Tamale?

Today, while I was chopping down a tree, a woman walked by in the street, pulling a cooler in a wagon.

“Tamale?” she said, pointing to the cooler.

I considered, then gestured with my fingers to wait a second. I ran inside and found a couple of dollars, then ran back out.

“Cheekin?” she asked (that’s my best attempt at phonetic spelling). I nodded yes. Then added “Si!” for good measure.

She rummaged through her cooler and found a couple of chicken tamales. After a second she found them, put them in a brown lunch bag, and handed them to me. Then she more or less said “Tienes Agua para tomar?” (That’s my best attempt at using my Portuguese to understand, and write, her Spanish). Luckily, she also made a drinking motion with her hands.

I ran inside and got her a glass of water. When I came back out, a guy had pulled up in a truck and was buying something like 20 tamales. He told me he had purchased them from the woman before and that they were great. Before he left, he wished the woman a good weekend in what I’d describe as “Mormon mission president Spanish,” i.e. heavily accented but grammatically correct Spanish.

While the woman was drinking the glass of water, I said “Como…tu…chamas?” (That is literally what I said, not an estimate.) She responded by telling me her name was Consuela.

Anyway, the woman eventually left and went on selling tamales to other people nearby. I eventually tried the tamales, and they were delicious.

Utah Valley Spring Art Show

Earlier today I was perusing the blogosphere when I saw a post about the 2011 Utah Valley Spring Art Show. Somehow I hadn’t heard about it, but it sounded cool so Laura and I went, along with Laura’s brother, Will. I figured it would be cool, and I heard it would be in the top of the big Zion’s Bank building, which I was excited to see.

But as it turns out, it was much more than cool. Most of the floors had tons of art, with each floor having different live music and catering. There were also a ton of people there. (I don’t know how I didn’t hear about it earlier.) As it turned out, it was one of the coolest things I have been to in Provo in a while. It was also good to see that the arts are still very much alive in the area, considering the general collapse of the student-ish art scene in the 100 Block over the last couple of years.

Anyway, by the time we left, I was already looking forward to next year.

Beehive Bazaar

This weekend one of the best things in Provo is taking place. It’s the Beehive Bazaar! Basically the bazaar is a craft, art, and cool-stuff fair held in the Provo Women’s Center. Except for the one held in American Fork, I’ve attended all of these for the last few years. There is always a lot of cool things for sale by local artisans. In fact this is sort of the physical manifestation of what Salon was talking about in the article “Mormon Housewife Blogs.”

However, as a male with no kids, I can also say that the bazaar has a wider appeal. I will definitely be attending, and so should you.