Thursday night (which was technically when our weekend began because we both took Friday off to take a day trip up to New Haven and eat pizza), we arrived home from dinner, went to turn on the lights, and:
nope.
Our first blackout of the season, whee!
Have to say, I can do without another week-and-a-half-long power outage that requires trips to the city with thousands of animals and more or less just the clothing on our backs, but mini-outages? Now that the past year has transformed us into Responsible Homeowners who stockpile things like high-wattage flashlights, extra batteries and Red Bull (to swap in for coffee, because power outage or no I require morning caffeine)?
They’re still annoying, but also sort of romantic.
We put Indy to bed at 8PM, and decided that the blackout presented the perfect opportunity to get straight into our own bed with candles and the latest episode of Breaking Bad on Kendrick’s iPad. We had gotten all excited about this idea and were just about to get settled in, and then everything single appliance and electronic device in our house suddenly beeped simultaneously.
Lights on.
So we watched Breaking Bad on the actual TV in the living room the way we usually do, with breaks every five minutes because I have the attention span of a gnat and can’t last until the next commercial before realizing that I need to eat an apple/make tea/check my email/do that thing upstairs that I forgot to do and has to get done now. (Kendrick loves this, as I’m sure you can imagine.)
Fun nevertheless.
OK, now we need to talk about Renaissance Faires, because this is a new one for me. Before we arrived at the Tuxedo Park fair on Saturday morning (and I mean morning: thanks to our tiny blonde alarm clock we were out the door by 8:30 and at the park the second it opened) I totally didn’t get it – I mean, I remember going to one when I was five or so and carrying around a toy hobby horse decorated with sparkly streamers, but I didn’t recall much beyond that. I sort of pictured a regular old country carnival with funnel cakes and roller coasters, plus a handful of people dressed up and talking in accents.
Nooooo.
Very much not like that.
Very much cooler.
The best part is that everyone – really everyone – gets so into it (well, maybe not our son in this particular photograph, but this was during the just-woke-up/just-arrived/overwhelmed stage; five minutes later he was happily running around). When we got there the first thing we did was sit down to eat turkey legs at the communal table (obviously). A guy sat down next to me, so I slid my camera and purse closer to me to give him more room, and he leaned over and said, “I’m not a pirate, milady. I’m a pirateer. I work for the Queen.”
And he was dead serious, and completely expected me to respond. I’m not sure what he wanted me to say, exactly, but it probably involved an accent and a poker face far beyond my capabilities, so I just said, “Okay, thank you.” And every time you tip someone, they scream “HUZZAH!” in your face, which sounds terrifying and is actually really fun.
There are so many other great things at Renaissance Faires.
Like those TURKEY LEGS. Yarrr.
Dragons floating in ponds.
Camels!
Chocolate-covered bacon. (Which actually wasn’t as good as you’d think, but that’s okay: still good.)
And…finally…
The Sword in The Stone.
Good try, sweetheart! So close.
(This is my Instagram-filter version of an Old Tyme photo.)
For those of you who’d like to go, three pieces of advice:
1. Plan your trip now, because the last day of the Faire is Sept 22nd.
2. Shoot to arrive really early – preferably at 10AM, when the grounds open. We arrived then and had about a five-minute wait to park; people who came around midday waited on line for over an hour before boarding the shuttlebuses and then discovering another huge line waiting for them before they could get in. Also, it seems to get sort of rowdy as the day goes on, so if you’ve got small kids with you the first half of the day is probably a little more your speed.
3. Oh, just dress in costume. It’s like showing up at a Halloween party in jeans: you can, I suppose, but why would you? I didn’t know that dressing up was such a big deal at these things, but it looked super fun, and I’ll totally bring along my corset next time.
