Opening Weekend

Opening weekend was simply amazing.

But since I obviously cannot stop there, get comfortable and let me regale you with the story of my first time working at a renaissance festival.

Firstly, I figured out what to put in my locket. (It is a secret, but I can tell you that the answer is not “nothing”)

Second, I seem to be built for the faire.

I can go all day without eating, without feeling ill or hungry. Of course, the other five days of the week I eat like I have never seen food.

I have also been blessed with an iron bladder, which is great when you are in a silicone tail for two plus hour sets.

Anyway~

I had been suffering from allergies all week leading up to the faire.

I ventured out Friday afternoon to set up camp and help out with various last minute things. I got a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of people in the campground and was a little worried when I saw that my camping spot had been encroached upon.

I headed up to the workshop to speak with my boss, Rex, about it.

She was busy, so I hung around and saw the many people coming and going, picking up passes and dropping off paperwork and whatnot.

That was when I got to meet Alan Hutton. I was sooooo excited. I love watching Oskar Hasselhoff, German Master of Defense! He was incredibly nice and I hope to speak to him more in the future.

The evening flew by and it was decided that I should stay in the workshop overnight, and figure out the camping situation later.

~

Opening morning arrives.

I had not gotten much sleep, but felt pretty good.

The other girls showed up at the workshop and we prepped for the day. Hair, makeup, costume, the works, then headed down to the lagoon to get into our tails for the first set of the day.

Finagling your way into a custom-fit-to-you silicone tail is interesting to say the least, and I will leave it at that :)

We have three “performances” a day. Roughly 11:00-1:00, 2:00-4:00, and 5:00-6:30. (I say “roughly” because sometimes it takes us a bit to get into our tails. Of course, later on these times will be much more accurate as we get faster and more practiced.

It was a little cool, but not too bad.

I went from the small pool, to the clam shell, to the big pool.

All the while trying to time my coughs for when the other girls were being loud or patrons were out of earshot.

Seeing the joy/wonder/awe on the children’s faces is a treat, but it is really great to see adults just as, if not more, excited.

That night I slept in the workshop again (it was really comfortable, I had multiple layers of fluffy stuff under my sleeping bag, over the floor)

Day two was so very cold. My goodness it was cold.

The water didn’t help, but in a few weeks that water will be a godsend.

I was in the big pool first, then the shell, followed by the small pond.

It is great fun to further embarrass already embarrassed little boys by blowing kisses at them.

After the last set we had our pictures done, which involved twisting (and flopping) around into crazy positions. It was great fun. I have yet to see them, but there are some I am really looking forward to.

At the end of the day I was not starved, dehydrated, or sunburned. I can hardly wait to do it again and I am looking forward to meeting more of the wonderful people who work out at the faire.

All and all, I’d say it went swimmingly :D