Monday, May 04, 2009

Columbia in 2009: Lame As It Ever Was

When I found out about the '2nd Annual Greater Columbia Record Fair' (longest fucking name EVER), I was really excited.  I marked it on my calendar, invited a friend, and saved the address in the GPS.  Seriously.  But after yesterday, I really kind of wish I had forgotten to mark it on the calendar.  Or that I had followed my gut instinct, which was this:
Columbia blows.  I have been to only one place in my entire life that blows more than Columbia.  It is a poor excuse for a state capitol and can pretty much rest in hell as far as I'm concerned.  

When preparing for said Record Fair, this thought did pop into my mind a few times, but I had convinced myself that it would be worth getting out of Charleston for a bit and that, although Columbia does indeed blow, the Fair itself would probably not.  Assuming this was also kind of a mistake, I guess.

So as the big day approached, I made plans with my traveling buddy, and then last minute she decided she was unable to come.  I wasn't at all upset with her - it was a legitimate reason.  But it kind of would have made the day suck less.  I decided to push on and go anyway.

Sunday morning I was up and on the road by 10:30 as planned and was having a good time in the car listening to music and such.  Until I reached Columbia.  Things immediately went downhill.  From the fuck-me-in-the-face awful traffic, to the GPS system trying to tell me to go the wrong way down one-way streets, and the stupid anxiety issues I have recently developed in cities, it was just ridiculous.  It took me a good 45 minutes to travel the 4 miles to my final destination.  And once I got there, I could not find parking.  Anywhere.  I failed to notice that the location of this event was in the middle of USC's campus.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, it was a small hurdle and eventually parking was found.  And after trekking to the place, I was a little surprised to find that it was a bar.  Little, tiny bar.  But I still gave it a chance.  And was even more disappointed by the lack of things that captured my interest.

I don't know...I guess when somebody uses the word "Fair" - with a capital F, ok - I assume the situation to be kind of large and varied and maybe even a little fun.  And maybe I'm just too old in the mental department to enjoy standing in a little bar with a bunch of kids who are way cooler than I am because they are art students.  I don't know what it is.  But anyway I had a ridiculously unfun time and found myself leaving soon after I got there.  Let down?  Yes.  But I learned my lesson.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that you shouldn't give boring cities a chance to be unboring, because they will only let you down, possibly kick you in the ribs, and most likely steal your wallet.

And before I get told I shouldn't be bitching, I will...
a) ...remind you that I do what I want.
and 
b) ...kindly tell you that today made up for yesterday's tremendous suckiness.  But, that I will save for tomorrow.

1 comment:

  1. Courtney: first of all thanks for stopping by my page and write to it, and subscribe to my page is like the others, unlike yours which is unique, I am very grateful, the second thing is that ever since I saw this post, which was the first thing I read I liked and wanted to make a comment:Happens to me often that my friends can not accompany me an event when you were planning to go, that excuse is clear, as you mention it, because there are many factors at stake and many are valid, as well as what you suggest , which has no forgiveness if not from us, if not the entire civilized world, is announcing an event with a specific name, which is nothing to get what be mentioned and that gave me a lot laugh because I thought was unique to my ,no-growth, as has happened to me 10 times, international book fair, and stands just three books, exhibition of national art education and all alone, ha, ha ...is very interesting as it tells you what happens, and what happens around you...My favorite song by the Femmes is feeling good because I have a special love and dance dance mf because I get to dance like crazy because they ask me ha, ha ...

    you make me smile a lot,
    and your tips are very cool....

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