Crusades, and thing
Oct. 12th, 2004 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kellan_the_tabbyBefore I get to Crusades...yeah, it's just after 9. And I'm awake. Further, I'd wanted to be awake closer to 8. For those who know me well...yes, that's morning. I don't like it much. But I need to start getting up in the morning, so here I sit.
*yawn*
Anyway, on to Stuff.
For years Lewis and I had been avoiding going to Kingdom Crusades, having heard horror stories about the site, the price, the fighting, the food...most everything, really. Having actually gone, I am pleased to say that the amenities were pretty good and we had a good time.
Now, we stayed in a hotel instead of camping (or staying in a cabin *shudder*) and didn't eat in the cafeteria...but there was plenty of parking, the day rate wasn't awful (and they were willing to give it to us when we checked in Friday night and said we weren't staying), there were enough porta-johns to go around, space inside for classes _and_ the consult table _and_ a decently-sized A&S competition...
In any case, we assembled people at our place, packed them into France, and headed out. Dinner at the Waffle House. Drove south. Got to the site, attempted to drop off the person who was staying in a cabin. Due to brainlessness on someone's part (not event staff), the cabin space she was supposed to be using had been sold to someone else. So...there was space in me and Lewis's room and she stayed with us. Checked in, helped someone put up a shade fly, headed to the hotel.
Interestingly, our shire seems to have a couple of newbies from Virginia. Okay, not really, but Olwyn is the one who got them to join so they're sort-of ours...anyway, one of them had brought a video camera to Celtic Classic and then turned what he'd filmed into a DVD complete with chapters and things. So we watched that...mostly fighting, but good enough campera work that it didn't get old. A _really_ nice shot of our seneschal's daughter fighting another page...she's got polearm, he's got two swords...he's bouncing around taking lots of shots, she's standing there calmly blocking and waiting her chance...and *wham* and he spins around twice and falls over. The spins were of course theatrical but well-done and the whole thing was funny as hell.
Insufficient sleep, but that's how it goes. Got to site, helped Herveus a bit with his merchant tent, talked to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dr_zrfq some. Found Alisoun, helped her get stuff out of her car for the consult table. Isabelle's little kid Anna insisted on helping, so I had a five-year-old carrying two fairly heavy six-packs of water up to the hall...on her insistence. I told her she'll be a Pelican someday. She nodded and said 'uh-huh'. Cutest Child Ever. Did I mention that first thing at an event her mother puts a veil on her, and she leaves it on all day...and that this five-year-old has already taught two classes?
Founddr_zrfq, talked to him for a while. Hoping I accomplished something there. Then Batcock wandered over and the topic changed and after a bit I wandered off. Did a quick turn through the merchant area (_lots_ of merchants), grabbed lunch from the Eisental Travelling Dayboard, settled down at the consult table.
Helped with...maybe five or six consults, all of them Atlantian. The table only took two Eastern submissions all day, which I'm choosing to see as a hopeful thing - now that it's easier to get competent heraldic help in the East, fewer people are heading outkingdom to get their stuff submitted. Pennsic subs were down, too. Did four conflict checks, two of them birds. Birds _suck_. Headache. Ow.
Helped break down the table, got stuff packed up. Talked to Alisoun a bit - she's rather more talkative than I'd pictured her. She thanked me profusely for my help and said that I went 'above and beyond'. And here I was feeling bad because I'd blown off the first four hours the table was open...well, whatever. I managed to cut short my protests along those lines and accept her thanks relatively gracefully. I think.
Finally got to Brangwayna's vigil for about two minutes while they were taking the vigil tent down. Too brain-fried to tell her my usual little vigil-story but I'm sure she spent the day hearing variants anyway.
Spent a while actually sitting under the shade-fly the shire had brought, talking to Olwyn and Olwyn's newbies anddr_zrfq and Roswitha and eating veggiesandip. Lewis was still fighting by then, rather to my surprise...he'd got in armor around eleven and this was maybe six. He was actually out there fighting pickups which I haven't seen him do in _years_, aside from his quest Gulf Wars before last...he finally came over and started shedding armor, all bouncy because he'd had _fun_ fighting. More fun than he's had fighting in years, he said... He's been having sort of a problem getting up the enthusiasm to fight; once he gets into armor he's fine, but talking himself into putting the armor on was getting tough. This weekend, though...he bounced out of the van, bounced up to Matthias's booth with his armor, bounced through fixing it, bounced out onto the field and had a blast...'course he's all achy now because he hasn't fought that long in _years_ but he's even pretty cheerful about that. So I think the fighting-burnout is on its way out. :)
About then I remembered that I was supposed to followbaronadhemar around before court to learn how to do things...but it was time to break down the shade fly and pack up, so I helped with that, and then zoomed up to the White House (yes, that's what the thing is called). Tiptoed in - I'm always worried I'll walk in on the wrong thing and get banished, or something. Asked Adhemar if he still needed help or if it was too late, and immediately got put to work. Wound up talking to Ardenia _again_ - she's apparently been having one of those months where Things keep happening. Got her cheered up enough to be functional and had to zoom out the door to join the procession. Adhemar's quick - even Ellesbeth had to walk fast to keep up, and her legs are eight feet long, or thereabouts. I'm just glad I did enough marching band to be able to walk without seeing my feet, since it was dark and _I_ was carrying the scrolls...
Walked into court and up on the stage. Got to stand through Atlantia's court, which seemed to involve every single person who worked the event taking a minute to stand up and thank people and thing. Adhemar _did_ say that I could sit down but dammit this was the first time I'd worked court and I wanted to see everything...next time I'm doing court, though, if we're waiting for someone else's court to finish, I'm gonna sit for a bit.
Thorson and Svava are highly amusing. They also drink a lot of scotch, which was a bit frustrating to stand right behind. I wanted scotch badly but it was their scotch and Adhemar said 'no drinky during court'. Which, okay, _does_ make sense but all I could smell was _scotch_...
Adhemar stepped out for a cigarette not long before it was gonna be our turn. He had plenty of time but I spent a couple minutes with horrified thoughts of him breaking his leg or getting abducted by aliens or something, and there I am with the scrolls trying to remember how to open court...but he got back in in plenty of time and all went well. I did feel like I spent a lot of time funbling scrolls and not having things in the right place but he said I could help him with court any time I wanted to so I must have done okay. I _do_ know some things I can do to get better at scroll-wrangling. Oddly enough, I almost felt like I could have read a scroll if I wanted to, without dying of people-looking-at-me...but that can come later.
It was awfully neat knowing what was going to happen ahead of time. It was _very_ neat being able to _see_ people as they came up to get awards...and as they found out what they were getting. It was great getting a _good_ look at all the scrolls. It was lots of fun actually knowing what the people up on the stage there were laughing about...definitely something I want to do again. But by the time I was done, my legs and back were aching from standing so much...time to lose weight if I'm gonna keep doing this.
Ran into John the Bear after court and hung out with him for a bit, then got hauled back to the van to head out. By the time we got back to the hotel the only thing open was the Denny's next to the hotel...Lewis fell asleep in his seat before dinner showed up, and I spent some time curled up on the bench beside him...everyone was tired and achy and sleepy and just wanting very badly to be flat. Lewis and I went right to bed once dinner was done, and Leia wasn't far behind.
Up much later than the day before, out to Waffle House for breakfast, home. Spent a while sprawled on the bed doing Not Much. Got online for a while, talked to my Tim. Went the heck to bed.
Worked yesterday, which I wasn't thrilled about, but I got up early enough to take a walk before work which was good - it's been far too long. Stopped to help an older gentleman with his garbage, stopped again to pet someone's highly-enthusiastic dog. Got a lot of thinking done.
Work was just...one of those days where things keep going wrong, and no matter how hard I concentrated or how many times I checked things I kept getting them wrong anyway. And the laser engraver kept having issues despite the guy coming in yesterday morning to work on it. New parts coming in today that Mom and Bill have to install...I'm sort of wondering why the guy didn't have them with him yesterday. I mean, okay, I can sort of see not carrying a spare motor (though it's small) but spare belts...? And they're _really_ small. But, well. Here's hoping the new parts will get the thing working right. Otherwise I swear I'm gonna take a baseball bat to it...
By the end of the day I was achy, grumpy, and fairly antisocial, so I blew off fighter practice and just went home. Had a good big salad for dinner and read some, then got on the computer and talked to my Tim again for a bit. Lewis got home really late but in a good mood which I was happy to see. Went to bed and slept like a rock.
Today's my day off, so to speak; lot of stuff to get done around the house, though.
*yawn*
Anyway, on to Stuff.
For years Lewis and I had been avoiding going to Kingdom Crusades, having heard horror stories about the site, the price, the fighting, the food...most everything, really. Having actually gone, I am pleased to say that the amenities were pretty good and we had a good time.
Now, we stayed in a hotel instead of camping (or staying in a cabin *shudder*) and didn't eat in the cafeteria...but there was plenty of parking, the day rate wasn't awful (and they were willing to give it to us when we checked in Friday night and said we weren't staying), there were enough porta-johns to go around, space inside for classes _and_ the consult table _and_ a decently-sized A&S competition...
In any case, we assembled people at our place, packed them into France, and headed out. Dinner at the Waffle House. Drove south. Got to the site, attempted to drop off the person who was staying in a cabin. Due to brainlessness on someone's part (not event staff), the cabin space she was supposed to be using had been sold to someone else. So...there was space in me and Lewis's room and she stayed with us. Checked in, helped someone put up a shade fly, headed to the hotel.
Interestingly, our shire seems to have a couple of newbies from Virginia. Okay, not really, but Olwyn is the one who got them to join so they're sort-of ours...anyway, one of them had brought a video camera to Celtic Classic and then turned what he'd filmed into a DVD complete with chapters and things. So we watched that...mostly fighting, but good enough campera work that it didn't get old. A _really_ nice shot of our seneschal's daughter fighting another page...she's got polearm, he's got two swords...he's bouncing around taking lots of shots, she's standing there calmly blocking and waiting her chance...and *wham* and he spins around twice and falls over. The spins were of course theatrical but well-done and the whole thing was funny as hell.
Insufficient sleep, but that's how it goes. Got to site, helped Herveus a bit with his merchant tent, talked to
dr_zrfq some. Found Alisoun, helped her get stuff out of her car for the consult table. Isabelle's little kid Anna insisted on helping, so I had a five-year-old carrying two fairly heavy six-packs of water up to the hall...on her insistence. I told her she'll be a Pelican someday. She nodded and said 'uh-huh'. Cutest Child Ever. Did I mention that first thing at an event her mother puts a veil on her, and she leaves it on all day...and that this five-year-old has already taught two classes?Found
dr_zrfq, talked to him for a while. Hoping I accomplished something there. Then Batcock wandered over and the topic changed and after a bit I wandered off. Did a quick turn through the merchant area (_lots_ of merchants), grabbed lunch from the Eisental Travelling Dayboard, settled down at the consult table.Helped with...maybe five or six consults, all of them Atlantian. The table only took two Eastern submissions all day, which I'm choosing to see as a hopeful thing - now that it's easier to get competent heraldic help in the East, fewer people are heading outkingdom to get their stuff submitted. Pennsic subs were down, too. Did four conflict checks, two of them birds. Birds _suck_. Headache. Ow.
Helped break down the table, got stuff packed up. Talked to Alisoun a bit - she's rather more talkative than I'd pictured her. She thanked me profusely for my help and said that I went 'above and beyond'. And here I was feeling bad because I'd blown off the first four hours the table was open...well, whatever. I managed to cut short my protests along those lines and accept her thanks relatively gracefully. I think.
Finally got to Brangwayna's vigil for about two minutes while they were taking the vigil tent down. Too brain-fried to tell her my usual little vigil-story but I'm sure she spent the day hearing variants anyway.
Spent a while actually sitting under the shade-fly the shire had brought, talking to Olwyn and Olwyn's newbies and
dr_zrfq and Roswitha and eating veggiesandip. Lewis was still fighting by then, rather to my surprise...he'd got in armor around eleven and this was maybe six. He was actually out there fighting pickups which I haven't seen him do in _years_, aside from his quest Gulf Wars before last...he finally came over and started shedding armor, all bouncy because he'd had _fun_ fighting. More fun than he's had fighting in years, he said... He's been having sort of a problem getting up the enthusiasm to fight; once he gets into armor he's fine, but talking himself into putting the armor on was getting tough. This weekend, though...he bounced out of the van, bounced up to Matthias's booth with his armor, bounced through fixing it, bounced out onto the field and had a blast...'course he's all achy now because he hasn't fought that long in _years_ but he's even pretty cheerful about that. So I think the fighting-burnout is on its way out. :)About then I remembered that I was supposed to follow
baronadhemar around before court to learn how to do things...but it was time to break down the shade fly and pack up, so I helped with that, and then zoomed up to the White House (yes, that's what the thing is called). Tiptoed in - I'm always worried I'll walk in on the wrong thing and get banished, or something. Asked Adhemar if he still needed help or if it was too late, and immediately got put to work. Wound up talking to Ardenia _again_ - she's apparently been having one of those months where Things keep happening. Got her cheered up enough to be functional and had to zoom out the door to join the procession. Adhemar's quick - even Ellesbeth had to walk fast to keep up, and her legs are eight feet long, or thereabouts. I'm just glad I did enough marching band to be able to walk without seeing my feet, since it was dark and _I_ was carrying the scrolls...Walked into court and up on the stage. Got to stand through Atlantia's court, which seemed to involve every single person who worked the event taking a minute to stand up and thank people and thing. Adhemar _did_ say that I could sit down but dammit this was the first time I'd worked court and I wanted to see everything...next time I'm doing court, though, if we're waiting for someone else's court to finish, I'm gonna sit for a bit.
Thorson and Svava are highly amusing. They also drink a lot of scotch, which was a bit frustrating to stand right behind. I wanted scotch badly but it was their scotch and Adhemar said 'no drinky during court'. Which, okay, _does_ make sense but all I could smell was _scotch_...
Adhemar stepped out for a cigarette not long before it was gonna be our turn. He had plenty of time but I spent a couple minutes with horrified thoughts of him breaking his leg or getting abducted by aliens or something, and there I am with the scrolls trying to remember how to open court...but he got back in in plenty of time and all went well. I did feel like I spent a lot of time funbling scrolls and not having things in the right place but he said I could help him with court any time I wanted to so I must have done okay. I _do_ know some things I can do to get better at scroll-wrangling. Oddly enough, I almost felt like I could have read a scroll if I wanted to, without dying of people-looking-at-me...but that can come later.
It was awfully neat knowing what was going to happen ahead of time. It was _very_ neat being able to _see_ people as they came up to get awards...and as they found out what they were getting. It was great getting a _good_ look at all the scrolls. It was lots of fun actually knowing what the people up on the stage there were laughing about...definitely something I want to do again. But by the time I was done, my legs and back were aching from standing so much...time to lose weight if I'm gonna keep doing this.
Ran into John the Bear after court and hung out with him for a bit, then got hauled back to the van to head out. By the time we got back to the hotel the only thing open was the Denny's next to the hotel...Lewis fell asleep in his seat before dinner showed up, and I spent some time curled up on the bench beside him...everyone was tired and achy and sleepy and just wanting very badly to be flat. Lewis and I went right to bed once dinner was done, and Leia wasn't far behind.
Up much later than the day before, out to Waffle House for breakfast, home. Spent a while sprawled on the bed doing Not Much. Got online for a while, talked to my Tim. Went the heck to bed.
Worked yesterday, which I wasn't thrilled about, but I got up early enough to take a walk before work which was good - it's been far too long. Stopped to help an older gentleman with his garbage, stopped again to pet someone's highly-enthusiastic dog. Got a lot of thinking done.
Work was just...one of those days where things keep going wrong, and no matter how hard I concentrated or how many times I checked things I kept getting them wrong anyway. And the laser engraver kept having issues despite the guy coming in yesterday morning to work on it. New parts coming in today that Mom and Bill have to install...I'm sort of wondering why the guy didn't have them with him yesterday. I mean, okay, I can sort of see not carrying a spare motor (though it's small) but spare belts...? And they're _really_ small. But, well. Here's hoping the new parts will get the thing working right. Otherwise I swear I'm gonna take a baseball bat to it...
By the end of the day I was achy, grumpy, and fairly antisocial, so I blew off fighter practice and just went home. Had a good big salad for dinner and read some, then got on the computer and talked to my Tim again for a bit. Lewis got home really late but in a good mood which I was happy to see. Went to bed and slept like a rock.
Today's my day off, so to speak; lot of stuff to get done around the house, though.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 08:47 am (UTC)I haven't really had time to hear about Nataliia's trip yet.
Liam
no subject
Date: 2004-10-12 09:40 am (UTC)I should add that while I saw very little of the heavy fighting, I did watch a bit of one of the fencing melees, and it looked pretty cool. One of these days I'm gonna get a chance to really sit down and _watch_ fencing for a while...
Word-Limit Police
Date: 2004-10-12 02:27 pm (UTC)~grin~ Geeze Louise, girl! I think that's the most I've ever seen from you at one time ever . . . . it was just cool as heck . . .
hugs . . . .
Re: Word-Limit Police
Date: 2004-10-12 02:33 pm (UTC)I think I posted about as much about Pennsic, and maybe a couple other times...
Re: Word-Limit Police
Date: 2004-10-12 09:54 pm (UTC)Re: Word-Limit Police
Date: 2004-10-13 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-16 06:50 am (UTC)SO GREAT! Hearing about what's going on with you guys and getting the event reports. Misss you, Miss the SCA, Miss the East.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-16 10:19 am (UTC)Glad you like the updates. And amusingly enough, we got to tell the Buy Me A Movie Ticket story to two people who hadn't heard it before, a couple nights ago...
*grin*