I came for the music, I stayed for the food.

Find more picks at The Heavy Table...  By the way, can you spot me in the above montage?  
photos by Natalie Champa Jennings

Soooo...

A few weeks ago it was penciled into my calendar was Rock The Garden 2011.

Have you noticed the weather lately?  If it's not 1000° F out side, a great tidal wave of God's tears are flowing down the road, into your basement, and all over your hair and makeup?  But, I digress.

It was penciled in to my calendar to attend this event, and it took great pains (by Jolleen at least) to get tickets. We had gone a couple of years ago to see Andrew Bird (swoon) and hadn't been able to get tickets again until this year.  I had heard of the bands playing, but I wasn't really into any of them... maybe Neko Case a little, but that was more tied to a dating infatuation of even longer ago so I wouldn't be too bummed about not going, if the weather was bad, but not bored if it was good.

I started driving the 2.5 hours to Jo's  house that morning when about half way through it started to rain.  Ugh! Rain! Annoying.  I was crossing my fingers that the rain would be over with by the time the show started, I do not like being uncomfortable at concerts. 45 minutes later I was camped out in a Target along I 35 waiting for the downpour to ease up so I could see the road, and waiting to hear the announcement the show was cancelled.  As I wandered from aisle to aisle, I think "If this rain ever stops... it's going to be a mud pit"

Light. Bulb.

Then I ran over to the shoe section and searched through the Rain boots. They had a really cute pair in kids sizes that I just could not get my feet into (I tried. Twice).  So, I bought the least ugly adult sized pair and headed out the door. The rain had cut back a bit and was at least drivable. Radio announcer guy says "ROCK THE GARDEN: RAIN OR SHINE" Good thing I bought those boots...

When I get to Jo's, the rain I left behind 50 miles ago, caught up with me and arrived in Minneapolis. It was coming down so hard I could hardly open my car door.  When I could creep out, I zoomed into the house and just looked at Jo.  Are we really going to do this?  I mean I don't like being wet.  I'm not into the bands.  And it's a DELUGE. She was wringing her hands because she really wanted to go, and she could tell I did not want to be wet.

We discussed the options and it came down to Jo was really looking forward to going, AND we paid good money for those tickets.  We would go. Unless there was a tornado or lightning, and then we wouldn't stay long. We devised rain gear (ponchos for them, i brought a trench coat) and a battle plan.

I in my rain gear and the gals in their new boots

After Katy arrived and we discussed matters, we noticed that the rain was letting up a little. The other girls praised me for my footwear choice and wished for their own Rubber boots.  "Well," one of us said, "we still have time... let's run to Tar-shjay and see if they have any left!" So we did.  They had 5 pair, and luckily the gals found two that fit... and they all matched.  

The official Rain Boot of RTG 2011

When we got to the event, and the pattering of rain was barely noticed in the mud and mist. We noticed were all the rain boots from Target ended up that day, along with the ponchos. I made it a side project to take pictures of all the different rain boots people wore... unfortunately my camera battery died in the middle of it. The music was playing, and we couldn't really sit down since the ground was wet, so we went from food stand to food stand eating and drinking our way through the day.

The tacos were great, the falafel was amazing... and the ice cream... Hagen Daaz... Oh and I'm not ashamed to say I had a fantastic corn dog. I want to go back, but no so much for the music, but to get to those food stands I missed. 

Yeah, the music was good. There are a trillion and one blogs out there to tell you all about it (where do you think I found the picture of me and my friends in the montage?) and I'm sure Jo was disappointed that I get bored easily standing in a crowd staring at someone signing, but the highlight of my day wasn't the bands, or hipsters, or standing the mud with 5000 other idiots... It was the corndog. Or the ice cream.  Or the look on Jo's face when she tried something she liked.  Or the conversation with Katy on why we were taking another picture of what we were about to never see again... our dinner. 

I think that's one of things I love about food, I love the eating and the talking about it and the taking of pictures and then maybe learning how to make it and eating it again with different (or the same!) friends... Food, like music, is easily shared and easily accessible on many levels... but food holds my interest much longer, and even though it's technically rude, you can still talk to each other while your eating. 

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