorry for so many parathesises, but that super makes me want to go back to school. I want a farm/beach.) It was really just this wide open green space with pretty round picnic tables and a big hill that dipped into the beach. It was probably the perfect day to go to a beach though - sunny, blue skies, enough wind to keep you cool. The office people walked along the beach for a while (after escaping more team-reflecting, summer-finishing, going-to-miss-you games being held by the leaving teachers,) and I realized how long it's been since I came to a beach. So long, in fact, that when I picked up one shell, I immediately thought it was a plastic piece from some kind of Little Mermaid playset. Yeah. It was that perfect.

So I don't have any pictures of RISD's beach, but I did take some pictures of the shells I hoarded from the beach. I tried to be all artsy about it too, 'cause you know, I got to fake that stuff now.

Challenge

So there was something really amazing I wanted to take a picture of on my way home, but like you said, hipsters don't necessarily like their activities to be documented. I was walking down the alley behind High St. and behind that creepy building where there is always really loud music playing with the door open so you can see that someone spray painted all over the living room walls and the fabric awning that is torn and always dripping, even when there hasn't been any rain, there was a party. Before I saw a single person, I knew there had to be a herd of hipsters nearby, because chained to the fence behind the building were upwards of 20 bikes crammed together all with one wheel in the air. It looked ridiculous, and if I hadn't been afraid of the creeper who lives there, I could have shown you.


Instead, I am going to challenge you to find me the Providence equivalent of these:

All Work, No Play

I will admit to having gone nowhere but work and home for the past few days, so by the force of peer pressure alone, I will post these mediocre and depressing pictures.

This creepy picture is hanging by the back door at the coffee shop and it stared into my very soul for ten minutes straight while I waited on a ride tonight. If it wouldn't have been weird, I might have taken a picture of the real life creeper in Drew Carey glasses who sat on the patio while I was closing up and talked to me about homeless people.

Best. Root beer. Ever. Unless you forget that you don't own a bottle opener so you bend one of your cheap forks trying to open it and cut your hand. Totally worth it.

Foo Fest & WaterFire

Saturday night, I went to meet other VISTAs at the annual FooFest held by AS220. However, I got a little caught up when I saw these ladies.

Saturday was the last WaterFire of the season, and even though I didn't really see WaterFire, I did see the festivities related to it, including the "Ladies of the Rolling Pin."

And, um, because Bananagrams must have been sponsoring something, I got to see a giant banana car...

By the time I got to Empire Street where AS220 is, it was getting darker. FooFest turned out to be really small (like one blocked off street) and a bunch of people crowded in, drinking, playing a giant game of rock mancala, getting their fortunes told, talking to artists, buying pricey art books, and waiting for music acts, including one guy who riffed on the theme bacon and cheese before giving a shout-out to vegans.

It was kind of hard to take pictures, especially because I think hipsters don't appreciate their activities being documented. It was a beautiful night though, and I got to walk back to the Eastside with a couple of another VISTA's friends.

Providence, RI at Sunset

I don't want to pretend that Providence should be looked at through rose-colored lenses. (I've already seen a few reasons why the city is difficult to live in.) Still, it's promising.