The Cliff Notes of March - I was preparing all my calendars for April early this morning, before the sun was even up. And I'd only just finally flipped my big calendar from February to March, the day before. I hadn't realized how completely busy I'd been for the past month until that little reminder that I'd just left my big calendar on "February" for so long. So as I took a short snack break at work this morning, I thought maybe I'd just pen a few cliff notes to sum up all that's been going on. I'm even working on this draft in the same file where I've been writing longer Gulf Wars stories, but you all really deserve more frequent updates from me.

Oh, and the good news is that I'm almost done with the Gulf Wars pictures and stories, so that'll be posted soon.

Let's see, mid February was the big camping trip to Arizona. You've heard all the stories about our wild and crazy drive home, and hopefully you've enjoyed the photos. Recovery from that trip was sporadic, since I went to another SCA event every weekend afterwards. It was enough to get all the laundry done and most of the equipment put away, while heading off to Lyondemere Arts and Archery on Saturday, Feb 24 and then Starkhafn Anniversary, Saturday Mar 3.

The Arts and Archery was a local event in my Barony, and the site was up in Los Angeles. I hadn't shot archery in nearly 15 years, by my best reckoning, but I did have a lovely time getting "authorized" to shoot, which is to say I took a test that proved my understanding of the rules (open book) and then shot a few times to prove I was safe with a bow. I didn't have to show any skill, just safety and general knowledge.

Meala had caught a virulent strain of tonsillitis and couldn't attend, which truly upset her since she was really looking forward to the event, but she loaned her archery equipment to me and Diego for the event. Cormac and I shared one of the bows and all the arrows, and sadly the glue on one set of arrows was weak enough that we lost tips off most of the arrows on her custom-fletching set. (In fact, we still need to replace or repair the equipment for her. Hmm, I have to add that to my to-do list.) But I enjoyed all the archery, and a tiny piece of me wouldn't mind getting back into archery. Of course, I have *no* time to do so for now, but it's on the back-burner in my head again.

The competition for the day included both archery shoots and the Arts & Sciences competitions. I put together some hasty documentation for some of my spinning, and entered both the textile arts and the performing arts categories. It didn't seem that I placed in anything, but I got some nice comments on my spinning. I *really* need to start buckling down and doing actual in-depth research on spinning in history, so that I'm not just some chick with a drop spindle and fiber any more. Yes, my skill needs practice too, but I felt sorely lacking for research on my favorite hobby.

Starkhafn is the Barony for the Las Vegas area, and Scott (Lorccán) and I made plans to carpool out to the event together. I was pleasantly surprised how quickly four hours can fly by when chatting with Scott. In fact, we never even turned on the music at all, that's how fascinating the drive was together. I managed to pick him up close to 5:30 am and we were on site very nearly at 9:30, which was just as I had hoped. The site was very windy and cold (and for my family, very near to where Robert and Stephanie's wedding was held, maybe within 2-5 miles away). But it was very well attended, and we were able to be there for the stepping down of the former Baroness and the stepping up of the new Baron and Baroness. I entered the chess & backgammon baronial championship, which reminds me that I really ought to learn more chess strategy.

Meala had also come out to the event, and so she joined Scott and I as we all went to the after-event party at Korwyn, Krista, and Issya's house. Although someone local had volunteered to give me and Scott crash space at their home (20 miles from the party), the hosts of the home offered us each guest beds and so we just stayed the night with all of them. In the morning, Meala came back to the party house from her hotel, and Korwyn made us all breakfast. We had a wonderful time chatting for several hours, standing around the kitchen. Once again, I'm noticing that I no longer think like a "typical Caidan" after the past year or more traveling to other kingdoms and starting to see the SCA in a non-isolated-in-Southern-CA way. This, I believe, is a good thing. The three of us then caravaned home together, stopping to enjoy some yummy Greek food in the middle of the desert, and then splitting up and going to our respective homes Sunday night.

Now, on a personal note, if any of you are wondering, Scott and I are "just friends." Not that I might not have enjoyed a different kind of friendship (wink), but part of the joy of the four hour conversation on the way home included some fantastic honesty between friends, and that nice joy of knowing where you stand in things in life. He *is* fabulously nice, interesting, cute, and recently single (and this is where I laugh at myself), but we're just another set of very good friends. This, I believe, is also a =very= good thing.

My sister's birthday fell mid-week, March 7, and I had the opportunity to run up and join her, my mom, my nieces, and my brother-in-law for dinner and shopping. I had wonderful shopping-fu (hee hee) and managed to find *two* pairs of the kind of black work heels I'd been looking for over the past month, and they were each marked either 70 or 80% off, so I got the two pairs for less than $25 total. Yippee! Spending the evening with my sister and nieces was lovely, and then back home again.

On to Gulf Wars! Friday, March 9 several friends came over to pack for the event in Mississippi. Saul and I were driving all the gear (for all 5 of us) in his SUV, and then Jeff, Adrienne, and Eric were flying out on Thursday. So Friday night we all packed the truck to the gills (with room for the keg of cider left over from Estrella!), and then Saturday morning Saul and I hit the road. Have you ever driven cross-country for any length of time? We drove from about 9 AM until 1 AM two days straight. The weirdest element is that we drove over the weekend of Daylight Savings *and* we drove "backwards" two time zones. We had even less idea of the time of day than a usual long drive. But after almost 30-hours of drive time and 2000 miles, we were safely in MS, in a hotel room at 6 AM local time, and on site by about noon on Monday.

We spent a week camping with extended household family and seeing lots of our friends from Northshield. The shire we camped with was from Meridies (a bunch of the southern states), so these were new friends who lived in Georgia. Just down the road in camp were our friends from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Now, I'm not going to regale you with *all* my Gulf Wars stories, since I've been working on them for the past week or so. But the cliff notes version is that we had a *wonderful* time at the event, and both the drive to and from the event were completely uneventful drives, mechanically. *yippee!* But as any prolonged time with friends, I got to become even closer in my friendship with Saul, and a little bit more even with Eric, Jeff, and Adrienne. Lots of stories and photos more later.

I never even fully unpacked once I got home, because I have good news and bad news. The good news: I have a "real boss" again at work and I have real assignments, with lots to do all day, every minute of the day! The bad news: I have a "real boss" again at work and I have real assignments, with lots to do all day, every minute of the day!

I don't even really work from home much anymore, since most of my work requires the tools that are hidden behind a military firewall (among other explanations). So I go into my office on the Navy base every morning, and some mornings I try showing up between 5-6 am since most of my co-workers are on the East coast or in the Central time zone. I have to send a daily report by 3 pm CA (6 pm Eastern) so when I'm lucky, sending that report is the last thing I have to do, and then I can head home and use my afternoons and evenings for myself. It's much nicer than working late and missing things with friends, which has happened several times since Gulf Wars as I have been trying to get caught up from being away for a week.

Last weekend I enjoyed going to Gyldenholt/Calafia friendship tourney, which was held at the same time/place as our Pentathlon competition event. Pentathlon only comes around every two years, and is the biggest Arts & Sciences competition in the Kingdom. Ages ago I participated in some team entries, and ever since then I've *wanted* to enter but haven't. And as always, post-event energy has me scheming and plotting what I'll enter two years from now, so we'll see how far I get. I'm thinking of taking stock at the end of every month, to see if I can do little monthly goals for 24 months, rather than put it off for more than a year (like I have in the past).

The tourney on Saturday was lovely, and a friend of Cormac's (Lysander) fought for me on the Rapier field. He'd never fought in a tourney before, and never fought for a consort before. So I had a lovely time supporting Lysander and teaching him about the role of consorts, and just generally trying to help him feel like someone cared about his fights on the field. It was wonderfully fun.

After the event a bunch of us (maybe 45?) went to dinner at a local restaurant, and then several of us went to a post-event bardic party at Eva's parent's house. I have plans to get to know her nephew better soon, since it turns out he's quite the drummer and percussionist. I have a boudhron drum (Irish round drum) that I've never learned to use, and I'm hoping he might be able to figure it out a bit. Maybe it'll go to a new home, if he likes it. I love finding people who can use things that are just gathering dust in my life. Eva seems optimistic that Dustin and I will get along just famously, so I'll need to try and set that up pretty soon.

Mid-week I drove up to Edric's house so the King and Queen could sign award scrolls for this weekend's events. This is the first time they've split apart and gone to two different events, when I had to meet with them in advance to get all the scrolls signed early. We had a lovely time visiting, and then I saw my sister briefly when I stopped at her home to sleep (which was half-way home to my house).

And now this weekend, I'm going camping at King's Hunt, where I'm also helping organize a kitchen for 9-12 people for Saturday. The Coffee Bar was never even unpacked from Gulf Wars, which amused me greatly. I spent all last night packing and staging things in my living room. This afternoon I'll pack the car, buy groceries, and hit the road.

I miss chatting with so many of you, especially now that I'm working in my isolated Navy base. But I love how fulfilling it feels to have a job well-done, so that's a weight off my conscience.

Oh! And I almost forgot to mention: Sunday, Scott asked if he could fight for me in Crown lists, so once again I'm a Consort in my local Crown Tourney. This is the third time in a row I've been in Lists, but the first time it's Lorccán and not Wilhelm von Frankfurt, my friend up in Darachshire. I'm looking forward to Crown very much, and that's in two weeks in Vegas again. I promise I'll take lots of photos, and I'm working on putting story-telling/picture-loading time into my weekly schedule of time.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: A competent boss who knows how to delegate and follow-up thoroughly. He even knows how to say thank you!