Beautiful and Strange

greetings and happy monday, comrades! i am rather tired from staying up too late after a beautiful and strange weekend that i shall share with you directly. on saturday, dave and i went to the royal winter fair, which we managed to miss last year but did attend the year before. unfortunately, i didnt have my camera with me so i dont have any adorable photos to show you, but take my word for it there was adorable a-plenty happening at the fair. i saw alpacas and llamas and cows and sheep and goats and tiny horses and pigs and piglets and bunnies and all manner of agricultural goodness all in one place. i also spent twenty dollars that i dont exactly have right now on ONE yes ONE ball of 100% undyed alpaca wool. although this is a ridiculously frivolous expense, i decided ages ago that my birthday/christmas present to myself would be to knit myself a pair of mittens out of alpaca wool and so i cant really bring myself to feel too guilty about it. plus with all the excessive cycling i do, i really do need strong and warm mitts, the cheapo ones ive been wearing the last two years really dont cut it. i am very excited to make them, the wool is so fresh there are still bits of hay in it. not even kidding. i think im going to do a braided cable pattern on the back and a seed stitch on the palm for traction and increased heat retention. smart design, form meeting function and all that jazz. (this is me putting my biology degree to work. form and function is one of the overarching biological principals, but that is another post to be written another time). anyway, the alpaca mittens will keep me happy until the fateful day when dave finally buys me an alpaca farm to call my very own. and there will be five dogs and much joy. but anyway, moving on.
the other thing to tell you about this weekend is unfortunately on sunday dave and i had to go to a funeral for one of his friends from childhood/adolescence. it was very sad, he died rather suddenly of a freak heart attack. that being said, however, we did manage to make the most of a bad situation. almost all of daves good buddies from high school were there, and they havent really seen much of each other in the last few years. after the service and the seemingly endless standing around talking about nothing, we all went to a very posh expensive bar and had a few drinks and some appetizers, and it was so cool to see all of them reconnecting. it was such a unique experience and everyone was so happy, despite the sad circumstances bringing them together. i was grateful to be a part of it, even though i was something of an outsider. there was one woman who was a super biatch, but theres one in every crowd, and there was a SUPER hilarious trophy girlfriend who was totally textbook self-absorption which kind of balanced out the presence of the bitch face. it was so heartwarming to see dave reconnecting with all of his old mates, and the few that i got to talk to at length were very, very cool people. its amazing to see how as much as people change, they really do stay the same. i think i will hold onto my impressions from last night forever, it was so beautiful and strange.