I spent the past two Saturdays at the Renaissance Festival. The first weekend was lovely. The weather was mild and the whole experience brand new to me. My two friends had already been to the RenFest this year, but they brought their cameras this time- they were looking for pirates. My friends are obsessed with pirates and the last time they were there they had spotted what I call "the Soap Pirate." I think he was just supposed to be a Medieval character, but he looked pirate-y enough to catch the girls' fancy. While in the car on the way to the festival, knowing they were going in order to catch pirates, I mentioned that the following weekend was Pirate Weekend. My friends almost turned around and postponed the outing until the following week, but decided to simply go again. I was worried, because I really wanted to go that weekend, while the weather was nice. It was a great day. The girls found their soap pirate, and a few others, including a really funny Viking. One of the girls was chosen to be the fair maiden who bestowed a favor upon our knight during the "Competition to the Death" at the end of the day. Then we got caught up in a gypsy dancing circle, and everything was fun.
We went again the following week. Had two free tickets, and split the cost of the third. The day was hotter, dustier, and far less charming. There weren't as many pirates as hoped for. My friends dressed, I guess like slutty pirate groupies, really. Mini-skirts and black tank tops, fishnets on one, boots and a low slug belt on the other. I carried the camera.
Sometimes, when I hang out with these girls I sing, "One of these things is not like the others..." in my head.
There were almost two whole rolls of film snapped over the past two weekends. I think I'm in about 4 pictures- by choice. Despite my friends' cooings about how cute I looked on Saturday, I wasn't about get my picture taken with two girls in mini-skirts so that I could get compared to them later on by whomever viewed the photos.
After a long day at the festival, there were tentative plans to go bowling with guys from work. We were really too tired to go anywhere, and the girls wanted to hurry up and get their pictures developed, so we decided to stay home, order pizza, and play a game. One of the girls' boyfriends challenged me to a game of Trivial Pursuit. He rarely loses- I hear. This is his game, and he wanted to know if I really was as smart as his girlfriend had boasted. Now, I don't think you have to be smart to play Trivial Pursuit successfully, I think you just have random knowledge of pop culture, especially for the new DVD version of the game. Unfortunately for him, I have that random knowledge. I beat him soundly the first game, then he demanded another. While the second was a closer match, I still won. He vowed never to play me again, ever, ever, never. Then they all talked about how I watch way too much tv.
Okay, I watch a lot of tv, but not way too much, and especially not lately. I just remember most of what I see on tv. I remember more than most people. We could watch the same amount of programming, but I would know more, and would fair better on a quiz concerning what we just watched, than most people. I feel a need to qualify this because they way they said it kind of cheapened my win. It was like, oh yeah, she won, but that's because she has no life, all she does is sit in front of the tv day in and day out, no wonder she won. And I don't! I wouldn't have said the same thing about him if he'd won.
Anyway, my last two weekends didn't give me my alone time. So this weekend I'm doing nothing. It's lovely.