la vie en rose

Huzzah!

Fight fight fight!

Uh-oh...this is where that kind of talk will lead me:

"Hello. My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

"Stop saying that!"


Can I get an "Hola! I've come for your Aztec gold!" for all the conquistadores in the house?


On Saturday a friend and I went to the Medieval Faire in Port Gamble. She was also a History major, so it's a good fit (even though we're "in" to different periods - this is definitely her thing). I'll admit, I was excited to go, and a bit apprehensive. Excited because I like the whole "immerse yourself into another time period and culture" thing. Apprehensive because, well, you just never know what you're going to find at a Medieval Faire, besides a whole lot of "Huzzah!"

The 1st thing we see when we got on the shuttle was a couple of women in corsets, about ready to spill out of the top. We saw a lot of that, actually (thankfully no nipple). Goth pirate fairy wenches are not historically accurate portrayals of women in the Middle Ages.

The members of the Society for Creative Anachorism (the group that put on the festival) were not of that sort, however.


We saw demonstrations on lace-making and weaving, cooking (including trying a delicious cheese biscuit made from an actual medieval recipe), Viking food, blacksmiths, singing and dancing (wow - the dancing was so lame back then. Step 2 to the left, now 1 to the right, while holding hands. Let's walk through the audience!), illumination and calligraphy, weapon throwing and archery, and of course the armored battle scenes. Everyone was so knowledgeable about their persona and their skills (and my friend and I definitely put them to the test with our questions). Here is a spinning wheel that a woman's husband made for her for Christmas. The quality of it is amazing.


I was looking at some of these people and wondering if their friends and co-workers know about their secret medieval lives. For some I bet it's easy to figure out - they've got long man hair, they play Dungeons and Dragons, their houses are decorated with crystal balls and celtic blankets. These are the people that waited in line for "Lord of the Rings." There's an element of fantasy thrown in to the whole Middle Ages love fest - real events with a touch of Camelot. But, hey, why not? We'll never be able to actually experience what it was like to live in a different place, in a different time. At the end of opening court, the queen has to make an announcement that everyone make sure they're wearing sunscreen. In the midst of the epic battle, the judge interrupts to say that the Washington State Patrol is towing cars parked along the side of the road. It's like suddenly the lens is pulled back and you're snapped out of whatever world you were imagining. So why not make it a little fanciful? This is escapism, pure and simple.

These are people that got teased mercilessly in school. These are the nerds. And so I can commiserate with them, and maybe envy them a little. On my 1st day of 9th grade at my new school in Spokane, I was petrified (I didn't actually go on my "1st" 1st day. I sat in the car for a long time and then told my mom I wanted to go home). I wanted to be liked. I had been in the advanced program in elementary school, I was a straight "A" student since the beginning of time, I liked to read, I had a crazy imagination, I liked to play dress-up, I was still sewing clothes for my dolls, and I didn't want to be ridiculed. I had some popular friends in junior high, so I felt I knew enough about that to just slide right in and make some friends. I still remember what I was wearing that day (green shirt with a little rabbit on it (I got it from Zumiez), Jnco jeans (come on - they were cool back then), and my Airwalks that I had switched the left shoe with my best friend's before I moved. This was the friend that, on my 1st day in 6th grade when we moved to Lehi, pulled a chair out for me and said to Mr. A, "I want the new girl to sit by me.") I wanted someone to pull the chair out for me again. And someone did. Her name was Kathy. She was a nerd. She was one of the nicest people I had ever met. She invited me to eat lunch with her, but we had different lunch periods. We never became more than casual friends - we had a few classes together throughout high school and she was in the class that I went to Europe with. And you know why I never really reciprocated her gestures? Because she was a nerd and I didn't want to do that anymore (don't worry - I realized soon after that I am also a nerd and always will be. Now I embrace it!). But here's the thing about nerds: they will let anyone into their group. They don't care, as long as you're genuine. That's what the people at the Medieval Faire were like. They wanted to include everyone, even if you're a goth pirate fairy wench. I was struck by how kind they were - men saying, "Excuse me, my lady" when they passed or women inviting us to come to the society's classes. I thought of Kathy while I was at the festival on Saturday. I was even looking for her amongst all the revelers. I would have told her, "Hip hip huzzah!"