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I didn’t know if I could make it to Faire this season. It turned out I could; I went this past Sunday.

Some observations:

– The trip from my home to the Faire represents about the maximum drive I can handle right now. By the time I got there, I was getting pins & needles sensations in my hands. The way back was slow; I took local roads to avoid the Thruway traffic, then wasted more time to detour around a festival in Suffern NY.

This is important. I need to know my limits. For example, this tells me that I still can’t drive to a friend’s birthday party next weekend. I’m saddened by this, but better to be sad than to be miserable… or worse, be in an accident.

– I thought I’d have no support at the Faire. Boy, was I wrong! The readers on Mystics Way welcomed me as an old friend. They even gave me lunch! Later that day, I met one of my students there, who would have been able to offer additional assistance if I got into trouble; she told me to text her if I needed her.

I thank the Gods for my friends. It makes it harder for me to keep up an “oh, poor me” attitude when I realize how blessed I am.

– My old booth in Mystics Way is gone. It was tilting too much and had to be torn down. It was inevitable, but it was still sad to see it go. If you click on the link, you’ll see that part of the reason I left the Faire was that I knew I couldn’t afford to repair or replace that booth.

– The Faire was crowded today. I was told it was even more crowded yesterday, with over 12,000 people attending. This means that I didn’t get to see all the shows I wanted. That’s OK. I still listened to The Singing Gravedigger, Henry Martin, and Vince Conaway; that last musician was a hammered dulcimer player who added to the ambiance of Mystics Way.

– Instead of seeing shows, I spent too much money! I bought six CDs, ordered a new pentacles from Silvertree Designs, picked up a pentacle tile at Coquina Arts, and bought a caduceus from Ye Old Worldly Treasures on Mystics Way.

Those last two purchases were, in part, to honor Hecate and Hermes, who’ve aided me in recent weeks. I’m familiar with several Hermes symbols, but I must admit that I’m under-informed when it comes to Hecate symbols. Devyn Barat suggested a symbol; he drew it for me, and I later looked it up and found it’s Hecate’s Wheel:

Another mutual friend has commissioned a piece from him that includes that symbol. I think I’ll wait until he’s finished it, then perhaps ask for a print.

– I left the Faire at about 5-5:30PM; it took a while just to get out of the parking area! As I left, I found myself crying. I realized that a part of me felt that a bit of the Ren Faire magic was now outside my grasp. Silly of me, I suppose.