A "G-Rated Journal" That Even My Mother Can Read (because she does!)
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Daddy-do and me, 2010
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Estrella Stories: Part One
Estrella Stories: Part One - Sometimes lining up my stories in a day-by-day fashion works, other times I can hardly remember what happened when. I think I'll just free-form the adventures for you, with fewer calendar references except where the narrative demands it. Enjoy.
So. "Estrella," for those of you family and friends who are not SCA members, stands for the "Estrella War" event held in February in Arizona each year. "Wars" are multi-day camping trips where the martial arts activities of sword-fighting are centered around armies fielded against one another, rather than one-on-one fighting tournaments. Besides the sword-fighting events on the schedule, there are often classes and displays of artistic and scholastic achievements, large shopping opportunities (like going to a city art fair or booths on a board-walk), and general socializing with "several thousand of your closest friends." There's something magical about walking around amongst the large canvas pavilions, the campfires, and thousands of friends in costume and cloaks to make the modern world recede from view and bring a more romantic setting to the forefront.
The Estrella war was named as such for the Estrella National Park (outside Phoenix) where it used to be held. Now the event has kept the name, though the camping site had moved. This was the first year it was held at this new site, an organic alfalfa farm. Because they do not use pesticides (which is good for our breathing), we had to be extra careful with disposing "grey water" from washing dishes or showering. Also, because it's a large farming area, the entire site was very flat with no tree cover, and there were "berms" or large raised dirt rows spaced out evenly, which made for easy tripping over in the dark (or the sunlight!) if you were not careful.
But aside from these inconveniences, I adored the new site.
I camped with my friends from the Inn of the Crimson Spade, a household that has embraced the concept of being an Inn and serving food, drinks, a fire with song and tale, and generally playing host to friends from far away. Last year, they hosted four friends from Wisconsin or Minnesota, which in the SCA is known as the "Kingdom of Northshield." This year 3 of those 4, and 4 additional guests, made a total of 7 Northshield visitors. Combined with other SCA friends from Southern CA, we had a total of 20 people camping in one area together on the same meal plan, and three others in the camp but taking care of their own food.
Erika (Elisheva in the SCA) was the lead cook, as one of the three "proprietors" of the Inn, and I was her second in charge. We planned the meals out in advance, figured the budget, organized getting paid by the 20 folks either in advance or paying on site when they arrived, and I was going to be leading the meals until Eli could arrive on Friday. Four of us (Raphael, Diego, Eliada, and me) drove out on Tuesday, arriving just after midnight Arizona time. We missed the rain downpour on Mon/Tues, which was nice, and we threw up one simple tent and piled in as many blankets and pillows as we could find, just to pass out and start set up the next day.
The Inn setup was the best it had ever been. They have a large covered area with one side and one back wall, and then an open area to the side of that for the firepit and chairs around the fire. They put up a "back wall" along the open area, to disguise all the modern pup tents out back, and so from the road along our camping area, all you saw was the canvas of the covered Inn area for the kitchen and tables, and the canvas of the back wall along the campfire area. There was an opening in the back wall, where I set up my dayshade for the "Coffee Bar of Splendoor." If you looked at the camping area from above, like a map, it might look like this:
tents * tents * tents * tents * tents * tents
* tents * tents * tents * tents * tents * tents
wall * wall * coffee bar * wall * covered kitchen
open space * open space * covered area *
open space * fire * open * covered area *
It was =really= well-done. Hats off to the Inn-Keepers!
Wednesday the 7 Northshielders arrived throughout the day: Gauge, Michael (who's like my brother), his wife Faith, Rigo, his cadet Teffan, his student Edward, and our friend Eithni. This was the first time we didn't have Mateo in camp, but he's busy getting ready for Gulf Wars in March, as the commander of the Northshield army.
The rest of the camp arrived throughout the week: Sorcha and Ichi, camping with us but not part of the meal plan (actually on site before we were); Master Niccolo also camping like a guest at the Inn but not part of the meals (also on site before us). Raphael, Diego, Eliada, Anabella, Elisheva, Svetlana, and later Gideon arrived too (as a suprise) --rounded out all the members of the Inn. Meala and I shared her new bell-wedge pavilion, which was *heavenly* large inside. Lot, Marcos, Arye, and Chana were there, as was our new friend from the barony, Tristan.
The food ramped up day by day from 4 people to 9, 11, 15, then 20 by the end of the week. Michael and Faith's friend Gina was also out from Phoenix, with her two girls. It was most difficult to coordinate cooking breakfast *and* serving coffee bar at the same time, but many people pitched in to help, which made it all the more possible.
Besides the amazing meals that Elisheva had planned and shopped for, she created a three-ring binder with all the meal plans, recipes, and ingredients to make it easier to prepare and serve meals. The book was *brilliantly* done, and I think I'll keep that idea for all future large meal-plan events. I added a bulletin board to the kitchen, for posting announcements and schedules, which I also adored as a method. My friends at the heraldry meeting suggested the bulletin board and easel, and loaned them to me for war. Smart friends, these heralds.
Friday night was the big party in camp thrown by the Inn. And it was *easily* the best evening of the entire week. The Prince from Northshield, Hrodir (the next King) came and hung out at our first several times that night, and we thoroughly enjoyed his company. Isaac, originally from the Dragoons in Caid now lives in the Kingdom of Artemesia (Utah and other states), and he received his "white scarf" (the highest award for rapier fencing skills) at Estrella. So the Dragoons came over to the Inn for their big toast on Friday, and many of them hung out with us for hours. The place was filled with friends from all over, and the fire was filled with song and tale all night long.
Saturday was supposed to be the big "go to everyone else's parties" evening, but I was too exhausted after a week of serving and camping to go on walk-about. I stayed in camp, both to rest and to watch over the campfire. The wind kicked up A LOT that night, and so the fire had to be watched very VERY carefully. His Highness came back and spent some time with us again. It's amazing -- you never know when you'll be entertaining royalty.
Both Friday and Saturday were big fighting days for the folks in camp, so those of us serving meals also took the time to assemble "lunch on the field" and went out in the afternoons to feed and water the fighters. These were some of the only times I really left camp, which I need to pay closer attention to. Leaving camp and seeing the event is good for my sanity.
Also, eating enough was a struggle on site. Since jr. high or so, I've struggled with food issues -- usually thoughts that tell me I'm overweight and "shouldn't" eat so that I can eventually lose enough weight to be happy with myself. Most of the time, nowadays, I can keep those thoughts at bay, and have learned to embrace loving who I am right now, today, and can work toward healthy weight loss. And I successfully lost (and kept off) 21 pounds last year, and I'm working on slow weight loss still this year. Unfortunately, when I'm busy at an outdoor event, it's easy for me to lose track of whether I've eaten at all, or eat so little that I'm guaranteed to lose weight that day. It's not bad for the occasional Saturday one-day event. It's very bad as a pattern for an entire week. By Saturday afternoon, I hadn't consciously noticed how little I'd been eating until almost having a kind of "crash" for blood sugars and energy. Coming home for dinner that night in camp, it was all I could do to keep from crying from exhaustion and feeling horrible. So I've confided in several friends to help me keep an eye on eating enough, especially at events, so that I never go that far into hunger again. It was at the point where I didn't even feel hungry anymore, but I was really out of it. *shrug* Now I know.
As for other activities, Saturday night was Grand Court, and so Meala and I headed over together to process in with our King and Queen, and Sunday evening was Caidan court, so I spent some time with Royals on Sunday afternoon and evening. There were several dozen awards that were given out, with nearly half of them requiring promissory scrolls. Several friends received awards for valor on the field of war, for which I was really proud of them.
Back in camp, the Caidan Nautical community -- people interested in incorporating Naval, Merchanteer, or Pirate personas into their SCA activities -- had a "Captain's Parlay" at our fire that evening. My captain, Lot, was playing the host of the meeting, and the Coffee Bar of Splendoor was the host location -- so besides helping get dinner served, I was also making evening coffee and helping coordinate things with the Parlay. After the parlay was over, we were able to enjoy dinner and then a nice quiet fire at home with the half of the camp that was still on site. [All the Northshielders left Sunday morning.] One of the Princes from An Tir (Washington state, among other geographies) came to our fire, His Highness Ulfgar (one of the Principality rulers, not their next King), and enjoyed song and tales. Again, with hosting royalty!
Monday morning we struck camp with the aid of our friends from the Shire next door, and then an entirely new adventure began, which I've summed up here, with pictures!
* * * * *
On other news: Weight loss. Even after the struggle to actually eat enough when I'm busy, I've lost a "normal" amount of weight and kept it off. This morning's scale read 25.4 lbs lost, total, and 2 days ago I hit a new low of 27.2 lbs. At any time I might bounce in a 1-2 lb range, so I'm not surprised to be between 25-27 lbs lost. I've hit the last notch on my belt, so next I'll not only have to buy new pants, but a new belt to hold them up, too. I think I can finally see some changes in the mirror too. Even at my fastest weight gain in life, I never gained more than 10 lbs in a year, and now I've lost 25-27 lbs in just about a year. I'm feeling pretty successful.
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: New friends and old, keeping my life so darn interesting.
So. "Estrella," for those of you family and friends who are not SCA members, stands for the "Estrella War" event held in February in Arizona each year. "Wars" are multi-day camping trips where the martial arts activities of sword-fighting are centered around armies fielded against one another, rather than one-on-one fighting tournaments. Besides the sword-fighting events on the schedule, there are often classes and displays of artistic and scholastic achievements, large shopping opportunities (like going to a city art fair or booths on a board-walk), and general socializing with "several thousand of your closest friends." There's something magical about walking around amongst the large canvas pavilions, the campfires, and thousands of friends in costume and cloaks to make the modern world recede from view and bring a more romantic setting to the forefront.
The Estrella war was named as such for the Estrella National Park (outside Phoenix) where it used to be held. Now the event has kept the name, though the camping site had moved. This was the first year it was held at this new site, an organic alfalfa farm. Because they do not use pesticides (which is good for our breathing), we had to be extra careful with disposing "grey water" from washing dishes or showering. Also, because it's a large farming area, the entire site was very flat with no tree cover, and there were "berms" or large raised dirt rows spaced out evenly, which made for easy tripping over in the dark (or the sunlight!) if you were not careful.
But aside from these inconveniences, I adored the new site.
I camped with my friends from the Inn of the Crimson Spade, a household that has embraced the concept of being an Inn and serving food, drinks, a fire with song and tale, and generally playing host to friends from far away. Last year, they hosted four friends from Wisconsin or Minnesota, which in the SCA is known as the "Kingdom of Northshield." This year 3 of those 4, and 4 additional guests, made a total of 7 Northshield visitors. Combined with other SCA friends from Southern CA, we had a total of 20 people camping in one area together on the same meal plan, and three others in the camp but taking care of their own food.
Erika (Elisheva in the SCA) was the lead cook, as one of the three "proprietors" of the Inn, and I was her second in charge. We planned the meals out in advance, figured the budget, organized getting paid by the 20 folks either in advance or paying on site when they arrived, and I was going to be leading the meals until Eli could arrive on Friday. Four of us (Raphael, Diego, Eliada, and me) drove out on Tuesday, arriving just after midnight Arizona time. We missed the rain downpour on Mon/Tues, which was nice, and we threw up one simple tent and piled in as many blankets and pillows as we could find, just to pass out and start set up the next day.
The Inn setup was the best it had ever been. They have a large covered area with one side and one back wall, and then an open area to the side of that for the firepit and chairs around the fire. They put up a "back wall" along the open area, to disguise all the modern pup tents out back, and so from the road along our camping area, all you saw was the canvas of the covered Inn area for the kitchen and tables, and the canvas of the back wall along the campfire area. There was an opening in the back wall, where I set up my dayshade for the "Coffee Bar of Splendoor." If you looked at the camping area from above, like a map, it might look like this:
tents * tents * tents * tents * tents * tents
* tents * tents * tents * tents * tents * tents
wall * wall * coffee bar * wall * covered kitchen
open space * open space * covered area *
open space * fire * open * covered area *
It was =really= well-done. Hats off to the Inn-Keepers!
Wednesday the 7 Northshielders arrived throughout the day: Gauge, Michael (who's like my brother), his wife Faith, Rigo, his cadet Teffan, his student Edward, and our friend Eithni. This was the first time we didn't have Mateo in camp, but he's busy getting ready for Gulf Wars in March, as the commander of the Northshield army.
The rest of the camp arrived throughout the week: Sorcha and Ichi, camping with us but not part of the meal plan (actually on site before we were); Master Niccolo also camping like a guest at the Inn but not part of the meals (also on site before us). Raphael, Diego, Eliada, Anabella, Elisheva, Svetlana, and later Gideon arrived too (as a suprise) --rounded out all the members of the Inn. Meala and I shared her new bell-wedge pavilion, which was *heavenly* large inside. Lot, Marcos, Arye, and Chana were there, as was our new friend from the barony, Tristan.
The food ramped up day by day from 4 people to 9, 11, 15, then 20 by the end of the week. Michael and Faith's friend Gina was also out from Phoenix, with her two girls. It was most difficult to coordinate cooking breakfast *and* serving coffee bar at the same time, but many people pitched in to help, which made it all the more possible.
Besides the amazing meals that Elisheva had planned and shopped for, she created a three-ring binder with all the meal plans, recipes, and ingredients to make it easier to prepare and serve meals. The book was *brilliantly* done, and I think I'll keep that idea for all future large meal-plan events. I added a bulletin board to the kitchen, for posting announcements and schedules, which I also adored as a method. My friends at the heraldry meeting suggested the bulletin board and easel, and loaned them to me for war. Smart friends, these heralds.
Friday night was the big party in camp thrown by the Inn. And it was *easily* the best evening of the entire week. The Prince from Northshield, Hrodir (the next King) came and hung out at our first several times that night, and we thoroughly enjoyed his company. Isaac, originally from the Dragoons in Caid now lives in the Kingdom of Artemesia (Utah and other states), and he received his "white scarf" (the highest award for rapier fencing skills) at Estrella. So the Dragoons came over to the Inn for their big toast on Friday, and many of them hung out with us for hours. The place was filled with friends from all over, and the fire was filled with song and tale all night long.
Saturday was supposed to be the big "go to everyone else's parties" evening, but I was too exhausted after a week of serving and camping to go on walk-about. I stayed in camp, both to rest and to watch over the campfire. The wind kicked up A LOT that night, and so the fire had to be watched very VERY carefully. His Highness came back and spent some time with us again. It's amazing -- you never know when you'll be entertaining royalty.
Both Friday and Saturday were big fighting days for the folks in camp, so those of us serving meals also took the time to assemble "lunch on the field" and went out in the afternoons to feed and water the fighters. These were some of the only times I really left camp, which I need to pay closer attention to. Leaving camp and seeing the event is good for my sanity.
Also, eating enough was a struggle on site. Since jr. high or so, I've struggled with food issues -- usually thoughts that tell me I'm overweight and "shouldn't" eat so that I can eventually lose enough weight to be happy with myself. Most of the time, nowadays, I can keep those thoughts at bay, and have learned to embrace loving who I am right now, today, and can work toward healthy weight loss. And I successfully lost (and kept off) 21 pounds last year, and I'm working on slow weight loss still this year. Unfortunately, when I'm busy at an outdoor event, it's easy for me to lose track of whether I've eaten at all, or eat so little that I'm guaranteed to lose weight that day. It's not bad for the occasional Saturday one-day event. It's very bad as a pattern for an entire week. By Saturday afternoon, I hadn't consciously noticed how little I'd been eating until almost having a kind of "crash" for blood sugars and energy. Coming home for dinner that night in camp, it was all I could do to keep from crying from exhaustion and feeling horrible. So I've confided in several friends to help me keep an eye on eating enough, especially at events, so that I never go that far into hunger again. It was at the point where I didn't even feel hungry anymore, but I was really out of it. *shrug* Now I know.
As for other activities, Saturday night was Grand Court, and so Meala and I headed over together to process in with our King and Queen, and Sunday evening was Caidan court, so I spent some time with Royals on Sunday afternoon and evening. There were several dozen awards that were given out, with nearly half of them requiring promissory scrolls. Several friends received awards for valor on the field of war, for which I was really proud of them.
Back in camp, the Caidan Nautical community -- people interested in incorporating Naval, Merchanteer, or Pirate personas into their SCA activities -- had a "Captain's Parlay" at our fire that evening. My captain, Lot, was playing the host of the meeting, and the Coffee Bar of Splendoor was the host location -- so besides helping get dinner served, I was also making evening coffee and helping coordinate things with the Parlay. After the parlay was over, we were able to enjoy dinner and then a nice quiet fire at home with the half of the camp that was still on site. [All the Northshielders left Sunday morning.] One of the Princes from An Tir (Washington state, among other geographies) came to our fire, His Highness Ulfgar (one of the Principality rulers, not their next King), and enjoyed song and tales. Again, with hosting royalty!
Monday morning we struck camp with the aid of our friends from the Shire next door, and then an entirely new adventure began, which I've summed up here, with pictures!
* * * * *
On other news: Weight loss. Even after the struggle to actually eat enough when I'm busy, I've lost a "normal" amount of weight and kept it off. This morning's scale read 25.4 lbs lost, total, and 2 days ago I hit a new low of 27.2 lbs. At any time I might bounce in a 1-2 lb range, so I'm not surprised to be between 25-27 lbs lost. I've hit the last notch on my belt, so next I'll not only have to buy new pants, but a new belt to hold them up, too. I think I can finally see some changes in the mirror too. Even at my fastest weight gain in life, I never gained more than 10 lbs in a year, and now I've lost 25-27 lbs in just about a year. I'm feeling pretty successful.
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: New friends and old, keeping my life so darn interesting.
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