some girls wander by mistake.

well the orlando fringe festival is already off to a great start. i've earned loads of "fringe bucks," which (aside from, you know, the sweet charity of volunteering and the fun of meeting people, is the whole point) should get me and into 3-4 shows. i worked thursday-saturday; here it is sunday and i've yet to see a show (we're hoping to go tonite). 1 week of fringing left.

for those of you who don't know what fringe is all about, go here for a youtube video/interview with beth marshall, the producing art director (also a decent article here).

so thursday night was the gala event, AKA the opening night of fringe. i did a decent beehive 'do (though naively it was set a bit far back on the crown of my head, thus it looked incredible only if i tilted my head forward just-so...), rocked some 60's mod dress i borrowed from kat, and headed out to earn my keep. there i met up with danielmath, ph0enixinflight and becky, my "recruits" as the volunteer coordinator called them. we all were slated for slightly different positions: windy and becky selling buttons (which turned out to be a pretty adorable competition), daniel assisting with electrical matters and selling drink tickets, and then me at the beer tent. well, it ended up raining pretty terribly--a florida monsoon--so the first couple hours seemed like a bust. it was a literal "rain on our parade," seeing as there actually was supposed to be a parade of artists and performers from venue to venue. but after the downpour stopped, people actually came, and while i didn't actually see the "fringe parade," i can only guess from the non-stop queue of beer and wine seekers that the gala wasn't a bust after all.

(friday-night-unrelated-to-fringe: sparkle_m0ti0n came to town, and we spent the whole night at peacock room! i love him.)

saturday night i volunteered again, bouncing between venue captain, beer tent, and drink ticket sales. i took a 30 minute break between posts and walked peacefully by myself around the booth areas, bumping into lots of people i knew (many of them i saw on thursday too. the worst thing about orlando is how small the arts community really is: it's the same people, every event, year after year.). the weather was actually cool, breezy, and not humid--rather beautiful. i got lost taking photographs of those installation mushrooms i like so much, and just enjoying being solitary. my shift ended pretty late, but i made it home and felt pretty good about my shifts (and in fact, i may pick up another one, if i can squeeze it in between all the shows i want to see!).

this morning james and i went through the fringe guide and decided on what we wanted to see. this is the part that used to always intimidate me--so much so that, prior to last year, i never even attended a fringe event! i made him choose shows he was interested in, seeing as theatre isn't exactly his thing; personally i'll see anything. so we've picked our 3 shows to see together this week, and i will probably see 1 show myself (or with my fellow recruits?) before the end of the festival on sunday. after sunday, everything will go back to normal again.