So...I didn't sleep the night before. I had a request to bake shortbread and a rough day at work meant that I could use some kitchen therapy time to relax. However I knew if I stayed up baking shortbread I wouldn't really sleep that night, and just making little circles for 4 hours seemed hella boring. In a tiny fit of madness, I decided to make designs and shapes to pass the time, maybe even different colors with food dye. Several people have been really awesome to me and my friends as well as a real inspiration, so I decided to make heraldic devices out of shortbread. I personally, due to lack of sleep and a general crankiness, was unhappy with them at first and embarrassed that they looked horrible. I didn't wanna give these awesome and nice people a bad gift! Photo's below of the finished product!
Those along with about 30 pieces of shortbread later...it was 6am and time for the long drive! I met Sarah at my work, she was nervous but excited to attend her first event. Troll was very welcoming and happy to see us, I always love when we get nice and happy people at troll because it's just a great way to start the event. Warmly welcomed we shuffled our way into registration and then down to camp. 3/4 of everyone were still dead asleep when we arrived, so dropping off the shortbread for later distribution I decided to give Sarah a tour of the campgrounds. I heard the good news at Lana getting belted at the next Kingdom event, I can't think of a more deserving person for such an honor. We ran into Ever and decided to go a'wandering together because she needed help with waterpoint set-up. On our way we encountered a lovely dressed gentleman having issues with his pavilion set-up so we offered to help to make it all less stressful. After the pavilion was all nice and grand and waterpoint was set up nicely I had Ever escort me into the Farflung camp so I could give my first gift.
I'll admit I was incredibly nervous, I know my face was red and I was rambling a bit, but I gave my gift to Rurik and Ceridwen in thanks for how nice and friendly and a real inspiration they've been to me. Ceridwen insisted on showing everyone at camp and giving me public praise at the camp fire, I couldn't do much but bow and look down. I just feel weird about public praise...I mean, I didn't make them the gift to get attention so I always worry people will think such about me. Thankfully I was able to escape the camp with some of my dignity intact and not doing any stammering while talking :p
Lana took Sarah to get her properly dressed while Jake and Kaoru accompanied me to visit his Majesty. He's been a really big inspiration to my friends and I, a great first King for some and a great King to come back to for others. A real role model for honor and chivalry, and I was highly embarrassed to be wearing such threads around him while giving him the gift. He was really pleased and happy about it though, and I was glad to be able to do it before he was in public. After that we made our way to the lyst field for processional of the Crown Lyst. We met up with the womenfolk and watched the parade of wonderfully dressed knights and warriors, there was some snarky political discuession going on to my left that I avoided very simply by moving away.
I got a new hat! I'll get a photo taken at the next event for you to see the current outfit, it's a work in progress sadly. There was more wandering and hanging around, met some new friends and reconnected with others while we looked for their Excellencies of Darkwater and Wyvrnwoode. We eventually found both and I offered both parties my simple gifts, their Excellencies of Wyvernwoode made jokes on how tasty wyverns were while my own Baron joked that next time I should do a device totally in bacon. Jake participated in the Poet Laureate competition, I thought he did wonderfully even if he forgot a stanza (unless you knew the poem you couldn't tell, so it came off really well!). After that we did tours of the archery range, Sarah expressed an interest in that next time, and ended up doing some impromptu retaining for their Excellencies while they had lunch and attended a Laurel meeting :p.
Sadly we had to leave by then and go back to work. I had a great time at my mini-event trip, and like always felt renewed and ready to tackle-dive into my SCA work. Now if only I could have more meeting days off ;).
No comments:
Post a Comment