Everybody Left: DIT Fest 2010
From September 10, 2010 until September 13, 2010, many of my friends from the internet and [various parts of the country] were in the same place as me for an underground music and literature event called ‘DIT Fest.’ I slept an average of ~3 hours per night. The following is an account of my interactions with everyone before they or I left, in chronological order.
Richard Wehrenberg Jr. (Columbus, OH) – Many people stood on a sidewalk outside of The Vineyard, where the event was taking place. Richard was standing with the same group of people as me. Someone said something. Richard and I hugged. I touched his cardigan and said, “I like this.” I think one of us said “See ya soon” or “Have a good night.”
Brittany Wallace (Kent, OH) – Many people sat or stood inside of Brittany’s apartment, after leaving The Vineyard. Nobody was talking. Everything was silent. People were looking at each other or looking at other things. I said something like, “I… should we… go…” Nobody said anything. I reached for my guitar, which was behind Shannon Neale. Sam Pink said, “You can put this guitar behind you if you want, to replace Jordan’s.” People stood. I walked towards Brittany. We hugged. I said, “Thank you for letting everybody stay here this weekend, I had a lot of fun.” She said, “Yeah, no problem, it was fun.”
Noah Cicero (Youngstown, OH) – [See above interaction]. Noah and I stood in the kitchen. I hugged Noah. Noah said something like, “Thank you for making everybody come to Ohio.” I said, “Yeah.” He asked me if I had fun. I said, “Yeah.” I asked him if he had fun. He said, “Yeah.” I said, “I’ll see you soon.” He said, “Okay.”
Sam Pink (Chicago, IL) – Shortly after Sam woke, I drove him to the MegaBus station ~25 minutes away. We talked about things. We said we were happy. I told Sam I would come to Chicago soon. After getting off the highway, Sam said, “There’s the giant guitar.” He said, “You can just drop me off here, it’s right down the street.” I pulled over to the curb. He said, “Thanks for inviting me to come to Ohio man, I had a lot of a fun.” I said, “Yeah, thanks for coming to Ohio, I had a lot of fun.” We did a ‘high five’ motion. I leaned over the center console of my car. We hugged. I said something like, “See ya.” He said something like, “Later, man.” While walking away from the car, he looked at me. I waved and smiled a little. He smiled a little, I think.
Tao Lin (Manhattan, NY) – After I got out of school, Tao text messaged, “we are going to [activity omitted] with shannon later, want to come?” I text messaged, “When?” He text messaged, “6ish.” I text messaged, “No, I don’t know.” Later, Tao, Megan, and I stood in my room. They gathered their things. Downstairs, we stood near the front door. I said, “Bye.” Tao hugged me. He said, “I like hugging you.” I said, “Oh, sweet.” He said something like, “Yeah… Thank you for letting us stay here and stuff. I will e-mail your parents, can I do that?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “You have a good house.” I said, “Sweet, thank you.” We each said, “Okay, bye,” and waved a little, I think.
Megan Boyle (Baltimore, MD) – [See above interaction]. Megan and I hugged. I said, “See ya.” She said something like, “Thanks a lot for letting us stay at your house.” I said, “You’re welcome, I’m glad you came.” We each said, “Bye,” and waved a little, I think.