The Rest of Two Weeks - So, I've been posting almost everything else *except* what I've been up to lately. And when I went back to check, I cannot believe I last left off talking about Crown Tourney. Sheesh, where does the time go?

2nd week of Sep - Wed and Thu mid-day I went over to the local State University to help out with the "Week of Welcome" by manning the SCA table. Once again, this semester nearly 50+ students signed up for more information. The first get together was scheduled for the following week, and we made certain everyone got on the email list for announcements.

Wed night was spent up in my Shire for our quarterly birthday celebrations. It was wonderful to see everyone after so long. Thomasina gave me a beautiful calligraphy calendar for the Jewish new year, Albra gave me some lovely earrings, Morgana gave me a CD by Heather Dale (a musician from whom I'd been *meaning* to purchase some of her work), and several friends gave me lovely cards. Most of all, I enjoyed the company of some of my dearest friends in the shire. Thursday I enjoyed dinner with both Scott and Eric, and then we hung out at my place, working on some heraldry artwork pieced together from some photos.

Rosh Hoshanah started at sundown Wed Sep 12, but I didn't get to celebrate until Friday night. Meala was our hostess, and we had a nice collection of friends. Cormac made it up for the entire weekend, Layah made it down from her parents place, and of course it was Scott and Melissa's house. New guests: Greg and Sarina came to dinner for the first time, and that made 7 of us for dinner.

Meala has occasionally teased me that when I joke about washing everyone's kitchen, maybe it was about time I came over to do her kitchen. I got the last laugh thoug. Since Greg and Sarina were stuck in traffic, I had lots of time to scrub down the counters and get all the kitchen prep dishes done before we served dinner. It was nice to finally get to help out in her kitchen. *grin*

Finally, my weekend was filled with Collegium. This is our twice-yearly weekend of workshops for all types of SCA activities. Cormac was my house-guest, and although we got up with enough time to just barely make it to the first class on time, there were major accidents on every freeway approach to site. So, I didn't make it to Dante's class on turn shoes, but I did get to attend my other choices of the day: "Before You Can Run" (a body mechanics class for rapier & other fighting forms, taught by Meala), "From Nun to Courtesan: Women's Roles in Music" (taught by Cecilia), and "The Unical Hand" (a calligraphy class, taught by Medh Renata). I also worked on charting my cord-making class for Sunday, and managed to solve how to chart the 7-strand kumihimo "Fill the Gap" pattern.

We had dinner with lots of friends Saturday night, then Sunday's classes included "Cotehardies: Period and Practical" (by Johanna), the class I taught on "Fancy Cord-making," followed by an empty class block. My class was originally intended for the "Older Youth" track -- I was thinking that teens would like to be there. But they booked me in the Younger youth track, so I marked the large class blocks page with "All Ages Welcome!" It turns out I had 5 adults in class, instead of youth. Briefly, a mom and three young kids dropped in, but they left rather quickly (kid attention span things). My students seemed to really grasp the idea of the bobbin making, bobbin wraps for locking or sliding the yarn, and the 4-strand 1-person braiding technique. A few of the students also prepared a 7-strand fill-the-gap disk.

During my empty class block, I got to teach a few more folks some of the braiding patterns, including a member of my household I just met that day (she'd been gone for a number of years), and her teen-age ward for the day (which meant I got to actually teach at least one student in my intended audience). And after classes Sunday, a handful of us went to dinner and lingered for hours over conversation.

Finally, after Cormac returned to the freeways for the long trip home, I went home to spend a few hours catching up with a friend I hadn't seen in nine years. She's moved back to town, and we've both gone from worse to better in the intervening years, so we talked for hours and hours. It was fantastic.

3rd week of Sep - You've already gotten a long report on my job-loss announcement and my fantastic birthday. One new project that's come up with friends was put together by Rae. We're doing a "pilgrim's progress" by "walking from Southwark to Canterbury Cathedral" -- a journey of 57 miles. Each of us is responsible for keeping track of our own progress, and we tell tales about "stopping at the inn for an ale" or other fancies. In my first week, I've walked 8.6 miles so far, and I'd like to double that next week. I saw a little bit of weight-loss improvement, but just a little. Having friends to inspire one another really helps me want to walk more, and the fictional element of a medieval pilgrimage is a nice overlay. It makes me want to look up more about the history of medieval pilgrimages, but of course, I have no idea when I'll have time. Job-hunting, normal commitments, and now extra exercise is already taxing my weekly schedule.

Wed at lunch, the nearby State University SCA group had its first meeting for the semester, and lots of students showed up. Some of the returning students from last semester were there, and 4 brand new students attended. Then that night at fighter practice, William gave me an amazing book (straight off my Amazon wish list) and Aliskye gave me a gift card for a book store. Yippee! Aliskye and I also walked an additional mile for our pilgrimage.

Friday I had lunch with one of my shire friends, returned the fighter helm to one of the guys who had left it behind at Collegium, and went to my sister's to work remotely for the afternoon. I did computer work and laundry until the girls (my nieces) came home, then my eldest niece and I went together to watch her sister's soccer game. The rain finally hit, and I got to use my golf umbrella for the first time, as we sat and watched the game. Then I got to enjoy a birthday dinner with my Mom, Pop, Sister, and Nieces. Mom gave me a huge collection of coffees, a giant box of chocolate mint cookies, and some shopping money. My sister gave me a bunch of fantastic Starbucks goodies (chocolates and a gift card). Yippee!

Down to the sad news of the week: My sister's father-in-law passed away on Monday after a long illness. So at the dinner, I found out that the funeral was to be held Saturday morning. I decided to stay over night, and go to the funeral with her. She'd volunteered to organize the food donations and setup for the reception at the church, so we went together. We set up tables, chairs, plates, cups, napkins, and got the hot water and coffee started. By then, my brother-in-law's family had arrived, and then services were held. It was a beautiful service, and it definitely got me thinking about so many issues.

If you have never thought about a will, you should. All of us die. All of us have loved ones. I often wonder/worry whether I have everything in order, should anything happen unexpectedly to me. I tease my mom all the time that she hasn't written her will yet... (*poke poke*) but in all seriousness, it's something that really should be addressed. This is even more important if you have children or major assets, but even the least among us should consider the reality of life and death. I cannot imagine losing my parents, and I cannot imagine dying before them and having them deal with the loss of a child. But someday, each of us will die. We should plan ahead. Enough said. Please, think about what you can do while you're here.

I didn't stay for the reception, but after saying my goodbyes to my brother-in-law (and his sister), I had to head home to get ready for Yom Kippur Break Fast at Jeff and Adrienne's. I picked up the coupons in my email for one of my favorite clothing stores, bought the groceries I needed for dinner, bought challot from the deli (loaves of braided holiday egg bread), and went shopping for a new blouse. Typically, many people wear white for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), and since I almost never wear white, I have very few blouses to choose from. I found a nice strappy undershirt and a gauzy over-blouse, all on the clearance racks. With my coupon, I got the two of them for just more than $20 total, and headed over to the dinner.

As of Friday, we were only expecting about 6-8 people, and by Saturday night 12 friends were able to gather. Alan and Theresa were back from their honeymoon. Sarah (Alan's sister) and Albert made it. Both Nate and Nathan came over (Dylan and Pel), plus Meala and me. Adrienne and Jeff were our hosts, and later David and Juliet made it over after services. The dinner board was predictably over-flowing with wonderful goodies, and we enjoyed sharing Havdalah first, followed by eating to excess. *hee hee*

Today started out with a newcomer's meeting, where I had a lovely time chatting with six friends, three of them new. Then I drove up to try and see one of my younger nieces for her 4th bithday party, but sadly I missed their party completely. I came home to finally clean house, work on projects, clear emails, etc. Sadly, I also missed going to Quidditch practice, but I was just too frazzled to leave home. I tried to mock up a pattern for tall boots, but didn't grasp the math of how boots are assembled. Of course, my roomie solved the problem in one suggestion: "What would a proto-apprentice do?" and naturally the answer is "research." *sigh* I hate when the obvious is so darn obvious. Some quick pattern-checking on-line, I found the fatal flaw in my initial concept, and also found some drawings of boots that make more sense. It turned out I wasn't as wrong as I thought I was (argh), but still I have some scrap-cloth mockups to make again before I make an investment in leather.

This Week - It's my last week at this job, so there's still lots of job hunting to do. It's so hard to juggle wrapping up the data on the job and manage to land a new job at the same time. Plus I want to be out exercising, home getting costuming work done, and half a dozen other issues. Normally I roll with multi-tasking just fine, but I'm feeling extremely stressed this time.

Speaking of, now I'm tired to the point of falling asleep, so it must be time to go to bed.

* * * * *
And finally, one fun little ditty to leave you with. One of my favorite on-line journals or blogs is written by an author known as the "Yarn Harlot." She told us this story:

Ingrid just finished basic training in the Army, and she had the following fantastic story to tell me. She was knitting during some period of waiting at a hospital, and her Sergeant came in and saw her. "Are you KNITTING soldier? I have never seen a SOLDIER KNIT." Ingrid, without missing a beat, replied: "Would the Sergeant rather I was wasting my time or being productive, SIR." He looked her up and down, thought about it, and replied: "Carry on Soldier."
* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Dylan. I'm so thankful to have you as a household brother, and you know we're here for you in everything.