Market Days

This house, swimming in a sea of soybeans, lives in Mobjack, a section of Mathews I have been to twice in my life rarely frequent due to its remote, off-the-beaten-path location. When something is off the beaten path in a town that is the very definition of off the beaten path, you can rest assured that it isn't possible to say "off the beaten path" any more times in one sentence than I have here it's isolated.

In spite of all the unrelated text above, today's post is about the big event here in Mathews this weekend: Market Days.

Although I have lots of work to do on a side project (the same one which took me to this sea of green yesterday), I plan to make a few trips down to the festivities to inhale some funnel cakes and kettle corn inhale the aroma of funnel cakes and kettle corn; amble through the craft booths and most importantly people watch.

People watching is one of my favoritest activities, and yes, favoritest is a word.

If you're in spittin' distance, please try to make it out and partake of all the fun and funnel cake frivolity.

The schedule of events for Market Days includes:

1. Wondering about the sort of person who includes "spittin' distance" in any sort of writing, although it's particularly disturbing when combined with an invitation to an event involving food.

1.b Funnel cake

2. Kettle corn

3a. Over 90 booths of arts and crafts

3b. One booth selling bracelets to fund Operation Smile, a charity which helps children with cleft lips/palates.

4. An ultralight flyover Friday morning (What's an ultralight, you say? Rest assured it has nothing to do with a funnel cake, but you'll have to attend the opening ceremonies to find out exactly what is involved.)

4b. Funnel cake

5. 5K run at Williams Wharf Saturday morning

6a. Entertainment starting at 11:00 Saturday inside Westville on Main Street, including Faith Carter Family (Hi, Faith!) and Friends at 2:45 p.m.

6b. Six musical groups on the outdoor stage on Saturday from 11 - 4

7a. Kettle Corn

7b. Pet Parade Saturday at 10

8. Crab Race Saturday at noon. This event is just screaming for spectators to wear a crab hat. Screaming, I say!

9a. Saturday Night Street Dance from 8 - 11 (CBW considers this the highlight of Market Days except for 9b below)

9b. Kettle Cake Funnel Corn

10. Sugar Coma

11. The End.

Please answer one or more of the following:

1. If a crab race occurs at a festival, and everyone accepts it as normal, is it?

1b. Since crab races--of course-- are normal, if only one person watching wears a crab hat, is it even a crab race?

2. If a human being wants to eat a funnel cake, some kettle corn and some salty french fries all in the same sitting day, do we need to have paramedics shadowing her all day, or is a 3-mile radius sufficient to respond to the inevitable 911 call?

3. For those not going to Market Days this weekend, what will you be doing? Will crab races and funnel cakes be involved?

Three Things

Although I thought I just typed these exact same words day before yesterday, it's Thursday once again, which means it's Three Thing Thursday, which means we share three things and wonder where on Earth all of our writing and grammar skills went to allow such a meandering sentence. It's shameful, really. And yet I do nothing to stop/correct it.

Let's begin.

1. This weekend is the county's biggest event of the year, Mathews Market Days. It's sort of like our version of the Urbanna Oyster Festival, only without the oysters and the Fireman's Parade. And the boats. However, we have something the Oyster Festival doesn't have: the Saturday night street dance. Baby Sister always jokingly refers to this as the Barn Dance (even though it's not held in a barn), sort of like the ones they used to portray on the Waltons, one of my favorite old TV shows. (Stop laughing. I mean it.) See? Once again with the meandering sentences.

2. I am very, very excited to say that I am attending Saturday night's festivities with an old friend from high school whose name in high school Spanish was Renata (pronounced with the rolling "r," Rrrrrrrrrrenata). By the way, I hated my name in Spanish: Juana. Plain Jane Juana (no offense to any Juanas or Janes out there). The teacher wouldn't let me pick my name because my real name--according to her--translated closest to Juana. In French, though, the teacher let me choose whatever I wanted, and I wanted Chantal. I loved the name Chantal. Juana? Hated it. But really this is not about made-up names in foreign language class. It's about reuniting with an old friend whose name was way better than yours in Spanish class.

3. I am also hoping to meet up with another high school friend who was a genius (seriously) musician and drummer. He wants to talk about a business proposition that sounds muy interesante. To let you in on just how unusual this prospect is, one of the job requirements is "Not afraid to shoot a pistol."

Trust me when I tell you that if CBW could share even half of what really goes on in her day-to-day life nobody would believe a word of it, and yet the stuff still keeps happening to her. She needs to consider starting another blog under a new name with no way of tracing her identity. The next thing she needs to do is stop referring to herself in the third person. I wish her good luck with that one.

4. (I don't do well with rules. Three is merely a guideline.) The Mathews High School Cross Country team won last night's opening meet against King William and West Point at Beaverdam in Gloucester. At some point I'll do a proper post on the team, but they are an amazing group of young adults with a fantastic coach. Also, I saw Reader/Commenter Baybrowder and tried to talk him into volunteering for the team since he used to coach CC. But so far I've not convinced him. I love a good challenge - and he'd make a fantastic assistant, particularly in the spring track season.

And now it's your turn to share three things. Whatever you want, anything at all.