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December 15, 2008

She was born upon the bright blue sea

notes on the third weekend:

I can carry a tune, but I'm not a particularly good singer. I'm pretty enthusiastic on stage, which I think squeaks me by with the Naughty Minstrels and with Paddy West. The carol singers at Dickens, though, are mostly really good/totally fabulous singers, and they seem sort of formal (not stuffy, but more proper than I usually play), so I was pretty nervous singing with them, especially without having rehearsed at all. I forgot that Bob and Terri Crabb are delightful, warm, silly, non-stuffy people. They don't seem to mind that I can't hit the high notes in "Carol of the Bells", and I can only hit the high notes in "Silent Night" when I am totally warmed up/don't have a cough, or that I don't know about a third of the songs, and when I do, I only know the words in Latin. We sang "Joy To the World" tonight, and during the "...and heaven and nature sing..." part, I had a moment of complete and total happiness. Thanks, Mr. G. F. Handel, and thanks to Bob and Terri and Mrs. Sharon Collier, who's a delight to work with.

Monique W. has been so kind and charming about me not knowing she's a twin. It's so obvious now, but I was SO CONFUSED before.

Last night I had wriggled out of the Prison Mattress Ticking dress and was about to get into my civvies, when the lovely costume mistress of Postcards walked by and said, "Well, if you're going to wear that, you might as well come and be in Fun Below Stairs." So I tore off my petticoats, put on some lipstick, and made a mad dash backstage to be part of the Naughty French Postcards participants' show. The regular Postcards show conflicts with the last Paddy West set, and I'd made the painful choice to sing rather than run around with my naked homies. I can't tell you how happy it made me to be greeted by my scantily clad comrades. Thank you so much, Sarah, and to Mrs. Boffin, who gave up her spot in the tableau for me. Spoon!

I've "taught" a bunch of little girls how to knit over the run, but Pappy's daughter took to it last night like a duck on a junebug. I felt bad that all I had to teach her with was some gorgeous but splitty worsted on #5 DPNs. She was tense and made a lot of mistakes, but she seemed to like it, so I brought her some Malabrigo and my only pair of straight #8s, and, as I suspected they might be, her first 12 rows were nearly flawless. No, really. If she keeps up, she'll be better than me in six months.

This is a crappy picture of me in my new hat, taken Under the Influence on my iPhone, but the colors are just right.

We were only going to do two weekends of Fair this year (I know, shut up), so I didn't turn in any paperwork for Dark Garden. Despite that, I still filled in for someone first weekend. I didn't wind up being used, but it was absolutely lovely to be asked to stand by in case of emergency again today. (And I bought as many raffle tickets as I could afford. GO ME!)

Little kids usually loathe me (I think they know the feeling is mutual), but for some reason, Tyler Anne seems to find me a kindred spirit. Likewise, you little blonde monster.

Every morning during the first Paddy West set, Mr. Scrooge comes by and threatens to take the whole ship away if he doesn't have his loan repaid by 3:00. Scrooge, of course, has a lovely redemption every day, which doesn't happen in our area, but today he stopped by during the second-to-last set in the breezeway, and sang the most gorgeous, loving song I've ever heard. I was in the kitchen with a gaggle of charming young ladies, so I only had one ear pointed at the stage, but the joy and the pathos read perfectly clearly all the way across the bay.

How is it fair that Jessa is so unbelievably hot AND so nice AND is such a good cook? The pumpkin and pecan thingies were almost as delicious as she is herself.

The last song set today was perfection. Our Learless Feader had run off to get a libation, and everyone else, anxious to keep singing, did an impromptu performance of "Billy Bones". Both Nathan and I nearly swooned when the leader of Cap'n Dan and the Mutineers decided that we should sing "Dark Lady". Steve and Anna reappeared and announced that we'd sing "Billy Bones". I wish I'd had a camera to capture the look on their faces when it was revealed that it had just been sung. So then we sang "Dark Lady", which is my favoritesonginthewholefuckingworld, and I was nearly perfectly happy, and then Nathan stole my suggestion to sing "Spanish Ladies", so then I had to suggest that we sing that song about Old Maui, and then we sang "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor", and half the audience was dancing and Sharon led this sort of weird Victorian Conga line, and I had a moment of absolute and total and undeniable happiness (if you know L.M. Montgomery, you'll know what I mean when I say I had "The Flash"), and I didn't think I had any voice left after the Great Carol of the Bells Massacre of Ought Eight, but I sang my guts out, and then later when we were changing, Ryan said that he could have kept singing for hours, and I couldn't have agreed with anybody any more, ever. I'm just glad that crazy Steve H. didn't make us sing "Rolling Home, because I would have cried buckets, even with Rick in his batshit-insane pink dress.

And then we got home and found out that we're going to be grandparents. OMFG.

Posted by Kate on December 15, 2008 1:08 AM

Comments

Posted by: grace at December 15, 2008 6:32 AM

Posted by: Rachel T at December 15, 2008 9:43 AM

Posted by: Jes at December 17, 2008 2:09 PM

Posted by: Bob at December 17, 2008 5:59 PM

Posted by: Artemis Rich at December 19, 2008 2:18 AM

Posted by: Artemis Rich at December 19, 2008 2:20 AM

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