nevermore, nevermore...i parked under the raven

today one of my coworkers asked me to go down to the art fair in deep ellum. the original plan was to go down on sunday, but today she came in and said,"hey! why don't we just go down today after school?!" i didn't have any reason not to, and i was kinda' interested to see what was going on down there! (the last time i want to an art fair was in kc, mo and i loved it!)

of course we had no idea where to park once we got there, so we drove around for a minute and found an obscure side street with a parking meter. when we got out i noticed the building we parked in front of.

evil omen or all-seeing all-hearing bird?

well, we started popping quarters and dimes and nickels into the meter and went on our merry way. i'll admit, there were some neat pieces there! did i like everything? no. some of it was somewhat disturbing, but there were some pretty cool things! i got some great ideas to try. (so, maybe if you're lucky and i can figure some of these things out, you might get to see some of them!).

**added after original post: when we first arrived, we were looking for an ATM, and there were a couple right beside the coupon booths. the only problem is that everything was not up and running quite yet. there was a girl in front of us trying to use the ATM, and it wasn't working, so we asked the guy in the booth and he said, " oh, um, i think it needs to be plugged in.." so i asked if he knew of another one, and he said there was one way down on the other end, but he wasn't sure exactly where. the girl kinda' followed us and kept talking to us about this ATM problem and how they really needed to get it under control. the entire time i was wondering if she was planning on hanging out with us the whole time. and as we made our way down to the 'other end,' a unique-looking man stepped in front of us and said, "are you REALLY going to just walk by me without even saying hello?" thank goodness he was talking to the girl. we went and found a machine that worked and started back. about 10 minutes later, the girl found us again and asked if we'd found a machine, so we pointed her in the direction and moved on. then about 20 min. later, the man who had jumped out in front of us was beside me asking if ___(insert girl looking for ATM's name here) had ditched us for the alcohol. i just kinda' smiled and told him she found the ATM, and he said yep, we probably wouldn't see her again! lucky us.**

i know it wasn't a main attraction, but they had gyros and funnel cake..big fan! how do i know it wasn't the main attraction? because THIS WAS:

the hula hoop is making revolutions around her calves; you can barely see it

There was live music and several interesting shows like this, but i was ready to leave and worrying that my car might get towed because we couldn't remember how much random change we fed the meter monster...and there is still the issue of the ravens watching my car. well, we decided to go because my friend wasn't feeling so hot (i think it was the taco she ate), but on the way out we stopped for a funnel cake...can you believe the cost $6.00?!?!
REALLY? a little batter, oil and powdered sugar?? rip. off.  anyhoo, while i was waiting the whole minute and a half for sugary goodness,a blond guy with long dreadlocks arrived to the window of the vendor, but he apparently didn't have enough coupons, and he didn't want to purchase another strip of 10 (because the come in strips and you must buy $10 at a time!).
    he turned to me and asked, "hey, do you have any coupons you want to sell?" (i'm pretty sure the man in the booth alerted him that i had at least one more). i pulled out one (which was what he needed) and he said, "do you just want to give it to me?"  (i was standing there seriously contemplating this for a moment...$1=1 diet coke at saturday school tomorrow. $1=1/3 gallon of gas.) i think he saw my hesitation and he said, "here, i'll give you a free c.d." i asked him what it was and he said, "it's some great reggae music by famous artists. promise, you'll recognize them, you'll like it!" i gave him the ticket (more for the sake of this story than for the music, b/c i can guarantee that unless it's bob marley, i will not recognize it).

coupons at fairs=scam.

on the way back to the car we had to find a bathroom for my friend, so i waited outside on the sidewalk with my funnel cake in my school spirit shirt like an idiot waiting for a good 8.3 minutes trying not to make eye-contact with the people in the cafe brazil because that just gets awkward after awhile. 

when we finally got to the car (may i add that my friend's husband was a little worried that we were down there at night), i looked and realized that i had forgotten to lock my car doors. it was probably a good move, because my windows were still in tact, and there is nothing in my car to steal. i mean...steal my teaching papers...please!-great reason not to have the grading done! nothing was touched. the raven must've been watching!

have a great evening!
jules

so...whadya' think? ravens...evil omen or extremely intelligent bird?

p.s just wanted to throw out there that my sister-in-law has a great little blog with some fun little ideas and great photos of her stuff!  
http://thesevenyearcottage.com/?p=802