Today we went to the GA Renaissance Festival. I preferred the MN version we went to a few years back, both because it was bigger and the art was much better. However, in MN they are very aggressive and in-your-face and that always bugged me. Here it's more relaxed and there's no pressure to be purists in the "good day my lady" and "ye are welcome" business. It was great people watching, too. I guess that "renaissance" really means "any possible costume you have laying around the house." There was the normal corset-leather boots-poofy shirts attire. But then there were also fairies, elves, Scottish kiltsmen, ninjas, hula girls, belly dancers, heavy metal rockers, safari tourists, fetishists and such. What a mixture! Like good patrons, we spent lots of money on bad fairground food, watched fake jousts and petted the goats. After five hours we were tired, hot and sunburned.
Tonight we were supposed to see a backyard circus with burlesque dancers, fire eaters, sword swallowers and acrobats, but were too damn pooped to leave the house. The venue was this old, beat up house tucked into this strange wooded road off Memorial Drive. We actually thought the event was Saturday night, and it took us three tries to find the long driveway to where it was supposed to be. There were junk cars parked down the path, and a few dilapidated sheds, and some people knocking down some stairs with sledgehammers. We got out and asked, "Is there a performance here tonight?" "Tomorrow night," he replied, and resumed pounding his hammer. Well then. Change of plans. Instead we ate really bad Italian ice, stopped in a coffee shop, and then saw a cd release party/concert at the Star Bar, severely overdressed and feeling old. (It was still fun, though.)
After eating supper and hemming and hawing tonight, we decided to stay home. The ad was in the weekly events newspaper, and had the potential to be really interesting and good. But it also had the potential to be really, really amateurish and bad. After overdosing on crowds and spending too much money today, we didnt want to deal with spending the $20 cover and watching more potential freaks in some strange backyard. Maybe next time we'll plan better and save our energy for the fun, night stuff instead of trying to do too much in one day.
Tomorrow Jeremy has jury duty and it's the start of another busy week. Take care y'all. More soon.....