The Lost Scrolls of 2023

Some stories don't make the original cut, those become The Lost Scrolls. Here are this year's...

Any chance I get, I like making double entendre jokes (You had a roll in the grass with your friend Mary Jane?), Then playing innocent-stupid (How ever did you get the grass stains out?) High up on a hill...With that kind of elevation, you probably had quite the view!

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There are people in this world you can't explain, and that person is Mio. She has shown up for Renfest events outside the season because she is such a fan of the renaissance festival world. I saw her during Aquatennial and didn't realize it was her until she pointed out the beads. She showed up to the bar night Nestor and I worked. She is the origin of the beads in my antlers. She's more than a fan, she's a friend.

She is a joy to see every time she arrives. It's not about the beads or the gifts - it's the love. She has the spirit of a festie and we all see it.

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Fauna Godmother

During the Labor Day weekend, there was a wedding reception letting out from the tent close by. This newlywed couple was a pair of brides in black toole ballgowns and crowns.

I took a moment to congratulate them both and they shared a kiss and I asked if I could bestow them a small wedding gift and a wish for them. I gave them a each a four-leafed clover and let them know that they clearly did not need luck because they already found it in each other. And as a wedded wish for them, I wish that they would, daily, find a moment of good in each other. Whether they are happy or frustrated, together or apart, they take at least one moment each day to remember the good in the other.

Being a fauna godmother is pretty cool sometimes.

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Match Game

This was a big year for performance turnover. The Pub Crawl got new hosts. The Kiddie Crawl had various hosts over the season - at least five by my count, and The Last Call show got a new hosting team with The Squires.

The Sidequest Players got to dip their toes in all of them. Peter the Printer filled in for the Pub Crawl one day. Clover and myself helped a couple times with the Kiddie Crawl, and on closing weekend, we got to be a part of the Last Call show. The Sidequest Players became a segment 'Match Game' Style.

It doesn't sound that exciting, but for us, we are a new act, and not tenured in experience like many other performers. To be given these small opportunities to shine and help our fellow cast shine, may be one of my favorite thinggs.

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Classic Nestor

There are things that happen during the festival day, and then there are things that happen outside of it. These are those outside stories...

After a long, hot Saturday of fest, Nestor and I had volunteered to do dishes and clean up in our camping group. We were waiting for everyone to finish eating, and Nestor was asleep in the lawn chair next to me. There was a good chance he fell asleep mid-sentence, mid-conversation (my sentence, not his). Classic Nestor.

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...And to think that I saw it on the Fest Lane

Before the start of the festival day, the booth is set up and we have a chance to say good morning to Ziltch the Tory Steller. Ziltch and I exchange observations on a chipmunk and it evolves into a story about something his wife experienced years earlier. Without getting into the whole thing, the main points are mice, garlands, baby mouse, baby mouse rescued, baby mouse funeral. What punctuates the ridiculousness of the situation is the three camels, three elephants, speeding fork lift, and pickle man with two tiny dogs that walk past us as this story is being told to us. The chain of events in my life that lead me to this situation to hear and see these things is something I cannot fathom sometimes...sometimes.

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When walking back to our respective tents one evening, Nestor and I walked by some of our friendly neighborhood Vikings. He 'knocked' on their tent door and offered them some cake. It's nice to have Nestor be a little bolder than me sometimes. Had it been just me, I probably just would have kept walking but he thought, "Lets see if the Vikings want cake." He was right, Vikings always want cake.

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