Happy Comfest weekend, all!  I hope you had a good one.  Mine ended a bit on the rough side – I took my first fall since I learned to clip-in on my bike last summer.  I was riding on the trail with my friend Matt this afternoon.  We were about 12 miles into our ride, the furthest out I have been on the trail and almost to our turn-around point.  The trail was windy (as in lots of turns, not wind) and muddy, and I took a turn took quick (or maybe braked too quick), and BOOM, I was down.  Luckily, I avoided any serious damage – my shoes did clip out of the bike and I landed on my right side.  My brand-new tri-suit took a muddy beating, as did my right arm.  I have minor cuts and some significant bruises that I think will show their ugly faces bigtime this week, and I pulled a muscle in my chest.  But all in all, I came away relatively unscathed, and very grateful that it wasn’t worse.  I was able to ride the full 12 miles home and I have plenty of time (4 weeks!) to bounce back before my big-bad Olympic Triathlon.  For now – ice and heating pad are the name of the game!  I should have asked Matt to take a photo of my beat up self (#rookieblogger), so I’ll leave this topic with a photo of me rocking my new tri suit 🙂

Now on to the title of this post – Comfest!  Comfest stands for “Community Festival” – a long-time Columbus tradition that takes place in Goodale Park, just one block from my apartment.  It’s essentially a “hippie” fest – lots of weed, booze, live music, and topless women.  Not exactly my scene, but it makes for great entertainment and is always worth acknowledging.

I kicked off Comfest week with a visit to The Kitchen.  The Kitchen describes itself as a “a participatory dining experience that blurs the line between patron and chef”.  Their main claim to fame is dinner parties in which the guests cook the meal together.  My first visit this past Tuesday, however, was not for one of these dinner parties (which I’ll have to do in the future!).  It was for “Taco Tuesday”.  Every Tuesday, the chef picks a different theme and creates a menu of tacos highlighting that theme.  Patrons wait in line to order their tacos before taking a seat at large, communal tables.  The atmosphere is casual and welcoming, resembling a cafeteria – if cafeterias were modern and cool.

I attended this week’s Taco Tuesday with my co-worker and friend Jenny, and her friend Sarah – also my friend too!  The theme this week?  Comfest!  Aka, “hippie” tacos.  I’m a bad blogger and didn’t take a photo of the menu until it was too late and just three tacos were left.  I found this photo of the menu on Instagram.

I had the “Dead Head”, “Janis Joplin”, and “Chong” tacos (left to right in the photo below), along with a nice cold Brooklyn Lager.  Unfortunately, I found the taco names to be better than the tacos themselves.  They were just OK – kind of mushy. After waiting in a 20-minute line to place our order, I asked the waitress if the pork and beef were shredded as opposed to cut into chunks.  I don’t like the texture of most meat unless it’s shredded – and sadly, despite her telling me that it was shredded, the meat was in chunks that were a little too chewy for my taste.  Alas, I still ate every bite of my three tacos.  They weren’t bad – they just weren’t my beloved Bakersfield tacos!

 

Before dinner, Jenny and I gossiped about work talked shop over drinks at Curio, an adorable little bar featuring interesting cocktails.   I can’t remember what these were, but suffice it to say that they were both tasty and refreshing.

 

Then, to ring in the official start of Comfest, Johnny, Ashley and I did a once-through of the madness on Friday night.  We walked around the park grounds for about 45 minutes, getting a contact high and taking in all the sites and scenes.  I got one of the those amazing fair lemonades – you know, the kind with a half of lemon in your cup and just the right amount of sugar to tartness.  It was divine.  We also played a game called, “first person to spot boobies wins a drink”.  Despite being notorious for topless women (which is legal in Columbus), it took us almost 30 minutes to spot any!  But spot I did – and they were cute ones, small and perky with ladybugs painted on them.  How adorable.  Ash and Johnny – you owe me a drink!

Here’s to a short week – Happy Fourth of July!  (and 62nd birthday on July 2, Daddy!)