Weekend Update - CTRF
This weekend at faire was…. Odd.
Saturday I was planning on being a patron with allgudallthetim and guy_todd. And then Sunday I was going to be Magda and spend the day with the Guild in the encampment. Things did NOT go as planned…
I was almost on time for faire. I couldn’t get on the road when I wanted to because they were inspecting the fire alarms and I had to wait for the workmen to come in and press a couple of buttons before I could head out the door. And then, about 15 minutes before I was planning to leave, two MORE workmen show up. To clear the drain on the deck. I was NOT expecting them. They said that a notice had been sent around. Well, I didn’t get it. It took me a moment to remember that I’d already paid a plumber back in September to clear the drains. So I sent them on their way. But Jesus Christ, if I’d had any inkling that the condo management company was planning to clear the drains, I could have saved my money!
I still had to pay for parking. I guess that’s not going away. I did a little random survey last spring, and none of my faire friends up or down the East Coast have faires that charge for parking. I have only EVER paid for parking at faires run by the Stickneys. I think that says something about their ability to make a profit from their shows.
I called Barbara when I got there, and she and Mike had already met up and were in the faire at Dave’s Donuts. I said I’d meet them there when I got dressed. I changed in the parking lot. It always takes a bit to get laced into the corset. By the time I’d gotten 100 yards into the gate I’d already seen several things that I hate about faire.
When I first got up to the ticket booth, once again there was a rope maze blocking my entrance. Now, I’m not a big fan of rope mazes anywhere, I don’t care if it’s the bank, the movie theater, or anywhere else that requires you to queue up. Because usually? There isn’t a line. And there’s no way to shortcut. You have to walk back and forth through the whole damn thing to get to the door. And in this case, once again, there wasn’t a clear entrance to the damn thing. I just ducked under the damn ropes. Then my path to the ticket booth was blocked by two huge and badly behaved dogs. The woman at the window on the end was waving at me to come give her my money, and I said, “You’ve got ropes and dogs in the way!” Grr.
Right inside the door, handing out programs, was Sarah. Who was supposed to be in the encampment with the Guild, NOT volunteering at the gate. WFTBBQ! Well, that might explain the e-mail from Stephen about how they were short handed. When I’d looked at the spreadsheet, she was supposed to be in camp every weekend. Then I got to walk past the pirate stage. Really? I’m OK with pirates if they’re good pirates. But the CTRF pirates? Are piss poor. Then I passed creepy dragon guy in his green pajamas selling ice cream from his cart. He just gives me the willies. *shudders*
So by the time I found Barbara watching Mike sitting in marrus’s chair getting his face painted, I had already seen a half a dozen things about faire that piss me off and was already seriously doubting my ability to have a good time. Then came the news that faire would be closed on Sunday to let everyone break down before Hurricane Sandy blew into town.
We stopped at Donut Dave’s so I could get myself a hot cocoa and a bag of donuts. Dave said that Bonnie was working the satellite DD booth over at the end of the other food court area. While we were waiting in line we bumped into Chris and her man. It’s odd seeing her too. He guy was funny, he kept switching back and forth between different accents. We walked towards the encampment and after passing three Landsknecht on the march, we stopped to hug Kristine/Pyrate and while we were in her booth, we got it straight from Eric’s mouth that the faire was closed on Sunday. “Patrons are coming up and asking me, your Facebook page says you’re closed Sunday, is that true? No, we always post lies on our Facebook page.” Turns out the Lions had actually suggested that the faire close early. Having seen the weather that did show up, I’m glad the faire owners took their advice. Plus, packing up wet canvas sucks.
Alena was the only person left in camp. I asked her if we were going to tear down Saturday night or Sunday morning? Because I wanted to be there to help, and either time was fine, I just needed to know when to be there. She said she didn’t know, she hadn’t heard that the faire was officially closed. I told her I’d just heard it from Eric, but she insisted that she hadn’t heard it yet, and Stephen was at a DMAT meeting and wouldn’t be there until 8:00 p.m. Eric was walking by, so I called him over to tell her himself, since I guess me saying I’d heard it directly from one of the faire owners wasn’t good enough.
I made a privy run, then we wandered down the other row and ran into Jess and the lovely Zoe (Heh, she looks like she’s grabbing my boob). After flirting with Zoe for a bit, we headed down the lane to find the shop and danctrf. Dan was playing with a zombie puppet and his eyeball. Their eyes are held on with Velcro and dangle off a little thread (optic nerve) and he was playing with his own eyeball, catching it in his mouth. Hee! We stayed and chatted for a bit and admired the wares at Geeky and Cheeky.
We bumped into Raven when we made it around the corner to the food court area. I was waving at Bonnie while Barbara was hugging Raven. I think that’s how she missed me, because all the sudden she’s like “Ah! Where’d you come from?!?” So adorable. She looked awesome, in her fairy costume in autumn colors. We stood around and had a nice long chat. But the part that cracked me up was when she suddenly said, in all seriousness, “Why aren’t you married yet?” “I’m not looking. “But you cook, you clean. Some man should snap you up.” I laughed in her face at that. Oh honey, what makes you think I cook and clean? I mean, it was well meant, she was trying to pay me the lovely compliment of saying that I shouldn’t still be single. But OMG did it come out wrong!
I did get lots of hugs during the day. But not nearly as many as I used to. My overwhelming feeling during the day was that I didn’t belong to this faire anymore. I mean, this is the faire where back in 2003 I had trouble making it to the pivies without pissing myself (after a two hour drive to faire, it’s my first stop) because I had to stop and hug so many friends. I laughingly whined about it on the old Voyforums, and the next weekend there was a porta-pottie right inside the front gate. I used to know all the vendors, all the actors, all the volunteers, and heck, most of the hard core rennie patrons. But it’s not like that anymore. I didn’t know nearly as many people as I used to. Things have changed quite a bit. It’s weird to no longer feel like part of the family. But then again, CTRF hasn’t felt like a family in probably five or six years. Nowadays criticizing the faire on a public forum doesn’t mean the problem gets solved the next weekend. Sometimes it means you get banned from faire. *le sigh* Nope, not the same faire it used to be.
Being in the encampment was odd too. Things just felt tense with everyone. When I first walked in, the only person was Alena, who didn’t seem to be too happy to see me. But then again, sometimes things with Alena are fine, and sometimes they’re awkward. I just sort of figured this was one of those awkward days. But when I saw Calvin, he was a bit standoffish. (But he might also have still been pissed at Alex for being so drunk/hungover the weekend before.) And while Alex was happy to see me, and gave me a small gift of a patch with the Guild heraldry on it, he also managed to hurt my feelings in the process. As he tried to decide whether or not to give me this mysterious something, he muttered, “You’re still a member of the Guild, right?” Um, I’m a fucking FOUNDING member of the Guide, one of the Fab Five dude. The present turned out to be patches that he had Veronica make, using the design that *I* created for the Guild banner. In general, I just felt WEIRD standing around camp. It’s like we didn’t have anything to say to each other. I didn’t hang around camp for very long.
We spent the day wandering the shops. But as usual, after 10 years as a rennie and now the shift to reenacting means I’m not buying new renn gear or replacing things when they wear out, there really wasn’t anything that made me feel the need to open my wallet. I ran into Paul D, who I don’t think I’ve seen since Pennsic last year. I don’t always see him at faire, even though he’s one of the owners. He’s like the ninja owner.
We ran into Beer Wench Brenda *SQUEES* and her man. It was so good to see her. I miss her TONS. We also ran into Scott and Cheryl from Crown and Feather/The Crow’s Nest. Apparently they’ve got a booth at King Dick’s now. They’re going to Birka, so we got to talking about that. Someone told them it’s a science fiction convention, so they were going to bring steampunk. I told them they’d do better business bringing their historical hats, and Scott was very grateful for the tip. They’re also trying to get into DragonC*n, but need a boothie as it’s up against both Maryland and King Dicks. I gave them my number and offered to play boothie for them. It’s not like I don’t already own six of their hats. And I’ve got geek cred, which helps when you’re flirting with potential customers. After that we kept bumping into them all day, in Tatterdemalion talking to Amy, in Geeky and Cheeky talking to Dan. Scott accused me of following him. I told him we were just always in the same place because it was where the cool kids hang out.
We tried to leave around 6:00 for dinner, but I don’t think we actually managed to get out the gate until 6:30. We ate at Gina Marie’s. While we were eating Stephen called to see what I wanted to do with my tent? He didn’t realize I was on site. I told him I’d be over there to help tear down. We hadn’t gotten our hands stamped when we left, so I drove up to the back gate to try to get in that way. There was someone at the gate, and I was all ready to explain who I was when he said, “Oh, it’s Julie.” It was Seth, so I just asked where would be a good place to park, that was out of the way. The joust horses walk right past where I was hoping to park, but it was OK, so we went in the back way and walked over to the encampment.
It took us a while to tear down camp, because nothing was packed up yet. Usually as soon as dinner is done, the smaller items get packed up. I don’t know what happened, if it was lack of bodies or if it’s because Stephen wasn’t around the herd the cats, but things were pretty disorganized. I grabbed my few items and stacked them. And helped to pile Betsy and Tom and Amanda’s stuff in the green room for them to pick up on Sunday. When the joust started, they turned the lights off, which made things a bit more interesting. And when the joust finally let out at 9:00 we had to stand guard to keep people from cutting across the corner through our space, since we had all manner of tent poles, pikes, and ropes on the ground that they could trip over.
Cars were finally allowed on site at 9:30, and we had the truck loaded up by 9:56. “German efficiency.” There were hugs all around, then I drove Barbara out to the parking lot to retrieve her car, and followed her to Manchester and our hotel room. We stayed up talking until 11:30, then slept in until 8:30. We had a leisurely breakfast at the local Denny’s. Then, since I had an unexpected day off, I drove up to Osgood’s. They’ve rearranged again, I had trouble finding the wool. Lots of it seems to be on the top shelves now, and inaccessible. Darnintall. Since I seem to have lost my starfish cap again I was hoping for some olive/loden wool, but picked up black instead. Then I drove up to Greenfield, but it turns out that The Textile Company is closed on Sundays. But that was fine, half the whole point of driving up that way was so that I could take the scenic drive home. Route 119 to route 113 is a twisty, windy, hilly drive past waterfalls and a covered bridge. It’s one of my favorite scenic rides, and one of the reasons why I miss the Vermont Renn faire so badly (it’s the route from Frogholm to Brattleboro, VT.)
When I got home I unloaded the car. I had planned to do housework and maybe a little sewing, but the Comfy Chair caught me instead.
Saturday I was planning on being a patron with allgudallthetim and guy_todd. And then Sunday I was going to be Magda and spend the day with the Guild in the encampment. Things did NOT go as planned…
I was almost on time for faire. I couldn’t get on the road when I wanted to because they were inspecting the fire alarms and I had to wait for the workmen to come in and press a couple of buttons before I could head out the door. And then, about 15 minutes before I was planning to leave, two MORE workmen show up. To clear the drain on the deck. I was NOT expecting them. They said that a notice had been sent around. Well, I didn’t get it. It took me a moment to remember that I’d already paid a plumber back in September to clear the drains. So I sent them on their way. But Jesus Christ, if I’d had any inkling that the condo management company was planning to clear the drains, I could have saved my money!
I still had to pay for parking. I guess that’s not going away. I did a little random survey last spring, and none of my faire friends up or down the East Coast have faires that charge for parking. I have only EVER paid for parking at faires run by the Stickneys. I think that says something about their ability to make a profit from their shows.
I called Barbara when I got there, and she and Mike had already met up and were in the faire at Dave’s Donuts. I said I’d meet them there when I got dressed. I changed in the parking lot. It always takes a bit to get laced into the corset. By the time I’d gotten 100 yards into the gate I’d already seen several things that I hate about faire.
When I first got up to the ticket booth, once again there was a rope maze blocking my entrance. Now, I’m not a big fan of rope mazes anywhere, I don’t care if it’s the bank, the movie theater, or anywhere else that requires you to queue up. Because usually? There isn’t a line. And there’s no way to shortcut. You have to walk back and forth through the whole damn thing to get to the door. And in this case, once again, there wasn’t a clear entrance to the damn thing. I just ducked under the damn ropes. Then my path to the ticket booth was blocked by two huge and badly behaved dogs. The woman at the window on the end was waving at me to come give her my money, and I said, “You’ve got ropes and dogs in the way!” Grr.
Right inside the door, handing out programs, was Sarah. Who was supposed to be in the encampment with the Guild, NOT volunteering at the gate. WFTBBQ! Well, that might explain the e-mail from Stephen about how they were short handed. When I’d looked at the spreadsheet, she was supposed to be in camp every weekend. Then I got to walk past the pirate stage. Really? I’m OK with pirates if they’re good pirates. But the CTRF pirates? Are piss poor. Then I passed creepy dragon guy in his green pajamas selling ice cream from his cart. He just gives me the willies. *shudders*
So by the time I found Barbara watching Mike sitting in marrus’s chair getting his face painted, I had already seen a half a dozen things about faire that piss me off and was already seriously doubting my ability to have a good time. Then came the news that faire would be closed on Sunday to let everyone break down before Hurricane Sandy blew into town.
We stopped at Donut Dave’s so I could get myself a hot cocoa and a bag of donuts. Dave said that Bonnie was working the satellite DD booth over at the end of the other food court area. While we were waiting in line we bumped into Chris and her man. It’s odd seeing her too. He guy was funny, he kept switching back and forth between different accents. We walked towards the encampment and after passing three Landsknecht on the march, we stopped to hug Kristine/Pyrate and while we were in her booth, we got it straight from Eric’s mouth that the faire was closed on Sunday. “Patrons are coming up and asking me, your Facebook page says you’re closed Sunday, is that true? No, we always post lies on our Facebook page.” Turns out the Lions had actually suggested that the faire close early. Having seen the weather that did show up, I’m glad the faire owners took their advice. Plus, packing up wet canvas sucks.
Alena was the only person left in camp. I asked her if we were going to tear down Saturday night or Sunday morning? Because I wanted to be there to help, and either time was fine, I just needed to know when to be there. She said she didn’t know, she hadn’t heard that the faire was officially closed. I told her I’d just heard it from Eric, but she insisted that she hadn’t heard it yet, and Stephen was at a DMAT meeting and wouldn’t be there until 8:00 p.m. Eric was walking by, so I called him over to tell her himself, since I guess me saying I’d heard it directly from one of the faire owners wasn’t good enough.
I made a privy run, then we wandered down the other row and ran into Jess and the lovely Zoe (Heh, she looks like she’s grabbing my boob). After flirting with Zoe for a bit, we headed down the lane to find the shop and danctrf. Dan was playing with a zombie puppet and his eyeball. Their eyes are held on with Velcro and dangle off a little thread (optic nerve) and he was playing with his own eyeball, catching it in his mouth. Hee! We stayed and chatted for a bit and admired the wares at Geeky and Cheeky.
We bumped into Raven when we made it around the corner to the food court area. I was waving at Bonnie while Barbara was hugging Raven. I think that’s how she missed me, because all the sudden she’s like “Ah! Where’d you come from?!?” So adorable. She looked awesome, in her fairy costume in autumn colors. We stood around and had a nice long chat. But the part that cracked me up was when she suddenly said, in all seriousness, “Why aren’t you married yet?” “I’m not looking. “But you cook, you clean. Some man should snap you up.” I laughed in her face at that. Oh honey, what makes you think I cook and clean? I mean, it was well meant, she was trying to pay me the lovely compliment of saying that I shouldn’t still be single. But OMG did it come out wrong!
I did get lots of hugs during the day. But not nearly as many as I used to. My overwhelming feeling during the day was that I didn’t belong to this faire anymore. I mean, this is the faire where back in 2003 I had trouble making it to the pivies without pissing myself (after a two hour drive to faire, it’s my first stop) because I had to stop and hug so many friends. I laughingly whined about it on the old Voyforums, and the next weekend there was a porta-pottie right inside the front gate. I used to know all the vendors, all the actors, all the volunteers, and heck, most of the hard core rennie patrons. But it’s not like that anymore. I didn’t know nearly as many people as I used to. Things have changed quite a bit. It’s weird to no longer feel like part of the family. But then again, CTRF hasn’t felt like a family in probably five or six years. Nowadays criticizing the faire on a public forum doesn’t mean the problem gets solved the next weekend. Sometimes it means you get banned from faire. *le sigh* Nope, not the same faire it used to be.
Being in the encampment was odd too. Things just felt tense with everyone. When I first walked in, the only person was Alena, who didn’t seem to be too happy to see me. But then again, sometimes things with Alena are fine, and sometimes they’re awkward. I just sort of figured this was one of those awkward days. But when I saw Calvin, he was a bit standoffish. (But he might also have still been pissed at Alex for being so drunk/hungover the weekend before.) And while Alex was happy to see me, and gave me a small gift of a patch with the Guild heraldry on it, he also managed to hurt my feelings in the process. As he tried to decide whether or not to give me this mysterious something, he muttered, “You’re still a member of the Guild, right?” Um, I’m a fucking FOUNDING member of the Guide, one of the Fab Five dude. The present turned out to be patches that he had Veronica make, using the design that *I* created for the Guild banner. In general, I just felt WEIRD standing around camp. It’s like we didn’t have anything to say to each other. I didn’t hang around camp for very long.
We spent the day wandering the shops. But as usual, after 10 years as a rennie and now the shift to reenacting means I’m not buying new renn gear or replacing things when they wear out, there really wasn’t anything that made me feel the need to open my wallet. I ran into Paul D, who I don’t think I’ve seen since Pennsic last year. I don’t always see him at faire, even though he’s one of the owners. He’s like the ninja owner.
We ran into Beer Wench Brenda *SQUEES* and her man. It was so good to see her. I miss her TONS. We also ran into Scott and Cheryl from Crown and Feather/The Crow’s Nest. Apparently they’ve got a booth at King Dick’s now. They’re going to Birka, so we got to talking about that. Someone told them it’s a science fiction convention, so they were going to bring steampunk. I told them they’d do better business bringing their historical hats, and Scott was very grateful for the tip. They’re also trying to get into DragonC*n, but need a boothie as it’s up against both Maryland and King Dicks. I gave them my number and offered to play boothie for them. It’s not like I don’t already own six of their hats. And I’ve got geek cred, which helps when you’re flirting with potential customers. After that we kept bumping into them all day, in Tatterdemalion talking to Amy, in Geeky and Cheeky talking to Dan. Scott accused me of following him. I told him we were just always in the same place because it was where the cool kids hang out.
We tried to leave around 6:00 for dinner, but I don’t think we actually managed to get out the gate until 6:30. We ate at Gina Marie’s. While we were eating Stephen called to see what I wanted to do with my tent? He didn’t realize I was on site. I told him I’d be over there to help tear down. We hadn’t gotten our hands stamped when we left, so I drove up to the back gate to try to get in that way. There was someone at the gate, and I was all ready to explain who I was when he said, “Oh, it’s Julie.” It was Seth, so I just asked where would be a good place to park, that was out of the way. The joust horses walk right past where I was hoping to park, but it was OK, so we went in the back way and walked over to the encampment.
It took us a while to tear down camp, because nothing was packed up yet. Usually as soon as dinner is done, the smaller items get packed up. I don’t know what happened, if it was lack of bodies or if it’s because Stephen wasn’t around the herd the cats, but things were pretty disorganized. I grabbed my few items and stacked them. And helped to pile Betsy and Tom and Amanda’s stuff in the green room for them to pick up on Sunday. When the joust started, they turned the lights off, which made things a bit more interesting. And when the joust finally let out at 9:00 we had to stand guard to keep people from cutting across the corner through our space, since we had all manner of tent poles, pikes, and ropes on the ground that they could trip over.
Cars were finally allowed on site at 9:30, and we had the truck loaded up by 9:56. “German efficiency.” There were hugs all around, then I drove Barbara out to the parking lot to retrieve her car, and followed her to Manchester and our hotel room. We stayed up talking until 11:30, then slept in until 8:30. We had a leisurely breakfast at the local Denny’s. Then, since I had an unexpected day off, I drove up to Osgood’s. They’ve rearranged again, I had trouble finding the wool. Lots of it seems to be on the top shelves now, and inaccessible. Darnintall. Since I seem to have lost my starfish cap again I was hoping for some olive/loden wool, but picked up black instead. Then I drove up to Greenfield, but it turns out that The Textile Company is closed on Sundays. But that was fine, half the whole point of driving up that way was so that I could take the scenic drive home. Route 119 to route 113 is a twisty, windy, hilly drive past waterfalls and a covered bridge. It’s one of my favorite scenic rides, and one of the reasons why I miss the Vermont Renn faire so badly (it’s the route from Frogholm to Brattleboro, VT.)
When I got home I unloaded the car. I had planned to do housework and maybe a little sewing, but the Comfy Chair caught me instead.