Shannan Hofman Bunting

One of my favorite people in the world is Shannan Hofman Bunting.  There are just not enough words to describe how much her loving kindness has touched my soul.  When I was unpacking a box today, I found a stuffed bear Shannan had given to me as a gift.

Shannan was my right hand woman working at the tower at Medieval Times.  She was in charge of the groups.  I pulled the seats for the groups and Shannan passed the group tickets out.  The rule was "No one touched groups except Shannan".  There are two lines.  One for individual sales and the other for groups.  No one got past Shannan.  When we worked a matinee, there was almost 98% of the guests were groups.  Only 2% at most were individual sales.  Linda Peterson Groenewald was the Queen of Group Sales and we almost always had sold out shows.

One matinee we were very short staffed.  The theatre seats 1426 guests.  There are six sections.  Shannan and I waited on the entire green section by ourselves.  Usually you wait on between 28 and 36 guests each.  Shannan and I waited on 210 guests that day.  It was a kids matinee so there was no beer or coffee that needed to be served.  However, it was insane.  When someone would ask us what we did for a living?  The normal response was "Fling Chickens."  If you have not been to Medieval Times, the wench or slave puts a hot metal tray right out of the oven holding 28 Cornish game hens on their hip and "walk" (we were not allowed to run) around the arena the size of a hockey stadium.  Green is on the opposite side of the kitchen.  Well...Anyway, Shannan and I gave an entirely new meaning to "slinging chickens" as we hauled up and down six rows of stairs.  "Flinging Chickens" was the easy part.  These are kids.  The kids looked in horror at these dead birds on their plates.  This was not KFC.  Most of the girls would not even touch their meal yet alone eat it.  The hard part was that we had to remove the PEWTER plate with the untouched chicken.  28 pewter plates will fit in a bus tub if they are empty and you stack them right.  This was not the case.  Back and forth we ran, yes, ran not walked.  There is now doubt in my mind that my back problems have a good deal to do with those pewter plates.  However, Shannan and I hold the bragging rights.  No one has ever waited on the entire Green section since that day.

Oh yeah, the stuffed bear.  Did I go off on a tangent?  That is SO unlike me. (I can hear you laughing)
One of the highlights of summer was going to the Bristol Renaissance Faire.  We would go in costume and in character.  Usually I would go as Schmendrick the Wizard.  The FUN was acting like I was mad at the children for calling me Merlin.  Sometimes parents would ask if they could take my picture with their kids.  I loved it!  It enforced my delusion of grandeur of being famous.

As we walked and visited the merchants and their wares, I fell in love with a stuffed bear dressed like Robin Hood or a Falconer with a hawk on his arm.  We had a falconer at Medieval Times and I always wanted to train to be the falconer in case he was sick.  There are a lot of rules and licenses needed to handle these beautiful birds of prey and there was no way Medieval Times was going to fork out the money.  Remember we have no forks at Medieval Times.  "Ladies and Gentlemen, please lift up your hands.  Your left hand is your fork and your right hand is your knife." was part of our speech.  As we continued to walk through the faire, Shannan never said a word.  We were with each other the entire time but somehow, somewhere Shannan had returned to the booth and purchased the stuffed falconer bear holding the hawk.  I love that bear.  Every time I look at that bear, I think of what a wonderful friend Shannan has been to me.  She did things like that all the time.

Another time, Shannan had gone to New York to see a play.  When she returned, she gave me a little Ear Guy.  Besides My Little Red Monkey, My Ear Guy was my favorite possession.  It was a little silver guy that would clip on to your ear.  I loved him.  Again, every time I would wear my Ear Guy, it would remind me of Shannan.  Who buys souveniers for friends anymore?  Shannan does.  I was devastated when I lost My Ear Guy.  Ross Hugi had lost his dog and I had never seen him so upset before.  I looked everywhere at the bar but the Ear Guy was nowhere to be found.  I am certain My Ear Guy went looking for Ross' dog.  He is magical and real when he wants to be.  He must be because we found Ross' dog but we never found my ear guy.

We never found My Ear Guy until today.  While I was on the internet, I decided to check to see if I could find images of this clip on earring to show you.  Lo and behold, I found My Ear Guy and he is still available to be purchased.  Please do not tell Shannan but I ordered three ear guys today.  One for Shannan.  One for me.  AND one for me if I lose the other one.

There are tons of wonderful stories about Shannan but I shall save those for another time!