Things I Did This Past Weekend That Didn't Involve Stalking Jake Gyllenhaal

Basically my entire Saturday can be found HERE.  (And yes, I realize that if you read this blog there is roughly a 100% chance that you already read that blog...humor me!)

But the parts of Saturday that aren't included in that extensive recap are included below.  Read on!

Kathryn came in on Friday night.  And I, exhausted from getting no sleep the night before (on account of both a very late business call and getting up early for the royal wedding), rewarded her many, many-hours drive from Atlanta by suggesting we go to Subway for dinner, and then talking incessantly about myself as we ate.  (I'm a class act like that.)

Kathryn needed to print off her tickets for the weekend but because I'm cheap and lame, I haven't had ink in my printer since 2008, so our after-dinner entertainment involved visiting not one, but two FedEx Kinkos so she could print her tickets.  Then, at last, off we went to Music Fest...

The Beale Street Music Festival, known ubiquitously to locals as "Memphis in May" (though Memphis in May is, technically, a catchall phrase to summarize Memphis's annual month-long celebration of world culture and encompasses much, much more than just the music festival), is famous for one thing:  mud.

 
It rains every year.  Every freaking, goddamned year.  This year, it rained the entire week beforehand and everyone talked about how awesome it was that the sky had dried itself out before the festival.  There was jubilation in the streets of Memphis that at long last, the year had come when it would not rain during Music Fest.

But you know what happened?  The forecast changed.  And even when the forecast didn't call for rain, it still rained.  Because it's Memphis in May weekend and that's what happens during Memphis in May weekend.

Thankfully, though, it didn't rain Friday.

After Kathryn and I got her tickets printed and after I (at long last) shut up about my personal drama, we hit up Tom Lee Park and saw the tail end of B.O.B., most of Jason Mraz (both of us having seen him before, we were disappointed that he went into a strange jam-band cycle that rendered us lethargic and uninterested), and cruised by The Flaming Lips on the way out.

"I think we'd have to do a lot of drugs to appreciate what's going on on stage right now," Kathryn said, re The Flaming Lips.  There was some sort of Wizard of Oz thing happening that neither of us could explain...but neither of us are really into drugs either, so...

Saturday, I woke up and Twitter said some actor guy (I can't remember his name) was in town and I spent a week's worth of energy trying to catch him...

But after Jerry Lee Lewis and Mumford & Sons (see other blog), we saw Ludacris and some of Ke$ha.  Had I not been so exhausted that I was about to fall over dead, I would have perhaps suggested we walk over to see John Mellencamp, but I was, and I didn't, and I didn't see him, and in hindsight, I'm a little sad about that right now.

Sunday we were awoken by the sound of torrential rain, a sound that made it helplessly easy to sleep in.  At noon, we met with a friend of Kathryn's for lunch at Cafe Eclectic and then headed downtown with the intention of catching Amos Lee.  However, the sound that greeted us when we made it to the Horseshoe Casino Stage was not Amos Lee, but rather tornado sirens.  Thus we hauled ass back to Kevin's apartment (see ISJ! entry for Frankapalooza insight) where we weathered the storm and he (and Frank) graciously allowed us to drink some of their leftover alcohol.

We then headed back to my apartment where Kathryn packed up and Christa stopped by to catch up.  Then they left and I started writing up my Jake experience and even though this recap was short and scarce on the details, it's exhausted me just thinking of all we did!

In 2006, I snubbed Little Richard Memphis in May weekend.  In 2007, Megan and I wound up on the front page of the Commercial Appeal.  In 2008, when nothing even remotely exciting happened, it was communally decided that none of us were ever going to attend again...  (There are MySpace blog entries for all three occasions but I can no longer link to them - thank you, MySpace, for ruining my blog.)

But after skipping out the last two years, I found that 2011 didn't disappoint, what with the (even crazier than usual) weather and Jake in town and all...  It was a fun weekend. :)

Thank you, Kathryn, for coming up and spending it with me!!

And Alex, seriously, you were the first person to say you were coming and then you never said anything more about it and you didn't show up?  What.  The.  Hell.