Yesterday was the MD Faerie Festival, & i went on my own. Which wasn't so bad. What was the near killer of all was the absymal heat. No idea what yesterday's high was, but i'd guess that it had to be somewhere in the upper nineties; pushing for 100. At least, that's how it felt, with high humidity & no cloud cover. Welcome to a Maryland summer: humidity & heat. And the blazing sun explains why i currently look vaguely like a lobster. At first, it didn't seem too bad, but bad enough to take off a sweater & figure you could use it later for arm coverage. Went over to the Faerie Magazine booth (i'm so predictable) & they let me have last summer's issue. I asked "are you sure," & somehow the woman & i got into a conversation about people chasing each other in slow motion because of the heat. Mrs. Cross remembered me from 07's Spoutwood Festival. Got to (finally) see a BOG march. Wandered around some more before noon, when i went to see if they needed any volunteers yet. They did, in the kid's section, so went down there. Basically, it's a crafts area, where people could buy things to decorate on tables placed underneath tents. I just had to collect the money from them (more like their parents, most of the time). A testament to how hot the day was: you could sit around, doing nothing, & still feel hot. Eventually the lady i had relieved came back & asked if, were i to go get lunch now, i could come back to help with kid's games at 1:30. I said sure, & went & got a smoothie & wandered a little, before heading back. A guy with two kids in tow-- his kids? grandkids? No idea-- had appeared, who was supposed to be in charge of the games. They were equipped with spray bottles coupled with fans from Disney World. I got sprayed a bit-- actually, quite a few people were armed with spray bottles, & got sprayed throughout the day, which never ceased to feel a little awkward & obligatory. But the guy & i ended up talking; he asked where i went to school. I told him, & gave the usual "it's-weird-&-they-care-too-much-about-sports" thing, & he said something about things having to come from here, "this chakra," he said-- & he touched my stomach, which made me feel a little (a lot) weird. I just nodded & pretended i knew what he was talking about. Meanwhile, was feeling extremely dizzy & nearly ill. We were let go because after consideration, doing anything with kids in the heat was stupidity. So went back up to the front & got my entrance fee returned (for volunteering) Forget what i did until after i had been sitting down, walked around, then sat down at a stage-- & noticed my sweater was missing. So went around, trying to find it, & was unsuccessful. Checked at the front for a lost & found. They said they would basically be it, but they didn't have it. At this point, felt very much like death, so one of the woman told me i could go in the building that was for staff, where it was ACed & there was water. I guess they assume that most visitors have their rides at the ready, so they can more easily decide to leave the festival, whereas volunteers, vendors, & other staff members are pretty much stuck (though a lot of vendors were leaving very early; heard some other vendors discussing it) until the end. So went in there for a short while & had some water before going back out to look, & was unsuccessful once again. So i didn't really get to see Gypsy Nomads like i'd wanted, because i had to find my sweater. Eventually went back to the building, because the heat was completely unbearable. There was more water, & had little mini things-- mini chocolate crullers, a mini muffin, a mini bagel-- & a bag of chips, & stayed in there for a longer while before going back out again. And was starting to get a headache. More wandering & looking for the elusive sweater. People with spray bottles spraying me & making me feel bad. By this time, i was probably already well-cooked by the sun. I was wearing a long skirt (good thing it was long) & a tanktop, so my shoulders got the brunt of the burning. After a point, i just muttered, "All i want is to find my sweater." Walked a ways, & there, sitting next to a pole of a tent, was the elusive sweater. "Did someone find this?" I asked the women of the booth. They didn't know, & i picked it up, being rather overly happy. I told them they could say how weird i was after i'd gone. It was more than a little awkward-- showing up & leaving abruptly-- but i was glad i'd found my sweater. Went & saw Mythica play & bought one of their CDs, Vicarious, which is pretty ace; there's some underlying darker tones in some of the songs. Like the cover, too, though Melissa (the lead vocalist) admitted to having bought it off a stock photo site or something. Heh, whatever, i still like it. That was pretty much the end, after that. Parents picked me up & had to stop at Trader Joe's, but got home & showered before a brief storm passed through. Huzzah. This was seriously one of those days i usually would never be out in. Hence the sunburn. I never get sunburned, so this is my first serious burn. I can tell it's serious, because it's bright pink. My face was the only thing that had some line of defense, because the moisturizer has SPF in it. It still got burnt, but not as badly as my arms, & definitely my shoulders. My arms feel like they ache; can't figure out if that's because of the burn...? It feels like muscles aching, though. It's just weird. And it really kind of sort of hurts. And feel exhausted, despite having, essentially, taken a two hour nap after said shower. So i'm blaming any typos on that. Thankfully, the Festival's back in May next year. Seriously, compared to being in the upper 90s heat, volunteering for Zero Waste is just "whatever." Somehow, sorting through trash doesn't seem half as bad as feeling extremely "i-just-may-pass-out" hot. But, apparently, i am not one for passing out. There's a lot being left out... why am i typing this? It seems kind of dumb. Took a few pictures; not a lot, & nothing really amazingly stellar by a long shot. Don't feel like fixing their size & uploading them right now, though, because that will take too long & require attention. And today is Janna's birthday party, so need to cover up her present accordingly. Hopefully her house will be freezing.

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