Wow am I tired…
It was a very long weekend. I left early from work Friday, to head to St Louis for the closing weekend of the St. Louis Renaissance Festival. Overall it was a good time. Saturday was a hot one, and Sunday rained off and on all day. The drive down wasn’t bad, I took me just about 5 hours, I had planned on meeting up with seeliejon on the road, but due to some stupidity on my part, and some semis in the way, I couldn’t get off at the planned rest stop. Instead, I ended up meeting up with Ray while on the road.
After we arrived in St. Louis we checked in and proceeded to hold a cookout behind the hotel. Brats, veggie burgers, pasta salads, and assorted chips and things. After it started getting dark, and buggy some of us went up and hung out in lifeonwrys hotel room goofing around until after 11 pm.
Saturday a was a bit of a scorcher, and like Bristol on such days, the patrons seemed to be in a daze… They were interested mostly in beer, and not much else. I managed to get a few laughs out of people by offering them great deals on shady seating. “Today only! Free shady seating to people wearing __insert item of clothing here____” “Act now and I will even throw in a Seelie Court show”
After faire a ton of us went to a local Chinese Buffet. The food was decent, the service wasn’t terrible, but they really had no clue how many of us were there, and subsequently decided 5 people left without paying.
Sunday, on my way to the faire I was stopped by the local police. I was of course in full garb already… I have to wonder what the initial thoughts of the officer were when he looked in the car and saw me… Thankfully he was very friendly, and decided to not give me a ticket as long as I promised to be more careful about my speed. We exchanged pleasantries, discussed the faire and the weather a bit and then he left.
The overall mood Sunday seemed melancholy. Many of the cast had attended the cast party the night before and had over indulged. Toss in rain off and on all day and the fact that it was closing day, and things just seemed to be pretty low energy. Getting audience to show up at te shows was hard too. I did have one highlight interaction moment. I saw a playful looking couple waling along away from the stage, and decided to play with them. I crept up along side them, and matched their pace in my pirate saunter… I didn’t say a single word, just had a goofy smirk on my face… The guy and his lady kept shooting glances over at me… finally she snickered… so i chimed in to the guy, “So, where we goin?” “I’m just following her…” “Oh really? So If I was to say turn her around like this (I moved over and gave her the opportunity to stop me, she grinned and didnt, so I turned her around 180 degrees) , you would continue to follow her?” “Yeah, I guess so…” “Great!” So I steered her haphazardly towards the stage making him follow in nonsensical patterns… She was laughing the whole way… Finally I sat them down at the stage,a nd they actually sat and watched a few songs. A little heavy handed I suppose, but they thought it was funny, it amused me, and when they did leave they saw me, grinned and waved bye.
The rest of the day progressed pretty slow going… few patrons… even fewer interested in the shows… just a lot of the “I’m wet and cold…” crowd. By closing my feet were really starting to bother me and the general “its closing day” mood had pretty much permeated everything.
Over all it was a decent weekend though. Got to hang out some with friends who I hadn’t seen since last season, and other friends who decided on a whim to come down this weekend, and of course the friends I went with.
