I've been meaning to write about my first New York siren festival experience, so here it is.

The siren festival is a free music festival in Coney Island. It is 1 part music, 2 parts beach, and 4 parts sweaty hipsters. My day at the festival was a stimulating experience for all of my senses- the warm, salty breeze against my sun-kissed cheeks, cold and foamy ocean water against my ankles, and muddy sand between my toes. The air was ripe with a combination of smells - ocean breeze, hotdogs, and once again, sweaty hipsters.

True, I only saw one band at the festival and spent the rest of the day laying on a beach blanket, but I heard that the music was great, too.

Most of the day consisted of our group of friends, passed out under the poluted sky with their shirts on, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. It was splendidly boring, until I spotted a man in a big red dog suit, walking around on the beach! His polaroid camera-wielding friend looked as if he might die any moment from exhaustion. I thought to myself: if the heat is killing him, the man in the 100-pound shag dogsuit must be close to unconsciousness. My second thought was: what an incredible photo op! I just happened to be wearing my bright red dickies dress that day. I ran up to the man excitedly, like a kid at disneyland. I asked him if he would take a picture with me, and he nodded his big red head. This moment has now been immortalized. There we are: two bright spots of red in an endless sea of playing children and lounging siren-goers. If this isn't proof of my dorkiness, I don't know what is.