Renaissance festival & a stroke of genius

I had a stroke of genius the other day. I pulled out my Halloween decorations. Among those decorations is a metal spider shaped candy dish that I've had since probably sophomore year of college. I realized that it looked silly in the middle of my coffee table completely empty. So what to do with this little guy?? I didn't have any candy and tortilla chips would seem silly. Maybe some decorations? I didn't have any that would work. A trip to the store was in order. I still hadn't determined what to put in the bowl. Whatever went in it I would snack on constantly. That's the way it's gone with my spider friend for years. If I was a cartoon character this would have been when a light bulb appeared over my head. I knew exactly what I was going to put in spidey: GRAPES!!

I know. It's genius. Tiny little guilt-free sweets that could sit out in a candy dish. I have to say, it's worked wonders to have them there! I snack on grapes constantly and thus don't have room for less healthy snacks. Hooray for strokes of genius!!

Grapes in spider bowls aren't the point of this post though. When I was 11 I attended a local renaissance festival in Georgia. I had a rather...frightening experience at the festival. While waiting in line for I don't even remember what I noticed that the man in front of me was covered in white supremacist propaganda. From his tattoos to his shirt, everything was KKK related. As if the fact that I was standing behind a member of the KKK wasn't intimidating enough, all 6 feet and 250+ pounds of KKK turned and glared at tiny little 110 pound 5'1'' me. Hey I was 11 and thus bite size. It was so terrifying I never went back to a renaissance festival again. In fact, until this weekend when I thought of renaissance festivals I thought of the KKK and poor hygiene. There's nothing like intolerance to ruin a festival experience.

On Saturday I was finally brave enough to step into a renaissance festival again. Thankfully this time there was better hygiene. Even more importantly I had no run-ins with the KKK. I have to say, this festival was really fun. We saw a comedy show, watched jousting, gnawed on turkey legs and saw an episode of Law & Order: Tudor style. It was so much fun!!