Chaos and Anarchy Reigns...

"Tentacles! Tentacles!" Ah, the sweet lulling chorus heard on the sound track to the new musical "Shoggoth on the Roof", based on the works of HP Lovecraft... Wow. Some people have waaaay too much time on their hands, made worse by having access to a recording studio.... Yikes, scary. Funny. Have to admit, it was funny. But scary.

Ahhh.... The weekend from hell, and from heaven. It was the opening weekend of the Hoggetowne Faire this weekend. It all started on Friday... I receive a frantic call at the shop, from the coordinator of the Gainesville Youth Chorus. They were having their big winter show on Saturday eve, and my lovely squire promised that we'd provide coffee. Lots of coffee. Well, my soon to be deceased squire neglected to mention this little fact... before he left for Seattle for a week... ::heavy sigh:: All right, no problem. I'll take care of it. If he promised, he promised.

Finished the morning at the shop, headed for the fairgrounds to help set up, then headed home for a shower and then off to work at the bar. A good little crowd was gathering at the house, as, apparently, half of the fair staff was staying at my place... I really didn't mind, but it was a tad bit crowded..., and they all decided to come visit me at the bar. It probably helped me keep my sanity, as I just wasn't in the mood to be there. It was made even nicer by the presence of Rabid Attack Sheep. I knew full well that she was coming up for the faire, but didn't expect to see her at the bar. In fact, she was partly to blame for my sour mood, in that she'd not arrived by the time I had to go to work, so I didn't think I'd get to see her until o'dark thirty. The night was fairly busy, and flew by fairly fast. I finished my cleanup duties as fast as I could and headed home. Everyone was, for the most part, still awake, and still partying. I would have loved to stay up, but was very tired, and only wanted to sleep. Poor Sheeps and I were kept up most of what remained of the night, by the noise, but they were worth a few laughs, at any rate.

The next morning was an early rising call, to head out to the faire. That was retribution time, as we got to wake the late-nighters. Several times, in fact. A couple of them were looking pretty rough... We finally left them to make their own way, and headed to the fair.

The day itself was pretty uneventful, though busy. One tidbit that absolutely must be shared. During the armored combat demo, which I announce, I decided to let the audience split up the fighters into two teams, to show them that it was definitely not choreographed. I asked the north side who they wanted on their team, and, in unison, they shouted "Not Judah!" I snarfed. When I asked the other side who they wanted, all they knew is that they definitely didn't want that Judah guy either. Wow. Harsh. So, that's his new battle cry. "Who do we want?" "Not Judah!" "When do we want him?" "Not now!"

After the fair, we ran home and changed clothes, and then Sheeps and I headed out to the school where the concert was, to start making their coffee. There was a brief stop at the shop to pick up supplies, and then off we went. The coordinator had told me over the phone that, "You can use our machines to brew. Last year he brought a couple of extra pots to make it go faster." Okay, they've got a couple of the large Bunn's, should be a piece of cake. NO. One, count 'em, one little Mr. Coffee 10 cup machine (which only makes a few cups, in the real world...) I left poor sheeps there to start the daunting task of brewing on the mighty midget, while I ran home and grabbed another one. (I'd have run to the shop to grab one of the big Bunn brewers, but they are wired into the plumbing, and are not portable...). We found a third machine in the teacher's lounge, so had them all going as fast as possible. The program committee hovered a little, but were nice, and tried to help where they could. Then the chair person showed up, the woman who'd call me in desperation in the first place. She was rather mean spirited, which surprised the heck out of me, considering she was getting free coffee. Free - expensive - coffee. I was forced to take several deep breaths and bite my tongue during her little tirade, and managed to keep my calm. The coffee got brewed, though slower than originally anticipated, and all was good.

We wearily made our way back to the house, where the popular thought amongst the guests was that we were all going to stay up and party all night. LOL! I knew better. Everyone was out cold by midnight. Sheeps and I decided that to be asleep before midnight on a Saturday eve was a crime, and meant that we were getting old, so we desperately tried to stay awake. We came up with "lillypads". To understand, you'd have to be a peer in the SCA, and be familiar with the old video game Frogger. To really understand, you'd have had to have been there. And you weren't. So there. We made it! We're not old. We stayed up late! Yay!

Sunday dawned bright and early, and it was time for another day at the faire. Ow. I hurt all over. Spent a good portion of Sunday standing on the archery line, acting as a live target. The little kids are the ones to watch out for, as they're the ones that'll hit you every time, and usually in a spot where you are wearing no armor. The adults couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, from the inside..., but the kids! Ouch.

It was another long day, getting shot at, barking the demo, and wandering around making sure the "peeps" were all right. Sheeps and I got to spend a little quality time together toward the end, and then it was time to pack up and head home. It had started to rain then, but was just a slight drizzle, and it had held off until the end of the faire, so I can't really complain.

We went home, got cleaned up, and went out to eat. After a brief dinner, it was time to bid adieu to the guests, get them on the road to home, and head home ourselves. I was exhausted, but stayed up until I heard from Sheeps that she'd arrived home safely, and then it was snoresville for me.

The weekend was long - but not long enough. It was tiring - and invigorating. It was frustrating - and pleasing. I am glad that it is over - but can't wait to do it again. (Without the whole "feed 200 people free coffee" thing thrown in the middle....)