We're off to the Renaissance Faire......

In a few short days I will be living out my childhood fantasy....I will be with the people I love the most, dressing the way I love the most, eating at a restaurant I love the most, in a place I love (almost the most)...I will wear my hair the way I love the most, talk the way I love the most, and spend 3 wonderful days getting the most out of every moment, for I will be at ~ The Renaissance Faire.

It's hard to explain my absolute love for the Ren Faire.  It's an event my family has attended regularly for four years now (I have only been to 3 of the 4 visits), but each visit gives me such joy I can't even describe it.

Perhaps it's the idea of living in a fantasy land that I find so attractive.  I always believed I was born at the wrong time in history.  There is something about medieval times that just stir my soul.  I'm not sure if I would have lived my life as a princess, a wench, or a common peasant, but there is a bit of intrigue and romance in each of those options.

Perhaps it's the fact I can speak in my unusually good cockney accent when I am at the Ren Faire.  When you speak in different accents no one looks at you like you are mad.  If they stare - it's perfectly polite to flip your skirt, look them straight in the eye and shout, "What's wrong wit yewww? Are yew perrrfectly maaad? Now piss off, and be getin' out a me way." Ah yes...I do luv to tok in me accent. 

Perhaps it's the fact that I wear 3 skirts.  I have never been much of a girly girl, but the Ren Faire affords me the opportunity to not only don 3 skirts, but a corset as well. It's the only time I actually feel good about my hips being a little wider than I would like.  When you walk, the skirts move and float in the breeze, it's not unusual to find myself stopping at any given moment and twirling freely in the open aire grounds, just because my skirts fly like nothing I have even known.  This happens to also be the one time I actually understand a whirling dervish, it just feels so free and happy!

Perhaps it's eating smoked turkey drumsticks as we walk through the town, or being able to walk up to a wench and order an ice cold beer.  On rare occasions we find someone selling mead and my son fills his mead horn and carries it around his neck.  Perhaps it's the fact I can whip out my long Gandolf pipe I bought from Tabac Man in Prague, and smoke a nice aromatic tobacco - an NO one stares.

Perhaps it's the fresh flower crown I have made every year to match my outfit, complete with long yards of ribbons flowing down my back.  Or perhaps it's the pretzel guy or the pickle seller, both yelling obnoxious phrases to get you to stop and buy their wares.  Perhaps it's the man from Thailand we stop and see every year who keeps inviting us to come stay at grandma's house located in the farmland around Phuket.  Perhaps it's the jousting and valiant knights.

Perhaps it's the tents of women who have pillows stacked with patrons laying across them getting intricate henna tattoos, or the puppet master who sells the animatronic dragons that sit perched on your shoulder waiting your commands. Maybe it's the elephants or the camels? The German Comedians or the magicians?  Perhaps it's the fauns or the dragons or the centaurs who walk through the crowds, stopping to stare at you as though you are the oddity.  Perhaps it's the fairies, the kings, the queens, or the princesses who walk through the crowds, although they look like they are gliding and floating on air.

What ever it is, the Ren Faire fills me with such delight and satisfaction that I just can't seem to convey the hold that it has on me. This year, not only are our boys going back with us, but several college friends are coming along.  They will go their own way, do their own thing, make their own memories.  Perhaps when I see them, (when they come asking for more money), I shall look at them and say, "Get out of me way, and piss off you little beggar." After all, it's acceptable there!

The Ren Faire we attend is in the small town of Larkspur, Colorado.  It's 60+ acres which consists of more than a hundred buildings all built to resemble a medieval village. It's nestled in the meadow and tucked away in the ponderosa pines, it couldn't be more magical. I know that no matter the weather, the conditions, the people, the attitudes, the traffic, the beer lines, the 6 hour drive...no matter what transpires or takes place, it will be perfect. How do I know this to be true? Simply because I have already decided it will be... Huzzah! 



Might I suggest:
http://youtu.be/cPkLhSVtPS4