Fri Jul 13 - Yes, I know. I know. Seven Weeks and a Day, since I last posted. First, kudos to my darling Wilhelm/Michael, for his persistent nagging. Second, Dayle "tagged me" in her journal, specifically hoping I would write. Pam dropped me a few insistent IM chat messages, and I think Yvonne counts as one of my IM nags.

I love you all, and yes, I know that some of you (Wilhelm, not naming names) are bizarrely interested in even what I have for lunch every day. But I have *no* idea how to find regular time in my day for *everything* -- so you get what you get, when I update. *shrug, sheepish grin*

So on that: A little about how my daily life has been for the past seven weeks. Good, in fact. I'm definitely spending long hours at the office on the Navy base, which predictably limits my time for personal tasks and fun. For the past week or two, I've been trying to make an effort to (a) get up a little early to check all my personal email before work and (b) come home at least once per day either over lunch or before going out in the evening, to get website updates and priority time-sensitive emails answered.

The good news is that I'm actually staying caught up on the theatre website again, which makes me feel much better about that commitment. I just try to make sure that the more professional commitments are being handled in a more professional manner.

Carry this over, and it means I'm spending more time getting my shire and my barony websites up to snuff. I'm about to hand off the shire to my capable deputy (Yay! Wilhelm!) so he'll be the head-dog in charge and I'll get to be the capable deputy instead. Then in another week, the barony has a huge shift in officers again, and I'm one of them. I'll take up the newsletter and do it in parallel with the baronial website.

Let's see, what else am I carrying right now? I've accepted the Royal Scribe position again for the next monarchs in our SCA kingdom. And although this makes it the second time I've held the position, it's a completely different experience this time. Every King and Queen is a little bit different, every Court is made up of different Chamberlains and Guards and Ladies/Lords-in-Waiting. So with a complete shift in personnel, there's a complete shift in the flavor of the job.

Lately, Kolfinna and I have spent some extra hours keeping a supplemental list of all awards given to date, accessible on the Kingdom website. Oddly enough, the scribe job has been a little bit of a data-warehousing web job this time! *laughs* But now that the records are in order again, it's time to recruit painters and illustrators, braiding and textile artists, and keep replenishing the award supplies for Their Majesties. This is one of the more enjoyable tasks for me, along with having fun picking out color-appropriate award promissories for different people.

I do feel a little bit bad that I haven't had time to replenish my photo website again. I managed to close the account at the old hosts (not really by choice, but not a story worth sharing), and I got the new account fleshed out with the bare-minimum skeleton. Now, I just need to set aside some more daily or weekly time to load photos online again. Diego (Ben) offered to spend some time with me, learning some faster software techniques for editing and polishing my photo collections, since my current method is *really* time-intensive. Don't ask, it's almost embarrassing. (And Caterina, stop giggling at me. I've already written to Diego, to schedule time with him!) So, I have no photos to announce for now, and my old sets are currently down, but I'll announce as they get reloaded.

Now, some of the dated adventures. I last left off on Wed May 23, when I registered for free Hebrew classes at the local synagogue, and I was packing to go to Potrero.

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Fri May 25 – Mon May 28, Potrero War - I spent all day Friday at home, getting ready for the weekend event. It was much easier to sit out the heavy Friday-night traffic, go to bed at an "early" hour, and then get up around 3 or 4 am to drive in the cool of the night/morning. There were friends who went down on Thursday who were slightly bummed there was no "Coffee Bar of Splendoor" on Friday, but I was there for Coffee on Saturday morning.

It was another "hot war" where it's easier to put my double-high queen-sized air mattress in my dayshade, and let everyone lounge around in the shade enjoying the breeze, relaxing on my bed. In fact, the majority of my photos from the entire war are different friends lounging on my bed!

I had a panicky kind of Sunday, when I had some forgetful moments and miscommunication with the King and Queen, but all was recovered, and we got all the awards signed and ready in time for Court. But Edric now has plenty of ways to tease me for being forgetful.

Backing up earlier to Saturday, the household presented a 30-min set on the "Open Arms Bardic" stage, basically singing all the tunes we tend to sing around the fire at White Star. It went really well, and we plan to do it again in the future. I forced myself to finally learn all the verses/lyrics to Mateo's "Jack Rogers" -- and I'm going to have to start doing that more often: set a goal to have a new song learned by a certain event, just to keep building my repertoire.

Speaking of repertoire, the Black Bard asked me to sing a song with him at the Bawdy Bardic concert, and he sent me the lyrics and a recording of the piece. So I actually memorized 2 songs the week before Potrero, and the performance went *really* well. I'd be happy to sing with Rathflaed *anytime* he asks.

The concerts themselves went really well, too, but I was also antsy and bouncy all night, never sitting still. I felt far more ADHD than ever before (and I use that term loosely). But with some wandering in and out, I caught part of the Bawdy show, some of the fire at Crimson Spade, and just some generic wandering alone occasionally.

And speaking of the Inn of the Crimson Spade, they gave out their first, um, not "awards" but, unlike an award into an "Order," they gave out "Disorders." They made Lot the premier member of the Disorder of "The Drunken Sot," made both me and Meala members of the disorder of "The Crafty Bugger," and Mora the premier member of the disorder of the "Heavy Tipper." (I aspire to be part of the disorder of the Heavy Tipper some day!) My disorder token was made by Meala (a buckle suspended from black and red cord), and I'm tasking myself to make her a token, since her token was her own needle and thread! I still haven't found the perfect shiny miscellaneous object to hang from cord, but I'm keeping my eyes open.

We had a lovely Havdahlah on Saturday night at the Inn (that's the Jewish ceremony that ends Sabbath and greets the new week). And we had lunch with tons of friends from Isles and Lyondemere on our way home on Monday afternoon. I would call Potrero a success.

Mike was still staying at my place, and so the week after Potrero we compared photos. It's so bizarre that the SCA is as large as it is, because you can live in the same house, go to the same event, and come home having never seen each other at the event. With my roomie Mel, we almost always see each other when we go *out* to the same events, but never see each other at home. With Mike as a houseguest, we saw each other in passing at home, but at the same events almost never did more than pass each other walking about some days.

Wed May 30, Fri Jun 1: Last Minute Sewing - Sven and Kolfinna's reign as King and Queen featured Viking costuming prominently. I never did any Viking-specific clothing, but several friends of mine did. Edric and Faizeh's reign as King and Queen featured Persian costuming, specifically the Ottoman courts (if I remember correctly). Again, I didn't make any Persian clothing for myself, but I've always been interested in a secondary costuming track for myself one of these days, primarily Turkish and/or Persian. I did learn a little bit about the poetry of the era, such as the Ghazal I wrote for Faizeh. Now it's the reign of Drogo and Ithuna, and we're back to a combination of either Viking or Norman clothing preferences.

So Lot (Jeff) phoned me up for some assistance, and we managed to pool fabric from both our stashes and create an outfit for him in two evenings, plus a start on a second outfit for him and an outfit for Caterina (Adrienne) by the end of the second night. I put together a quick pair of pants on Wednesday, and then both Caterina and I worked on costuming on Friday. My first mock-up under tunic for Lot was too tight in the arms, but fit Caterina. So I cut out two more under tunics for Lot, an over tunic for him, and we had enough over-tunic cloth that we plan to turn it into a Viking apron for Caterina later. She sewed pieces together, while Lot worked with the leg wraps she made. When we were all done, Lot had a wonderful, new, casual Viking tunic and pants outfit, and he looks vastly different than usual! But he's taken a position as one of the Sgts on the Queen's Guard, so he wanted to try to support the costuming preferences of the Queen.

Sat Jun 2 and Sun Jun 3: Coronation and Queen's Champion - Coronation day itself was another wonderful event, filled with activities and fun with friends. I spent the majority of "stepping-down court" (the last court of the former King and Queen) out back, penning thank-you cards for gifts. I was really surprised (and honored) to get my first "Signum Regni" or Signet of the King & Queen (sometimes the signet is given by just the Queen, just the King, or jointly by both monarchs) for special service during the reign. This was my sixth court ever, but my first court in a role other than Lady-in-Waiting. I had so much fun organizing the award scrolls and other tasks, that I've found a niche I would do almost anytime. But getting a Signum Regni on top of the joy of the job itself, was really stunning and astonishing.

(Of course, off the top of my head I cannot remember much else from the event, but for those of you in the SCA, if you weren't there, you can see a list of everyone who received awards on this page on the Kingdom website.)

The events on Saturday were just 30-minutes south of me, and the event on Sunday was just about 10-minutes east of me. A bunch of us had dinner together on Saturday night, and then I had a friend from San Diego come crash with me on Saturday night. Sunday morning, we all helped get everything set up early, then I had to leave site for a short while to go to my first Hebrew class. The class was really about learning to read the alphabet, starting from no previous knowledge, and so it just built on my self-studies since September. So after my quick 90-min class, I just returned to the event site and stayed for the rest of the day.

Lot was in finals for Rapier Queen's Champion, one of three fighters, and they decided to have each fighter heralded on to the field. I had the pleasure of being Lot's personal herald for the bout, and used up a HUGE page in my notebook with the complete list of all of his awards and recognitions. (I have to say, I was really proud of him and all of his accomplishments!) And I'm pleased to say, he won the lists of the day.

Now, this time, the Queen decided she would *select* her champions, based on what she saw on the field for the day. The winners of the lists were *not* automatically going to be her champions, and in fact only half of them were selected. But I'm doubly-proud to say that the Queen selected Lot as her Rapier champion, which couldn't have pleased us more.

I *do* remember a wonderful award moment from Sunday, and this one was quite unusual. Faizeh really wanted to award a Legion of Courtesy (LoC) to Marcos (Eric), but he wasn't there on Saturday, and by the end of Saturday, she was no longer the Queen. This award is personally given by the Queen. But our Queen Ithuna granted Edric and Faizeh a moment to make 2 special awards on Sunday, and so I was really pleased to escort Marcos up for his LoC. I had chosen the award promissory that Faizeh had painted with me at Gallavally anniversary, and I just finished up the painting before penning his name in calligraphy.

Sat Jun 9: Day with Drell - A week later, and there was a Saturday when I finally just took a day *not* at an SCA (or other) event. Drell (Mike) was able to spend the day with his boys (twin 11 yr-olds), and he invited me to come just hang out with them. We watched an episode of Heroes, Mike played video games with his sons, we made stir-fry and grilled chicken for dinner, and then all of us played 2 rounds of a board game (Risk). Talk about a lazy day just hanging out! It was really nice to do nothing. The twins, Marcel and Jared, are your typical 11-yr-olds, and we only met once before at the Kaleidoscope demo. But we had fun hanging out, playing games, playing videos, and I was thankful the invitation to slow down and do almost nothing.

Sun Jun 10: Queen's Champion Equestrian: Before jetting off to QC Equestrian, I had my second Hebrew class. The first week, I sat next to a lady in the front row who has a hearing loss. So naturally, I took out a pad of paper and just wrote down things the instructor was saying, so she could better follow along.

This week, the gal who was assisting with writing things on the dry-erase board wasn’t there, so I not only took dictation notes for Dolores, but put notes up on the board for the rest of the class.

Dolores kept trying to tell me that I was some sort of genius for already knowing Hebrew, and I kept trying to tell her, "No, I'm just writing down what the professor is telling us, and I only know a little bit more than you because I've been trying to learn to read the letters since September on my own." She seems to have some memory loss too, but she's absolutely a hoot.

After class, I hurried out to the SCA event (about an hour east of me), and got to relax at a small event around horses. The gal who won the lists and was selected as the Champion is a long-time professional horse-woman, and completely new to the SCA for just the past six months. So I spent a little time with Lot, helping her out, as she tried to digest the sudden responsibility of being made the Queen's Champion. She's good friends with our friend Arabella, so she's in good hands with lots of SCA friends to help her.

Fri Jun 15 – Sun Jun 17: KWHSS - In order to be ready for a weekend event in a hotel, I spent most of the week before, working late at the office. Glancing at my day runner (where I keep notes for my timecard reporting), I can see that I worked until 1 am, 8:30 pm, 8:30 pm, and 5:30 pm that week. *whew*

These extra hours at work left me free to spend my weekend at the "Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium," managing the Hospitality Suite and serving Coffee Bar of Splendoor. It was actually fairly relaxing to spend the weekend lounging around in a hotel, although it was also a lot of work to care for the suite.

The Baron and Baroness offered to book one of the rooms at the hotel, with the idea that maybe others in the barony would split the cost with them and make the room open to anyone who needed to store things safely on site. I took them up on the offer, and it was probably one of the best extra expenditures I've invested in lately. It was so nice to just wander down one flight of stairs late Friday night, late Saturday night, and crawl into a clean luxurious bed and pass out.

The event was probably more amazing than I really got to see, but since it was a working event for me, all I can really tell you about are the friends I made in the suite. Three ladies from the neighboring kingdom (Arizona, among other areas) were some of my favorite new friends. One of the gals had done painted stencil patterns on her linen costuming, which I found really inspiring. Now there are several of us working on painted fabric for some group projects, drawing on historic woven and stamped patterns.

I also broke out the Turkish coffee set that Elisheva (Erika) gave me months ago, and finally learned how to brew turkish coffee. Jamal and I spent some time lingering over a pot, talking recipes and traditions and history, and I'm inspired to spend some more time on research later. I'd like to be able to present some of the history of coffee, tea, chocolate, and possibly mulled drinks like cider, to tie my modern "Coffee Bar of Splendoor" into the SCA more than just "my friends want to drink hot drinks for breakfast when we go camping." This was just another stepping stone in this pursuit, and I'm thankful for the time Jamal spent with me.

And with Sunday being Father's Day, there was no Hebrew class, so I wasn't torn between two commitments.

Finally, I'm *really* pleased to say that Meala and I discovered (well, it's new to us) an amazing Persian restaurant near LAX (and near the IHOP where we always have Wednesday night late dinner & coffee after baronial fighter practice), and had one of the best dinners in the longest time. We thought of people of friends we want to introduce to the restaurant, and we plan to return as often as possible. [If any of you are ever in the LAX area, go to Pars restaurant on Manchester. It's amazing.]
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Today, Sat Jul 14: That's all I had time to type up yesterday, so I'll label that "Part One" and provide another installment later. Today I'm headed north for a wedding, tomorrow morning I may go to the extra post-class for Hebrew, then it's off to the Pagaent of the Masters with friends.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Shoshana - You bring me much joy, and I wish you a speedy recovery.