Deinstallation is fun! I promise! So please come do it!
Worked my last shifts at Zee Artomatica (as someone was wont to call it when meanlouise and I were steering) for 2009. Deinstallation! The very last weekend! It is amazing how many people wander the streets of a major city without a form of identification on them. (One needs this in order to remove their art from the site). This was my reaction, but also the reaction of many of the other participants doing shifts. At a certain point it occurred to me that all of us who were just baffled that one would leave the house in DC without ID on them (the mantra that all of us said was, jeeeez, it's DC! What if something happened to you?) were of a certain age. (That age being old enough to have lived through the crack epidemic. According to Freakonomics, which I just read for my reading group, I moved to NYC the year that was, literally, the pinnacle of the crack epidemic. Even today I can barely force myself to go to the mailbox without ID, just in case something happens). (That said, I wasn't all that impressed with the book, but I am saving that for our book group discussion).
ANYHOODLE. The realizations of the weekends were 1) Traffic on the I-95 is teh suck no matter when/what day you go. AGAIN it took four fours to get to Alexandria, three and a half to get home. One hundred miles, almost exactly, each way, most of it a 65mph zone. 2) If you spend four + hours getting to Zee Artomatica, this is not good prep for being at Zee Artomatica without food for the next ten hours.
As grouchy as that made me feel, how grouchy could I really be? meanlouise was there for most of the very long day with me, though she was not signed up to do a shift-- how good of a friend does that make her? A very very good friend. Not only that, but when we got back to her house (because she *also* put me up for the night-- see what I mean?), Mr. fishinnards had made the most superfabulous mean of vegaterian enchiladas, rice, and refried beans. Holy frijoles, was it good. AND he made reeeeeally good magaritas to go along with it.
But wait! There's more! If you didn't see the Rebecca and Eric Gordon sound installation at Artomatic this year, then you are sad. However, I am happy because as a result of their wonderful installation, we now have a beehive!
I'm really psyched about this! It may be too late this year to establish a hive, but I'm checking into things. In any case, we will have the hive up and buzzing for next summer. Wheeeeeee!!! Super extra huge thank you to both of y'all !
I've had a couple more things come in in the garden. The yellow pear tomatoes have been coming and coming, and Mr. Dr. Birdcage has been eating and eating them. I also had my first Roma tomato come in today, which I'm pretty psyched about. I should note that all of my veggies are grown from seed rather than from plants, so I'm always really excited when one actually gets to the point of fruiting.
More cucumbers came in, though the plants really aren't fruting like they did last year. Not sure why, but those that have come in are nice looking, and we've been eating a looooottttt of fridge pickles.
The other thing that is coming is is beans, though the bunny ate most of the purple queens. The string beans are high enough up that, other than the plants that he gnawed right through and killed, he hasn't done too much damange to them....
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