River Arts Fest

Last weekend was River Arts Fest downtown. We met up with a group of friends there to enjoy the festivities. The weather was amazing! I mean, sunny and 80+ degrees in late October! Not that the forecast stopped some of the patrons from dressing like it was fall, though...I'm sure their feet were a bit warm in Uggs.

For the event, the city closed off several blocks of traffic and all sorts of artists set up booths. The art work was eclectic and cool! I didn't want to be one of those people who annoys the vendors by snapping photos of their wares nonstop, but I did manage to surreptitiously capture this glass art booth.

Major props to Memphis for having recycling bins all over the place! Yes, the people need somewhere to recycle their bottles and cans! I did see one guy drop some gum in a recycling bin, however. More education is needed...

It wouldn't be a Memphis festival without a random Elvis tribute artist working the crowd.

The Railroad & Trolley Museum was offering free admission, so we stopped in to check it out. It has lots of model train sets, along with some historical artifacts.

We also learned some hobo code. Did you know that one meaning of hobo is an abbreviation for "homeward bound"?

Fall is just starting to arrive in the mid-south. Here's a tree with changing leaves as evidence :)

After we'd strolled up and down the long vendor strip and observed some artisans in action, our friends wanted to go get a drink a few blocks up the road. On the way walking to our next destination we passed this "I am a man" mural. The saying comes from the Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968 and became a civil rights rallying cry.

We all met up at Beale Street Landing for some drinks and fried green tomatoes (for me, at least). This new riverfront development area apparently just opened a couple months ago. We hadn't really been down there before. It's great! The restaurant has lovely scenic river views.

After our friends hit the road, we decided to walk back to the festival and see if any bands were still playing. It was a perfect afternoon for a riverside stroll!

Back at the party, we found out Star & Micey were playing. We've heard them at the Shell before and enjoyed their music. I guess we are becoming their groupies now since this was the second time we've seen them perform this year.

All in all, it was a lovely fall day!

Fall Travels

Work has had me on the road a bit lately, so I'll update you on my latest travels.

Missouri
I put nearly 1200 miles on a rental car in less than 72 hours driving from Memphis, all around the Show-Me state, and back. Sheesh! I had a good little Nissan...made me remember the good ole days in Seattle when I bought my first car, a Sentra.

While en route to MO, I remembered that I'd forgotten to pack pajamas - made a quick stop at Walmart to pick some up. Upon entering the store, I knew I wasn't in Tennessee anymore based on the copious amounts of liquor available for purchase. Yeah, down here in TN we are just now getting to vote on having wine available in grocery stores...

Part of my duties for the weekend included taking a group of teens through a corn maze. Here's a view of the maze from the air. It was gigantic! We lost one member of the group and had to send a maze worker in to find her. In my defense, she took an unauthorized short cut through the stalks...

I also met and interacted with several native Missourians. In conversations with them, I learned that there is a divide between North and South Missouri on such important cultural rules as how to play a card game called Pitch.

Isn't it interesting that no matter where you are, there tends to always be divisions between groups? Eastern Washington state sometimes threatens to secede and become the 51st state. In Tennessee there are three distinct regions (East, Middle, West), and they all seem to have their stereotypes or prejudices about the other. Even in the small city where I grew up, as young people we formed all sorts of conclusions about each other based on which high school a person attended. And then you expand this out to the realm of international relations...well, it's no surprise that we have a hard time getting along globally, eh?

Wisconsin
Last weekend I was in Milwaukee for a work conference. Since there are no direct flights to anywhere from Memphis anymore, I flew through Minneapolis and got treated to some lovely MN foliage views from the plane.

Once in Milwaukee I hardly had a chance to leave the hotel as the conference schedule was pretty packed. I did get to venture out a bit one evening and enjoyed their public art, but only briefly as the temperatures were plummeting to the low 40s and I hadn't brought enough layers of clothing!

And the hotel itself was pretty nice, too! Here's a picture of the lobby.

I didn't have a chance to interact with many Wisconsinites on this trip as the conference attendees came from various parts of the US and a few foreign countries. Overall what I noticed was that the people did not seem very friendly. Then I had to ask myself why I perceived them this way. I think it's because I have acclimated to my culture in Memphis! I now expect people to carry on a pleasant conversation in which we both ask each other questions and pay attention to the answers, trying to make a connection and get to know what's important to the other person. Maybe this is just how conferences are, though - too many new people who you might never see again, so what's the point of really talking to them.

I've got more trips coming up soon to California and Michigan, so when I have a few spare brain cells I'll try to post another travel report :)

Church Retreat

Last weekend I attended the annual women's retreat for the church we go to here. I've been telling everyone who asks me how it went that I definitely had a southern cultural experience. It was fun and interesting!

The event took place at Pickwick Landing State Park. This lake sits on the border of TN, MS, and AL. Our hotel/inn was on the Tennessee side. It's about a 2 hour drive east of Memphis, and on the way I was excited to see some hills! Memphis is really flat, but as you travel east you start to encounter changes in elevation.

Food - all meals were served buffet style at the restaurant.

Breakfast options included grits and biscuits and gravy. The grits seemed pretty slimy and like they had no flavor. I think this was my first time trying them. I heard, though, that there are lots of ways to make grits and that I shouldn't take this batch as representative of the food in general.

Lunch was your classic "meat and three" with side dish choices like black eyed peas, green beans, and cornbread.

For dinner, they served catfish. As in, whole catfish, fried, with their tails still on! I've only had catfish once or twice before. This was definitely the tastiest!

And of course at all meal times, the sweet tea was flowing freely.

Activities:
We had a large chunk of free time during which participants could take a ride on a pontoon boat around the lake. (It's not really fall here yet, hence no changing leaves.) Despite the gray skies, it was a fairly warm day.

I also learned some country line dances like the Sidewinder Shuffle.

Other women were doing art projects like making burlap door hangers to support their favorite SEC football team.

Participants:
I'm bad at estimating numbers, but I bet there were about 200 people at this retreat. Our church really focuses on being intergenerational, and the ages ranged from 6 weeks to mid-90s. I'd say the total population skewed towards the older side (if you were to make a distribution bar graph), but there was decent representation from most all of the decades of life.

I had a hard time keeping track of everyone, though. I'd meet one person, and she'd say, "Oh, do you know so-and-so? Well, her mom is over there, and I'm her aunt!" And etc. I wish everyone would wear nametags at church now so I can remember who they are...The point here is that there were a lot of family connections amongst participants, more than I think would happen at a similar event in the northwest.

Decor:
Not sure if this is a southern thing or not, but the decorations committee went all-out! The theme was "tea party." Check our our tables for the final night.

Each person got a fancy tea cup to take home! And you'll note the burlap table runners. I think that you can't have an event in the south if you don't incorporate burlap into the decor somehow :)

Above is a photo of the tea party. The organizers had told us to bring a tea hat. I had no idea what that meant so I didn't wear one. But you can see by this picture that a lot of people did understand the memo! During this session two of the church "matriarchs" shared stories about their lives and answered questions from the audience. They are very sharp, especially for being about 90, and they were really entertaining! But it was a little hard for me to follow everything they were talking about. I kind of felt like a new person coming to a family reunion, hearing all the family lore for the first time.

Overall, it was a good weekend! And I will hopefully remember the people I met and greet them with the correct name next time I see them.