A Splash of Color

So this weekend was Summer Coronation, the murder foul of King THorvaldr and Queen Fiona and the crowning of King Ulfr and Queen Caoimhe. I am going to highlight the best points of the event and I shall do a more in depth synopsis of it later.

Getting a Queen's Order of Courtesy- in the name that I have not yet registered. You realize Ary that now you have to help me register it :P Sneaky one.
Having my runestone scroll be held up and have everyone go "ooohhh" and then having Fiona say to the populace that it was the coolest scroll she'd ever seen. Then later I was told it was a style of scroll that the recipient had always wanted.
Thorvaldr calling out to Odin as he died.
Fencing Reauthorization. I kinda felt like they put me through the ringer but I think that's just me.
Talking shop with Dame Melisande.
Talking shop with Duke Thorvaldr.
My beautiful new red and gold dress sari.
The giggle that I get when I get the customary "Aren't you FREEZING?"
EXCELLENT food.
Great friends.

I promised my husband a post about my weekend....and especially since i didn't post about our anniversary festivities that I should in fact oblige him. He's snoring right now which is very cute and does in fact aid in my creative process. [Creative process- I need an SCA icon]

I went this weekend to my first ever *yay* Drachenwald event. It was the 20 year anniversary of Polderslot (thats my new shire peoples) and it was in a word wonderful. I will give you the high points and the low points as noone really wants a play by play of my event. Not even my husband, but he got one anyways. :D

I have never had a Queen know who I was before, based soley on appreciation for my scrolls. having never met me before, upn introduction said "Is this the same Ruth who sent me 'this' scroll and 'this scroll"? The feeling was wonderous, absolutely beyond description.

I didn't get as much work done on my Illumination as I would have liked because I was quite willing to be recruited to play lady in waiting to her Highness Fiona. Lovely woman. Very Funny. It was truly a pleasure to follow her around. She didn't appear to mind my nervous commentary either. We had an adventure. The Princess, two other Ladies and myself all went to the Albert Hein in town in order to aquire certain necessities (caffiene in my case) . We were given mini-roses and free samples and everything.

Many many comments about my choice of Indian garb. None of them derogatory in any fashion, one admitting she'd like to steal my fabric and make it into a coat (persian persona, didn't catch her name), and only one incredulous "Aren't you Freezing?" A definite plus for someone who has had nasty comments for her garb in the past.

Feast was lovely, if a bit too soupy for my taste (soup for dinner the previous day and for lunch event day as well). One mushroom dish which was snatched away from me with a "You may not have any of this. No!" and a laugh from both of us. It was nice. During feast they made the chief cook and all around good lady a Baroness of the Court. Was very well done indeed.

I got to stand up behind the thrones in court! Wicked Fricking Awesome. *queue girlish squee of delight* No but seriously, I've NEVER gotten to do that before and it was just as cool as I thought it would be.

Only 4 fighters, which would be a sad turnout to a Midrealm event, however the tournament was quite enjoyable to watch. It was a portrayal of the fight of Sir Gawain the Green Knight, and it was excellently fought by Sir Guerric. I now know 2. Good thing they don't look a thing alike otherwise I might even get confused.

I have made a statement that I want to get fencing started again in this area. It was seconded by several people including the Princess who thinks it was a Very Good Idea. So I guess I get to start the process of a Drachewald fencing marshallate and kick people's butts. Not that I mind that but it was not QUITE what I had in mind. Ruth gets to play at Teacher. Hmm. Ruth should think before opening her big mouth, but now that its out there I have to come through. Once i get my gear.

I have about a bazillion new ideas from people at the event. I need to focus them down into doable and not doable. One thing on the doable list are the penworked capitals I saw from aryanhwy . I simply MUST try those one day soon.

Low point: The children waking me up at 635 in the morning. If your children are awake and hungry at that hour of the morning, it is the job of the parent to get up...and feed them. It doesn't matter if you're tired, you do it because you know very well that they're just going to keep whining until you do. No "shut up" does not cut it TYVM.

I am SURE that there is more that will percolate through my brain here in time, but for now this is what you get.

1. What is your SCA Name?
Ruth Ellysson

2. What time and where do you portray?
1575 Scholar, of no particular place since I travel so much to study.

3. In plain English describe your device.
I do not yet have one.

4. How long have you been in the SCA?
Since late 2002

5. Do you have any special titles you have earned?
Lady

6. What kingdom and local group do you belong to?
Shire of Baile na Scolairi, Region of the Midlands, Middle Kingdom

7. Do you have preferred colors for your SCA Persona?
The colors that look good on me. I am most likely to be found in red or blue.

8. What is your war that you look forward to going to every year?
I've never been to a war.

9. Do you hold any offices?
Nope.

10. Favorite memory from an event?
I have several from the list field, several indeed. They are stories best told in person.
My favorite moment though, was when a scroll I painted made someone cry when they recieved it, they liked it so much.

11. Are you a fighter? What kind?
Yes, mostly I fence but I can and do occasionally fight heavy.

12. Are you crafty (making things)?
Yes. I can paint. *nod*

13. Do you teach classes at events?
I do not have any skills that I would consider myself proficient enough in to teach.

14. Do you play instruments at events?
No. I sing.

15. Do you dance at events?
Well I try.

16. Do you feel that there is enough flirting and chivalrous behavior at SCA ?
Never Enough. It's just too bad some people are threatened by it.

17. Are you a "Black Hat" or a "White Hat"?
To be perfectly honest....I have no idea what this question means. Mock the n00b.

18. What is one of the reasons you've remained in the SCA?
Friends, Fighting, and the Experience.

19. What peerage(s) do you aspire to?
I aspire to many things, that I will keep to myself. The more vocally you want something, the less likely I've found that you recieve it. I want to be noticed by my own merits, not my ability to speak on what I desire.

20. Who was Crown when you joined the SCA?
Pieter and Nan Astrid

21. If you are a Peer, who was the Crown that elevated you?
Not a Peer.

22. Have you lived in more than 1 kingdom and which ones?
Only the Middle while I have been active in the SCA.

23. Have you helped found a group?
Nope

24. Have you had any house affiliiations?
Nope.

Okay so this weekend was beyond my normal standards for good. Far far beyond it in fact. I can't remember the last time I had this much fun doing anything much less have several of those anythings grouped together. My weekend actually started Thursday evening since I don't have a job and I can in fact get away with that.

Thursday: Got to blackcatter and Dawn's house after a right nasty drive down. I started the drive at 3:30 and I didn't arrive in Bloomington until it was 7:30 I think...It was late! Traffic was bad as hell! Puppy cuddles and puttering around helping clean occupied most of the rest of the evening. Dawn and I didn't sleep at all so we stayed up watching obscure old movies until 6ish in the morning.


Friday: Today I did the great Job Hunt. *sigh* I got a few little nibbles (mmm nibbles...) from places that I went to talk to their HR departments but nothing of any real substance. Spent almost an hour at Bromenn beforet hey could find someone to tell me that they couldn't tell me anything. That was my last stop before heading to Peoria to visit norfacoflandra. I was too frustrated to continue. I gave myself enough time to get lost, and while I didn't get lost I did get a little bit turned around once and I missed a turn once. For me getting somewhere I have never been that is Excellent. I got there only minutes before Dietrich (you know sometimes I am unsure what name to use for you) , and just in time to get a headbutt from the cat. I promptly got shanghi'd by the boychild into "want to see my trains?" We played with trains, and broke a piece of track. That was fun. I love kids, especially cute fun-loving type kids. The New girlchild was very very cute...*sigh* babynoises...yep. Anyhow. Got to watch the process of cooking and it was truly entertaining for me who does not cook well. Kitchen magic is the phrase he uses for it and I find it very appropriate. Not to mention the food was wonderful. Snuggles and conversation downstairs followed... :) It was nice to see leeduck and birchduck even if it was only briefly. They're just fun people to be around and I like/admire them a lot. I am unsure if they know that, but hey if either of them read this now they do.


Saturday: Inkin in Lincoln... I was unsure what a scribal event was going to be like, but I could not resist this one. It was fantastic. I learned to write! Gothic and Uncial hands, it was amusing that the man who taught me how (Wilhelm, I think) showed my practice pages to nearly everyone he talked to. "So jealous I could spit" was used a number of times. I think it was an excercise in How red can we get Ruth in one afternoon? I got shanghi'd again by scribewithgold into doing a project. You have no idea how amazingly cool it is that Bardolph and Brigh (the King and Queen of the Midrealm for my non SCA friends) were painting things that I had drawn. Though it amused me to no end that Bardolph had to ask what color the pale behind the dragon was on the Midrealm device.
The party was its normal awesomeness. aztecknight brought in a dagger as a grab bag gift that was VERY popular. Wow yeah. I ended up with Katydids. They are chocoalte but I don't even like them. Oh well. We watched Jeff Dunham, which was fun because not only is it Hysterical, but I thought for brief periods of time that Green Jenny and chentzu were going to hurt themselves laughing at it.

Drinking, food, fun, frinds, snuggles, kids and puppies. It was wonderful.

It occurs to me that I need an SCA related Icon. I don't have one. There are days that I suffer through fighter practice, because I suck...Today was not one of those days. Heee.... I love it when I can bounce through practice. When I do so and get compliments on my fighting it is a good day. I must be improving, there's just no other explanation for it.
Good things were said about my ability to observe people and tell them what they are doing to get them dead. Rule number 1 after all is "don't die". I just wish I could more accurately judge what I am doing to get dead. That is not so easy for me. Even more good things were said about my parries (thanks purplebard). My draws were complemented too. As always I got the "well you're a fun fight" but this time noone finished it with "but not necissarily a good one." That made me happy.

Apparently I am accurate. Anton told me today that I bruised him last week at practice. What I did was this: he was pressing me and I pulled back into a more defensive stance and cocked my swordarm back. He aparently watched this and went "oh this is going to hurt" because he knew he was out of position and there was no way he could block it. I laid a leg rap about two inches above his knee...With a rapier. Then on our next pass, I did the darned thing again. Exactly the same spot, with the edge of my blade both times. The rest of the heavies that Anton were telling this story to were impressed and to be honest I'm not sure why. Need to fight heavy...Yeah. I might even be good at it. Wouldn't that be fun? I absorbed a lesson from someone (i don't know his name sorry) about fighting heavy. I learned a few things just by watching and listening to that lesson that are going to be very effective for me once I figure them out. Yep. Watch out! Just kidding.

It's a good thing I think that I suck, otherwise I would not fit into my hats.

Okay so funny bit time now. So I'm fighting NekoMe, and he takes a great deal of pleasure in playing with shots around my guard (it's a ring guard and you can in fact go through it and hand me.) and then immediatly after legging me. He says that in about a month or so noone will ever hit me through the rings again. The third time he does this he makes some sort of disparaging comment about my virtue and how my knees is a good position for me. I am of course offended, what does he know of my virtue? Bout ends, I die. I get up and he proceeds to leg me again and my immediate responce is "So m'lord, is this how you prefer your women...or is this the only way you can get them?"

To top all this off...There was PIE!!!

Okay so this is a very SCA related rant...

I Hate...HATE when things are not like the labels say they are. Ink that says it is waterproof should...BE...WATERPROOF!!! AGH! A perfectly good Illumination...RUINED!

ARGH!!

Okay the Lochmorrow event commentary from yours truly.

5:15 is way too early to wake up for an event. I will try to work that out better next time. Started the day with my cellphone scaring the living crap out of me, yeah, I didn't know that ringtone would sound like the fire chimes. Wow...

Got to Macomb about 10AM, and didn't get lost on the way. That was thanks to Tom (he came with me) who had the map. I was honestly expecting more people to be there but then I love little events. More time to catch up with the important people. I was truly dissappointed when norfacoflandra didn't show up. *pouts a bit* I wanted to see you you know. Hope you had a good day anyway.

The fencing tourney left me with much to be desired about my skill level. *shakes her head* I was doing okay in the stuff before and after the tourney. But my performance in the actual tourney in a word, sucked. I was really unsatisfied with my fighting as a whole. Got paid a high compliment though, so that made it better. "Best draw cuts I've ever recieved" was said about me. I smiled about that for a while.

Nothing much needs be said about feast, it was little but fun.

Enjoyed the time spent with aztecknight and sgtgwyn, with whom we stayed after the event. For some strange reason there was a problem with my suggestion of driving back after everything was over. Much fun was to be had just chatting and watching the Fantastic 4. An interesting movie even if one is not a comic book junkie. The couch is very comfy and the footrub I recieved from him was...well there are not words. Thank you again for everything sweetie.

I did forget one thing at his house, and I realized that as we were leaving. I forgot to ask how to get back out to 67...You would think that "how do I get home" would be foremost on my mind as I was trying to leave but no. It was an adventure finding my way out of town to say the least.

On a funny note, one of the dogs woke me out of a dead sleep with a lick to the bottom of the foot at about 5:30.

In summary-Much fun to be had by all.