Weekend wrap up

Oh, look, LiveJournal FINALLY let me onto this page. It's still being geologically slow for me.

Kingdom A&S was at the usual location in Ed Levin Park. The site is beautiful, the sole drawback being that you can't bring cars in off the pavement so you have to carry your gear out to wherever you want to pitch your tent. Several trips later with my little folding wagon, I'd made camp next to the pond, enjoyed watching the dusk fall over the water and the vocal stylings of an unseen basso profundo bullfrog who clearly needed some bullfrog lovin' because he didn't shut up all night. 

Had no takers for my 9 AM class on stitched-resist shibori, so I started the big piece I've been wanting to do, having pre-marked the fabric Friday afternoon during my break at work. It'll incorporate ori-nui and karamatsu shibori effects and hopefully make a nice "futon cover" for my sleeping bag.

Had a full class of four for my 10:30 beginner taiko class, which included Umm Jibril, Sedany and Cynthia.

Nice turnout for the HOCM Japanese picnic, though I still ended up coming home with leftover onigiri.

Cyn and I chatted photography for a bit over at Chateau Rose and I was surprised and flattered that she handed me her brand new Canon DSLR and said, "Here, go play." I took a few scenic shots over by the pond - won't know what I got until she downloads them. When I went to take some comparison shots with my little Fujifilm point-and-shoot, I discovered I must've done something to the memory card on my last download because it insisted it was write-protected. (Fortunately, cards have gotten pretty cheap and I replaced it on the way home tonight.)

Ended up hanging out and chatting with Umm Jibril and Owen at the picnic tables by the pond Saturday night. We could hear madrigals coming from one of the other encampments. It was nice, but I don't actually miss singing 'em. Periodically, the lovesick bullfrog would blat from somewhere near the willow tree.

Took Tangwystl 's Sunday morning paint-your-own pottery class, which was fun. The Perfectly Period Feast crew had researched 15th c. Spanish ceramics for last year's feast, so the handout featured a hefty swath of color-copied images. Islamic influence was obvious in a number of them and I was torn between an abstract, vaguely botanical plate and a leaping fish - so I ended up combining elements of both. Unlike most of my classmates, I eschewed laboriously sketching my design onto the premade bowl in pencil and grabbed a brush as soon as I'd roughed out where I wanted the fish to go with a couple quick pencil lines. Be interesting to see how it turns out once it's been fired.

Stopped at Daiso to pick up an extra tea strainer and a couple odds and ends, and replaced the memory card at Office Depot, still made it home by about 2:30, got unloaded, showered and had a nap.

Have decided to attempt day-tripping Crown next weekend. It's a bit of a haul up to Duncan's Mills, but I don't get to see didjiman  and karisu_sama  very often so their party invite is a must!

The view from the microscope slide.

O My Friends, why do I feel as if I Am Being Watched?

I am not a Laurel. I do, however, have any number of friends who are, some having achieved that status before I met them, others having received and accepted that SCA "job offer" since I got to know them. Most of the time I can geek happily and comfortably about whatever I'm currently into in conversations with these fine folks.

Every once and awhile, though, I feel like I'm on a microscope slide as one of my friends innocently (or perhaps not so innocently?) says, "Really, that's fascinating, tell me more about it." I can't say why, I can only acknowledge that it happens and that it happened again this weekend.

It's not as though I don't know I've chosen the Road Less Traveled. Despite the cheerleading efforts of one late Dance Laurel and Viscount to encourage me, I've pretty much chucked my so-called bardic career down the midden. I still don't care if I ever sing a note in front of other people ever again. I had the audacity to be Japanese in the West Kingdom when it was considered the purview of "fringies."  The only Westerner that I'm aware of to have received a Laurel in "Japanese Studies" passed away years before I moved out here.  This, of course, means that my friends have to say "Really, that's fascinating, tell me more about it," because I want to do/make/study stuff that no one at the Laurel level is doing in this kingdom.

Why does all this occasionally make me paranoid? Because it does. It feels almost completely random and silly because it was triggered by a conversation with a friend, but I can't not acknowledge that it doesn't happen to me.

And of course, if someone is watching, someone is reporting back to the Council. How to discuss someone's SCA career path when nobody in the group has expertise in that person's chosen area of activity?

The mind boggles.  And sometimes the boggling gets in the way of a perfectly good time doing cool stuff.

What a silly game we play.

Noisy neighbor

Beneath the willow
He laments his loneliness
To the summer moon.
Alone too, I lie sleepless
All because of a bullfrog.