jakorte's blog

Within 24 hours, I am simply at ease on the streets of Longford. I am the third body in the staffing office today, keeping busy sorting and folding festival t-shirts, creating merchandise displays, continuing to update artist packages, selling tickets and programs, providing breaks for the other gals. I happily wander to the convenience store in search of a short solo lunch. Much like a 7-11 but with a soup and sandwich station, too. The offerings are the same, but still nothing is at all familiar. Could be I’m just lagging again but – the brands are all different, and I’m simply stumped.

I’m too boggled to decide, so I settle on the pre-made case, surprised to find something just up my alley. A chicken breast covered in coleslaw, nested on a thin bed of stuffing, all stuffed into white bread. Makes me laugh because I’ve apparently found myself in a country that eats as I do – creatively! I grab a single serving size of cheese and onion chips, and something familiar, at last - a bottled Coke! I add a single serve package of chocolate drops – they look like M&M’s, so I figure they’ll be fine, and they are. The chips however, are icky: chalky and onion-y like raw onions on a salad bar. Not at all like Ruffles!

I enjoy my pick-up fare on the town square, benching it in the intermittent sunshine, before heading back to my post inside. Word has gotten out that the silent auction banjo by Clareen Banjo created for the 10th anniversary of the festival is on display. Not at the office though, it’s down at The Arms, so we direct folks that way. Weekend-pass wrist bands are selling sporadically, as are tickets for this evening’s show.

So far, sales are down from the previous year, but there are always door sales, and the hope is they will be high. It is only Thursday night, after all. There are three more days and nights of events and shows. Even in a down-turn economy, the shows are worth way more than the price. As the afternoon winds down, I head back towards the hotel.

I pop into the meat market to get a tide-me-over. I’m counting on a 20 minute nap before the evening’s first double event of a record release party for the band Tupelo combined with the third yearly celebration of Arthur’s Day. I’ll freshen up, coffee up, eat up my roasted veggie wrap, look up the way to Fox’s pub, and jump back into the fray – on the uptake, all within 60 minutes.