Mama Thursday: Not At All Bitter

I was just reminded that the Minnesota Renaissance Festival is fast approaching once again. I haven't gone in years because you just about have to take out a second mortgage to be able to afford it. We certainly won't be going this year unless we win the lottery (or the job lottery) since Husband was laid off this week.

But I got to thinking: I will soon be able to take my daughter to the Ren Fest and dress her up like a fairy.

WHEEEEEEEEE!

I used to be a Ren Fest dork. I had my puffy shirt and puffy pants, a whole collection of silly hats with all manner of feathers and velvet. I had a set of Crystal Stix. I had leather pouches and pan's horns and a rat on a leash. One of my high school English teachers (Peltzman) was Lord High Mayor (maybe he still is?) Oh yes.

Then I started paying my own bills and discovered just how expensive it all is. Damn.

What does all this nerdery have to do with Mama Thursday? Getting back to the fairy-dressing-up, the Ren Fest represents yet another place where I can unabashedly live vicariously through my child. I did not grow up with the most, shall we say, doting parents. While this experience has made me into surprisingly self-sufficient human being, it has also perpetrated the long history of family members who are emotional voids who have questionable interpersonal skills. So as a result I was never dressed up in adorable costumes as a child.

The cycle of abuse ends here.

(Other things Lily will get to do: visit Disney World with her family, take regular trips to the zoo and other local attractions, be read to every day, learn how to change the oil and make other small to moderate repairs on a car, not be allowed a computer or TV in her bedroom.)