Boston, May 2011

A couple of weekends ago I went to Boston. I met Liz for lunch, then had a few hours to kill before meeting someone else. Naturally, I brought my smokin' squeezebox and killed said time by returning to my elf roots and busking a bit. It was great! It was a gorgeous day, unlike any from my elf past, and people were leisurely strolling about. I set up in front of Borders at Downtown Crossing, one of my elf spots, and played for about an hour and a half.

I was wearing my red and white polka-dot dress which got as many if not more compliments than did my music. On this particular day, my biggest donors were moms. Possibly because it was graduation weekend at lots of colleges and my student loan sign gave their hearts a pang?

-A group of teenagers asked if they could take my photo. They did, then filled out a clipboard. Some sort of school thing/scavenger hunt? I wonder what category I filled. Homeless person, perhaps? They gave me a ton of coins and left. Then I started playing the popular song "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, and they ran back to sing along.

-A man walked by and just said, "That works."

-Matthew asked me out:
"So what do you do when you're not playing accordion?"
"I'm always playing accordion!"
"Do you ever see movies, eat food, or hang out?"
"Yeah, but I'm usually in California." -->Uh-oh, lying!
"Oh if you lived here I was going to ask you out."
"Aw, sorry!"
"Oh well. The Sox will be sure to beat the Giants this year!"
[Caught in lie, through gritted teeth] "Just you wait!"

-A young guy walked by with a Brandeis VoiceMale sweatshirt. They're an a cappella group that sang with my group last year! I stopped him and told him that. Cool story, Hansel.

-I chatted with two middle aged men. One said he had an old accordion that he didn't even think he could sell because it's in bad shape. His friend suggested I might want it, which I confirmed. I gave him my card to email about it, but alas, like most of these transactions, I haven't heard back. But they said they vacation with their families in Wellfleet every year! Whoa!

-This spot is across the street from a site on the freedom trail tour, so there were tour groups coming through with Paul Revere-dressed tour guides. This always made me laugh, them trying to talk over my playing but still maintain their rapport.

-That's pretty much all there is to report! Why is "I Want You Back" sooo hard to learn?? It's been months now, and I still suck at it. Ah, well.