It's been a little over seven months since the last time I went to a renaissance faire Within the span of about a month there have been three fairly large snowstorms in Nebraska and I'm sick of it. I miss the days when I could go outside without at least three layers and still be perfectly comfortable, and I especially miss the special days when I get to dress up like a pictsie, fill my little jar with glitter and take my flutes out into the world and then see what kind of people I can interact with.

It's time to start counting down the weeks until the Nebraska Renaissance Faire--seventeen! I started last year's countdown when there were twenty-five weeks left, so I think not starting until seventeen weeks out is a slight improvement.

This faire season will be a little different from the others because this year because I'll be going into it as a young woman who has been in a wonderful relationship for over a year (it will be a year in April). I doubt it will change much. At least I hope it won't change much--I don't want to be one of those people who loses interest in everything around her just because she's got someone to love... We'll just have to see what happens, won't we?

I think I might not have wings this year as part of my Shaylee costume. The wings seem to get in the way and although I made some improvements to the ribbons that I use to keep them in place (ribbed ribbons instead of satin should help quite a bit), they are very good at catching on things and I don't want to have to spend a good portion of the faire fixing them like I did last year. It will still be Shaylee-- Shaylee started without wings anyway-- and people didn't seem to notice the wings until I turned around to point them out. Although they are pretty and took a while to make and went through a long process to arrive at where they are now, that's one hassle that could be avoided... and anyway, the Nebraska ren. faire doesn't have enough (any, as far as I know) of the Faery-folk who go about their lives without wings. Shaylee can become more like a cousin to the Green Man or something this way. 

Between now and then, there is so much that needs to be done. I am transferring back to my first college, and I need to continue working to build up savings for the eventual repayment of student loans and hopefully find a different job because the one I have is no longer working for me... and there's all that financial aid business.

For those of you who are interested, I am no longer studying music as my major area of study. The college music program doesn't really offer what I want because they are so full of the classical theory and stuck-up performance parts of music that the fun traditional stuff goes by the wayside. So I'm going to study psychology and try to figure out what makes people act the way they do. Not sure what I'll do with it just yet, but I suppose I've got all the time in the world to figure that out.

...Or at least I have because I don't want/ can't afford to travel until the next ren. faire in my area (Nebraska/ Iowa).

In the meantime I work at the library and try to keep from slipping into Shaylee mode so I don't scare patrons. I miss being Shaylee--I haven't played that character since the Nebraska ren. faire because I was Genna at the Amana Colonies faire (Genna's lack of wings makes it easier to travel with her). One of these days I might just randomly be Shaylee :) I don't think people would really be surprised, and if they would be they can just keep it to themselves.

The next faire I might possibly go to/perform in is Des Moines, and that's right in the middle of marching band season... and band is basically my major (I'm a flute performance major), and there's always work and class... rawr. So hopefully I can work out a way to at least go one weekend. It looks like band will take up the Saturdays of the first two weekends (bugger), but the third weekend should be free... I'll see what I can do and if I can get in. If not, then I'll just have to wait until May :( .... unless I make my own ren. faire, lame though it would be.

Anyway, that's a small update. Not much information, but I want my ren. faire friends to know that I miss them very much and look forward to the next time I get to see them, whenever that might be.

Have a good summer!

~Sarah/Shaylee/Genna

^_^

An update 8/6/09:

There will be no Shaylee in Des Moines this year... same as last year. I can't afford a hotel, even if I were to split the cost with my friend/roommie KC. I would so much like to go, too... Oh well. Between work and marching band (the pictsie plays a piccolo even when she's not a pictsie!), I suppose I need that weekend for a break anyway.

I will probably show up as a rather ineffective pirate on October 11 for the second day of the 2nd annual Pirate Festival at the Bellevue Berry Patch. I'll probably not bring my flute along, but I'll bring along the sturdier of my three instruments--Pippin the Plastic Piccolo and Flute the Tin Whistle. They're smaller, too.  So I'll get to perform in a costume just once more before the big expanse of no ren. faire between the pirate fest and the beginning of May. And then it will be time to work on being a serious musician! Or, as serious as I can be :)

Again, enjoy the rest of your summer. It's almost over for those of us who have school, isn't it?

~Shaylee/ Genna/ Red Anne the Ineffective but Musical Pirate 

10/5/09

Another update :) (I should really make a new post one of these times)

I will not be playing at the Pirate Festival. I'd had it arranged so I'd be there, and then I decided that a break from playing might be nice, since the week preceding the festival is consumed with marching band and flute choir and lessons and practicing for all of it. I'll still be at the festival and of course still in costume, but I'll pay my way in and just enjoy the day with my boyfriend (10-11-09 is the 6-month 'anniversary' of our first date) instead of entertaining everyone else.

So. Shaylee will return in May with the warm weather, hopefully.