Winter Flea 2009

The 2009 Winter Fetish Fair Fleamarket was somewhat different for a few reasons. I wish I could say a pony's life is all sunshine and smiles, but that's not the case even in a fantasy world. There would be some surprises this time around, and none of them would be happy.

You have to hand it to NELA. They put on a great event. But it seems that the powers that rule over the Providence Convention Center decided not to extend an invitation to the Flea for this year. Rumors flew over the reason, including one particularly alarming one that said it was all the fault of the ponies. Remember the commotion about ponies walking around in the convention center last time? Well...

The rumors were not true. A question or two directed at some NELA folks quickly turned up the fact that someone high up in the rulership of the convention center didn't like what he or she saw in 2008 and didn't want us back.

Well!

The Westin was a little more reasonable. Not only did they want us back, but they were willing to turn the entire two-tower building over to us for the Flea.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that, due to the unavoidable reduction in floor space that this would cause, there would be no floor space for a pony paddock. Not only that, but we would be restricted in our roaming to the third and fourth floors. Well, ok. The map of the facility sure made it look as though that would still be pretty good. Of course, the map doesn't include the crush of humanity in its illustrations, so it's not easy to know for certain.

Because it would not be possible to use the convention center, all of the vendors would have to be located in the Westin. In case you have never been to the Winter FFF, there are LOTS of vendors - I mean, it's a fleamarket, right? They were located on the second, third and fourth floors.. On the second and third floors, they used the ballrooms. on the third and fourth floors, they used guest rooms. And they needed every square inch.

So with no open space for a paddock, the first floor ballrooms earmarked for classes and demonstrations, and not much left over, the ponies were allocated the third floor coat room.

Yup, you read that right. The coat room. I mean really, it was about all that was left. What else was there to do? And at least that meant we had a home base to operate from. We could get it locked up at night and keep tack and other equipment there without fear for its safety.

But the smaller floor space also meant that we would not be able to use those great stalls that we had made for the previous year's Flea. it also meant that we wouldn't have any space for general romping other than the corridors and function rooms - already full of vendors and visitors.

This was definitely going to be a grin-and-bear-it event. No problem. We're used to that.

All of this we knew before heading to Providence, of course, so we had the time to get ourselves adjusted and ready to face whatever challenge greeted us on arrival.

By this time, I knew about the whole kidney stone problem. I had had my attack about a week before and seen a urologist for a consult. We knew things were not good and could get a lot worse in a hurry and without warning. I could not drive to Mistress' house until Friday morning because I had to have a CT scan first thing that day. A quick trip to the hospital for that, and I was on the road with strict instructions to go to the closest hospital if anything at all went wrong.

I arrived at Mistress' house on Friday in the late morning. We planned to load the van and head down in the afternoon as we would not have access to the hotel much earlier than that anyway. Without all the setup that we had the year before, there really was no need to rush.

Good thing, too. Boston on a Friday afternoon is pretty harsh. It took us as much time to get out of the city as it did to make the rest of the trip to Rhode Island! And this is with Mistress, who knows every possible way through and around Boston that you could imagine.

The trip was uneventful except for the second nasty surprise of the weekend. Mistress told me that for a number of reasons, She would not be going to Camp Crucible this year.

Now, up to this time, I had not gone anywhere or played pony with anyone unless Mistress was present or close by. So when She said She could not go to Camp, I was nothing short of crushed. I had been obsessing non-stop about going to Camp ever since May of 2008, when I went for the first time. All I could think about every day was how I was going to get the time off and save up the money to go again. Those issues were dealt with by this time, but it had never occurred to me that Mistress would not be going.

This news cast a pall over the rest of the weekend, but Mistress has a pretty firm policy on moping, so that was not allowed. Still, it was one of those things that I kept remembering over and over and that seemed to sober me up just when I didn't need sobering.

There's this thing about what you know you can do and what you don't know you can do. It sets up a conflict inside that will eat at you until you do something about it. I knew I could make it to Camp this year but I had no idea if that would be possible in 2010. It's just not possible to plan that far ahead no matter how clear your intentions may be. So I screwed up the nerve and asked Mistress if I might keep my own options open with regard to Camp. I wanted to talk to Stormy and see how he felt - once Mistress told him Her news. To my relief, She gave me permission to go. That took some of the edge off. But between this and the kidney stones, 2009 was not off to a good start.

We arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon and checked in. Once that was done, Mistress, Stormy and I started hauling equipment from the van up to the ersatz paddock on the third floor. No matter how you split the atom, ponies and their handlers do not travel lightly. There was a lot to carry and it had to go a substantial distance, often involving stairs. This is where NELA scored another high five for me. There were lots of volunteer helpers who would often take the load right out of my hands and carry it for me. Nice!

We got the room all set up in good time and then began the process of sniffing out dinner. That wasn't difficult. The mall was still there, and to our delight, the Indian take out place was still there. That pretty much took care of food for the weekend as far as I was concerned. Well, that and the coffee nook on the second floor of the Westin. It was at the take out place that Mistress gave Stormy the news about Camp. He looked equally shaken, and the two of us spent a lot of private time talking about it. We both decided that going to Camp would be good for us because there were plenty of people going that we trusted and that Mistress would approve of. Still, the pall never quite lifted from the weekend. Everything got just a little weirder from then on.

The two days fo the Flea went somewhat uneventfully. Stormy and I did a lot of wandering about, a little cart work, some reins work and a whole lot of standing around. Not much else, though. Mistress had Her hands full with inquiring minds that wanted to know about pony play. We were not scheduled to do a demo as we had the last time, so we never really got much space to work in. Over all, it was a long way to travel and a lot of money to spend so that we could stand around in a coat closet.

But I'm not bitter about it. NELA had to do a lot with very little. I can't say I didn't have a good time at all, either. There were interesting things to see and watch, there were lots of friends I normally don't get to see, and as short as it was, there was time to spend with Mistress and Stormy.

Given the circumstances, I refrained from doing the sorts of things I normally do when I get bored. It made no sense to make trouble for Mistress given the narrow scope of our activities. That would not have been humorous. It would have been an inconvenience for Her. While I enjoy the occasional high jinks, I am not about making trouble and this was not the time or place.

But there was something beyond my control that made for a few smiles. You see, while the Convention Center did not want the Flea on its premesis, there is apparently some sort of deed that requires the Westin to grant access for the general public wishing to get into the mall. There is a public walkway through the lobby of the Westin from the street and the Convention Center as well. This meant that patrons of the Convention Center and off the street had occasion to come face to face with FFF participants.

That made things interesting when some of those patrons from the Convention Center happened to be little teenie tweenie cheerleaders who looked for all of me to be in the upper elementary schoold age range. These kids were all dolled up in sparkly mini skirts with bare midrifts (many of which had no business being bare, frankly), with big hair, gallons of makeup and glitter on their faces.

What are some parents thinking?

Every effort was made to keep these...innocent...kids from seeing the FFF activities. Curtains were put up in common areas and crowds were expected to remain on their respective sides to avoid contact.

Right. Have you ever seen what happens when you tell kids not to look behind a curtain? There were cheerleaders keeping watch while their friends had a good look. Another told her parents that she thought the ponies were really cool. Tha parent thought that was cute until they got a load of what sort of ponies the kids were talking about.

Hey! Don't blame us. We were on our side of the curtain! Minding our own business and all! We were allowed to go anywhere we wanted at the Flea. Our restriction to the thrid and fourth floors was for pony activities, not casual walking around.

Then there was the food court at the mall. People from the general public, the cheerleading competition and the Flea were intermixing for two nights. There were some funny visuals at odd moments that still stick in my mind.

But in all, it was a somewhat more somber affair than the year before. There was unhappy news and unpleasant surprises enough to keep clouds in the sky. I can only hope that this year's Flea will be a little better. At least Mistress is listed as a presenter this time around. A demo is always fun to do.