Home Safely - So, Memorial Day weekend! How was yours? I'm exhausted, how about you? Let's see, allow me to tell my story from my little one-liner tweets, interspersed with the matching narrative.

Thu May 22 Tweets
* 00:02 - Cannot possibly sew any later, must sleep
* 06:39 - Oversleeping never seems helpful
* 07:32 - Happiness! Google maps on my phone just upgraded: I can haz GPS! I are here!
* 10:00 - 3 promising immediate job leads, 1 verified interview -- I can camp this weekend happy!
* 14:26 - Work done, now frantically pack
* 16:05 - Actually on the road!
* 21:47 - Meh, setting up in dark: propane latern good!
* 23:02 - mmm, good night

I meant to be up around 5 am, and overslept until 6 am, after having tried desperately to keep sewing on Bill's new linen pants. But after pinning the pleats until I couldn't see, it was definitely not safe to try and work a sewing machine. Then as I was driving in to work (stuck in traffic, as usual), the software for my maps program automatically downloaded an upgrade. I do not have GPS on my phone, but now my maps program uses the cell towers themselves to approximate my location. Now, there's a little blinking blue light that tells me "you are approximately here!" And I was! *hee hee*

Work went a little longer than I expected, but I got a good portion of my project done so that my boss and the lead programmer could get further content written over the weekend. And several recruiters answered my emails, verifying that the clients are interested in me, but only 1 of 3 leads has actually scheduled an interview for next week. My contract ends on Friday, but the field looks somewhat promising right now.

The guys I was carpooling with (Philip and Tighearnan [pronounced TEER-nen]) were kind enough to relax while I finished throwing everything together, and they carried everything out to the truck as soon as it was packed. We had a fairly uneventful drive down (hitting some predictable rush hour traffic), and then some light rain. Uh-oh. Bad sign. So we hit the site in the complete dark, but it was easy to find our camping location and finally I had a really good reason to bring a propane lantern with me. It was eeriely cold and clammy, but I got my tent and my bed set up, and that was good enough. And as you can tell, I got to sleep around 11 pm -- mostly because there was a "no fires after 11 pm" rule in place from the San Diego County Parks system. It's really hard to stay up late with friends in the dark and cold, if you cannot hundle around a campfire together.

Fri May 23 Tweets
* 05:55 - Birds, light, earlier than I thought

Hmm. I thought I'd sent in more one-liners to Twitter during the day, but of course the cell coverage was spotty, so maybe whatever I wrote (and subsequently forgot) never made it through. Or maybe I never did write anything at all.

The day, even though it *looked* like it was dawning with sunshine and all those things you expect from the sun, never did warm up past about 60 degrees. It was cold and overcast and grey and clammy, from the first moment I slipped out of my tent. And then it got worse: It rained and rained and rained.

At first, I was just cold before the first raindrops fell. I headed off to merchants, and just like when you shop for groceries while hungry, never shop for warm clothing while you're cold: I bought everything. *laugh* Okay, not really: But I got a fuzzy warm knitted silly hat (that's so very me), a wonderful heavy woven cotton scarf/shawl to wrap around my neck or shoulders or over my head, and two historically accuracte linen caps (that I think are Flemish in design). I wore the scarf every day, all weekend, the fuzzy cap Friday, the blue linen on Saturday, and the yellow linen on Sunday morning. I love my new caps!

And then the skies opened up and it rained absolutely all day, on and off again, in sheets, in mists, in drizzles, then in sheets again. Can I ask a ridiculous question here? Is Mother Nature going through menopause? Because sheesh! The weather changes! It's hot! It's cold! No, it's hot again! No, I'm cold, it's windy, it's dry, it's pouring rain, there's mud, snow, rain, lightning, and TORNADOS in California! What in the world was that?!

The summary: I suppose we were lucky, in the extreme south and east of San Diego County, because we were *not* hit as hard apparently all the rest of the south land.

Needless to say, I did very little besides set up my kitchen, make coffee for everyone and have some breakfast, shop for warm things in the morning, and then batten down the tent and the kitchen to keep the rain out, while hundling with friends under their pavilions, trying to stay warm and dry. I have *got* to get some heavy and warm boots for the SCA. I wore my sheepskin slippers all day, because I had nothing to keep my toes warm. Of course, they weren't water-proof, so I steamed them by the fires all afternoon and evening (until 11 pm), and then went to sleep. At least the advantage of coming in Thursday was we didn't have to set up *in* the rain on Friday. Meala cooked dinner for us, which was a huge boon, since I was too cold and motionless to really get up the motivation. She did a wonderful chicken and matzo ball stew with veggies, which was perfect for warming up cold fingers and cold bodies.

Sat May 24 Tweets
* 06:18 - A megaphone? At six am?!
* 08:16 - Coffee, yum! I can figure out breakfast now. Oh! And there's sunshine! Yay!
* 10:07 - Dishes clean, time for fun at claases and things, whee!

All that energy in the morning, and then no commentary throughout the day. Ah, that's what happens when you're busy at an event.

There really was a guy who came over to the neighboring camp, shouting through a megaphone at 6 am. It was so annoying! I cannot believe he could be that insensitive to every other camp in the vicinity. Fortunately it didn't last that long, and I had been contemplating getting up anyways.

The sun came out a little in the morning, then it was mostly cloudy and cool-to-cold the rest of the day. I don't even remember doing all that much on Saturday. I looked through the class schedule, but nothing really jumped out at me. I wandered through merchants with friends a bit, stopped in on the tail-end of the kingdom Choir rehearsal, and then really didn't get out much more. I spent a few hours out at the rapier field watching the "Blood of Heroes" matches, then it was still too cold to sit still in the shade, and the sun was playing peek-a-boo with the clouds, so I just headed back to camp.

I got lots of sewing on Bill's (Cesare's) pants done, and then it was my turn for dinner. There were three vigils going on Saturday night, and Nathan (Pel) had been asked to provide feast foods. So I spent the afternoon hanging out while he cooked, while I got dinner prepared for me, Meala, him, and Nate (Dylan). Since Nathan used up most of his own foods for the vigil, I was extra pleased that I had twice as much kielbasa as I needed. So I was able to feed the four of us turkey kielbasa, garlic and onion potatoes, and spinach (fresh, just blanched, and mixed in with the garlic and onion). Then for dessert, we had hot apples in brown sugar, which was just heavenly. All the food was hot, perfect, and filling.

For the evening's entertainment, a few of us went walking to find a middle-eastern music group which was reportedly playing at the Cortha encampment... turns out they were at the Corvus party, not Cortha. But we dropped Meala off at the Ramada for dancing, the King and Queen were at the Inn of the Crimson Spade as we returned, and I spent a while scurrying around making hot coffee, hot tea, and hot spiced cider for His Majesty and a few of his (and my) friends. Then we sat around the fire, enjoying one another's company, until it was time to pack it in for the night.

Sun May 25 Tweets
* 18:20 - Ah, cheese and wine with the girls, cooking and good weather, ahhh.

Sunday was sunny and warm, nearly all day. Everything dried out, it was enjoyable, and it was what I normally think of, when I head to Potrero. It was never "too" hot, but just right.

Over lunch, Nathan and I hung out in camp again, this time he took all of his leftovers and mine, and combined them into a nice hot lunch. We had chicken with mushrooms, half a turnip, tons of garlic, carrots, celery, and little grape tomatoes, that came out just perfectly. While he cooked, we chatted, and I cleaned up my entire tent. All the still-wet-hems were hung to dry in the sun, all the dirty clothes were put away neatly and the clean clothes for the evening laid out. I was wearing my bright gold dress in the morning (and even got to show the cloth merchant what I'd done with her antique gold colored silk), then changed into my Turkish coat outfit for the afternoon court procession.

Our line up at Royals was fun and silly, with lots of photos, some song, and some silliness, then we all processed in with the silver lame elephant that was used at Estrella. It just kept getting colder through court, so I eventually left and headed back to camp, since I needed to get some food on the stove.

I was in charge of half of dinner this time. So when I put on a pot of lentils to cook, and started chopping onions into the skillet, I poured a small glass of wine and a small bowl of dried fruits and nuts to snack on. Three ladies dropped by, and so I invited them to pull up chairs, bring their wine and snacks, and we enjoyed a leisurely hour or two together. More friends kept wandering in, bringing grapes and cheese and hummus and pita bread and a few more bottles of wine and some toffee scones and fresh veggies, until dinner was ready and there were nearly a dozen of us lounging around. I just started serving up hot veggies (stir-fried) and lentils (with onion and garlic), with all the cold snacks, and we just finished dinner casually together. It was perfect.

After food, I swapped out the Turkish coat for the heavy wool overdress (making my third look for the day, how very Caidan of me!), and it was time for wandering. Our plan for Sunday night was to go wandering from fire to fire, sharing stories and songs. We started out in Isles, lingered over stories and song requests, then wandered back to the Barony. Magnus was doing a Magic Show in the baronial pavilion, where I finally was able to get warm again (from the heater and nearly 30 people crowded in together). I did a number of songs and short stories for everyone, and Aliskye jokingly teased me that stand-up comedy should be a possible alternate career for me.

We found Cliar cu Buidhe's encampment and stayed there for a couple of songs, then wandered up to find Thomas Whitehart's hosted bardic fire. It turns out we completely missed about 70+ people gathered for all the performances, but we got to visit briefly with Thomas, Donal, Inga, and then chat with Robynne the Grey on our way back to camp. Back at the Inn, we were allowed to linger over the embers in the fire pit, as we sat up for hours discussing and philosophizing over the nature of "True Love" and other poignant topics. Late in the evening we all finally wandered off to our respective tents and beds.

Mon May 26 Tweets
* 11:46 - All packed, driving home next
* 17:06 - Home safely. So much cleaning to do. Email mostly answered.

Once again, the "sun" woke me at 6 am (or gradual lightening of the sky), and unfortunately it was not warm and sunny. No, the drizzle had moved back in, so that by the time I was ready to start coffee, it was actually lightly raining again. Defiantly, I did dishes in the rain anyways, which cleared up by the time I was done. Fickle weather.

I made challah french toast for whomever would wander through, and used up a good portion of the last of my camp food. All the less to pack, that's good! Fed nearly a dozen people, gave out probably 4 or 5 pots of coffee, some chocolate, and a large sauce pan of hot spiced cider. Since I'd repacked everything yesterday afternoon, the final camp break-down was fairly simple and quick. Philip was ready for all my things, and was kind enough to carry and pack nearly everything in his truck for me. Aliskye and Medh Renata pitched in to drop my modern pup-tent, and we were all done before 12 noon. We had a easy drive home, although I had to fight sleep so that I could stay awake and keep Philip company for the drive. It was so bizarre to see perfect, sunny CA weather on the drive home, after the crazy wild weather all weekend.

But now my living room is full of equipment to wash and put away, I need a shower very much, and there's some prep I need to work on to be ready for my job interview tomorrow morning. With all my love, I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Amy and Mora -- You are sunshine in my days