Tue Nov 14: Lists and More Lists - Remember I mentioned a Hogwarts party? Rae hosts the party each year with her roomie. Both of them are also SCA friends, where I know them as Tonwen and Mebh Renata (pronounced "MAYV"). Tonwen and I have occasionally had email conversations that touch on the issue of SCA Peerage (the highest "award" for achievement in either fighting, service, or arts & sciences / research) and that student-mentor relationship called "Apprenticeship."

We were both too busy to get back to that conversation until after the Hogwarts party, Mebh's Laureling ceremony (getting a Peerage for Artistic achievement), and the Coronation of the next King and Queen. So, post Coronation, I revisited our discussion, and in the course of penning the email, some interesting lists took shape. I thought some of you might be interested in these lists.

Several things this year have really expanded my perspective on how I participate in the SCA in general, and in particular the idea of participating at a "local" level versus at a more "regional" level. Some of this is directly quoted from my earlier email, some is added commentary.

(1) February: Meeting 4 Northshield Dons at Estrella and being camp mom to a dozen friends. I wasn't even part of White Star yet, and I'd volunteered/accepted the role of taking care of all of White Star, Crimson Spade, and the visiting Dons for a week, all 3 meals for everyone. I'd never had so much fun, as feeding over a dozen people for a week at war. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I've even figured out lately, based on this experience, that I'm what I call "Permanent Support Staff" for the fighting community. I no longer really have a desire to pick up a sword. I'm kinda like a Rapier-Spouse without being married to a Rapier fighter. *grin*

This is a really important thing for me to have figured out. I've agonized over fighting in the SCA on and off again for years and years. Sometimes it's just a matter of hanging out with sword-fighters, that it seems to want to rub off on me, making me want to "do that too." But the more I examine how I really organize my priorities, the less I think sword-fighting is my kind of game.

It's actually harder to be an involved side-support staff somedays, because there's an attitude of "Suit Up or Shut Up" that says if you don't fight with a sword, you cannot really comment on how sword-fighting is done. This goes for both the armored combat called "Heavy Weapons" and the type of fencing we do in the SCA called "Rapier fighting" or the historical sword-fighting that many of my friends pursue that goes beyond the limits of SCA Rapier. It's a constant balancing act to incorporate what I know about the fighting forms and how I can support my friends who participate, but friends that I do not join on the field in arms and armor.

(2) July: Going out to Northshield for their Warlords and Warriors (WW, or Dub-Dub). Sure, a part of that was a crush on one of the guys (I'm *completely* over the crush now), and part of it was whimsy "hey I can just get on a plane if I feel like it." I decided to approach the event with "Hi, I haven't had a chance to introduce myself, what's your name?" and memorizing names like a fiend. It worked in ways I never expected. I gained a good dozen close girlfriends from the project, met nearly the entire rapier community of the kingdom, made best friends with the Kingdom Seneschal, and met bunches of other prominent kingdom folks.

Of course, the crush was fixed simply by recognizing that he saw me as a "Camp Mom" ever since he met me. Combine that with me being eight years older, and there's the recipe for being "just friends." Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad I've got that kind of clarification.

But on the topic of what I learned from the experience of just *going* to Northshield (Wisconsin) is that I really fit in with my SCA family, no matter where I go. And I have that kind of extrovert personality that can travel easily from SCA Kingdom to Kingdom, plus the added benefit of having not been raised in CA, so there's a sense of "coming home" in the Mid-West or the East.

(3) Sept: Traveling to Western Seas with Sven and Kolfinna. Again, I took memorizing names seriously, and wanted to really get to know people there. Now I have another good dozen friends that I would visit anytime, and for whom my home will always be open if they're on the mainland. And a renewed love for the friends in Hawaii who I knew from California years ago.

(4) Oct: Flew back out to Northshield for Mateo's CD release party and the halloween bash at the resort for the weekend. All those friends I met in July? All of them were *extremely* happy to see me again, and once more I feel like part of the jet-set SCA.

And of course, my Northshield friends tease me that they want to keep me in Wisconsin. I don't see leaving CA anytime soon, sometimes ever, but I know that I could feel at home anywhere. And in July, I saw fireflies/lightning bugs again for the first time in over 21 years... talk about being instantly transported to my childhood.

(5) Nov: Getting to serve now on Edric & Faizeh's court as the "Royal Scribe." It feels very different than being a "lady-in-waiting." I feel like I've taken on something that's more than just standing a shift at court, or following a royal around with a drink in my hand for them, or holding a parasol. Edric said the most amazing thing to me Sunday night, after two full days of events, "I don't know how I did the other three reigns without you." I'm stunned and floored, and really motivated to do my very best for him.

I really *really* have wanted to be part of Edric's courts, each time he's been on the throne. But each time (1st through 3rd) there were other reasons I wasn't part of it. It truly is a coming-home feeling to be back involved again. I've missed him a lot these past ten years. And I've always had a soft spot for Faizeh, and I'm thrilled to be there for her, too.

(6) Somewhere in the summer, there was the party at Morgan's when Baroness Elizabeth was in town. I remember thinking at one point that "wow, these peers seem to treat me like I'm part of their group." I never really see myself as part of the same group as the folks who were there at Morgan's... and there was a strange shift in my perspective while being there and feeling as included as I did.

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I had a thought the other day, about fiber arts. I think I'm addicted to "miniaturized weaving." I almost groan and roll my eyes when I think of the task it would be to warp a huge loom and make cloth. I still sorta kinda want to do it someday, just to say I'd done it once. And who knows, maybe it'll be more addicting than I think.

But you mention the word lucet or kumihimo or braiding or fingerloop-braiding or cardweaving and I bounce up out of my seat and run to that conversation. I think I've found what I want to play with in addition to spinning: All things portable! And the more portable, the better. I still am *facinated* by tablet-weaving, but lucet and kumihimo are so darn portable, they hit that same nerve as drop spindle for me.

Finally, I came home from Coronation/Queen's Champion with several thoughts:

(A) Upgrade my costuming NOW. It's not that I want to be all Turkish-bling'ed out, for their current majesties, but I've been skating by on my same-ol-same-ol for so long that I'm ready to deal with that. And my preference is just to "LOOK LIKE THE PICTURES!!" When I'm in a cotehardie, I really should look like the portraits or the grave statuaries or the woodcuts or the illuminations. When I find other outfits I like (and one friend is trying desperately to get me to like more clothes than just cotehardies), I want to really look like the pictures. It's time to finally get more shoes, better headcovers, better/more hair braiding techniques, better belts, better pouches/purses....

(B) Start pursuing this idea of specializing in all miniature weaving techniques. Maybe catalog everything that's not cloth -- braids, trim, ribbons, cords -- and all the methods and places and times for each. People do "fill the gap" 7-strand braids on a kumihimo disk: but didn't I read somewhere that's a Viking pattern? If so, how did the Vikings weave that 7-strand round cord? If they did, what did they do with it? Was it decorative trim on their clothing? What about sprang? What about tablet-weaving? What about inkle (or the appropriate in-period method for what we call inkle-weaving)? Who used which tools and which techniques and then what did they do with all the finished products?

(C) How to take my Bardic stuff to the next level. What should I be teaching in Bardic Arts? For heavens sake, I'm a Baronial Bard and a Lux in Bardic -- I should be teaching. Okay, so what do I know? How would I teach it? What do I wish I knew how to teach? For example, I'm going on natural talent and life-long musical skills when I harmonize. But how would I *teach* harmonizing to someone who doesn't have my background? I'm really at a loss on that one, but I should figure it out.

(D) Heaven's sake: I'm the Royal Scribe on Edric & Faizeh's court. Get a gosh-darn scroll done and turned in. I have several ideas.... which I'm censoring now, because several of them are surprises. But suffice to say it includes four different scroll ideas, one of which should be easy to attack right away.

(E) I know that some people are expecting me to be part of their Pentathlon teams. I'm going to limit myself to just these team entries this year, with my eye on next Pentathlon as a full entry for myself. I have a rough idea what I would enter for Pentathlon, but there's no human-earthly way to complete it this time. The entries would include things like:

(1) A braid survey research paper: All hair-style braids, all periods, all locations. Where to find braids in paintings, sculptures/statuary, illumination, woodcuts, etc. What periods used which braids, etc. There's actually people who bug me, "is your braid survey done yet??"

(2) Costume-in-review, where you're wearing what you made

(3) Leatherworking: Shoes, that would match my costume-in-review outfit

(4) Performance: Dramatic. A retelling of a period saga or story, incorporating elements from the footnotes so that the modern audience will get a complete understanding of the story, in a way that the period audience might (where I'm wearing the appropriate clothing and shoes for the telling of that story)

(5) Spinning: I do so much spinning, I'd really have to look at where my spinning research would turn into a finished product for a pentathlon. This one would probably include which breed sheep was appropriate, which tool to use for spinning, what size yarn/thread did I spin, what ply did I use, what the finished string was intended for (warp, weft, rope, trim, embroidery, sail-cloth, etc.), and maybe even a small sample of the spinning in the intended "final product" like if it's for embroidery, show a small embroidery sample, if it's for lucet cord, do some cord, etc.

Those are my main Pentathlon ideas for a future competition. I might add illumination and/or calligraphy or a musical performance or an heraldic piece of costuming or a spinning tool. I'm not really all that inclined toward cooking, but maybe a brewed cordial would be appealing, if I needed a Culinary Arts category item. But I have no research in that arena yet, so that's iffy. Oh, and probably the soap-making idea from the "get a fleece, make the soap, wash the fleece..." monologue.

So, yeah I'm not against having guidance from peers. I'm starting to see the wisdom in finding the right kind of peers in my life, since I'm starting to expand my goals so much, which include several things I haven't mentioned yet in this email, in some order based on calendar and importance or priority:

(a) Be the best LyonBard possible, since I hand off the title on Dec 2, and finish all my other surprise details for this event

(b) Compete and be the best I can in the Bard of Caid competition at Twelfth Night

(c) Be the best Royal Scribe I can be, all reign, for Edric and Faizeh

(d) Finish whatever team entries I need to do for Pentathlon

(f) Complete handing off my shire website to my deputy

(f) Really make my baronial website amazing

(g) Launch kingdom bardic website with other bardic/web people (which I had hoped to do during calendar 2006, and didn't do at all)

(h) Find my place in support of the dyestuffs business & website I'm involved in

(i) Co-autocrating a Kingdom event next summer with a friend from my shire

(j) Start Pentathlon 2009 research in earnest

(k) Figure about how to serve in a Kingdom officer capacity

That about wraps it up. What a lot to sort through!

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Tonwen, for getting me to think along these lines in the first place