A Most Pleasurable Fair…

This past Saturday, my dear husband and I found ourselves heading to the middle of nowhere to take in the sights and sounds of the Renaissance Pleasure Fair. Unlike the fairs with which I am most acquainted, the Renaissance Pleasure Fair exists as a village during the reign of Elizabeth I. Thus, for the first (and probably ONLY time), I found myself wearing Elizabethan clothes. Surprising, compared to my typical 15^th century Italian, they were rather light and comfortable. Of course, I was wearing some of Giles’s old outfits, so needless to say, they were not confining whatsoever. 

 

Strolling around the fair, I could not help but get nostalgic.  So many of the merchants and the performers reminded me of Renn. Faires past. I suddenly found myself as a young 20-something year old, wandering through St. Petersburg for the Bay Area Renn. Festival, feeling oh-so-carefree and oh-so-at ease. Then came the days of the Pinellas Park Renaissance Festival. Those early years of committing myself to several weekends in a row left me wanting more, more, more! More history! More projects! More learning! And thus, my interest in the SCA was born.

 

I find the Renaissance Pleasure Fair to be a fascinating entity. It strikes me as being a more serious version of the fairs that I have experienced in the past. Now, don’t get me wrong. That makes it neither better nor worse – just different. The fact that it really does focus so heavily upon the golden age of Elizabeth means that there is a lot more history involved not only in the characters and the research, but in the clothing. Indeed, it had to have been one of the best assemblages of accurate all-the-same-time-period clothing I have seen. Yet, there is just enough light-hearted fun to make it all enjoyable. Indeed, the bawdy singing had to have been about the rudest and most R-rated I have ever experienced at a fair!

 

Throughout the course of the day, we laughed, we drank, we socialized with ghosts of Paul’s past, and I got to observe a culture that is, for all intents and purposes, extremely foreign to me, being a good 100 years after what I am used to. All in all, the fair lived up to its name.

Skinny-freak Organicals!

The other day, I found myself shopping at Whole Foods in Irvine. I don’t really know what it is about Whole Foods, but shopping frequently turns into an “interesting” experience. Now don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy the items on offer at that store. The produce is just BEAUTIFUL, as is the ready-food areas. And don’t even get me raving about their beer and wine selections! But, as I begin to wander around the store, inevitably it occurs to me that I’m not shopping in Kansas anymore. Trying to find regular everyday items interspersed among the rows of bee pollen, nutritional yeast, and soap-you-can-see-through can be quite the challenge. Yet, even more of a challenge, is dealing with the people.

 

As I wander through the store like a lost pilgrim without a whole-foods-sherpa, I can’t help but notice the other people who shop there. Unlike the vast sampling of humanity that I find in most grocery stores, the hemp-weavin’, Birkenstock-wearin’ granola-guys and gals who shop at whole foods seem to have one thing in common. (well… besides the need for a serious fashion make-over, real shampoo, and some shared experiences at a Phish fest). They are all thin. Not just thin, but skinny. Actually, not even skinny – just as obese is to overweight, that is how rail-thin and unhealthy-looking a lot of these people are. And walking around the store, I quickly realized something – I seemed to be the heaviest person around.

 

Now this isn’t to say that I’m about to go on a typical guppy-lament about weight (although I really AM pissed off about losing two of my workouts a week, and gaining 15 pounds since switching to a County job!). It is to point out something – these people were really, really thin! WTF? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I just don’t subscribe to that whole zero-body-fat-equals-beauty philosophy that is so rampant in American society. I think that men really SHOULD have just a wee-bit of a belly. (not a “Dunlop”, per se, but a “Wee-bit”) It is not just normal, but (I tend to think) healthy. And women – I got news for you - you SHOULD have hips! (Not gedonkadonk-hips. Think J-Lo Junk-in-the-trunk) Women SHOULD have boobs! (Not hangin’ down to the knees like deflated volleyballs, but, you know, perky boobies). But when a guy and a girl go walking by me, and I can’t tell which is which based on the profile, I think there’s a problem. 

 

Leaving the store, I cracked open a bottle of sparkling blood orange soda and contemplated the surreal nature of the shoppers in Irvine. I may not be rail-thin, but I prefer looking like a human being. Besides, can one REALLY trust a skinny cook? 

 

You be the judge.