Earlier today I drove past three bluegrass musicians, walking along a country road.

It was a busy weekend. On Friday I drove down to "historic Lanesboro," about 20 minutes south of Rochester, for a night of camping with some of my friends from work.

We'd had this weekend planned for a while in advance, and even though the weather was a little drizzly and cold, we managed to get a campfire going and make the best of it.

You can add "sleep in a tent" right below "wear a cowboy hat" on your list of unlikely things I did this year. It turns out that I still greatly prefer sleeping in a cabin.

I left after breakfast (hippie pancakes, nourishing but blech) and drove to Mankato for Brooke's get-together. Mankato, Rochester and St. Paul form an equilateral triangle, so I did a lot of driving this weekend.

I felt a bit weird going, since I barely know Brooke, but the invite she sent out was awe-inspiring, and all the Girls' Night girls were going to be there, so. Anyways, it's not like camping wasn't also outside my comfort zone.

A showing of The Wackness notwithstanding, the main event last night would have to be a performance by Charlie Parr at the Sugar Room.

I'd honestly thought that was a joke when I read it on the invite, but apparently there is a Charlie Parr, and he's not an imaginary black jazz crooner but rather a beflanneled country blues musician.

I'm generally down on a listening to music in bars, what with the crowds, slow service, and lack of conversation (the Kitty Cat Club, where you can escape the loudness, is a rare exception), but it was still interesting to hear some bluegrass. They had a washboard player. I lived with a percussion major for a year and I still don't think I've ever seen anyone play a washboard in real life.

I'm calling it "bluegrass" only because someone said at some point that it was bluegrass. I wouldn't know, at all. Apparently I went to a bunch of bluegrass concerts when I was really little, but I don't remember any of them.

In any case, this was pretty good stuff, although I think I'd like it better if I could make out the words. I could've sworn that one of the songs was about Obama.

Everyone went to sleep prettymuch as soon as we got back to the cabin, and the next morning after breakfast (real pancakes, albeit with blueberries) we cleaned up the place, had a quick photoshoot, and left.

Once I got home, today was a shower-and-pajamas day. I had no further ambitions this weekend.