Hell in a handbasket...

I need faire links.

I am asking the interweb, cause I am lazy. I need a whole lot of faire links, to places all over the west and possibly to points east. I have an old friend who is looking to get into the faire circuit and wants to travel and go to all sorts of faires all over.

If you know of a faire, no matter what time of year, anywhere, please do me a favor and post it here for me. If you are bored and have nothing to do for 10 minutes, toss a few links up.

Thanks in advance!

You freaking ROCK.


Premise: Sat morning, at 100fuck degrees, at 1:30 ish, I pack Cailie up to head home. I was solo with her, Col and Aiden at home.

Pack kid in wagon, head to Pale moon, buy new necklace (woot). Get to car, Cailie has fallen asleep in the wagon from the heat...

Some ASS has boxed me in.

When I parked, I was all alone. A merry Misfit pulled LEGALLY in front of me to park, like she/he should.

Then some ass customer managed to get around security and parked BEHIND ME.

There I am, standing in the parking lot, HOT as hell, sleeping toddler, looking at this white station wagon and trying to figure out how to make TNT or a pipe bomb out of the things in my trunk.....I prolly could have.

I call Derek, who hunts down the awesome Jose. Meanwhile, I manage to basically turn my car sideways in the spot and drive out between the Merry Misfit's car and the other car next to it. THANK GOD I OWN A VW JETTA. Awesome tuning radius.

Derek is talking to Jose, who now (it sounded like on the phone) has sicced security on this car. NOT hard. Look for the white station wagon behind the truck with the safety cone on top. there should be a Jetta-sized hole between it and the black honda that was correctly parked.

So, KUDOS Jose. While I'm in the parking lot in tears, you were willing to listen to my privateer brother babbling incoherently while trying to calm me down and get someone out to help me.

And to Parking lot 6 guy, whom I accosted on the way out to have him radio you and tell you I had managed to escape through axle grease and good luck, thank you. YOu had no idea what the hell I was talking about, but were fully willing to pick up the radio and yell for Jose to get his attention. Thank you too.

Older brother is up for the weekend. His birthday was yesterday, so he spent Sat and Sun at Faire, took him for Sushi last night for the big day.

Oh... my...gawd.

How do 5 people eat $200+ in sushi when it's mostly all you can eat for the basic stuff (cali's, spicy, etc)?

Thank god I wasn't paying.


Cailie was fascinated with the goldfish, ate all her miso soup, ALL the edamame except those I snuck out off her plate, and two Cali rolls. ("snuck" wasn't in the puter dictionary...heheh)

Aiden ate a bottle, I walked him around to see the fish, help him and ate with chopsticks one-handed and he fell asleep on my arm.

Older Bro will be on site for closing weekend, g-listing through the privateers. harass him. A LOT.

On the work site. Monday morning, period 1, 7:30 am, only 5 kids showed up on time to class. 5 more showed up late (I have 21 on my roster). The late ones I took to their AP, made them fill out their OWN referrals. We're 20 DAYS from the end of school and these kids still act like the world owes them something.

I have NO vacation time between the end of school and the beginning of summer school. Wait, let me amend that. I get Friday, and the weekend. Then 5 weeks of Summer school and 3 weeks of vacation. We're starting Aug 11 next year, a month EARLIER than normal, so things are gonna be screwy!

1) Buy a car that can carry a wagon, or buy a wagon that can disassemble and fit in the trunk.

or

2)when taking children to faire, carrying all of the following, while necessary, will break the parents...:
a)two camp chairs
b) small tent for child and small camp chair for child
c) two children, ages 1.5 and .2
d) carrying devices for both (like a snugli)
e) diaper bag packed with all food/drink/toy items for day
f) fresh clothes for birthday party that same evening
g) blankies and hats for all four people (two kids, two adults)

Mind, the children CANNOT carry anything much yet. hell, one of them is mostly still being worn as a prop.

Vicodin? Alcohol? Nope, breastfeeding and doing most the driving.

Thankfully, husband carried the tent (which is way smaller than the camp chairs). Mom at one point had both kids and both camp chairs ON her person. Dad was erecting a tent.

OK, I need to find a "storage" solution so I don't have to haul all this crap each weekend for run. any ideas?

Uhm....where are we suppose to pre-register?

I hate trying to find a pen to write with on site. Anyone have the link to preregister?


I looked. i got the class schedule (which HOPEFULLY will not change before Saturday!)

Any ideas?

Ok, I *KNOW* I found Chamber, L Southhampton, CSLADY, and a few dozen more.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRTJGl5_6PA


let's play "Spot the worker"

OK, this last week has sucked.

Collin came down with Bronchitis, and I'm terrified that  it may be progressing.  We already took him to Urgent care last Friday night for an Albuterol breathing treatment, and still he's coughing and achy.  Last night his fever went up to 102.

We had to take Scott back home last night (wed).  My last few days has looked like this:

Tuesday last, Collin got Sick, BUG started crawling (Holy cow, in case you didn't know, she's MOBILE!)
Wednesday was mostly normal.
Thursday we cleaned and prepped for faire.

Friday we went to G-mas after school and then took Collin to the Irvine KP urgent care.
Sat we went to Faire at his insistence because we had a preplanned gig.  Were there until 12:30, when he started hacking and I took him home.
Sunday we slept in, but he was getting antsy and we hit faire by 2:30 for last day.  LAst day rocked, but everyone split and I didn't get to say goodbye to most of my friends.  I love you and I didn't get enough hugs.


Bug was crying most of Sunday night (from stress and from trying to process info), and I didn't get much sleep.  Col would cough, wake her up or she would cry and wake everyone up.

Monday I was a zombie.  Literally I dragged myself through the day, went home (barely made it alive) and crashed for 2.5 hours....with Col waking me up!  LET ME SLEEP, you beast!

Tuesday I worked, then went to Irvine to take of some business and see Grandma, then went home at like 10:00.  Tried sleeping again.  No luck.

Wed, drove out to the desert to drop Scott off.  Got ther an hour late because of Traffic in Redlands, then food wasn't ready.  StepFather drunk, stupid. Have made decision that if they want to see her, we need to meet mom in the middle or they need to come to us so he's sober.  No drunks near my daughter.  EVER.

I had to get up at oh-dark-100, work all day, Drive to desert, drive home, get home at like 9:30-10ish.  Collin still sick, bug still having nightmares.  I think the early morning quakes woke her. she was SCREAMING like she fell or something.

I need a vacation. I need sleep. 

Guess who volunteered for SUMMER SCHOOL teaching for 3 weeks.  I need the $2000 for "extras, and it's only 3 weeks, but right now I just want to DIE.

Oh, yeah, and we have teardown this Saturday.  I may end up taking Col to the hospital again to see if he has gotten worse.

Does anyone want to trade lives for a week?  Preferably someone headed to the bahamas?

Ok, don’t shoot the messenger on this.

 I’ve begun to notice some things about faire that worry me.

 1)      We’ve become too comfortable with each other.

2)      We’re forgetting “The Show” at times

3)      We’ve become too complacent

4)      We’ve become comfortable doing things OOC.

Let’s look at this one line at a time:

1)      We’ve become too comfortable with each other.  Basically, we’ve created the best damned friendship and family network in the world.  We know each other, we love each other.  Unfortunately, that means we tend to be TOO familiar with each other.  I KNOW

igiggedwitdanny has talked about this, and most of us have mentioned it, or thought about it.   We need to start realizing that we need to introduce ourselves, reverence those who need it  (I was walking site Sunday and someone reverenced me.  I freaked.  I’m middle class.  I FORGOT that!), etc. 

 

2)      We’re forgetting “The Show” at times.  I cannot count the number of times I see nobles without servants or escorts.  This is across the board.  Middles alone or with a partner/husband is fine, peasants are everywhere and often underfoot, but to see a wall of velvets with no servants ruins the effect.  Also, seeing one or two noble ladies without an escort or a servant actually gives me heebie jeebies.  I don't even know why, and I want to escort them back home as a middle class woman.  I feel weird having them loose on the streets.  This also applies to people doing things, or asking others to do things COMPLETELY out of character.  (Finish line crap)  Why didn’t they grab a peasant, like

chamberpotts, or a QG for that task?

 

3)      We’ve become too complacent.  We’ve come to expect to treat each other in a certain way from the friendliness we have, and we forget that we CAN’T act that way, yet we do it and get use to doing it, and can’t figure out how to stop. This ties into the OOC thing

4)      We’ve become comfortable doing things OOC (out of character for you non gamers).  I keep reading about finding Ladies in the Bell, I keep finding peasants sitting near the queen, I keep finding just weird things that feel out of sorts for me and sometimes I can’t place my finger on it.

 

If we become too complacent, the quality of our show degrades.  Customers see us as pretty with no depth (I hope not, but I could see it happening)

 

If I am WAY off base, tell me here.  I’m really worried about this, because I love my family and don’t want to lose it.

Dammit, I MISS camping!

 

OK, Sat morning was hell,  Trying to get all four of us and the baby moving in the same direction at the same time.

Finally get to faire at like 9:15ish.  get dropped off at front gate, scram in with bug and stuff, help setup at Ives.

Morning was pretty normal. Was suppose to participate in Hocktide, was told it was going to be delayed, happened while I was at FOF getting FBI stuff.  drat.

Then had lunch, the stress of "them" etc.  Nothing seemed "on" for Saturday.

Guild BBQ was after hours. THAT freaking rocked.  I love my guild for it's ability to be a family.  We had 2 day old smoked pulled Pork, Ribs, chicken, and more types of salad and snackies than should be allowed.  Finally got to sit and chat with people from OUTSIDE Ives, since I've been pretty much stuck there with Collin and Bug because of our need to be near her supplies.

Scott's B-Day was Sat. Night, so that made the weekend nice for him.

Sunday was different.  We had a good set of small gigs, Nice to have people back at Ives that weren't there from Sat's committments.  I missed Shakey and Southhampton, even though I rarely get to see them.

Lunch was short, I then napped in the street with bug.

Then the Tavern thing.  I really was lost as to what was going on there for most of it.  Thankfully, the baby sling is washable Muslin.

After hours was rushed.


then MONDAY I woke up in agony.  I was Sore from head to foot for NO reason (i couldn't even get in on the dancing because of baby, I cannot wait until she can stand!)

I felt like an elephant was standing on my chest.  I don't get it.  i don't have Asthma, Or allergies, yet I felt like everything shut down.


Then We found out the bank pulled $500 from our account. We depostited a check in MARCH, and they "lost" it, and owed up to it. Asked us to get another check, but then there are all sorts of miscommunicaitons and we didn't seem to know what they wanted...so without warning (no letter at ALL) they just pulled it back out,.


I had to go over there and hopefully, get some of that crap straightened out.  They want me to get another check from that same person (who had already stopped the first, BTW) and just re-deposit.  WHY THE FREAK didn't they just say that?


Grrr. Now I'm at work.  One of my LOVELY friends found a way to sneak around the district's firewall and let me onto  "restricted" websites from work (like facebook, or any game sites).

See, my stupid district BLOCKS game sites, because they don't understand the difference between Grown ups and little people.

4 weeks left.

I think I need hugs and affirmations from my families (all of them) . i am so regretting and hating having faire end this fast.

Ok-

This Saturday Only.

I'm hosting a WTF were they thinking contest.

I'm gonna post pictures backstage of Ives, prolly on the passthrough.

UNderneath the shot will be blank paper.

PLEASE feel free to come by and write down...

"WTF were they thinking" comments.

for example: tell me what you think they are thinking of from the pictures you see.

Please include "WTFWTT", name, and where I can HOPEFULLY find you!  I may (or may not)  have pressies for you.


That is all.

Ok-

This weekend, The Older Brother (tm) is coming up. He's gatelisting with poor

ner0sputnik

 

 for both weekends (I thkink Derek the dumbass discussed it with him for both).  He's gonna be either in Talisen's old costume or in Derek's oldies (you know, the original set).


Anyway, we're a treat for the poor boy. He spends all YEAR talking about how he's going to get to come up and "do faire". He's a bit stuck in the middle of nowhere (he lives in the true ass end of space in the desert) so we're kinda the highlight of his year.

Saturday is his 35th birthday.  He will basically be surgically grafted to Derek's hip in the privateer's hijinks.

Please, please, please feel free to torment the hell out of him.  He's getting language crash course from Collin, Derek and I for three days, and we're teaching him the reverances, stuff like that.  I may force him to dance up at Ives if peregrinjohn is willing to get us a dance set with Marsha.

Here he is in costume so you can recognize him, even if you don't see Derek...

You ever have one of those days.

The type that actually started the night before?  And makes you so frustrated that you just can't talk about what went wrong?


That was yesterday.  I had a crappy Monday night, and was convinced the whole world was against me.  My job is...well, my job. They've screwed everything up here again.  Testing was "adjusted" again. I hate Governments... get out of my classroom!

I realized that my daughter is 7 months old, and I've missed half of her life.  She sleeps (alot) and I work when she is awake. The only times I get her are from 4:30-9pm and weekends. Of her life, the only constant is her daddy.

Now, I know this is new mom talking, but I'm convinced she loves him, not me, at all.

I told you, I've had a crappy day.  It's not getting better.  Now it's Wednesday, I'm back at work (yesterday was so bad I called in dead) and all I want to do is sit here and cry.

I need massive hugs this weekend.

And Possibly Lambic.

Ok, as far as Faire went, this weekend was a no-go.  We planned on being out on Sunday, which I sorely missed, but, Alas.


Saturday rocked.  We went to Burrito Nite (TM) on Friday, only to find out that no one else was going...No problem.We went to www.TacoRosa.com  's  for dinner.  Man, I love that place.  It's more expensive than their fast food Taco Mesa, but the Lobster Bisque....yummies.

Kept dropping hints that we had to go to Palm Desert in the Sat Am to visit my Grandmother who is in the hospital (she is, again, btw.  2 mini strokes Friday. She's Dying, we know it, get over it.)  

Grandma kept hoping we'd "make it back on time" for her party.

Sat Morning, we get up dress bug, Pick up Colin's Dad at ONT airport, Drive home, get some stuff, drive to OC, ect.  Get down, Surprise the hell out of Grandma with her son soming for her 80th b-day (like that could be missed!)

Great Party.  shinyevil, Fish, the_lessaand massive family amounts.  Good food, Fish grilled, etc.

Got home at like 11 pm.  

Sunday morning, Collin's throat was raw.  Cailie bug fussy from people overload (shots still making her weird. Should be over by today, knowing her history.)  

Collin refused to go out, saying he fell like crap.  Promissed me two full days either this weekend (5-6) or next (12-13) which is my older bro's b-day, btw.  if you see him gigging with derek, he's fair game. he's wearing Talesin's old Pyrate gear. PLEASE torture him.  This is his second year doing a weekend pass through the Privateers, and he's in LOVE with this place!

So. All I have to do is survive this week of the children doing as little as possible and we're good to go.

Collin's dropping Dad at the ONT today. Tonight, I'm making Cailie PANTS, because the monkey decided to try crawling last night.  SHe may have to get a new outfit so we can kilt up/button up the skirt for crawling.  Must be hard in skirts for a little one.

Guys,

Thanks! You REALLY make my weeks.  Most of us have a love-hate relationship with their jobs.  I have a love hate relationship with all 165 of my students.

Last week sucked.  This week is the dreaded STATE TESTING (tm).  I detest this test *More on the reasons tomorrow*.   Anyway.  I'm testing in my 4th period class, all sophomores, of which, 17 of 26 are failing or at 65% or below.  Failing is 60%, but all it takes is one week of screwing up and booooooom. Grade fall down.


You guys make it worth it. 
chamberpotts, I love you. Screw off (hehehe).  
igiggedwitdanny, thanks for the hug and support Saturday morning. I needed that.


Whores.  OH MY GAWD.
cslady-hugs.  Cailie Adores you.
towering_tart- Thanks!

My daughter is in love withall of you. Now I know she will never fear clowns.


Seriously, each spring as spring fever kicks in an teenage hormones go nuts, and we teachers spend 90% of the time acting more like cowherds than Socrates, you guys give me a reason to go to work each day.

no work=no weekends=no Faire.

(ps, I heard about the ball and chain bit. Need to see picts!)
Love you all.

http://garyayala.smugmug.com/gallery/2724775#144562302

http://tomyi.smugmug.com/gallery/2706431#143817802-L-LB

Thank you, Danny!