Gypsies Tramps and Queens (Part two)

After meeting up with Moueska, Tom and Gram we decided to head over to the main area to grab a bite to eat at the main concession area. I had been salivating over the idea of trying mead (a sort of wine made out of honey) and a turkey leg but the desire for a turkey leg dried up after waiting in line for some "healthier" fare (A portabella w/cheese sandwich for John and a BLT double Decker for gram) so I grabbed some chinese (sweet and sour Chicken) then hopped in the line for alcoholic beverages. A sip of mead and I was in heaven. A thickly sweet concoction taking very much like honey but definitely a wine.

While I was waiting in line for my mead and meal after waiting in another line for John and Gram my family watched the show of Nikolai's brother Adonni. It is an offshoot of the Maestro's group which goes for an old song and dance feel. My sister seemed to enjoy it but honestly I wasn't able to see it because of waiting in those lines.

After nibbling all of us wandered together over to a bench where the whole crew relaxed as we had been on out feet nearly the whole day. Up came the beggar-dog and the barber. Covered in blood and carrying eirie oversized scissors he asked the men in the group if they wanted their hair cut. Both Tom and John declined thenhe moved on to the next couple. Gram, Moueska and I all needed to go to the privy so we left the men at the bench while we got into the long line.

After getting in the lines all three of us wandered our way back. We were suprised to hear from John that we had left them there almost an hour (for whatever reason I think he was exagerating ;) ).

Moueska posted about the end of the day so I won't bother with it here but suffice it to say that I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back next year!

Gypsies, Tramps and Queens (Part one)

Last weekend Moueska, Drac, Gram, John and I went to Kansas City for The Kansas City Renaissance Faire. Moueska and I had been talking about going to see it for a long time after going to the Greater Saint Louis Renaissance Faire with a bunch of our friends.

Last year our brother got a leg up on us. Tarrith was so enthralled with the faire and hearing how much fun one of his KCAI (Kansas City Art Institute) buddies had that he decided that he would try out for it the next year.

So Tarrith became Nicholai Boleyn, Handsomest of the Gypsy Sons and the most sought after by women everywhere. Because of this I felt that a trip to the KC Renaissance Festival was in order for the whole Buritsch/Tonnelicci clan. Unfortunately the weekend my sister and I chose was a weekend that Dad and Kathy were going to Columbia to visit with the counselors there for my stepsister. When Moueska's boyfriend found out that we were going to it he begged and pleaded with me to come until I relented.

It was a major drive for John and I. I told Vickie, Tom and Gram to go ahead of us and get themselves checked in because it would be a total of a 5 and a half hour drive for John and I. We left Cape Girardeau around 4:30pm, grabbed a little something in Wentzville on the go and kept right on going. When we hit KC we hit some major construction meaning that the total drive ended up being about six hours for us, John was exhausted.

After getting to the hotel we found out that I had accidentally booked two hotel rooms as opposed to the one for John and I (Vickie took care of the rooms for her, Gram and Tom). The guy at the desk told us that it was quite commonplace and switched the hotel rooms around so that Moueska and Tom had a smoke free room and got rid of the smoking room they had accidentally reserved (basically getting rid of one room reservation). Right after we got into our hotel rooms John collapsed and slept.

Moueska and I decided to try and get out to the Festival about 10:30 at the latest. After not trusting the front desk clerk's directions (turned off an exit too early and had to backtrack to the highway to wait for the next exit) we arrived at the Faire. The night before I had called Nicholai (Tarrith) for directions for us to get in. Because he was an employee for the faire he got all of us free tickets. We were sent to the media entrance off to the side of the "Town Gates" where we were greeted like nobility and made sure we had something to drink (they offered us bottled drinks and such) told to sign in, given a guide to the shows and a program with a map.

Just outside of the media entrance we wandered out to see a great pole topped with ribbons where Queen Elizabeth was hosting a maypole dance for the little ones. Moueska and Gram got caught up in the faire booths almost immediately. John "dragged" me off to take a turn around the Faire town before he would let me wander to booths.

John and I stopped in the Pirate square for "MentalPause," a baudy show about women reaching the "golden years." After that it was close to time to see about meeting up with Tom, Gram and Moueska for lunch. John and I waited by the town fountain when we heard a great sound off in the distance. We look over to see a great processional parade with Nicholai way up high on stilts! By the time I had seen him I only saw his backside (not to mention he was on the wrong side of me). I called out his name but I had seriously doubted he had heard me.

John called my sister up on her cell phone so that we would know where to meet up with her. We told her to follow "The End" of the parade (written on the end of the executioner). John and I caught up with them at the Fairy Commons.

Because this is getting a little long I will post Part two (and probably also going to be a picture intensive post) sometime early next weekend.

Updates

Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I don't know if I have a very good reason other than trying to figure out how I'm going to fit work and college together. I've done that ok in the past but my grades always suffered as a result and I was never 100% at work (although I would never know if I was doing well there anyway).

1) Started classes August 21st. Here's my basic schedule

MW: 8am College Algebra, 9am Environmental Biology, 11am Computer Applications, 1:30pm Public Speaking, and 3pm Ballet III

F: 8am College Algebra, 10am Environmental Biology Lab, 11am Computer Applications, and 1:30pm Public Speaking

College Algebra is a three-time repeat. In my opinion it's make to break with this class.
Environmental Biology is a one-time repeat but this time it's with a different instructor and this seems to be making all the difference in the world for me.

Computer Applications is so boring that I wonder if I'm going to fail the class due to sheer boredom. Currently everything that she is talking about I know how to do. I know that there are some people going back into college after 10 or more years might have problems with computers but everyone in this particular class definitely has had a computer in their home at least for the last four years if not since they were little (like myself). What makes this class even more laughable is that she doesn't even acknowledge that there are other operating systems (like the one used on Macs like the one I'm currently typing this on).

Public Speaking is interesting and I am liking this class.

Ballet III is a fair bit better than I took Ballet II. She's just about as hard as the instructor from the first time I took Ballet II but has a better way about explaining the things we need to work on and applying it to each individual (who all have different body-types and experience levels).

All in all I think it's going to be an interesting semester.

2) I have been considering quitting my job since before I got married. At that time I had been looking for a job to replace Hobby Lobby, but the only one I interviewed for never called me back. I later found out that the person they were interviewing me to replace decided not to quit so they didn't hire anyone for that one. *begin rant* More recently I've been critisized for minor stuff by my head manager. By minor I mean not having the return slip finished by the time he got to my register or not knowing what is on sale. I'm sorry but as it's the first day I worked since the sale began I'm not going to know every single item that is on sale. I do try to check but I can't see everything in one quick glance. Does he want me to move fast or does he want me to be overly cautious causing backups.

The final straw really had to do with requests off. In general a part-time cashier is always scheduled on Saturday. You can put in a request but if they are either consecutive there is no guarantee that you will get both weekends. My family has been planning on visiting my brother, Tarrith at the Kansas City Renaissance Faire (he's going to be one of the strolling characters) and when we set the date barely a week later I find out that John's high school reunion is the weekend before. I put the request in and this week when I checked the schedule yesterday I found out that he has scheduled me that weekend anyway. I had mentioned that I had given him a note telling him that I wouldn't be available either day and he said to me "it wouldn't be fair to give you two weeks off in a row." I didn't try to make it that way, it just happened that way. I guess I could back out of the family event but I was the one helping to organize this event and it would have been unfair to the rest of the people to back out on them, not to mention I haven't even seen my brother since my marriage (I rarely have the chance to see him and it's going to be even less since he lives in Kansas City now). At that point I let it slip that I was planning on putting my two weeks notice in siting my classes as the reason. After I got of work I was thinking "what have I done?" *end rant*

I already had backup plans. For the longest time I've wanted to volunteer at the new children's museum in town, but haven't been able to because of having to work on Saturdays when they need the help the most.

John doesn't have any problems with me quitting my job as long as I do something with my time. Volunteering at the children's museum would fill that requirement.

Travels, travels, and more travels...

John and I have been in Costa Rica for the last week for our honeymoon. We´ve got another two weeks to go. We´re currently getting ready to head out to La Fortuna and Volcano Arenal. I´m hoping to take a dip in one of the hot springs and maybe even climb through a cave! A couple of days back we visited Drake bay for two and a half days. We hiked through the only National Park in Costa Rica with primary rainforest (meaning the forest hadn´t been cut down for logging, plantations or anything like that). John ended up near heat exhaustion by the hiles end. It was a good thing we needed to hop on a boat to get in and out of Corcovado National Park from Drake Bay. I´ll be sure to set up an account with one of those photo services so that I can show you all the pictures (well, maybe a good deal of them) when I get back.

Running Around Like a Chicken with it's head cut off...

This week is going to be the craziest I've ever head. I need to get all of the house cleaned up and then clear out the garage, drive all around to pick up the last for my wedding outfit and get final number to give to the guys at the Rose Bed Inn. *sigh* This week is goung wayyyyy too fast.

I miss mom...

I'm going to go off of my usual fare of talking about links that I find interesting to mope a bit. Back in December 27, 2001 my mom passed away after a long battle with cancer. I had been working a long hard day at the Science Center and all I had wanted to do was take a nice, long bath and put my feet up. As soon as I got home I had seen the whole family there, including my Aunt susan (who was a nurse and had been in town for my grandma's 80th birthday) and everyone else. My dad took into the living room and pulled out a dining room chair and pulled out another one to sit right across from me. Then he told me. She had died around 10am while I was at work. They had said that they didn't want me to be bothered while there. I called my manager immediately therafter and let her know what happened and that I probably wouldn't be in for a little bit. She had told me to take all the time I needed. At the funeral I saw some old teachers who had been really close to us (one both my brother and I had at one time, she had always been there for our family despite mom's cancer coming about after she had been our teacher) and a few of my colleagues at work. One of them had met my parents before when I had been a volunteer in their gallery and had won an award.

Skipping ahead to this past week, I have been finding that without a mom beside you to help you guide the process of singlehood to marriage is an extremely rocky one. I have been way behind of getting everything together and there have been plenty of times that I wished I could call mom and ask her for some input on bouquets (which I know she could do, she used to work at Nettie's floral shop for a while) or to get her approval about the wedding dress. This mother's day has been the hardest one for me to deal with since my mom passed away. for ra long time it was just another day. This year mother's day is a reminder of just how hard it is not to have her here.

John and I have been discussing what we can do to memorialize her in the service and we have decided that we are going to have a chair marked off with some flowers on it and a note stating "En Memoriam: Jacqueline Bertha McComber-Buritsch" with a good picture of mom (maybe even her wedding picture).

Thought this was interesting...

A couple of days ago I head about a fellow blogger who is in the process of trading a paperclip for a house. The paperclip itself is not all that unique except it is red and was the paperclip he used to hold his resumes together. Among the trades is a clay doorknob with a funky face on it, a Coleman stove (which was later traded for a generator), and a recording contract for a a year in Phoenix (which is the current item to be traded).

The recording contract went to Jody Gnat, who apparently is someone wanting to break into the music scene. If you go to her site you'll have a chance to listen to her stuff. It's sort of like Ani DiFranco, but definitely also something different. She has the sort of voice that you can tell is not played with at all.

He even lets us, the readers, have input on what he decides he will pick...if he picks any of the options.

Go check it out it's interesting to say the least. I wonder how many people who are taking economics classes are discussing it. I know I hated my economics class but if we had had a case example like this I think it would have made for a more interesting class.

What Book are you?

No this is not some sort of online quiz. A couple of days ago I was watching "Farenheit 451" on the TCI channel and I got to thinking about the book people. They memorized and literally became the book. I tried to imagine what book in my library would I be so desperate about saving that I would search out these book people and become that book.

So I have a question to put to everyone, what book would you become?