The art festival is in the final hours now; vendors beginning to wrap up what remains of their wares, food trucks start slapping on discounts to sell the last of the product, musicians on the main stage go from belting rock and roll ballads to leisurely strumming quiet jazz tunes in the humid morning. This town never looks better than when we come together for a community event. This is one of the first years since I moved here almost ten years ago that I didn't have to bartend the event. I got to walk down with my butch, meet up with coworkers turned friends, browse artist tents, buy handmade jewelry, and eat way too much cheese. Initially we were worried the rain would turn this special weekend into a wash, but the clouds stayed away a little too well, and the heat overtook the forecast.
On Friday after work we walked down to do our initial spin of the block to see what artists were here for the weekend. A woman who specialized in black cat art won my butch's heart and they got me one of her prints with a little kitty peeking out of a tea cup with a slice of cake. We met up with friends and visited the biergarten, everyone went to get drinks while I snuck away to get something deliciously cheesy instead. We sat around and ended the night at the new bar my coworker works at on the weekends, unfortunately it was karaoke night, so we hid out in the game room in the back with a snazzy cheetah print billiards table.
Saturday was all over the place. My butch has to do some work out of town for a few days so we spent the morning running last minutes errands, grabbing coffee, stopping at the storage unit, and visiting a new antique shop on our side of town - and our side of town never gets anything nice. It doesn't have a name so I'm not sure how they do their advertising, but I could tell it was going to be an antique shop for weeks now with the printed pictures of a Gibson girl they had hanging in the front windows. The parking lot was full and a handwritten sign on the door said ESTATE SALE - 75% OFF EXCEPT JEWELRY! and we knew we had to go in. We ended up leaving with an early 1900s Cedar Point painted plate, some silly glass figurines, and a giant signed print of Southern Decadence 2003 - the gay Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans. It has one of those beautifully intricate houses that I've seen depicted in Louisiana, the houses that have stunning Creole architecture with an upper balcony and gorgeous colors, with a pride flag and so many depictions of generally gay people at this event. You see shirtless people painted with pecs, breasts, or top surgery scars and you can't tell the difference, it's beautiful. And we knew no one else in this town would accurately appreciate queer art. We scored it for $4 and it's selling on eBay for over $150!
Once my partner left for work, I diligently got ready as to not keep my friends waiting. Aka, I watched Mormon Wives and farted around for a few hours, oops. Went downtown with my coworker and met up with my old goth guy bff, we walked around the booths together and I got some jewelry from this eccentric older woman who makes her stuff out of silverware. It was so good I went back down this morning to get another piece from her! Then we went our separate ways and I grabbed dinner with my goth before walking home. It had finally cooled down at that point, the sun was starting to set on the last full day of the festival, and I had Dido playing softly from my phone, it was perfect.
This morning I woke up early to trek back downtown for a final peruse before the artists start packing up for good. I greatly underestimated how fucking hot and humid it would be and unfortunately wore something other than black so everybody could see my very sweaty back (amongst other parts...). I got my ring from the silversmith and then walked across the street to the coffee shop that is the beating heart of this town. I entered through the back to try and avoid the crowds as much as possible. In one of their used book sections they have a small box of vintage post cards to send. I have a pen pal that I met on tumblr years ago and is someone I still love to chat with, we've started writing again but I fucking suck at consistently writing her back because there is no place that sells post cards in this rinky dink little town. So I made sure to snag one; Molly, I'm sorry! Then I got a cupcake latte, the book One Nation Under Television to read and send to my sister after, and chatted with another coworker of mine who came in to buy coffee grounds after church. On the walk home I went down a different street than I usually take and found someone selling baked goods in their front yard. I grabbed a bag of sourdough jalapeño cheddar bagels to munch on for the week. I don't know how many times I have to say it, I love love love this little town.
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