I feel more and more like an adventuress with each passing day.
This past weekend was a highlight of the year in two ways: I participated in an annual living history event with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other reenactors, and attended the wedding of a friend from college whose ceremony made me actually like the idea of a traditional wedding better than an elopement.
It was tricky, though. The events were taking place in two different states.
My solution was to skip out on half the reenactment Saturday in order to drive to the wedding, stay over at a friend's college apartment and drive back for the last couple hours of the reenactment on Sunday.
But nobody wants to miss much of a reenactment. I established an itinerary in order to stay as long as humanly possible on Saturday. It looked like this:
12:15 p.m. - Hide in the reenacting tent with women at each end to guard the openings. Change out of reenacting dress and into dress more appropriate for a modern wedding. Hope the smell from campfire smoke stays behind with the reenacting dress.
12:25 p.m. - Give snarky retort to reenacting friend's joke about my "scandalous" (by 1800s standards) dress. Walk out to my car. Take a mile detour around the one-way entrance to the reenactment during the height of the spectators' coming in.
12:40 p.m. - Apply lip gloss using the rearview mirror once I'm on the highway.
1:10 p.m. - Stop for gas as the idiot light comes on telling me my tank's almost empty. While waiting for the tank to fill, apply eyeshadow and mascara using one of the car windows as a mirror. Hope the gas station's restroom is decently clean. (It meant I didn't have to use the notorious port-a-pots at the reenactment.)
3:30 p.m. - Arrive at wedding venue exactly when I wanted to. Finally take off reenacting shoes and put on knee-high black boots while sitting in my car in the parking lot. Notice my knees look like they're slightly sunburned from the drive.
The wedding was beautiful, spending the night with two friends was great, the drive back to the reenactment Sunday was uneventful, and I still can't believe I managed to do decent eye makeup with a car window as a mirror.
This past weekend was a highlight of the year in two ways: I participated in an annual living history event with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other reenactors, and attended the wedding of a friend from college whose ceremony made me actually like the idea of a traditional wedding better than an elopement.
It was tricky, though. The events were taking place in two different states.
My solution was to skip out on half the reenactment Saturday in order to drive to the wedding, stay over at a friend's college apartment and drive back for the last couple hours of the reenactment on Sunday.
But nobody wants to miss much of a reenactment. I established an itinerary in order to stay as long as humanly possible on Saturday. It looked like this:
12:15 p.m. - Hide in the reenacting tent with women at each end to guard the openings. Change out of reenacting dress and into dress more appropriate for a modern wedding. Hope the smell from campfire smoke stays behind with the reenacting dress.
12:25 p.m. - Give snarky retort to reenacting friend's joke about my "scandalous" (by 1800s standards) dress. Walk out to my car. Take a mile detour around the one-way entrance to the reenactment during the height of the spectators' coming in.
12:40 p.m. - Apply lip gloss using the rearview mirror once I'm on the highway.
1:10 p.m. - Stop for gas as the idiot light comes on telling me my tank's almost empty. While waiting for the tank to fill, apply eyeshadow and mascara using one of the car windows as a mirror. Hope the gas station's restroom is decently clean. (It meant I didn't have to use the notorious port-a-pots at the reenactment.)
3:30 p.m. - Arrive at wedding venue exactly when I wanted to. Finally take off reenacting shoes and put on knee-high black boots while sitting in my car in the parking lot. Notice my knees look like they're slightly sunburned from the drive.
The wedding was beautiful, spending the night with two friends was great, the drive back to the reenactment Sunday was uneventful, and I still can't believe I managed to do decent eye makeup with a car window as a mirror.
Comments
Now you've joined the millions of American women who apply makeup in the car, congratulations. :-D