Random Ramblings

As Pennsic looms ever closer, my schedules finally firming up enough that I have a good idea of where I'll be at certain times. Well, that's not true. I never know where I'll be most of the time -- the nice thing about Pennsic is that it allows me plenty of spontaneity and wandering. (If you want me to wander to your camp, please leave a comment on this post.)

That said, there are certain commitments I have made to teach, perform, and volunteer, so if you absolutely 100% want to be sure to see me, you can find me at the places listed below.

( Pennsic 2013 )

It's been quite a while since I've done anything but gaming posts, and about two and a half months since my last "seven things" post, so I figure we're about due.

1. Work: Is having its ups and downs. Sometimes it's moderately busy, sometimes it's dead slow. My boss's last day is theoretically tomorrow, but I suspect he's going to stick around another few weeks until our Board of Directors meeting at the end of the month. I still have no idea who my new boss (#4 in two and a half years) is going to be, which is kind of nerve-wracking.

2. SCA: Speaking of the Board of Directors meeting, the specific timing of it conflicts with both Panteria and War of the Roses, two events I like to get to if I can. The fact that I'm missing both is kind of irritating. I will, on the other hand, try my best to be at Northern Region War Camp, where my house sister Alethea will be formally invited to join the Order of the Pelican. (Woot!)

3. Pennsic: As a subset of #2, Pennsic approaches. I'm registered for three classes: one session of "Your Persona in an Hour" and two of "Sexy, Silly, Scheming Saints." I'm about five weeks behind where I wanted to be in my readings of the Golden Legend, but I still have every confidence that I'll finish it in time to have new saint stories ready. I just wish I were going for the full two weeks instead of only one. I miss Pennsic.

4. Auntie Julie: Lyra is now just over two months old, and getting huge, at least comparatively. Still not doing much in terms of tricks, but definitely very cute and getting slightly more interactive every time I see her. Sadly, it'll still be a few years before I can teach her about roleplaying, but there's no rush.

5. Roleplaying: Obviously continuing full steam ahead. I'm in five games at the moment: two weekly (well, weekly-ish), two biweekly, and one occasional. Sometimes it feels like it's too much and I'd just like some free time back, but then I remember what life was like without gaming and I bite my tongue.

6. Cooking: Having done much lately except try a new recipe for "lembas bread", which turned out kind of like a cross between a biscuit and a cookie. Sadly, I've been sick the last week, which means I haven't really wanted to cook, and before that I was quite busy on the weekend. For good or ill, the busyness doesn't show any signs of abating any time soon, which means I'll have to figure out what to do about squeezing in "playing in the kitchen" time. (On the other hand, a few weeks ago I had a lovely time with my friend Eri at the Jean Talon Market and we made some awesome fish and chips afterwards.)

7. There Is No #7: Is it wrong that I'm having a hard time coming up with an appropriate #7? Almost everything else is pretty even keel, really. My birthday's in two and a half weeks, but that's gonna have it's own post, and there's not much else I feel like saying right now. So it's a sneaky "six things from my life" instead of seven things. So there.

1. Wedding! Not mine! Yesterday, Marc's brother Dave got married to his girlfriend (now wife) Becky. Mazel tov to you both! You're a hard act to follow -- FORTY-FIVE different desserts! My God!

2. Back from Pennsic: Got back about a week and a half ago and had to dive back into Real Life (tm). Everything's put away except for a few odds and ends, all the laundry's done, and my Pennsic diary is up online. When things die down at work, I'll have to crack open Volume II of the Golden Legend.

3. Work: Speaking of work... craziness! I leave for our Annual Meeting in two weeks, at which I will both be running the registration desk and demoing our new website... which is still not finished. We move over to the new server tomorrow, and I have all my fingers and toes crossed that it works out okay and nothing blows up.

4. (Lack of) Gaming: Between Pennsic and summer schedules, I haven't actually done any gaming in a month. The good news is that it's looking like I'll have two or three games by Saturday evening, which makes me a happy Julie. (I wonder whether it's possible to find roleplaying-themed cake toppers. I wonder if my mother would ever forgive me if I decided to use one at my wedding one day...)

5. Apartment water damage: While I was away, we apparently got some water damage in the apartment. Upstairs neighbor put something in the sink, turned it on, and forgot about it. Oops. Went right on the wall with a light switch and our fuse box. So far nothing's been done because they're "letting the walls dry out," but I'll start pushing for it soon if nothing's done by the end of the week.

6. Health and weight stuff: The good news is I didn't gain any weight at Pennsic. I ate a lot but I also walked a lot. The bad news is that my work's Annual Meeting is coming up, at which I know (from past experience) that I'm gonna eat a lot and not walk a lot. I'm trying to come up with ways to help myself be good, like buying some breakfast groceries (to avoid the croissant-and-muffin spread that's catered for us) and promising to go for walks in the nearby Byward Market after my shifts.

7. Kickstarter temptation: There are still four days left on the Reaper Miniatures Kickstarter. I don't really use figs very much, and I certainly don't paint them, but 182 figs for $100 is a damn good deal. I'm super-tempted. And I offer the link so that you can share my conundrum.

I'm leaving for Pennsic on Saturday morning, or just over 40 hours from now. I'm very excited. I've also come to terms with the fact that I'm not as ready as I wanted to be. My saint lives pieces are not really prepped, even though I'm familiar enough that I could (and probably will) tell them in an unpolished way. I have no new garb. I didn't get very far in persona research this year. I didn't learn an instrument.

And I'm okay with all that.

A friend of mine pointed out yesterday that "I'm not as ready as I wanted to be" is an annual refrain for me, and I can't argue with him. It was the same when I was in school, and every semester I planned to start working on my term papers early... and each semester, I never did. (For eight semesters of undergrad and two of graduate studies; that's a lot of semesters to say the same thing over and over again.)

That said, Pennsic will still be awesome. There will be bardic circles. There will be excellent food. There will be small children for me to play with and audiences for me to sing at. There will be good times with annual friends, at least some of them spent at the Inner Vagabond.

And if my story of St. John the Almsgiver isn't polished and I don't have trim on my garb... that's not gonna stop me from having a great time. So there.

1. Country Relaxation: Marc and I went up to my dad's country house yesterday, for tasty lunch, tasty dinner, and some kayaking on the lake in between. It was my first time kayaking in about a year, and boy am I feeling it today. On the plus side, at least I didn't get sunburned. (I used sunscreen, but I was worried that all the water I was splashing on my arms would wash it off.)

2. Hat!: As a corollary to #1, I've decided I really, really need a good hat. Actually, I'd decided this quite some time ago but haven't had a chance to go buy one yet. I'm hoping for a Tilley hat, which is expensive but very spiffy. Marc promised he'd go hat shopping with me before Pennsic.

3. Pennsic: Speaking of Pennsic, I've done pretty much nothing this past week except a single shopping run with my mom. I'm finding that I just don't have the energy for much prep, not even going over my bardic material. I guess it's because I'm working full time. I've only ever been in this situation once before, back in 2009, and I find that I just don't want to start prepping stuff after a long day at the office.

4. Gaming: Slowing down. We're going to have one more Heavy Gear game before a month off (because the GM's going on vacation, and then I am), one 7th Sea game before Pennsic, and maybe one Game of Thrones game. D&D is still going strong, which is good, but I sort of feel empty looking at my calendar and realizing I've got only one or two games a week.

5. Work: Spent a day working from home last week. Actually got more done in that day (and worked more hours) than I would have if I'd been in the office. I like working from home and wish I could do it more often. Because not only do I get more work done, I also get more home-related stuff done, like baking or cleaning. Le sigh.

6. iPhone: Every time I discover the Next Great App, I fall in love with my phone all over again. Oh, smartphone, how did I ever survive without you?

7. Cooking: On the plus side, made aloo gobi (Indian cauliflower with potatoes) for the first time ever this weekend, and it came out pretty tasty. On the downside, I managed to screw up my spritz cookies recipe for the first time ever, which was annoying. Also on the downside, I accidentally set my toaster oven on fire this morning. It was fine; it burned itself out. But there was a moment there where my thought was, "Crackling? That's a sound my bagels don't usually make."

This year at Pennsic, I will be teaching a class called "Sexy, Silly, Scheming Saints." (First Wednesday, August 1, 10:00 am, AS4) This class will be focused on fun saint stories from the Golden Legend, a medieval book of saints lives. If you come, here are the stories you can expect to hear:

- St. Basil helps a slave who turned to the devil out of lust for his master's daughter
- Emperor Nero conceives and gives birth to a frog
- St. Nicholas helps a moneylender who has been cheated by a clever debtor
- St. John the Almsgiver pays the same beggar three times
- A prefect has designs on St. Anastasia's maidservants but instead caresses and embraces kitchen implements thinking that it is the servants
- St. Julian causes a man pretending to be dead to actually die
- St. George kills a dragon
- St. Nicholas saves a greedy noble's son
- The Scrooge-like conversion of Peter the tax collector
- Josephus brings a hated slave before Titus to cure him of paralysis
- St. Marina, while cross-dressing as a monk, is accused of rape
- The ghost of St. Gregory kills his successor
- Pope Leo cuts off his own hand to avoid temptation and has it restored by the Virgin Mary
- St. Patrick accidentally wounds the King of the Scots, with a happy conclusion
- St. Andrew helps a bishop who has been beguiled by the devil in the form of a beautiful woman
- A virgin of Antioch is placed in a brothel, but a Christian knight exchanges clothes with hers so that she can preserve her virtue

If any of these sound interesting, I invite you to come to my class and hear the full versions! Also, you may catch a few of them as I camp hop around Pennsic.

Today I realized that I've only got 28 1/2 weeks until Pennsic, which means it's prime time to start planning. My boss has assured me that I'll be able to take the two weeks off for Pennsic this year, and I'm going to be sure to get that in writing at some point in the very near future. In any case, this is the first time since 2007 that I'm pretty much assured of going without working a miracle, and I intend to take advantage of that fact by planning some projects early.

I'm putting together a list of major projects I'd like to get done before Pennsic. Twenty-eight and a half weeks is almost two university semesters, which should be plenty of time if I plan properly.

I think my primary goal for this year will be to put together a new class based around The Golden Legend. I've owned a copy (a modern translation by William Granger Ryan) for two and a half years, and I've been slowly sputtering through it. But I think this is the year that I finish it. If I read two pages a day per weekday, I should be done Volume 1 by the end of April. (Volume 2 will be a sequel class next year.)

Right now I'm envisioning a class somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours, in which the first part will be an introduction to hagiography in general and The Golden Legend in particular, and the second (and longer) part will be a retelling of my favorite saint stories from Volume 1. I'm about halfway through and already have 15 stories I want to tell, so I imagine I'll have at least another 10-15 by the time I'm done. As a side-benefit, it means all those stories will be fresh in my mind to use as bardic fodder. (Mwahaha. Mine is a cunning laugh.)

So. Two questions:
1. Do you think people would be interested in a class like this?
2. What the heck should I call it? The best I've come up with so far is "Saints don't have to be boring!", but that still seems pretty lame. I need help!

Home from Pennsic! I had a great time, and I'll write more when I've settled in and checked the 300+ emails waiting for me in my inbox. (Thankfully, many of them are things I don't have to actually read or respond to.) Look for this year's Pennsic diary to be posted sometime later this week.

Pennsic is fast upon us, so it seems like the right time to post a list of places you'll be able to find me. This is far from a complete list of the things I want to do -- many evenings are double- or triple-booked -- but it includes most of the things I'm pretty sure of, either because I'm in charge or because there's nothing else I know happening at that time. *grin*

Where I'm camping: McGuire's Marauder's, N06. Stand in front of the Performing Arts Pavilion, face the battlefield, and look for the pink-and-white striped tents on your right. I'll be arriving the evening of Land Grab Saturday and staying until the last weekend, time TBD and dependent on allergies.

Where I'll be:
- Peace Week Monday (Aug 1), o'dark, Calontir Royal: Rhodri's honeymoon bardic
- Peace Week Wednesday (Aug 3), noon, AS 10: teaching Your Persona in an Hour
- Peace Week Wednesday (Aug 3), o'dark, Aethelmearc Royal: Haakon's bardic circle
- Peace Week Thursday (Aug 4), 10 a.m., AS 10: teaching Pennsic Without Breaking the Bank
- Peace Week Thursday (Aug 4), suppertime, McGuire's Marauders: hosting Master Efenwealt Wystle and his family as they sing for their supper
- Middle Friday (Aug 5), 8:30 p.m., meeting at A&S tents: "Peerless" bardic amoeba
- Middle Saturday (Aug 6), 11 a.m., AS 11: teaching Your Group's Persona in an Hour
- Middle Sunday (Aug 7), 1:30 p.m., Runestone Hill: "Peerless" bardic circle
- Middle Sunday (Aug 7), 4:00 p.m., AS 10: presenting a paper at the Boreal Master Symposium
- War Week Monday (Aug 8), 8:30 p.m., Trotheim N20: performing in Beowulf the Road Show
- War Week Tuesday (Aug 9), noon, AS 10: teaching Your Persona in an Hour
- War Week Tuesday (Aug 9), o'dark, various: some combination of Zsof's vigil, Dahrien's vigil, and the Harpwood Hall jam session
- War Week Wednesday (Aug 10), 6 p.m., Performing Arts: performing the intermezzos at the Lorelei Skye concert
- War Week Wednesday (Aug 10), 9 p.m., Performing Arts: taking in the Marian of Heatherdale concert

If you don't see your event or class on this list, never fear! It's probably on my schedule already, I just can't be 100% sure I'll be there. (Pennsic is Pennsic. Plans change with weather and whim.) If you think I *don't* know about your event, comment! Let me know! I'll try to make it!

And if you'd like to get together for an impromptu Your Inner Vagabond trip, want to join me in some singing and storytelling, or have a small child for me to play with, just let me know! So much to do, so little time to do it in!