The Mandelbear's Reading

The renn fair was fun but the day ended sourly.


As I told evil_little_dog if I woke up before the alarm I was just going to get going then. I did and I did. I wasn't the only renn fair bound person at that hotel judging by the peasant couple and the guy dressed like a gnome. This was the ideal hotel because it's 1.3 miles from OH-73 which is the road the fair is on. I got to the 71/73 intersection (which is how I usually go) It's 3.8 miles to the fair. Took 35 minutes to get there. It doesn't open until 1030. I'm in the ADA line and it's still closer to 11.

I know Jacque de Whipper is on at noon. I was going to shop around that side and go sit at 1130. Nope. It's 10 to 11 and the seats are nearly filled. I plop down. I watch the pirate acrobat/comedy show (cute), Magnolia and Judas' show. She sings Hildegard von Bingen while fire dancing. Her husband does one of those under water Houdiniesque escapes. they were fun (and if I dared to get up I might have checked out her cd sung in a mausoleum.

And the audience was into it. Very interactive. So much fun.

Jacques de Whipper is a stellar dude. One of the things he asked everyone to do was well yes tip him but he is doing SO well and there are others who just as good and not as well tipped. He asked us to be kind if we could afford it (I should have circled back when I was close to do that with the other acts but it was so damn muddy around the theater I was afraid of falling).

Jacques was a lot of fun. The song part of it didn't go as well as I've seen it at other places but that's on us and our requests. And he learned why you never sing out 'OH' in Ohio because the rest of us WILL loudly shout back I-O (thanks for nothing OSU). Unfortunately he also hurt his left wrist sword fighting earlier in the week so he was one-handed but that also meant he trotted out a flaming whip act he hadn't entirely perfected.

I did tip (and got a pin of him as a thank you) Sadly I couldn't get near him. I got the pin from his wife. Also he is very funny (and kept telling us to drink water thanks to all the thirsty comments his videos get. Dude is very attractive)

I hobble around to the falafel place shopping as I go (buying nothing). By now it's hotter than it's meant to be today. I get there and for some reason it's PACKED. (even longer line than I just stood in for the privvies) But the crepe place has NO ONE (which had to be worrisome for them because every other food stand is slammed) I get a spinach/feta crepe. A bit pricey but tasty. But between the heat and my sugar my brain chemistry is sliding. I know it. I feel it.

I also feel like a dummy because all week I kept saying put the powered gatorade in your purse. 'nah I'll remember' I did not remember. I could have used the electrolytes.

A lot of the vendors I used to know are gone, not all of them but a lot. The one thing I don't like with the expanded ren fest (and it was the reason a lot of people retired in 2019) is that they no longer have the rule it MUST be hand made by the vendors and we do get some imported crap. Not a ton but enough.

I found Uncommon Adornments, a place I've been buying from since 1997 (my first renn fest at this site) but this is probably the last for me. The prices are a bit outrageous now and I have one in nearly every style so... however those earrings are the first thing I bought that wasn't food or drink.

By the time I hit Ladysmith, my brain is swimming in sugar and heat and that is my explanation for why I spent so much on this 1920s looking silver and labradorite pendant (very pretty, too expensive). I wander in and out of a ton of places and I feel justified in moving this fest to every other year because I do have everything I want from most of the vendors.

I haven't been back to the leather dragon place in several years (but I'm wearing the purple dragon I bought long ago probably 2019) I couldn't NOT buy the dragon holding a book and a latte because it's me in dragon form (and it wasn't overpriced)

I took forever at the copper jewelry shop (used a jewelers torch to heat/decorated the metal) I wanted the space stuff but it wasn't as nice as the leave and then I saw the cat.

I drank some nice granny smith apple mead (I wanted to try the one with juniper berries and cranberries but it was on the drier side but they aren't doing samples so I went sweet) I was going to get a chimney cake (Kürtőskalács). I think they're yummy and fun BUT the line was like 100 yards long. Screw that. Besides it's now 4 pm and I've been here 6 hours.

And here's where things went sideways. It was cloudless and sunny so I put in my contacts for the first time in 6 weeks so my sunglasses could fit better. Welp this is the wake up call to do what I've been saying I was going to do for 3 years: prescription sunglasses (I was going to do it this summer but turns out Warby Parker won't do them for someone with my vision). My contacts were beginning to bother my right eye.

And just like the last few times I've worn a contact, my right starts freaking out so I pull my contacts out and get on the road. By the time I'm 20 miles up the road to the truck stop where I usually change out of my cosplay and pee. I grabbed gatorade, coffee and two popeye chicken meals (sandwich and a 2 piece with biscuit and it was still cheaper than that crepe) I remember when people got into fights over this Popeye chicken sandwich (it's identical to the KFC one but that one had more flavorful breading than Popeye's classic)

I go out and realize my eye must be getting worse because I parked like an idiot and I realized I couldn't see out of my right eye again. Thank god Old US 35 is almost empty always but by the time I'm in Chillicothe I absolutely cannot see anything but haze out of my right eye. By the time I hit here, my eye is redder than my Deadpool t-shirt and swollen so much I can't even fully shut it. Again. And naturally it's a weekend because if not I would beg my eye doctor to look at this NOW. Every time it happens, it takes so long to get in that it's half healed. My eye is watering so bad, I've had to blow my nose for 3 hours now. It's beginning to calm down but I still have this blown up to about 300% so I can see it. I won't share pictures tonight because my vision is too blurry. And it's not worth going to urgent care because they're not experts and I DO have steroid drops so in they go.

But I saw no less than two Alucard's from Hellsing, one Qifrey from Witch Hat Atelier and a Medusa with her stone victim. There was Jesus (complete with that red sash they love painting him in) and a Biblically accurate angel but I couldn't get my camera out fast enough. MY cosplay with that totally not renn shawl I bought at that other Medieval fair earlier in the month was an absolute hit. Almost no one ever comments on my cosplay. I get it. I'm older and not skinny/cute, kinda sucks but that's usually reality. So I was very pleased with that. It would have been a great day if my eye hadn't turned into an asshole with a hemorrhoid


also I know I owe a lot of comments back. Was going to do it tonight but can't for the obvious reason.