Even though a lot of people call this almost-over long weekend "Presidents' Day" weekend, according to the fedall gubmint, today is officially known as Washington's Birthday. I spent it with my boyfriend. What? There's another holiday weekend in February? For the shortest month, it sure gets more than its fair share of holidays, but I digress.
The ironic thing is that so many of my experiences this weekend had nothing to do with presidents (past or present), American history*, or even democracy.
Saturday night: attended a joust. Yes, really. The event that involves horses, knights in armor, and semi-fake royalty. There was a king and princess hosting the tournament, and its accompanying feast. Several hundred spectators, wearing paper crowns that would make the Burger King proud, cheered on their knights and booed the green knight (the necessary bad guy). One of my favorite details was the fact that during the feast, no utensils were provided. Soup (described as dragon's blood soup) was drunk out of bowls, and the meat (described as dragon), bread and potatoes were eaten...using nothing but my fingers. Numerous napkins were provided. I don't think those were provided in the medieval era. Also part of the entertainment was a trained falcon who flew around the arena in a synchronized pattern. The jousting was pretty impressive - the venue was big enough that the horses (trained Andalusians)
Sunday afternoon after church and an excellent brunch was spent in a local Borders. Unfortunately, due to the recent filing by said company of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a large number of their stores are being closed, including the one closest to, and frequented by, my boyfriend. Book-lovers, teachers, students, parents, children, nearby small coffee shops and former First Ladies advocating literacy hardest hit.
There was a line that stretched all the way to the back of the store. Since everything was marked down and "had to go", and because CJ (my BF - I don't actually call him that, but it is a family nickname) has a google-plex worth of gift cards, we felt it would be worth grabbing stuff we wanted and enduring the long line. He got Lord of the Flies. I got three books - The Boys of Winter, about the 1980 American Olympic hockey team; a book by Bill Bryson about how English evolved; and a book about Napoleon (Bonaparte, not Dynamite).
Other activities this weekend involved watching more episodes of Firefly and the movie Bringing Up Baby, which BF enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the wonderful spring-like weather that came around last week did not stay through the weekend. But winter is on its way out.
I hope you all had a good weekend, too!
-BR
*The only direct American history had to do with the book about the hockey team.
3 days ago
"Fedall gubmint." I love it. Thank you, four expensive years of university education.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, a joust?! Did you wear one of those pointy hats with a veil?
No, just a paper crown. There were a number of little girls wearing the awesome pointy hats. Everyone who came in got their picture taken with the princess. Her dress was beautiful, and I told her so. She said, "Thank you!" and really sounded like she meant it.
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