Formula One at Circuit of the Americas

Lewis Hamilton wins his 4th Austin F1 in five years.

I am sooo sunburned! It was cloudy this morning, but I meant to put on sunscreen anyway because I knew the sun would come out, and we would be sitting on the grass at Turn 19 of Circuit of the Americas watching the Formula One cars go round and round the track all afternoon. I forgot, it did, and we did. Now I'm lobsterfied. So how was the race? I'm glad you asked. It was a social scientist's wet dream. There was the golf crowd, east side Hispanics, tech folk, yuppie families, women standing and breast feeding two-year-olds*, hippies, middle aged British women**, rednecks and the hunting crowd***, and foreign nationals (including pasty white Chinese students who probably qualified in both the geek and foreign groups). It was, in short, the perfect steamy, packed, boisterous, jubilant blend of Austin society.

The prices were higher than Cirque du Soleil and _everyone_ was buying merch! The cheapest tickets--the one-day lawn seats (bring your own seat)--were $109 each. Corn dogs were $10 each. lemonade was $6, water was $4. Budweiser was $9, French fries were $7 and the lines went on forever. Baseball caps were $30 as were the cheapest t-shirts--and they sold out of EVERYTHING! Jessie talked me into trying to buy her a Lewis Hamilton t-shirt (he won) but they were sold out of all sizes but XXL. And it wasn't just because he won. Everyone was running out of everything by the end of the day. As we were squished on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot, Dave had a $1,250 Gucci bag pressed up against his face belonging to the woman standing in front of him (we had seats--go us). It's no wonder Justin Timberlake played the concert last night and Stevie Wonder played tonight (the concerts were included in the day's tickets).

It was Spectacular Spectacular, and once was enough for me. I can't help but think of all the tools and materials for one of my various hobbies that I could buy for $1,250 and some woman spent that on a bag whose material looked like cheap vinyl. Unbelievable. But the important thing was that Jessie enjoyed herself immensely. As we rode the shuttle past the various expensive-ticket parking lots she pointed out the cars to me: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. It was amazing how she could identify them so quickly and confidently from a quick glance out the shuttle bus window. She also said she would like to be a race driver--or a stunt driver--but she still has no interest in driving a regular car on regular roads. Too boring. She also wonders how the drivers can bear to drive normally after racing.

For me, I'm glad I'm home. I'm glad Dan and Zaga are home (I gave them a tour of the haunted botanical garden in the dark when we got back from the race). I'm glad tomorrow night is my last wood and steel class and I will finish my table. I'm glad the week ahead has fewer deadlines and lots of fun projects on tap (more on A Fair of the Art, and McCallum Secret Pal Gifts to name two). And I'm glad for my post-race Negroni. And I'm not even going to bed now! I'm going to curl up with a new friend's good book (Meredith Rose is a steampunk young adult novelist and she's also the designer of the poster for A Fair of the Art and her daughter is in the Cinematic Arts program with Jessie). This new friend thing is very cool and unexpected.

Goodnight from the Formula One Capital of America!

*okay, only one of these.
**okay, only one of these too.
***we didn't actually see any of these that we know of, but we heard about them attending from our horrible contractor (who was in the redneck hunting group).