To celebrate my Birthday-Eve, I invited my big kids – Laurent, Geneva and Jacob – to join me in going downtown to Roosevelt Row. I’ve never been down there for the monthly First Friday arts/crafts/food/music celebration, primarily because I’d heard it is a mad crush of humanity. If you know me, you know that sensory overload is very much a problem for me, and I manage it by managing not to go anywhere it will become a problem. But I have for ever so long wanted to do some street photography at night, and this would be a perfect opportunity. And, I knew in order to do that I was going to have to step out of my comfort zone. So I brought my support system! Because there’s no time like a birthday to try something new.
It was easy enough to find the neighborhood – the crowds were streaming toward Roosevelt Row from blocks away. This meant that parking was not to be found along any adjacent streets, and all the available parking lots were far too cramped to accommodate my 12-passenger van. I crawled up and down the side streets, narrowed by cars parked in no-parking zones, waiting interminably at every intersection for the hoards of pedestrians to cross… finally Laurent had me pull into a bus-bay and get out, Jacob got out my wheelchair, and she took the van and found a lot not too far away by the Arizona Center where she knew there was space. While we waited, I fiddled around with my camera settings and got the feel for this night photography thing.
We waited for a while by the Roosevelt Row welcome sign before wandering a block or two while we waited for Laurent to make her way back to us from parking the van.
I am reminded that I need to be more intentional sometimes… when I get laser-focused, I forget things I wish I had remembered later. For instance, posing my kids for a pic, or even grabbing a selfie together with them! With Jacob pushing me, I didn’t manage to get him into any photos, but I need to give him a huge shout-out for being my chauffeur for the evening. And Laurent only made it into a couple of shots, but she was a fantastic help with parking the van and helping us navigate through the crowds, especially where the sidewalks got narrow. Geneva is not so camera shy, so I captured a few shots of her beautiful face. I probably wouldn’t have even thought of trying this adventure without her encouragement. She has been down enough times before that she could function as our First Friday Guru, guiding our party to interesting spots.
One of the things that surprised me was how many families were there – and not just with little kids, but even pets! So many dogs, all on leashes and so well behaved. I would never have thought of bringing a dog to a place like this, just because of how overwhelming it can be for me, and I wouldn’t want to do that to an animal. But they all seemed super chill and happy to be there, and it was really fun to see them. These pics give you a sense of the visual stimulation…
We took a little tour down a side street when we heard, amidst the cacophony of voices and different genres of music emanating from restaurants and tents, a violin! Had to go see her play, and what her neighbors were up to… The eyeball table caught my eye… we found a great little beignet shop and bought some of their tasty goods. I promised to tag him on Instagram too: Check out @switch6rs for French Quarter Beignets and Cajun Boiled Peanuts here in the Valley of the Sun! (Btw: Geneva admonished me to not delete ANY of my photos just because I might think they were blurry, so I kept the blurry one because she was right: it’s not only cool and kind of artistic, but my perceptions throughout this whole excursion were a little blurred by all the colors and activity, so in a sense it’s very accurate!) There was a lady sitting on the ground doing something with fiber art, I think… clothing sales, food and drinks – and I lost count of the number of weed and tattoo shops!
Also, I won the entire First Friday when I snagged a couple of awesome candids of the Jester! <3
Back on the main drag, there were more doggies to be seen! We saw many more than these, too – these were all I could capture as I rolled along the street.
Swept up in the flow of energy, we drifted with the crowd inevitably toward an area in the center of the block pulsating with sound and light. Being in a wheelchair, we had to get fairly close before I could see between encircling bodies where all the attention was focused: Acrobats! My, that was fun to photograph!
After I’d satisfied my urge to “spray-and-pray” (holding the shutter button down to capture fast moving action) we began wandering back toward where the van was parked. These were the last images of the night.
I could not have asked for a better birthday present than this chance to challenge myself into going somewhere with a scary amount of activity, in such amiable company! This will NOT be my last First Friday, of this I am certain. As my children say, “Hash-tag-Blessed!”
