Best Friends Forever

Yesterday I met my Internet friend, Allison at the Belmont Street Fair. Her band, Best Friends Forever performed in a light drizzle to wild acclaim by the fans and random street fair perusers. I gotta tell you, Best Friends Forever is my new favorite band. They have songs about ghosts and President Lincoln, and crushes on boys you’ve never talked to. Their showmanship is fantastic, stage banter divine, and they are the nicest girls you ever met. For my Denver friends, you MUST go see them on 9/16 at the High Dive. I swear to you, BFF will make you pee your pants with joy. Well, I don’t SWEAR, but I’m pretty sure. Anyway, go see them and you will know what I mean. Here they are:

They played at 1pm, which was a change from their original gig at Foxes. Steve saved my hide again by keeping me up on the venue swap, and he became my date for the day. We hung out for about twelve hours yesterday, and it was wicked fun. Can I take this moment to remind everyone that I. Love. Steve. Schroeder? Well I do.
After the set I met Allison face to face for the first time. We were both super nervous and hugged for a long time, but then didn’t really have a chance to talk until hours later at a sponanious house show/dance party. (Before the party we went to lunch at the Paradox, where I had an AMAZING spice sweet potato soup. Mmm…) At the 4pm party, Allison taught us how to Step. You know, like R Kelly is always singing about? Steppers? Well, Allison has honed her stepping skills in all the Chicago sweet spots and she gave us a lesson. It was so fun but deceptively hard. Shayla and I managed to figure out one move, which is simple but looks really cool, and we felt pretty good. Here is a photo Steve took (that’s Allison leading the pack):

Anyway, Allison and I got to talking, and Steve and I decided to kidnap her for the rest of the afternoon. We took her to Tiny’s coffee shop, and learned about her synchronized swimming skills, her push-up skills, her vegan cooking skills, and lots of other awesome skills. She’s amazing. She’s a great conversationalist, really interesting, and just super fun to be around. I love Internet friends! After coffee we:
*Tried to go to a fabric store so Allison could buy snaps for the fabulous BFF armbands she makes and sells on tour. They were sadly closed.
*Went to see Grizzly Man, this crazy documentary which I highly reccommend. It will remind you that:
1. Bears are cute but also ferocious and scary,
2. Foxes are your favorite animals,
3. Timothy Treadwell is an insane man,
4. Voice over can be awesome.
*Picked up Rebecca and had dinner at Dots.
*Went to Portland’s annual Time Based Art festival and enjoyed Adam Forkner’s orb of warm vibes music/video installation.
*Said goodbye to Allison with more hugs and good feelings and promises of mix tapes to arrive in the mail.
*Said goodbye to Steve in a way that involved me climbing /being pulled by Steve and Jona up a six foot balcony and hugging over a railing. Lots of “jokes” about dropping/pushing me off the balcony before Steve graciously lowered me back down. Wow.
So yeah, it was a great day. Today, however, I feel sorta sick. Ugh. Only a week into teaching and I’m already filled with nasty kid germs. Also the weather has suddenly become awfully autumn-y, and I always get sick when the seasons change. I slept for the bulk of the afternoon and I’m packing in the vitamin C and fluids. I’m hoping this will be a mild and short cold… sigh.
Oh by the way, on Friday a parent brought us an ENTIRE pecan pie. Apparently he owns a fancy restaurant or something and does the fancy baking himself, and will be bringing us fancy desserts every Friday for the rest of the year. In the words of Kool-Aid Man, “Oh Yeah!”