Sleep is highly overrated. I just spent a week at festival with little to no sleep and had an incredible time. I can sleep any time. How often do I get to sit up all night talking with friends or drumming around a fire with some of the best drummers on the circuit? Not often enough is the answer to that. Not often enough.
The drum has finally come to me. I’ve been waiting for a long time for it. Every time I was in a position to buy the drum, something would happen and the money would be needed elsewhere. Finally the time came for the drum to go home with me. I bought it from Panther Friday night just after dinner.
There were 3 bands playing in the pavilion that night and the drumming at the circle would follow immediately after. The night ends the same way every time. Dreamtrybe plays last and the last song they play is always “Come Down”. It has a very distinctive drum beat and they call up the community drummers to play with them while anyone in the crowd also plays along. All these drummers pounding away on djembes while the band plays. Very cool. From there they walk down to the fire circle and the drumming begins.
The band announces they have 2 songs left and I finally talk myself into going to get my drum from the tent. I’m sitting there waiting to play from my seat and as the last song starts, Cephlian comes off the stage to grab me and pulls me in front of the band. I was nervous because I hadn’t played this drum yet and wasn’t so sure I was any good. Hand drumming is very different from sitting behind my drum set. 2 seconds in and I’m an expert. I fell right in and played like I had been playing all my life. I was really happy about that being my first experience with my new drum.
The kitchen ran fine. Some people were irritated because we weren’t Burger King but we did our best to keep everyone fed and as happy as possible. I learned a little about how some people are very into how their food is prepared and won’t eat in restaurants because the cooks may be angry or depressed, putting negative energy into the foods. I’ll have to look deeper into that but it did make me smile a lot more and I tried to keep positive while preparing the meals after that conversation.
Next event I think I’ll be able to pull off the shopping myself so Dianne won’t have to worry about it. We’ll see how that goes. There’s also talk about doing away with kitchen staff and having a third party handle it. Whatever works best for the community. After all the shopping we do and comping in at least 6 people to run the kitchen, catering just might be cheaper.
Becca came out on Wednesday night. Aside from checking in with me, I almost never saw her. She found a group of kids and ran all over the site. There was so much for the kids to do that she was never bored or lonely. She also slept like a rock. She volunteered to help out and was put to work in the kitchen. She felt so natural there that she even spoke up at village council.
Village council is a Sunday morning open-meeting held at the kitchen pavilion where Wade gives a brief on the good and the bad from the event. When he is done, anyone from the community can come forward and pick up the talking stick and speak their mind. I was cleaning the kitchen and was facing away from the crowd but I was still listening. (Lots to clean up in the kitchen) After some people had come up and talked about cleaning the site, helping out with random tasks, not aggravating the kitchen staff and such, I hear a little voice talking about how “kids can help out too and that they should even though most of them didn’t this time. We’re here to help AND to have fun.” It was Becca standing there with the talking stick. She was so comfortable that she got up in front of 150 – 200 people to make a point. Mommy and Daddy were so proud.
Teresa also seemed to have a great time. She came out Friday night. She got many, many, many compliments on the outfit she wore to the concerts. It was the same thing she wore to the ren-faire but she wore the top part properly this time… She always feels so shy around people. To see her open up during festival makes me want to live there. I love seeing her in a social atmosphere where she feels confident. Everyone loves Teresa, she just doesn’t know it. Just ask her about the raspberry. She still blushes on that one. Our next goal is to get Teresa out there the whole week. It’s a much different feel when you are part of it from set up to break down. It feels like forever and when that week comes to an end, you want to cry.
It rained on Saturday night and they were expecting hail and tornadoes at midnight. We all (Me, Teresa, Thom, Kate, Zephyr and Scarlett) sat in the screen room of Teresa’s new tent and drank mass quantities of mead. (I love that stuff!) Around 11, the rain stopped and the drummers came out. We emerged from the tent to “check out” the drummers for a few minutes. The rains never came back and I came to bed around 4am.
Teresa and Becca left Sunday afternoon and I stayed over until Monday morning so I could finish packing up the kitchen. After most of the work was done I got cleaned up and went back to the tent for a break. I hear Teresa’s voice calling me from outside the tent even though she left 3 hours ago. She got home and got the messages on the machine and drove all the way back out to tell me that my father was going in for emergency surgery. After a few phone calls I talked to him and found out that he is OK and having his gall bladder removed. That man is running out of parts. He had his kidney taken out last year.
He told me he was in a hospital in California. He’s not, he just didn’t want me to drop everything and run down there. While I was on the phone, arrangements were being made to take care of my stuff so that I could just leave without it if I had to.
He went in around 6pm Monday and was in recovery by 9. He’s doing alright. Thank you all for your thoughts.
We had an incredible week and the culture shock of coming back into the “real” world is a little disheartening. I spent a week in a world where anything I had belonged to everyone else too. Where I would stop and help people I’ve never met just because they looked like they might need some help. My child ran free for hours at a time and I never worried where she was.
Now I’m back in reality where I lock up my stuff and fear for my life when I stop to help someone. My child goes nowhere without me knowing exactly where, when and with who. Even then, I worry.
Last week if I saw any trash on the ground I stopped to pick it up. This week I find myself having to step over most of it on the street because picking it all up would be a 24/7 job.
Only 7 months until Autumn Meet. I already wish I was there.
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