the everyday adventures of sabrina

i was prepared, this morning, to forgive o’fest for its sins of not letting me run the jukebox, on the condition that they let me do something cool. at that point i was even prepared to really cut them a discount on cool factor, but, no.

needless to say, niqui did nothing cool. i helped run some cable for some of the mics on the stage, and held them taut so the other guy could gaff them. that was really … about … it. for the rest of the time i was with the music booth, i either stood idly by the table, or sat in the grass behind the table with my laptop, listening to the bands.

the unfortunate part was that even though i got there at 7, for setup, we didn’t even start setting up for the bands until 9 — nobody was at the stage area, even, so i was just sort of sitting and waiting for someone, anyone else to show up there — and our first band was supposed to go on at 10. needless to say, they didn’t go on until 11. and for some reason starlister fell off the schedule, so then they did play, and that pushed the schedule back even further. even more unfortunately, health & beauty — who i don’t particularly care for — played a kinda long set. this resulted in the one act i did rather like, beat freakers, being crowded out and only getting to play for like half an hour or so before the final act came on. actually, i exaggerate. first coat weren’t bad. but this was the second time i’ve seen H&B play and i still didn’t really enjoy it. no doubt some will feel that this is a personal failing on my part. alas.

(the yet-unmentioned fifth band that also played were mmHg — ‘millimeters mercury’ for you non-U of C dork types — who were not awful, but i resented them for taking time away from beat freakers, and then we started breaking down and i fled from ofest before they completed their set. conor seemed to like them, so maybe they’re not awful, if i would just give them a chaaaaaance.)

and although, to console me in my woe, val had offered me the chance to deejay some between sets, she played her own powerbook for the one break between starlister and first coat, while i had to leave to go work the “Quiz the Wiz” booth at noon. feh.

considering that working music was the only reason i had volunteered at all in the first place, to say that “well, at least the wireless signal on the bartlett quad was strong enough that i could read some of alt.books.stephen-king instead of just sitting there” is not nearly enough of a consolation for getting up at five a.m. on a saturday.

quiz the wiz: fortunately, although we had heard ugly rumors that this was to be a game-show style booth and someone had actually written questions for people to attempt to stump us with, this actually involved sitting in a booth and handing out various flyers and freebie notepads to people, nearly all of whom wanted to know where to get the Connectivity Package. but at least many of them were pleased to get free notepads and sidewalk chalk, so that was all right. also, i had an actual chair and wasn’t stuck sitting in the grass with my left leg constantly going to sleep.

also over at the q-t-w booth, there was this one girl, a grad student whose name i have since forgotten, who had the best hair. i’m so jealous. i wish i could do something like it. she had a cute, kinda pixie cut, with it overall colored in a purple-maroon, and with a big star-shaped splat of pink slightly off-center at the crown. she said the pink is actually faded purple, but it looked really good nonetheless. and i’m not the only one who thinks so, evidently, as she said she somehow ended up being a house model for vidal sassoon as a result. i’m so jealous. i’m not kidding, it really was gush-worthy. i wish i had hair that cool.

i’d settle for having any idea whatsoever what to do with my hair, actually….

so. yeah. that was o-fest. lots of boredom, occasionally interspersed with interesting commentary, a little good music, a lot of meh music, and a lot of wind blowing flyers off tables.

the many, many gadget-keyboard-related typos are corrected for legibility’s sake:

my bus got lost. we’re in a tiny parking lot at 61st just barely west of stoney and we’re TOTALLY stuck
this is fabulous
articulated busses are FUN!
HOORAY FOR NIQUI!
niqui should get off and walk
we’ve got like eight guys trying to direct the poor driver
no way, this is way more fun than work
even with a gadget keyboard
but you are missing out
awwww…he got out
direct him back!
me is!
he keeps asking advice
the bus gps “you’re off your route” thing is really angry
* wasy stares blankly
aww.. we’re on stoney. in in a few, unless we get lost again

so. yeah. this was fabulous. we had a swanky brand-new articulated bus again this morning. for some reason, the display was broken and was displaying “103rd st. garage,” but he stopped at my stop and announced the bus number, so i got on. typically, this was the first #2 in the 40 minutes i’d been waiting, and there was another #2 directly behind it.

initially i had thought this was going to be my commute story for this morning, but it was overshadowed by later events — the entire time i was waiting, there was this incredibly dissatisfied woman waiting at my stop with me. she was there before i got there, actually, although i don’t know if she was talking until i got close or not. she kept ranting and ranting, and i couldn’t actually tell if she was talking to herself or to me, because i was standing there with my headphones on (which are large, cover-your-entire-ear headphones, not wee little ones that you wouldn’t notice). but she was really unhappy. at one point she boarded a #62, waited a minute, then got off, yelling incoherently at the driver even as he drove off and away — shouting after the bus. and then she kept talking. she was ranting about how “they” (i’m not clear on who “they” are) are just like children who never learned the difference between lying and perjury, and they have no manners either, and Mayor Richard M Daley The Second really ought to have all this dumped on his desk, not that he’d be bothered to do anything about it, and so on and so forth. she was really into her rant, whatever it was about. the only time i was sure she was really talking to me was when she asked if i had a light. anyways, finally, at like 9:35 — when i’ve just about given up hope on the #2 ever getting there, and there haven’t even been any #6s, although there had been at least a half dozen #62s, a couple of #29s, and a couple #36s, those being all the busses that serve my stop, and she has shown no interest in any of them other than the shouty #62 — she flounces to her feet dramatically, announces “I’m going home!” and storms off south down state. then the #2 pulled up.

everything was uneventful until the bus driver blew past 60th — he was obviously new, as he’d had to ask whether he turned north or south on stoney island — and rather than going down to 63rd, which is what i was just about to tell him when he turned, he turned right onto 61st, which is a residential area with tight streets… and then turned right onto a street that dead-ended into two parking lots. two tight parking lots.

i said, “well, that lot [meaning the university lot] will let you back out onto 60th, but i don’t think you can maneuver around it.” he took this as his cue to turn into the other parking lot, instead of just backing back out onto 61st. which, y’know, almost certainly would have been a better plan.

the parking lot he chose was at the base of a mid-rise apartment building, but also had church busses and stuff in it… and it was really crowded. we cleared the turn into the lot okay, and the first turn was okay too (narrowly missed a church bus), but the third turn was … well … problematic.

it took us at least 20 minutes just to get out of there, with like eight IBEW guys helping direct the driver and moving their cars around so he could make wider turns and stuff. for the most part, we were stuck on that embankment i moblogged. by the time we finally got out, that whole section of the bus side was all messed up.

it was very exciting! i quite enjoyed myself, as did, i think, my two co-passengers.