he's still out there

It was clear in less than 24 hours that E1* was not boyfriend material, at least not for me. I'm not really physically attracted to him, but prior to him coming to town to spend the night and take me to Maker Faire, I thought maybe physical attraction wasn't all that important, thought that perhaps that was keeping me unnecessarily single. But no.

We walked through the Maker Faire store first, which was probably a mistake, because it gave me a really confused vision of what the event was gonna be. E1 had gone to a couple of Maker Faires in San Francisco and he was very excited about this one, the first in Austin (and probably the first anywhere around here).

E1 thought a Make magazine on a table was free and he was ready to take it until he was told by a nerdy guy with a hanging placard that it was $15, he made jokes at every other table we came to, to anyone in earshot, "All these free things sure are great, huh?!"

That wasn't so bad. What really made me uncomfortable was when we came to a booth where a preteen Asian girl was doing a presentation on how to make an iPod cover out of duct tape. We were standing at the back and to the side of the chairs where half a dozen or so people were watching the girl. A woman standing in front of us, hearing us arrive (obviously the girl's proud mother with her movie camera capturing every intriguing moment), stepped aside, motioned to the chairs and said, "Have a seat." E1 said under his breath but totally loud enough for her to hear, "Don't tell me what to do." It took me a few moments to recover from that. He "corrected" himself in a sort of apologetic tone -- in the same under-his-breath-but-in-earshot way, "I'm okay standing," but I was thinking Ohmygod, how rude!

E1's a fun guy, but he tries a little too hard sometimes.

We did have fun, though; I tried to let these types of comments (and there were a lot of them) go, but it certainly made me find him less attractive in some sense. But that's okay, he could be good friend material.

We saw a Life Size Mouse Trap (like the game only using bowling balls and culminating in a 4,000 lb. safe dropping on a pumpkin). I got to ride on the 22-foot Star Wheel -- a metal contraption that seats three people who are supposed to pedal themselves to make the thing turn (not as easy as it's supposed to be, I don't believe). I was a little concerned right after I signed the tongue-in-cheekily named "Suicide Waiver" and just before I got on at the top of a hill, but I noticed that A2's son M5 was one of the guys wrangling it. He said "It's completely safe" (I was having visions of it falling over and somebody's arm getting chopped off) so I went for it. It was fun but a lot of strenuous work, and my back and leg muscles are feeling it today!

We saw the Diet Coke & Mentos Challenge, which E1 said I was the only person in the world who hadn't seen it on YouTube. It takes three hours to set up, one of the guys announced, and less than three minutes to set it off. I had no idea what to expect, but sat anxiously with hundreds of other people half an hour before the launch. E1 and I found a place in the shade of a Coca-Cola truck (it was a bright sunny day and beautiful but hot on my bald head). E1 is a photographer, and he is always snapping pictures in that way that intrudes on strangers and ostracizes friends; that's not a complaint, just an observation. I sensed in the midst of this that someone was sitting close to my left side. I turned and looked into the beautiful blue eyes and Tony Robbins smile of a blond man with a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon tattoo on his smooth, slender right bicep. "Hi!" he said. "Hello," said I. (I always say I don't have a "type," but men like this always do something to me.)

We chatted a bit before and after the Challenge, I stood behind him during the Challenge, and he held out a hand to be shook as he and his friends made their way off to The Barn. He still lingers in my mind... So, I decided I'm really not interested in a boyfriend just to have a boyfriend, I really do have to be attracted to him... Sigh.

Later, the Cyclecide (A2 & J2's new grandson's father is one of the creators of this and the Star Wheel) had a bicycle rodeo. And somehow I found myself riding on a bike tossing empty bike tires at poles like a game of horseshoe while being pelted by shaving creme & flour pies by audience members. I wasn't alone; it was a big group of us on bikes of all shapes, styles, and sizes. And again, during the last skit, "The Mosh Pit of Recklessness," there I was riding atop a too-tall bike, crashing into others, falling a looong way down, getting up and going for it again. It was a lot of fun, especially with the pink flowered skirt I'd gotten at the Swap-A-Rama-Rama minutes earlier which fit on my head perfectly to protect me (in a most oddly fashionable way) from the sun.

S1 made fried okra, sauteed squash and a green salad from our CSA farm box of the bi-week for the three of us E1 and I got home, then E1 and I went to see some improv at ColdTowne Theater. I had run into two of the people from ColdTowne at Maker Faire, one of whom was my teacher for Improv 101, both of whom I suddenly felt a vague since of not belong around after the class (because that whole world seems to be inhabited by mostly straight white 20-something boys). I still love improv, and I think these two people are some of the best at it -- and E1 and I were lucky to catch their two-person act. I think E1 liked it (I believe he only fell asleep because he'd had a long day, longer than mine because he drove here from Houston).

We both slept (separately) very well, and got up this morning and had a delicious brunch at Casa de Luz, my favorite vegan restaurant in the world.