More fieldwork today. I have found one coffee shop in Oxford that has free wifi, and most importantly will leave you alone even if you haven't bought anything. I am eternally grateful to my friend from undergrad who lent me her apartment for the month.....I'm not sure I could survive this summer if I had to deal with paying two rents. The only problem is that I have absolutely no reliable cell phone reception in the hills of MS....which makes talking to people.....interesting.

Before I drove out here, of course I mapquested the route. The bad thing? For some reason the damn thing took me through my current state of residence on two lanes. Death.....slow and painful. Specifically since it was Sunday, and the drivers on the road were all about slow Sunday driving. I have mapped out my own route now, which will basically stay to Interstates and 4-lanes......thank God.

Anyway, spent the morning to talking to Primary Informant (PI), being one of the last blues fife players left. Speaking to people for the first time over the phone is sort of freaky for me. I really like non-verbal cues, and I tend to ramble on an answering machine....so when I'm on the phone talking to people that I don't know that I need to not sound like a moron to (specifically academics and informants in the field) I tend to script my words....usually in case I get an answering machine. Does that make me sound like a socially inept geek? Yup....thought so. ;)

The good news is, that I'm setting up interviews for when I get bak from Zoukfest, and the Fifer is agreeable to lessons, and I'm getting a blues fife as soon as I get back. I'm incredibly relieved that my fieldwork doesn't appear to be going up in flames.

Interestingly enough, my Southern accent comes through loud and clear when I'm surrounded by people who also have that accent. It's always weird to me to hear the word "one" come out sounding like "wuuyn" from my own mouth.

More reading, having dinner with a friend and then probably thinking about when I'm going to drive back to Lubbock. I'd like to have two days or so for the instruments to climatize to FPU before going to Zoukfest.

Peace, Love, and Tunes,

Mac.