Once again, the wonderful city of Austin has not let me down! I signed up to volunteer for an annual art show as a “floater,” which I prayed would not find me in the blazing Southern sun carrying a bunch of heavy shit. I got so lucky. The volunteer ahead of me was placed in the kids’ corner, which would’ve been the second worse fate and I was immediately recruited to work one of the ticket booths.
I didn’t realize that the art fest shut down at 6pm, which was when my three-hour shift was supposed to end. Plus, my street parking would expire at exactly 6:01; so I already knew that I would have to leave my shift a few minutes later or face yet another infamous parking ticket. Again, my luck held.
I spent the majority of my shift greeting people, taking their money, stamping the back of their hands and talking to an interesting guy who worked for the organization that ran the festival. I worked a little over an hour when he suggested that I should walk around the festival since the ticket lines had died down.
Although I had an hour and a half to peruse everything, the only thing I was truly interested in was getting some jewelry. Once I looked at all the real jewelry, I ended up buying some costume jewelry that was within my budget, but still a little pricey for what it was. Nonetheless, I needed a little “Spring Cleaning” bling to go with my attire for today’s Austin Writers Roulette.
As a matter of fact, I made sure to tell my ticket booth companion and the woman who I bought jewelry from about the upcoming roulette and gave them a flyer. If nothing else, I’m now on another volunteer list in order to rub elbows with artists, attend their events for free and perhaps expand my fan base.
This is definitely the grassroots promotions that I need more of!