Thursday, April 06, 2006

I Got the Call, I Answered the Call

Coffee in the Alaska Skyline mug, Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On" on the iPod. Random shuffle actually put up Tom Jones doing "The Green, Green Grass of Home", but while appropriate, it was not listenable. The next random choice was Marvin and I can live with that--it's also appropriate! I have already dropped the J at school--made her lunch and everything today--and left a panel at Dixie Glass Hoppers to be drilled. I hope I will need it this weekend at the DOGWOOD FESTIVAL. Yup. I got the call yesterday afternoon at 4:20 and immediately went and set up the tent and unloaded everything into it. It pays to be lazy (the car was still loaded from Austin).

When I got home, we had dinner and sangria from Billy Goat Cantina (which has been renamed My Cow Cantina for some inexplicable reason--I keep thinking it's Mad Cow Cantina... not good marketing on someone's part) and piled into the convertible (Sebring with a car seat for Jessie in the backseat) to go to the drive-in for The Inside Man. J watched Ice Age 2 on the next screen over. If we had thought and brought another radio, she could have watched and heard the sound too. The Starlight Six six screen drive-in which shows double-feature first runs five minutes from our house is one of the best things about living here. Next week we will see Ice Age 2 and the following week V for Vendetta.

But back to actual glass-related stuff. Since the festival doesn't start till tomorrow at noon I am WAY ahead of the game as far as set-up. Which is good as today I still have to read, sign and send the book contract, send the font and pics to the web developers, measure for and order the shed, fuse a full load of display pieces (so I have some new work for the show), prepare the replacement pieces for the gallery which broke in shipping last week, and firepolish a display piece I sold in Austin which had a couple of rough spots ground out and never polished.

The show is noon to 8:00 tomorrow, 10:00-8:00 Saturday and noon-7:00 Sunday. I just read their schedule on the web and the music goes till 8:00 on Sunday so they won't be letting artists' vehicles in to load up until after the people clear--likely well after 8:00 pm. Load-in was a breeze for me yesterday: I was the only one at check-in, there was one other vehicle on the road unloading (which is good as there is no room to pass), and there was plenty of room for my minivan to park in the neighboring as yet unoccupied spaces so I could unload it at my leisure. Load-out is obviously not going to be so nice and I need to be prepared for a late night--maybe even having dinner in midtown after breaking down while waiting for the biggest traffic push to clear out.

Whoever thought being an artist and doing art festivals was a relaxing easy life was just dead wrong. At least the weather looks like it will be perfect for the weekend! (I wrote too soon: I just checked the forecast and scattered strong thunderstorms and high winds are predicted for Friday evening through Saturday evening. Great. Going to hunt up the galoshes now.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love work.

I could sit here and watch you do it for days.

V for Vendetta is well worth your attention. In fact, I could just about see your husband wearing the mask, but I digress.

I suspect that you didn't notice, but we have one of the few remaining functional drive-in theaters in Southern California three blocks from our house. We've been there, but it's been years.

Jodi said...

I also recommend V. I was upset that I didn't think to bring the V masks we were given at last summer's San Diego Comic Con to the theater!