Snippets

I'm finally home from Coronet. I am exhausted. This was definitely a working event for both me and Alex. I'm sitting here trying to remember everything that happened, with a happily-purring cat on my lap and a new, shiny medallion around my neck, and everything is sort of out of order in my head. I think my nose is sunburned, and I haven't had any lunch. Nonetheless, I'm feeling pretty good. I need to go and have a shower in a few minutes, but I wanted to hit the highlights here before I go do that.
Coronet was fun, even though I spent most of the event at Gate. We ran out of tokens, so Alex cast more on site. That was severely nifty. We kept joking about how these tokens were "fresher" than the other tokens, being right out of the kitchen and all. On Friday, many many people came through Gate. I was at Gate from about 12:00 noon until about midnight, with some breaks for food and things like that. Some nice people came and chatted with me toward the wee hours, and that was nice. I spent most of my time at Gate working on kittens when I wasn't checking people in. Kittens went into the autocrats' baskets that they gave to the royals, and Alys helped me finish the last one (the one that went to His Majesty) on Saturday.
Saturday was crazy-busy with people coming both for Saturday and Sunday and just to daytrip. I got a little frazzled, and then my dad showed up and took over Gate for me (which I really appreciated). Mom and I got to walk and chat for a little while. arianadream was also there with her brother, so I got to chat with them for a short time. Then, before I got to see any of the tourney, I was called away to do my other job--scribal. Not a problem; Sharon the Merchant's Wife and Alainne du Lacey and Ketterlin had all brought charters for me, and I had a few already. Alex and I got the names on them, and then Alex wound up back at Gate while I finished up Court stuff and got the kittens finished and turned in.
Finally, Alex managed to close Gate. It seemed that, every time he was ready to close Gate, someone else would arrive. Alex and I went to check in with Their Highnesses, got in the procession, and walked into Court. (Somewhere in there, I managed to get fully dressed and brush my hair. I hadn't had time that morning, and, when I asked Alex if my hair looked too bad, he told me that "It looks very period." *chortles*) The Prince and Princess handed out a few awards. Many gifty baskets were exchanged. I was highly amused by the reaction to the autocrat gifties, as murmurs of "Look, kitties!" went up among the enthroned. The King held Court. Imagine my shock when the first name called to kneel before the King was my own.
vesta_aurelia, who is a very naughty person and makes me giggle in Court, whispered that I was in "soooo much trouble." Even though I do realize that the SCA is "just a game," it is still a bit scary to be called before the King. I think it's a good thing that they have you kneel before royalty--it hides knocking knees. Several people told me later (with much amusement) that my poleaxed expression was highly entertaining. I received my Jambe de Lion, and can now put "HL" for "Her Ladyship" in front of my name. I'm not sure how I got back to my place (Ambrose helped), but I spent the rest of Court there in a state of stunned amazement. His Majesty handed out more awards, Their Highnesses also handed out more awards, and William Geoffrey the Rogue and his lady, Stephanie, stepped up as the next Tanist and Tanista of the Summits. Thomas, who has more of a name than that though I can't remember it, received the Shield of Chivalry.
Toward (and hastening) the end of Court, it began to rain. And rain. Court closed rather quickly, as most of the populace was not under shelter, and all fled for their camps. morrghan92 camped with us, and Alex and I had a wonderful conversation with her. The weather continued to sprinkle on and off, but it showed some signs of clearing. We also wandered by the Summits camp and chatted with the people there briefly (Her Excellency welcomed me to "the flotilla"), but both Alex and I were utterly exhausted from being up extremely late the night before and getting up extremely early that morning. I slept like a rock.
Today, we went to Summits Moot (which I think is fun, though that may indicate that I am a sick, sick person). It only sprinkled a little bit, and then it got sunny. I got a little bit of knitting done for me, and that was soooo nice. I love the yarn--Knitpicks Telemark, 100% wool, comes in lots of good colors at only $1.99 a skein. Admittedly, the knitting I did is on an experimental pouch for my class I hope to teach at Egil's, but it was still fun knitting and not kittens. I have nothing against kittens, but I knitted four of them in the past week and sewed up five. It's time for something else.
After Moot, we cleaned up the site, took down and packed the Baronial pavilions and stuff, and chatted with people. More scribal stuff will be occurring! I also hate grad school with a passion right now, as it is getting in the way of lots of things I want to do. My weekends for April are pretty much booked with school stuff and my brother's wedding (which I still have to send my bridesmaid's dress back for, as it is too small for me), which means no eventing for me in April. That sucks. Can't I just get a grant for SCA research and go to events for a living? Ah, well. We'll see what happens after grad school. In the meantime, I'm just going to do as much as I can. Spring Break may wind up being mostly "OMG-let's-get-stuff-done-for-SCA-because-I-will-have-no-time-later" kind of thing. And I'm okay with that.
Babbling about SCA philosophy will come later. Time to go and shower and get something to eat. Or at least get these muddy boots off.