Renaissance Festival 2004

It has once again been pointed out to me that I have not posted in a while. Sorry! My computer went nuts this week, and I was afraid to get online. Turns out that I had ended up with a bunch of adware and spyware on my system. All is well now though, so I am back!

I haven't yet had the chance to tell details about the Ren-fest, so here goes.

The group from WV arrived at Chris and Shawn's place around 10:30 on Friday. Everyone else was already there, so we had a few drinks and just hung out for a couple of hours, sharing stories from the past. Since we knew we had an early, and long, day ahead of us, we actually went to bed at a half way decent hour. There were eleven of us to sleep in a two bedroom apartment, but somehow we managed. As I predicted, I slept in Shawn's bed--thank you! I am certain it t was far more comfortable than my Smurf sleeping bag would have been.

Jump ahead to Saturday morning, seven am. I volunteered to be the first one up to shower, mainly because I think I am a glutton for punishment. Amazing enough, everyone manage to be up and showered with time to spare before 9:30. We arrived at Ren-fest at about 11:00, and headed straight to the closest beer garden!

The day progressed from there, with us watching multiple shows and consuming mass quantities of beer and food. There is just something about a steak-on-a-stake and a beer that just makes Ren-fest fun. For details about the shows, check out Christina's blog. She did a good job writing them up.

This year we tried a couple of new things. One was the throwing stars. The guys went first, and I don't think any of them hit a target. Granted, by this point we had drank a good bit, so it wasn't really a surprise. Us girls then decided that we could do better than that, and we had to show up the boys. Amazing enough, I actually hit the target--twice! I now have a little certificate proclaiming me the "Master of the Stars." We went then to watch Chris get insulted by a girl in a dunking booth. He managed to hit the target and down she went. She didn't give up thoug--she still continued to insult him as we walked away. It was all in good fun though. We later came across a barrel ride. In went four fairly intoxicated adults and one sober adult. Thankfully, Debbie, the sober one, took the most dangerous seat where she had to hold on for her life. The drunks, Chris, Ken, Christina, and myself, were well within the barrel, or things might have got ugly. The guy "running" the ride then took the barrel and spun it out of control, making it go faster and higher with every chance he could. Not real smart when you know you have a bunch of drunken people on board, but lots of fun to watch if you are on the ground, I'm sure. Luckily none of us had weak stomachs, so we all managed to make it through without incident. What was fun though was trying to get back out. We had to step over the side and go down a ladder of four or five steps, with no railing. I personally think it is a miracle that I didn't bust my ass! Drunk, dizzy, and not the least bit graceful on a good day, I don't know how I made it back down. We also got to watch Christina and Ken beat each other with sacks of some sort, trying to knock the other off a log. If I remember right, I think Ken won. Sorry if I am wrong, Christina! We then proceeded to a rock climbing wall to watch Ken, Chris, and Christina try their best to reach the top. Later, Christina was heckled by a guy who you could pay to throw tomatoes at. Chris managed to hit his hand at one point, but I don't think he ever got one in his face.

One of the funniest things happened while we were at the Mud Show. After each show the actors ask for donations. Last year Christina went up and kissed one of them, so we decided this year it had to be a tradition, so we made her do it again. It wasn't so bad, because this guy had a fairly clean face. I guess one of the other actors, the narrator, got jealous though, and he wanted a kiss also. He was completely covered in mud, having taken a full body dive into the pit. Christina finally decided to oblige and found a somewhat clean spot on the side of his head. Right as she was about to make contact though, he turned his head and the kiss landed her face in a beard full of mud. I wonder if it taught her not to kiss strange men..... :)

The day ended with us buying our souvenirs, and Shawn getting me a rose. Isn't he just the biggest sweetie? It lived for almost two weeks, but now is drying to join the others I have from the previous Ren-fests. We all piled into the cars and headed home then, to continue our evening of drinking and just plain having fun. And yes, before anyone (note: my family) questions it, we had plenty of designated drivers amongst us, so the drive home was a safe one.

We played poker for a while, with Leslie ending up being the winner, much to Ken's dismay. Throughout the game, Shawn was drawing "tattoos" all over my legs and back, while Chris was drawing on Christina. I had multiple penises, a castle with a dragon, Jesus eating a fish taco, flowers, some Shakespeare, and I don't even remember what else drawn all over the lower half of both of my legs. Then on my back I had a cute little lizard. Christina's was an eye and mouth on her upper back and neck. Why we feel the need to become human canvases when we are drunk, who knows? At least we had guys with some artistic ability to do the artwork, so it actually looked pretty good.

Then the longest game of Indian poker in history began. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, it is a game where you are dealt one card, which you place on your forehead without looking at it. Then you look at what everyone else on the table has, and bet according to what you think are your chances of having a card that beats what everyone else has. It sounds strange, but it is actually pretty fun. It came down to Ken, Kevin, and me. For a while, I was playing to win, and then I just got tired and wanted to go to bed. I started going all in, hoping to lose, but I kept having Aces and Kings on my forehead. Finally though, I had a two and got out. By that point I think we had been playing for almost three hours. Oh, a note to Ken and Kevin: For a good part of the evening, Christina and Michele were openly helping me cheat, and you guys never noticed. There were times they just said my card out loud and you never paid any attention. :) I meant to tell you that night, but was too freaking tired to remember to do so.

I finally got out of the game and headed to bed. I lost my Shawn though. When I went in the room to get my clothes to change into, I saw Tricia in the floor asleep, but no Shawn. We looked in the other bedroom, and still no Shawn. And he wasn't in the living room or kitchen. I went back to the bedroom to check again, and realized that I am just a blind fool. He was sound asleep, just on the wrong side of the bed. The people who were still awake got a good laugh out of that one! I finally went to bed, with the Indian poker game still going strong. I think it finally ended about 30-45 minutes later. Shawn kept snoring, and it took everything in me to not reach over and keep bonking him on the nose the way he does me when I snore. I was nice and let him sleep. Remember that next time, Shawn!!!

The next morning we woke at leisure and when we were all up we went to Big Boy for breakfast. After a decent meal and a picture with the large Big Boy statue outside, we headed to see Shawn's mom, Barb, for a little while. We all really like her, so it just seemed like a fun thing to do. Christina and I both now have permission to marry Shawn. I get first dibs, but if by chance I end up marrying someone else, then Christina gets him. Barb was sure to point out though that Shawn may end up marrying someone else and if that happens, we just don't know what we will do. :)

After we returned to the apartment, we discovered that Ken and Leslie had already left, and then half of the WV crew decided to head back early. Kevin, Debbie, and I voted to stay on for a little while longer. We played some rummy, fed the ducks the rest of the bread, and then went out to dinner at Red Robin with Chris and Shawn before finally deciding we had to come home.

The ride home was interesting and I am sure that both Kevin and Debbie think that I am insane. There was this cluster of stars that kept doing strange things. It was one large bright star, surrounded by lots of little ones. The little ones would get really dim, then explode into brightness. It looked like a little thing of fireworks just continuously going off. At first, they couldn't see it, so they really thought I was losing my mind. It followed us all the way home though, and they could see it okay once we were in my driveway. It looked way cooler in the country with no city lights around, but it was still neat to watch from home. I haven't ever seen anything like it and have no idea what it was, but it was fascinating to watch.

I think that about sums up the Ren-fest weekend! With as wordy as I was, be thankful I directed you to Christina's blog for a review of the shows! I do hope to have some pictures up soon. That would be much easier if Kevin and Debbie or Ken and Leslie would e-mail me some! (hint, hint) I have some from Chris, but I am hoping to put up a whole album, with your pictures included.

I am already anxiously awaiting next year!