In the last few days I went to a fashion show, a documentary screening, and the ballet.  Most of which was free or at a discount.

The fashion show- Wednesday I took time out of my evening to check out the Fabricker pre-sale event and  Savanahred’s fashion show.   I had to set an alarm to make sure I left on time but it was definitely worth it to support a local designer and the glimmer of hope that is a new fabric store in Austin.

The documentary- It has been a while since I went to an AFS screening. Thursday night I went to see Thunder Soul.  It played SXSW a few years ago but I missed it.  Jamie Foxx picked up the project so hopefully it will see a decent nationwide run.   I treated myself to dinner and a movie.

The ballet-  I heard about Ballet Austin’s Mozart project on the radio yesterday and completely dropped the ball on procuring tickets. I lucked out as a surfed Facebook this afternoon.  Someone had an extra matinee ticket.   The project involved 3 acts: Classical, Updated, and Remixed.  Graham Reynold’s section was my favorite, musically.  But the DJ Spooky remix section was a multi-media explosion.

I think I spent a grand total of $7 ($21 if you include my dinner).  Not bad at all.

I recently had the opportunity to go speed dating for free.  They were short women for the “upscale” singles event.  The first thought in my mind was this…

…a hot guy in a suit.  Ok, so it was 100 degrees and we would be on a patio but, I DON’T CARE!  Ok maybe he would  be in lightweight linen pants and a short sleeved or maybe rolled up sleeve button down shirt.

Or maybe he would be into fashion and look this guy (I am a Refinery29 addict now)…

In my head this man is definitely NOT wearing khakis.  Nor would he be wearing shorts on a Thursday evening after work (unless he was out exercising or on a boat).

What was I wearing?  A simple knit dress.  Clean cut, bat-wing sleave, v-cut hem.  The print was geometric (halston-esque).  I think I had on heels as well.  I was Jen the fashion designer.

Needless to say, this event wasn’t as classy as expected.  The ladies definitely out scored the men on the classyometer (that is now a word). This round I had zero picks.  But to be fair there were four repeats from last time.

Yes, we grumbled about the move to Auditorium Shores.  Yes, we are concerned about the expansion and potential diluting of the brand. But did that stop us for buying early bird tickets?  No! Did it stop us from buying Friday early-bird passes? No! (Well M and 2.0 passed on those because they are being responsible tax payers and going to work that day.  I have decided to take a well earned day off).

Now that the preliminary grumbles are over, I can focus on the awesome.  1. Auditorium shores is much closer to my place.  I can bike there. 2. Friday’s list of bands is AWESOME! Passion Pit, CYHSY, Heartless Bastards, Public Enemy, Spank Rock, Big Freedia (I hope she is better by then), Franki Chan, and  Reggie Watts.  Dear Scheduling Gods,  Please do not put all of these bands on at the same time.

What’s on tap for Saturday and Sunday?  Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Joy Formidable, Neon Indian, Dan Deacon, Rakim,  Donald Glover, Architecture in Helsinki, Mates of State, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Diplo, Del the Funky Homosapien, and Henry Rollins.  I should also make plans to unglue myself from the stages to check out the amenities.

As we get closer I will put the grid schedule together and give you a list of essential things to pack.

Moon by E. Lim

I wrote that for a friend who is going through an ocean of  problems.  My life issues are a mere kiddie pool in comparison. I had been thinking back to needs and wants lately.  I’ve prevented myself from wanting the moon because of the pain related from never getting it.

There I’ve said it.  I want things.  I realize I can’t have all of them in this lifetime, but I would like to snatch up as many as I can.

So the other day I drunk impulse bought a registration for speed dating.    I’ve done it once before and  based on my year long failure of acquiring a date on OkCupid  (more on this later) I decided to take a chance.

I wasn’t feeling awesome.  I was actually running a low grade fever.  I tossed on a black jersey dress, red shoes, and a belt and headed for the Highball.  I walked in, grabbed a soda water with lime and slapped on my name tag.

“Hi, my name is Jen. I am a seamstress and I work in vintage restoration and reproduction. ”

Why talk about the gov’t job that I don’t like?  Besides, I was going for less intimidating.   Over the course of my 13 mini dates I discovered at least 3  more people living dual lives.  Most of them were musicians.  Not bad.

I am not going to discuss each “date” in detail.  My notes weren’t as detailed as last time.  If you want more details, well maybe you should pay for me to attend another one.  I can say that there are two guys  I would actually go out with.  There were two more that I would consider just hanging out with as friends.

What I would like to discuss, is how poorly the event was run.  This was the first time I used this service.  I probably would have reconsidered based on the poor web interface. But alas, I was drunk when I signed up.  They promised snacks and drink specials, what I saw was a sad tray of crackers and after surveying a few attendees the drink specials were few and far between.

If you haven’t been to speed dating before, it goes like this. You put on your name tag.  They hand you a sheet of paper to make notes on (they don’t give you enough so bring your own).  They seat you and your “date” at a table and you get anywhere from 6-10 minutes (this time it was 6) to find out as much as possible about the other person.  They ring a bell when the time is up and they make one gender rotate (this time males rotated).  Usually they give you a little time to write down notes or they tell you when the bathroom breaks are.  Not this time.  To make matters worse, we started out minus 3 ladies, this meant the guys had extra chill time.

After the event, you are supposed to log back in to the horrible website and click on the people that you are interested in contacting. If by some chance they want to contact you as well you will get their contact info.  The site has no personal information to aid in your judgement.  It would be nice if I could find out if either of the people I selected were smokers.  That is a deal breaker.

If anyone at the Highball is listening.  You should run your own speed dating event or “dating game”.  Nerd Night does it.  Get the action pack to run it.

Whether you are 34 or 14 it isn’t any easier telling a boy that you like him.  I did so this past weekend (via email because I was too chicken to say it out loud).  It was that or be stuck living the life of Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful (One of my favorite John Hughes films.  I have a thing for gingers.).  I had a hunch that I would not get the same ending as the movie (below).  Instead I had a panic attack related to the “I like you” email and ended up day drinking with Meg and Chris. Then there was the long wait until that evening when the let down email arrived.

With all the stress affiliated with the sale of the house, I look back and think that I was more stupid than brave to take this on.  I now had one less person to lean on.  But at the same time, I really needed to rip the band-aid off or risk an even bigger let down when he found someone else.

So here’s our girl Watts snagging the hot ginger.    I am off to figure out what plan B is.  So far it involves Speed Dating on Saturday evening (hopefully I end up with more than a blog post after this one).

My house is no longer my problem.   The last 2 months of waiting on baited breath that the deal doesn’t fall through were hell.  It got worse as closing day got closer. Cutting that $4k check to the title company hurt (I lost my underpants on this sale).  Papers were signed on Monday, and after several panic attacks I got the news that afternoon that it was a done deal.

So what now?  If we are tossing out long term albatrosses, I suppose the next thing to go is my day job.  Ten years of government employment is decreasing my net worth.

After prepping and enduring a crazy weekend of work (2 garage sales back to back for 2 different people along with an extremely last minute custom job). I decided that it was time for a break.  I was NOT working this weekend.   If I were magic, I would have managed to get myself out of a work trip to Texarkana as well.

The week moved quickly. Bridal fittings, Texarkana, planning my outfit for a wedding over the weekend.  The light at the end of the tunnel was the midnight showing of Cowboys and Aliens.  I am not a big fan of alien films but I do enjoy a good western.  Since she show just came out, I will not give out any spoilers.  Just know that the action starts 2 minutes in and keeps you on the edge of your seat.  It could use a few plot adjustments (or maybe a less tired version of me viewing it).

Friday I wrapped up a few things related to changing my address.  Then it was off to the very fancy Violet Crown Cinema.  Front row seats (best seats ever) to Beats, Rhymes and Life: the Travels of a Tribe Called Quest.  Yay for 90s hip hop and documentaries. Part of me wonders if they will be touring or releasing an album in the wake of the film.  Only time will tell.  IN the meantime, check out the trailer.

Life is busy as usual.  But if it wasn’t, why get out of bed in the morning?

As I try and figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I’ve been working more hours on things that aren’t my day job in the hopes of keeping my options open.   I’ve even taken on a few bridal clients, but in between these jobs I managed to have some fun projects roll though.

A friend of mine asked me if I could make a Harry Potter robe.  I asked if it was for HP7.2.  He said yes, but it was also for life in general.  I laughed and decided it would be fun to make that happen.  I made his robe and then I gave in to the HP hype and made my own robe (Ravenclaw of course).     Then we joined the rest of the fans at midnight to see the show. It was good to have a night off.  Life is short so why not make the most of it (even if it means wearing a polyester wizard robe in 90 degree weather).  I don’t plan on discussing the movie.  Other than OMG! Neville got hot.

The next day I got word that a friend of mine had passed away.  She had been sick for several years but you always try and hope for the best in situations like these.  It was a strange day.  I felt like I was on autopilot.  As much as I wanted to be of help to her family and friends, I wanted to be selfish and revel in what I had.  I ended up spending the afternoon with Meg.  Then I drowned my sorrows in the world of Harry Potter (The Highball threw a great party to mark the end of an era).

It’s that time of year when a mysterious allergen makes us all feel like crap.  It happened to 2.0 last year this time.  Sadly, it was me this year.  I felt fine earlier in the day.  I made some roasted red bell hummus with smoked sea salt to take to M and 2.0′s new place (Fancytown).  We snacked and had a few beers before going to Stubb’s to see Thermals and Matt and Kim.  We made it to Stubb’s in time to get a good spot (near the parents of the sea of underage kids).  Then two songs into the Thermals set, I started to feel sick.  Then it got worse.

I started having flashbacks of the Middle East show last year.  It started the same way.  Blackouts, dizziness, nausea…  I was not going to be sick. I got sick at two shows last year.  There would be no puking in 2011.

I am not sure how I did it, but I managed to stumble towards the alley of port-o-potties.  After that I found myself some water and texted M to let her know where I was.

I spent the rest of the show in the back  (with a pretty awesome view but I still felt like crap).  The Thermals were great.  Sadly, I can’t say the same for Matt and Kim.  I am glad they are making money but I miss their old sound.  This stuff sounds overproduced.  Or maybe I’ve just outgrown them.