Detached Observations - After the craziness of two events followed by the memorial wake, my week never let up on the busy factor. Wake Tuesday; Fighter Practice Wednesday; Thursday should have been the Shire meeting, but by the time I was going to drive north, the traffic was at a standstill on every freeway; Friday Wedding; Saturday Crown Tourney; Sunday Quidditch. Don't worry -- I'll explain each of these. :)

When I say "Fighter Practice," many of you in the SCA or familiar with our activities already know what I mean. But to explain for those of you outside-the-know (can you say that? hmm...), this is an evening where members come out to a local park to practice using a sword. They might be what we call "heavy weapons fighters" which means they put on a heavy helm, thick and rigid armor (in varying materials and in varying styles), and work with a "sword" made from solid rattan (which is a type of bamboo) to learn a non-choreographed sword-fighting martial arts style. The main idea is to learn to defend and attack, use proper technique and footwork and sword angles, "throw a sword blow" that is safe for your body mechanics and safe for your opponent (isn't too hard, isn't going to damage someone... they are your friends!), and meets the rules of honor so that when your opponent "throws a good blow" at you, you learn how to acknowledge they have defeated you honorably.

The other form of combat is called "rapier fencing" and is a little bit like Olympic fencing if you took them off the narrow strip, took away the electronic scoring, gave them heavier and thicker swords (real swords, not just foils), and let them fence in a 360-degree arena. I say "a little bit like this..." because there's far more differences between historical rapier fencing and Olympic modern fencing than what I've described here, but hopefully that's a good enough explanation for the modern reader to understand.

So when I say I "go to fighter practice" I don't (yet) mean that I pick up a sword (in either form) and put on any armor or costuming. I just go to the park, and bring hand-work to finish or progress. Sometimes I bring spinning, braid-making (such as lucet or kumihimo, which describes which kind of tool I'm using for different braid techniques), hand-sewing, or other portable crafts. It can be a 20-40 minute drive north (depending on traffic), and it can be hours at the park and socializing over food and coffee afterwards.

Why do I go? (1) I like to see my friends in a social setting, and so I always love going for coffee afterwards when we can all chat. (2) My friend Aliskye and I are now walking for exercise every week at Wednesday night practice, which gives me another weekly exercise routine and time to chat and catch up with Aliskye. (3) I like to meet the members of my local group -- the new fighters, the newcomers who come out to learn what is this group we're in, the oldtimers who really only come to fighter practice and events, but I don't often see anywhere else. (4) When I decide it's time to take up a sword, I'll have a place to get instruction. (5) I get lots of hand-work done on projects, by having these reserved Wednesday evenings.

So even though my week was impossibly busy, the Wednesday practice recharges me socially (remember how no one ever talks to me at work?), and gives me set aside time to work on crafts, too.

Thursday last week, staying home was the right decision. I had a relaxing dinner, some time to curl up with a book for a short while, and hours of time finishing Scott's new outfit for Saturday. I had to stop just to sleep, but finished all the final hems (maybe just 30-minute of touch-up) in the morning Friday, then got all my laundry done. Scott's outfit definitely had to be washed before Saturday because there were smokers in the bar on Tuesday when I was sewing, and it all reeked of cigarette smoke.

Friday was Alan and Theresa's wedding, and now I'm doubly-motivated to get back to work on my photo albums website, because I want to share the photos with everyone. I was thinking that I need to spend time every evening (maybe while multi-tasking before bed) adding a few more pictures to my finished sets every day. I know I need to budget in some time, and start sticking to the budget/schedule.

The wedding was *gorgeous* and I was doubly-glad I decided at the last minute to up how many loaves of challah (which is a braided egg-bread, used to celebrate Sabbath on Friday nights in Jewish households) to bring to the wedding. Originally, Theresa asked me to pick up 6 loaves from my local deli/bakery, thinking that was enough bread for the blessing. But I know that everyone loves this challah, and it would look better for a wedding reception presentation to have a whole unbroken loaf at every table, even if there were only a few people at the table. So I got a full 14 loaves for all 14 tables, and I was right. The presentation was *gorgeous* and went will with the over-abundance of forks and spoons and glasses at our formal place-settings. (I've never sat at a setting with *that many* different glasses!)

After the wedding, even though I got home late, I stayed up to finish my ironing and most of the packing for Crown Tourney on Saturday. I'm very glad I did, because my hair took *much* longer to braid and weave and decorate than usual. My fancy 12th Night outfit from January came from a specific costuming book. So I wanted to glean every detail possible to dress up the outfit appropriately. I opted for a tied sash rather than a belt (because that's what many of the outfits in this book used). I wore no pouch at all because I couldn't find any pouches in the pictures, let alone a belt pouch. The outfit was in bright yellow and gold, so I used a gold drawstring pouch dangling from my wrist, when I needed to carry personal items. The braiding I used for this outfit was not exactly like the pictures, but a stunning presentation nonetheless. I got *tons* of compliments on the braids this time, and on wearing bright yellow so well. Having worn makeup at the wedding, I decided to use just a little makeup for Crown too, and got a couple of compliments there, too.

Scott was already comfortable hanging out at the Inn of the Crimson Spade, so I set up my things there, too. I had prepped all the paperwork for court awards the night before, so I simply had to show up at the Royal Pavilion to finish the calligraphy and get the King and Queen's signature, before Opening Court. I was thrilled that one of the sons of some friends of mine was given his Award of Arms, entitling him to be called a "Lord" now. Also, a friend from the Vegas area received a "Dolphin," which is an Award of Arms given specifically for Service and Volunteering efforts. And another close friend received her "Lux Caidis" which is a Grant of Arms for her exceptional skill in Fiber Arts, giving her the title "The Honorable Lady."

Finally, the Lists of the Day. When someone fights for your honor in a Crown Tournament, they are seeking to make you King or Queen of the entire (regional group) Kingdom. This makes four Crown tournaments in a row lately that I've had the honor of being a Consort in the Lists. Twice my dear friend Wilhelm fought for me, and twice now Lorccan (that's Scott, in modern names) has fought for me. Lorccan continues to impress me with his skill, his courtesy, his honor, and his chivalry, and this weekend was no exception.

He took a quick killing blow in the first round, and "died" immediately with no argument. The other lady turned to me, exclaiming, "He's so chivalrous!" which thrilled me to hear. You cannot ask for anything sweeter when you lose a fight, than to have gracious ladies on the sidelines compliment you on how chivalrous your fighter is.

In the second round (in this double-elimination tournament), the other lady who stood with me told me all about how she didn't really want her fighter to win, because she doesn't want to be Queen someday. I immediately thought to myself, "I hope Lorccan wins this fight, to help knock this other fighter out for the day!" And I'm proud to say that he did -- he won his second round, earning him a spot in the third round.

He drew Jamal in his 3rd round -- and Jamal came in second for the entire tournament. Once again, Lorccan took a quick and killing blow in the first couple of seconds of the fight, and honorably took the loss immediately. Although this knocked him out of the day's competition, I was so proud of his fights, his attitudes, and chivalry in all things. I couldn't ask for more.

The rest of the day I spent actually visiting people, around the entire site. I ordered some glazed pottery, which I'll be able to pick up in October. I paid for a ring-repair from a jeweler friend of mine, left her 2 more rings to re-size (smaller!), and re-ordered a custom ring that she'd forgotten was on order. Then I went visiting and chatting, spent some extra time with Kim (who's like my daughter's godmother), and then suddenly it was the Finals for the day.

Edric and Jamal were in finals, and Lorccan and I had been asked to be part of Edric's procession. So I raced around the field to join Lorccan, and we walked in procession just in time. The finals were clean and without any problems, and we even had some levity, jocularity, and silliness for some "half-time entertainment." In the end, Edric was the victor, so once again Edric and Faizeh are up on deck as Royalty.

I had to congratulation them both, and break the news gently that I am unable to serve on their court. One: I've just served on three courts back-to-back. Two: Tonwen (that's my friend Rae) has "dibs" on me already, since she's asked me to be her apprentice. Three: It's time to hand off the Royal Scribe to another (or many others), to share the role with more people in the kingdom. There are many others who can do a wonderful job in this position, and I'm happy to train up anyone else who'd like to give it a whirl.

But mainly, I need to be busy in personal artistic pursuits and research for a while. I definitely want to spend some time on some musical research, composition, and memorization -- amongst other pursuits. So Tonwen gets the lion's share of my time now, with all my apologies to the Ladies of the Court, who I won't get to spend as much time with. And I definitely will miss having that extra time with Edric and Faizeh, whom I just adore. But we'll see. There's something I have in mind, and maybe I'll get to see them quite a bit this reign after all. More on that later, and it isn't just up to me and my own efforts and preparation. 'Nuf said for now.

Post event, post clean-up, I got to have a nice dinner with several friends from the barony -- Meala, Cassandre and Lachlan, Grainne and [drat, what's his name?], and Anna (whom I just met), and um... I hope I didn't forget anyone.

Sunday morning, my roomie and I went over to the Farmer's Market together, and shopped at all the lovely organic farmers' stalls. We each ended up in the kitchen at different times, throughout the day, making soups and cookies and things for ourselves, and sharing a bite or two from our concoctions. We lounged around watching re-runs of Project Runway together -- she, sewing; I, cleaning clutter and mending. It was *so* relaxing.

Then, off to the park over near Rae's house, for an afternoon game of Quiddich. Based loosely on the sport described in "Harry Potter," this is really a complex ball game done at speed-walking speed, rather than running. Imagine a blend of soccer, basketball, dodge ball, and tag -- played on a flat grassy field, in a round playing arena. The exercise is amazing, and the game is really fun to play. If you really would like to know how to play, email me separately, and I'll explain the rules. And if you live in the SoCal area and *want* to come play with us, practices have just been shifted to the Third Sunday of the month, from 3-5 pm. More details, in personal correspondence.

And this evening, I went to Baronial Council. I finished up the meeting handout in the morning, and once the printers were working again, made some copies of the newsletter to put in the mail. Post-meeting, nearly a dozen of us met up at IHOP for food and drinks (just coffee for me), and had a lovely social evening. I've missed the post-council socializing for several months, and truly had fun tonight. Now, it's definitely time for bed!
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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Amya. You're a lovely and talented young lady, and I love your weaving stories. Here's to "professional textiles consultants!"