Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2014-05-17 09:14 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2014-05-17 09:14 pm
Entry tags:
Lunatic's first maker faire
Whee, omg.
So today I finally got my act together to go to the local Maker Faire. (Previous years I've been broke, asleep, sick, or all of the above.)
I didn't feel like I got quite enough sleep, but dragged myself out of bed anyway. I wasn't going to park anywhere near, as that was a fool's game. I opted to park at Millbrae. After a bit of wandering, I located some other people, and we located the bus.
I had decided to go after hearing R and Purple making plans; Purple advised that in the chance I did wake up in time, I should call and we could meet up. I pinged R when I was on my way, and called Purple after I arrived. He was in the ticket line when I called.
We three met up at the octopus which was on fire. It was great. Then we wandered around. Eventually it was time forlunch breakfast, as the next Arc Attack show wasn't until 1:30.
The BBQ ribs smelled really good, but there was a hella line. R detached from Purple and me to go get crepes. Purple and I wandered further, and eventually ended up in a queue for cheesesteak. Om nom nom. (By that time I was hungry and tired enough to feel not-hungry and indecisive.) We regrouped with R and had a funbreakfast lunch.
R was feeling the effects of getting up early and last week's shenaniagans, so she ditched out for home. That left Purple and me for the Arc Attack show. We arrived twenty minutes early, just in time for a not-that-great corner of rail, mostly behind a large stack of speakers. It was fortunate that we got that spot, as it filled up quite shortly thereafter, and I wound up needing to lean on the rail.
"It's going to be LOUD," Purple told me, grinning. I started fishing in my purse. "Maybe not that loud," he added as I produced a pair of silicone putty earplugs.
The large stack of speakers fired up for the testing. I stuffed an earplug into the side of my face next to the speakers.
A short time later, Purple tapped me on the shoulder, belatedly accepting my offer of the second earplug. Hah.
"And that was the Inspector Spacetime theme," the guy quipped, resulting in cheers and laughter from a few of us.
After standing on the concrete for a while, I wasn't sure whether I needed to be outside or just moving. Purple and I wandered around the dark hall for a while. There were some really nifty things. I stood in a gnarly bathroom line for a while. When I popped out, Purple had also emerged, and he needed a breather. We got some more cold drinks and found a spot to sit down and watch the faire roll by.
There were cupcakes on wheels, and a stray muffin. There was someone in a motorized pirate ship. There were all sorts of things. There was what looked like a remote-controlled gorilla on wheels. There was the mechanical giraffe. Every now and then we heard the WHAMP WHAMP of the octopus catching on fire.
Purple and I discussed many things, including the beads on my hat, how I hadn't picked up *those* beads from work, that I'd earned them at Folsom Street Fair the traditional way, the difference between "going to a street fair up in the city" and "going to Folsom Street Fair", and how Folsom Street Fair is perhaps not the most likely to succeed of first dates possible in the world of first dates. (The last had happened to a friend of his.) (Are you going to Folsom Street Fair? Leather, lace, nude daddies and wine. Remember me to one who is there: she was once a playmate of mine.)
We were burning out at about the same rate. Just hanging out there and chattering was great. He was sort of surprised that I'd made it (given my usual sleep schedule and energy levels on weekends) but very pleased that I had. Eventually we did get up and head around to other bits. I looked wistfully at some of the lockpicking. We marched through the steampunk area, and saw a few trolls (one with horns and teeth, but none of them in greyface). We strolled through the room with all the drones and looked at things. There was a guy who had done vaguely unspeakable things to a scanner to turn it into a camera. He spoke of the utter hand-cramping tedium of cutting the fabric pieces with some sort of craft knife. Purple suggested a laser cutter. At that, my quilter's daughter background lept to the forefront, and I explained the function and use of the rotary cutter. Which may be helpful for next time.
That was approximately it for both of us, and we contemplated escape. (When Purple and I use that word, it's no less a shibboleth than when Steph and I tell each other to sleep.) We were headed out the nearest exit, and that went through the greater food court type area, which also had a lot of the fire. We got sidetracked by a glassblowing demo. It was so cool. The piece cracked in getting it off the stick, so we got to see the chucking it back into the pool of molten glass part of the glassblowing lifecycle as well.
We strolled back to the nearby Caltrain station and headed onto our separate sides of the platform after a hug goodbye, where his hair decided to adhere to my lip balm, but at least this time didn't try to go up my nose.
One ouchy Caltrain ride later, I got back to my car and came home. I will shortly be curling up in bed.
So today I finally got my act together to go to the local Maker Faire. (Previous years I've been broke, asleep, sick, or all of the above.)
I didn't feel like I got quite enough sleep, but dragged myself out of bed anyway. I wasn't going to park anywhere near, as that was a fool's game. I opted to park at Millbrae. After a bit of wandering, I located some other people, and we located the bus.
I had decided to go after hearing R and Purple making plans; Purple advised that in the chance I did wake up in time, I should call and we could meet up. I pinged R when I was on my way, and called Purple after I arrived. He was in the ticket line when I called.
We three met up at the octopus which was on fire. It was great. Then we wandered around. Eventually it was time for
The BBQ ribs smelled really good, but there was a hella line. R detached from Purple and me to go get crepes. Purple and I wandered further, and eventually ended up in a queue for cheesesteak. Om nom nom. (By that time I was hungry and tired enough to feel not-hungry and indecisive.) We regrouped with R and had a fun
R was feeling the effects of getting up early and last week's shenaniagans, so she ditched out for home. That left Purple and me for the Arc Attack show. We arrived twenty minutes early, just in time for a not-that-great corner of rail, mostly behind a large stack of speakers. It was fortunate that we got that spot, as it filled up quite shortly thereafter, and I wound up needing to lean on the rail.
"It's going to be LOUD," Purple told me, grinning. I started fishing in my purse. "Maybe not that loud," he added as I produced a pair of silicone putty earplugs.
The large stack of speakers fired up for the testing. I stuffed an earplug into the side of my face next to the speakers.
A short time later, Purple tapped me on the shoulder, belatedly accepting my offer of the second earplug. Hah.
"And that was the Inspector Spacetime theme," the guy quipped, resulting in cheers and laughter from a few of us.
After standing on the concrete for a while, I wasn't sure whether I needed to be outside or just moving. Purple and I wandered around the dark hall for a while. There were some really nifty things. I stood in a gnarly bathroom line for a while. When I popped out, Purple had also emerged, and he needed a breather. We got some more cold drinks and found a spot to sit down and watch the faire roll by.
There were cupcakes on wheels, and a stray muffin. There was someone in a motorized pirate ship. There were all sorts of things. There was what looked like a remote-controlled gorilla on wheels. There was the mechanical giraffe. Every now and then we heard the WHAMP WHAMP of the octopus catching on fire.
Purple and I discussed many things, including the beads on my hat, how I hadn't picked up *those* beads from work, that I'd earned them at Folsom Street Fair the traditional way, the difference between "going to a street fair up in the city" and "going to Folsom Street Fair", and how Folsom Street Fair is perhaps not the most likely to succeed of first dates possible in the world of first dates. (The last had happened to a friend of his.) (Are you going to Folsom Street Fair? Leather, lace, nude daddies and wine. Remember me to one who is there: she was once a playmate of mine.)
We were burning out at about the same rate. Just hanging out there and chattering was great. He was sort of surprised that I'd made it (given my usual sleep schedule and energy levels on weekends) but very pleased that I had. Eventually we did get up and head around to other bits. I looked wistfully at some of the lockpicking. We marched through the steampunk area, and saw a few trolls (one with horns and teeth, but none of them in greyface). We strolled through the room with all the drones and looked at things. There was a guy who had done vaguely unspeakable things to a scanner to turn it into a camera. He spoke of the utter hand-cramping tedium of cutting the fabric pieces with some sort of craft knife. Purple suggested a laser cutter. At that, my quilter's daughter background lept to the forefront, and I explained the function and use of the rotary cutter. Which may be helpful for next time.
That was approximately it for both of us, and we contemplated escape. (When Purple and I use that word, it's no less a shibboleth than when Steph and I tell each other to sleep.) We were headed out the nearest exit, and that went through the greater food court type area, which also had a lot of the fire. We got sidetracked by a glassblowing demo. It was so cool. The piece cracked in getting it off the stick, so we got to see the chucking it back into the pool of molten glass part of the glassblowing lifecycle as well.
We strolled back to the nearby Caltrain station and headed onto our separate sides of the platform after a hug goodbye, where his hair decided to adhere to my lip balm, but at least this time didn't try to go up my nose.
One ouchy Caltrain ride later, I got back to my car and came home. I will shortly be curling up in bed.
no subject
My Sleater Kinney mondegreen came true! \o/