Nothing Interesting: Renaissance Faire

Ok, so I did it again. It’s pretty obvious that I’m bad at this sort of thing isn’t it? And this time it’s not even really because I haven’t had stuff I wanted to blog about. I actually have, but instead of taking a few minutes of down time at work to type something up and posting it when I get home, I think “Oh, I’ll type that up tonight and post it!” Then I get home, I sit on my comfortable couch, turn on the TV, start cooking dinner and blah, blah, blah… I look at the computer and sigh, like the thought of getting on is similar to having to go workout on the Wii, something else I haven’t done in months. I don’t know what’s happened to me. A year ago I was attending not one but two classes a NIGHT!! 2 in one freakin night! That’s ridiculous. And I’m planning to do it again next year. Lord help me.

So anyway, I think we’ve established that the whole typing when I get home thing just doesn’t work too well for me. I don’t even remember half the crap that I wanted to write about a week ago.

So anyway, onto today’s topic. Renaissance Faire is coming up soon. At first I figured I wouldn’t talk about it all that much here, to spare you the drama, but honestly faire is a huge part of my life and will be taking the majority of my free time over the next few months, so instead of fighting it, I’ve decided to embrace it. I apologize now for any references you don’t get. I’ll try to explain them as I go along, but that could get long or I might forget, so if there’s something you want to know more about, just ask.

So faire. I’ve been doing faire since I was 17. To say it’s had a huge impact on the person I am today would be an understatement. I remember starting my first season wide eyed and innocent and thinking before faire even opened, that I had found my home. There is a lot of love-hate involved with faire. It’s far from perfection. It’s been a source of many tears, frustrations, embarrassments, anger and pain as much as a source of friendship, love, laughter and lots and lots of alcohol.

This Saturday is the last of the Queen’s Court rehearsals for the 2010 season, before we hit site for workshops. I am really beyond gitty about this season. Because of school and other personal reasons I haven’t worked a full season in over five years. This will be the first one and I’m already exhausted. But so, so excited. I bet you didn’t know faire had its own weather. But this time of year I go outside and I just feel like it’s a faire day. Like I should be dresses in 30lbs of silk and velvet and trudging around over dirt roads and sharing goblets of water.

I have been preparing for this season for months now, slowly. As I’ve mentioned before I’ve been sewing like crazy my new gown for the season. It’s coming along nicely, which makes me happy, but I am terrified of approval. The day when I get all dressed up in the dress that I just spent countless hours and an unmentionable about of money making and stand in front of Ms. F and be judged from head to toe. This judging hasn’t always gone smoothly in the past, so you can imagine that I’m a little terrified this time around. I’ll post pics of my hard work when it’s all complete and approved. In the mean time I’ll probably be talking about the dress and how it’s coming along.

I’ve also been readjusting my life to have every weekend for three months booked. Faire is one heck of a time commitment. And where there are some exceptions, such as Easter, I plan to be there every day, which means no lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoons for me for a while. Court Rehearsals are a big part of the preparation. They are filled with activities and exercises for practicing he language, improvisation, dancing (yes, I am rather good with dances that went out of style 500+ years ago), and projection. It’s a chance to get to know newer members of the group and catch up with old ones I haven’t seen in months.

So there you have it. I’m sorry if this post is a little boring or random. I’m mostly trying to lay a base for future posts so you have some reference to what I’m talking about. I know it seems like I’m overcomplicating things a bit, but faire really is a world all its own, and it’s kinda hard to get the concept until you’ve been through it. But, here of a few of my favorite pics of me taken out at faire. These are all taken between 2007 and 2009, and I believe these are all taken by Gar Travis unless otherwise noted: