gather round and let me tell you a story

The following is from a text based coversation I had (responses ommitted) and is describing some of my times at a yearly SCA gathering call Pensic. It was really a hoot, but you'll get the idea from the clif notes version supplied below.



"gather round and let me tell you a story"
see I was in the woods with about 12,000 other people (plus staff) who were all there for ren fest type things, sword type things, and "hey we've got gallons and gallons of free home brewed liquor will someone help us drink it" type things not to mention a light spicing of "my hubby only lets me off the leash while I'm here jump me now" type things... for flavor you know and so there are temporary buildings being set up (like sets from plays only on camp grounds) and tons of people doing fire dancing (it's like belly dancing only with flames) and battles every morning and parties every night until dawn (or pretty near) and here I am for the first few days feeling like I can't even carry on a conversation. I was even given introductions too people by my friend who'd been there before... and everyone in my camp knew me well enough (could talk to them at least)... but it was really starting to drag me down a little bit... as in "I'm the guy who can start a conversation with no one in particular and end up with friends why can't I speak when spoken too?”
then I met Dan and Scarlet and they were fun
and a nice little session around a tent and I went 'home' to sleep then went back to the "not really talking" thing and was drug out to a party by my friends, friend and wandered around there for a while it was alright, actually the party it's self was killer cool, I just couldn't seem to interact effectively
even had a few different people start conversations with me but I always just ended up like a lame duck... not only depressing but pissing me off by this point too even with cinnamon drinks being plied to me I was still awkward and shaky, then near two thirds of the way through the party and when I was about to leave I got literally leapt on by Scarlet and I found myself avoiding candles (of which there were many on cast iron stands) while making sure I didn't drop her
then Dan told me that they were going to the fire and he and I started chatting I went to "the fire" (really one of many) and found fire dancers which was fun... and aside from being very talented they weren't bad eye candy either. After that... well the rest as they say is history... I spent a lot of time hanging out with Dan/Scarlet and their friends and I enjoyed myself greatly also found at least fragments of my back bone and stopped being such a stick in the mud
as it turns out they live in florida and Scarlet asked me for my contact information because she wants to come and visit me oh and I got Absinth oh so good I found a kind that doesn't taste like black licorice (which I totally can't spell)
oh it was sooooo good had three glasses and actually got a nice fluffy buzz going **well three glasses on top of having spent hours at another party right before sooo you do the math.. oh and some 35 year old Cuban rum sooooo smooth didn't bite anymore then some wine coolers gods I drank so much... lol... didn't ever get drunk tho... which I don't mind... got tipsy a whole lot. I think the constant fire food song and walking not to mention the crisp night air helped with that tho and I got to make waves by flirting with all the girls in camp lol... not that anything happened... that's the really ironic part... place like that + me = no sex.... lol... not usually the expected equation but I didn't have a problem with it, I had a great time just as it was.