Memphis in May

So...
Jessica & Joseph didn't come to the Memphis in May festival. He couldn't wait to meet her, so he came down the weekend before. He decided not to continue the relationship. Jessica didn't want to go to Memphis without him because she just wouldn't enjoy herself.

Things work out the way they do, and sometimes it turns out better because of the unexpected. When the whole MIM trip came up, I didn't want to go. J&J talked me into it. I started to get excited about it. So I was upset, to put it mildly, that the plans all fell apart. If I hadn't already planned to meet up with one of my online friends who was coming for the festival, I wouldn't have gone. I am so glad I did.

I got to finally meet Stephanie face-to-face. She and I have "talked" through e-mails, chat rooms, IM, and the message board for a long time. I was nervous about actually meeting her, but it was great! You know how sometimes you will meet someone, and it's like you've known them forever? You just pick right up in conversation, and you can totally be yourself, and not the 'polite' version of yourself that you present to strangers? That's how it was with Stephanie. We just clicked so well. I'm laughing to myself, just thinking about this weekend, and how much fun I had. There were no reservations or being guarded when I was with Steph. We both felt comfortable enough to get drunk, to make smart-ass remarks to each other, and to just be ourselves. Well, except for one thing. Steph stayed in the hotel room with me, because I had a room with 2 beds, and I did pretend to possess some sense of modesty, and refrained from just stripping off my clothes in front of her. If she hadn't gotten in the shower when she did Friday night, that false act of modesty wasn't going to last much longer, LOL. And I even got dressed in the frikkin' bathroom Saturday morning. And I hate getting dressed in the bathroom after I take my shower. Normally, I will go and sit on my bed, and finish drying off, and then get dressed, but I didn't want her to think I was a total exhibitionist.

The festival was a blast, and Beale Street is amazing! It started raining (HARD!) Friday afternoon, and I looked like a drowned rat. The park turned into just a giant mud-pit. But I didn't care. It was one of the best times of my life. I got to see Bowling for Soup, and then after the rains came in, we just hung out in the blues tent. I haven't listened to a lot of blues acts before this, so it was all new to me. But I really enjoyed Popa Chubby, and then I got introduced to the music of Tommy Castro. Wow. That's all. Wow. Saturday, we went to BB King's bar, and a few drinks, and happened to run into another of Stephanie's online friends. We met up with him and a couple of his friends at the festival that night, and I got to meet another online poster, Sheila, who is a very nice woman. I got to see Spin Doctors, Little Feat, Jonny Lang (who is absolutely fucking amazing!), and I watched a little of Nelly's show, and a little of The Killers show. I had gotten separated from the group on our way to the stage where Jonny was playing, so I was by myself for that show. The funniest thing happened (at least it's funny in my opinion) to me after towards the end of the show. So, I'm in the crowd by myself, and every once in a while I would look around to see if I could spot Steph, Greg, Sheila or anyone else in the group. I happened to look over to my left, and there are these two guys standing, maybe 15-20 feet away from me. One of them is looking at me. I look away, and then about 5 minutes later, I notice they have moved closer. The crowd is starting to thin out, so I'm looking around more, to see if I can spot any Steph or anyone else. A couple of minutes later, these two guys are even closer, about 5 feet away. I figure it's time to move on, and see if I can get a better signal on my phone, so I can call Steph, and see where she's at. Before I leave, one of these guys comes up to me, and says he wants to tell me I have a very pretty belly. I say, "what?" and he repeats it. I'm thinking he's being a smart-ass or something. (I am a plus-size woman, and I am rather self-conscious about it. Besides, I've heard of men being an "ass-man" or a "boob-man", but the belly??) So, I say, OK, thanks, and walk off. I walk about 100 feet away, where there weren't very many people around, and try to use my phone. I'm standing there, waiting on Steph to answer, and I look around, and this guy and his friend have walked on past me about another 30-40 feet, and are both just standing there, and this guy is looking at me again. Well, Steph answers, I find out where she's at, and tell her I'm headed that way. I hang up the phone, take maybe 5 steps, and this guy has come up to me again. He asks if he offended me by saying that. He then proceeds to tell me that his last girlfriend weighed 386 pounds (and let me interject here -- first? 386? not 380, not 385, but 386? who doesn't round off to the nearest 5 when discussing weight? second? what, do I look like I weigh that much? OK, yes, I'm big, but I'm not that big), and that she carried it all in her stomach. And he meant it, I have a very pretty belly. And he wanted to make sure I wasn't offended because he meant it as a compliment. So, I said, no I'm not offended, and thank you. And I said it a lot nicer than I did the first time. Then I walked off. When I told one of my friends about this, she asked "did you get his number?" Uh, NO. "Well, did you get his?" Again, NO. Am I the only person who doesn't give out her phone number to complete strangers? I mean, I guess I could have talked and flirted a little with this guy, but ya know? sometimes you run into complete, total nutjobs. He may have been a perfectly nice guy, but I just play it safe.

So, to sum it all up -- This was a fantastic weekend, and I am so glad I went.