Sat Sep 3 - I didn't get too much packed the night before the event, but I was traveling light so it was easy to get on the road. I never really realized how centrally located I am now, until just recently. All the events I go to seem to be such short drives. Although I miss being up north 90-minutes from my current apartment, my place is now 90-minutes closer to a variety of places.

I had forgotten where Victorville was, and I was thankful I was wrong. I had been picturing somewhere in the Central Valley, but it's actually "on the road to Vegas." So I just headed north and east and north again, and I was there in just under two hours. I swear, it seems like I live between 1-2 hours from everything now!

The winds were *really* blowing hard on site, which made for an unusual event. It was hot and sunny, but if you got into the shade, you were really cold.

I wasn't sure who was going to be there, but I found Lilya and Nate, and they were hanging out with Jamal and turns out a whole bunch of people who live in the area where I just moved. So I met a ton of my "neighbors" and really had fun getting to know them.

I spent my drive and all morning working on finishing memorizing verses to my songs, and got very close to knowing them all by heart. But I did have "cheat sheets" just in case I needed to use them in the actual competition.

There were ten of us who entered the Bardic competition, and it was an amazing experience. I accomplished what I set out to do: Be ready with my songs researched and memorized, and do my best with the onsite composition. It turns out that the piece we had to create on the spot was a little bit harder than any of us expected—we had to compose *while* everyone was performing. It was so difficult to enjoy everyone's performances when at the same time I was trying to compose a song using the random words: moon, hare, and love.

I didn't win, but I was really pleased that Mistress Finella (the Harper) won. She's got all our support, and we were all impressed with *everyone* who entered the competition. Everyone did an amazing job: Singing, Playing instruments, Dramatic monologues, Storytelling, Sonnets, Songs in other languages, Poetry—there was a little bit of everything!

Most of all, I went away from the event convinced of several goals and ideas for myself. Here's some of them, in no particular order.

(1) I really am a Bard, now, in the SCA. I never considered myself more than just an occasional performer, and I actually flinched a little when someone called me a Bard. I hear so many connotations in that title, and I knew I wasn't in that place yet. But now I'm newly comfortable in this role, and I'm committed to truly *becoming* a Bard and promoting more Bardic Arts at events in general.

(2) I need to start memorizing more music, regularly. I had to cheat on two songs, and clung to my lyric sheet so that I could glance at it occasionally in my performances. Now I want to have a repetoire of selections that I have down so strongly that I never need a cheat sheet again.

(3) I want to expand the types of pieces in my repetoire. I want to add pieces that use more than just English. I want to span a variety of time periods and places so that I know some lute songs, some French madrigals, some Italian etc. etc.

(4) I want to have some specific sonnets, dramatic monologues, and sagas that I can do for prose selections. I had only prepared sung musical songs for this competition, and I noticed that others had a better variety of selections.

(5) I want to start doing instrumental music as often as possible. I want to bring my wooden Renaissance flute to events and be available (as if I were "on call") to provide background music in court or other activities.

(6) I want to start entering Bardic competitions more often, both to continue to stretch my goals and abilities, and to promote that others can come and do competitions with me. I'm still not entirely sure why I used to avoid them, but now I'm excited by them and think they're fun.

(7) I've missed performing for audiences. I've found my home again.
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Recently listened to: The Bards of Caid