Still alternately yawning and reeling

[gurdymonkey]

Of COURSE I somehow managed to forget to pack my linen under kosode - and it's quite obvious in the photos layla_lilah shot of me yesterday. Argh. At least the barbarians I must sojourn amongst probably won't know the difference.

So there I was, swanning about in a cloud of green and orange cacophonous fabulousness, looking at A&S displays, chatting with friends and trying to keep my hems out from under the feet of said barbarians when mediea  came up and said she was supposed to bring me into court for a piece of business. Okay. So we went in and I lurked at the back of the hall through the royalty gift exchange and a couple other pieces of business.

My thanks to Wilhelm von Homburg for calling me as "Saionji no Hanae, also known as Jehanne de Wodeford" and pronouncing it correctly, as well as to Her Highness of the Mists, whom he tells me helped him with it.

I did have enough presence of mind not to attempt a proper face-plant at the foot of the stairs on a bad knee, so I opted for a deep, formal standing bow. However, reflex took over when I got to the dais and I was about ten inches from impact with the pillow when my left knee said quite vociferously, "Well THAT was dumb."

Evidently someone thinks I am not dumb. Make that a number of someones. I was informed by Their Majesties that they had gotten quite a number of recommendations on my behalf from all over, including one from the shiny new incipient Canton of the Golden Plains in Bangkok.

As you know, I'm not about the awards. However, I have to admit this one is gratifying. Japanese personae are a minority in the SCA and are particularly thin on the ground here in the West. I've taught classes to one attendee and deemed it a rousing success simply because someone showed up. I estimate that 7% of the teaching is outside the kingdom (Estrella, Great Western War, Collegium Caidis)  and 3% is in kingdom. The other 90% is via the internet. So if you wrote a recommendation on my behalf, thank you. If you know someone who did, thank them for me.

Most of the day was spent socializing in brief spurts with various people. Around 4PM or so, I had to use the rest room, got a look at the state of my oshiroi and decided it was time to remove it. This was the first outing with the real abura and oshiroi that crimsongriffin  had gotten for me. It works beautifully and provides even coverage, but after sweating in it for that many hours, the old lady lines around my eyes were crazing it badly. Neutrogena make-up remover wipes took it off easily, though I needed four or five just because of how much stuff I had on.

layla_lilah  and I got dinner at the hotel restauraunt. Having not packed the book I wanted because I'd expected to be too tired for vittoriosa  and allison_is ' period poetry (and prose) slam , I drove back home to collect it. Japanese poetry is short. REALLY short. Especially when other participants have already planned to read epic verse such as "The Battle of Maldon."  I grabbed the Morris translation of Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book as well as Carter's Traditional Japanese Poetry. Moshe read several wonderful Hebrew poems, Wulfric was picking things out of Castiglione and Juan Ruiz, Cariadoc had a variety of different poems and stories to offer. Etaine offered excerpts from Gawain and the Green Knight. vittoriosa read from Ariosto and the Decameron and allison_is supplemented her Old English repertoire with excerpts from the Frauenzimmer (?) manuscript, so it was a good mix of material. A good time was had by all and we definitely have to do this again.

Crap.  I completely forgot to shake down Staffan for my Firefly DVDs....

Comments

[xrian.livejournal.com]

Go you!! Well deserved.

(I didn't think to write a recommendation, but wish I had!)

[shalmestere.livejournal.com]

W00t! Go you!

[broider-barones.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!!!! Sorry I was not there to witness. You do give so much by just "doing your thing".

Congratulations!

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

It's well deserved!

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Congrats! I wish I'd been there to see it (since I actually did sit thru a court, but it was the 2nd one).

[sengokudaimyo.livejournal.com]

Major wootage!

I'm holding out hope that they'll finally give up on the "no Japanese Laurels" thing out there.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

There has been at least one I know of. Old timers frequently invoke the name "Senkyu" at me upon meeting me. Never met him as he passed away before I got here, don't know what his Laurel was for specifically, but he's in the OP.

[sengokudaimyo.livejournal.com]

Senkyu was a majorly cool guy. I liked the hell out of him.

When I was in the West, it was explained to me that, with a Rose Leaf, I'd gone as far as I could doing Japanese things -- "we already have a Japanese Laurel," I was told. And this was by someone who was helping me. ;)

It was pointless to point out, of course, that there was more than one calligraphy Laurel, and more than one dance Laurel, and... You get the idea. The West was not very Japanofriendly.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing that he was good people - and could put away the sake upon occasion. I'm sorry I missed getting to know him.

I cannot presume to comment on what goes on in the minds of the Laurel council of my kingdom. I'm not privy to what they think or do or whether I'm even on the microscope slide, and I'm fine with that. I do what I do because it's rewarding in its own right, or at least amusing.

[broider-barones.livejournal.com]

Senkyu was an Allysian. He did fab Japanese and was laureled for it. He would periodically set up his temple and do tea ceremony. He was always dressed humbly but very well. Think he was actually a professor at Humbolt State but don't quote me.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

Congrats!!

[tgrcats-tail.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Felicidades!

[bronx-baroness.livejournal.com]

Oh how exceedingly cool! Congratulations! It's always fun when you get an award out of the blue just for doing something you love.

Makeup

[crimsongriffin.livejournal.com]

Oh THANK GOD it worked...and yeah well, even Kabuki actors get the wrinkle thing after extended wear. I was having a nightmare recently that I'd gotten the wrong stuff and had sent you the tub of goo for REMOVING the makeup - this after months when I thought, "Katherine, did you read those Kanji correctly? well DID YOU?"

So glad you got a Lily! Lots of the new West Kingdomers in the New Canton of Golden Plains do Japanese Persona. I am glad they could swing things for you! You deserve it!

Re: Makeup

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Believe me, there have been moments when I thought, "Crap, I don't have instructions for this stuff and I can't read anything that's written on the jars!" But it worked just fine.

Re: Makeup

[crimsongriffin.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, forgot to say. Those flat white bristle brushes (mine is about 2 1/2 inches wide) with water to dampen the surface are normally used, but leave streaks. On me anyways. A sponge with a velvety cover surface is used to even it out. I watched some video online of a geisha putting on her face, and went from there.
At Pennsic, I think all I did for the brush was buy a cheap 100 yen white bristle paintbrush, and packed the sponge along. Worked fine, but was weird to feel sweat literally popping its way through the makeup. My chin strap on The Big Hat wore off the makeup as well, no surprise.

I plan on experimenting a bit more with powders to see if it help set the stuff.

Re: Makeup

[danabren.livejournal.com]

REAL makeup? I am intrigued by your pamphlet and would like to subscribe.

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

I just saw the Canton of the Golden Plains site. How very cool!

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Two of the three founders are a lovely couple from Atlantia who play Japanese and European, currently stationed there for a couple of years. They're the ones who sent me that green silk. A third gentleman with a Japanese persona moved there recently from the Outlands. They got to missing the SCA and started a Canton and are trying to blame me for some odd reason....

[tatsushu.livejournal.com]

Well, let's see: you introduced us to Saito, so we had three. Then it was up to the Thai folks to find us and it has been snowballing ever since. There is a definite vacuum that we are helping nature to fill, given her abhorrence thereof.

Congratulations! I know that we aren't supposed to desire danglies, but they can still be appreciated, and you are so worth it.

One of the things I worry about is that the way the kingdoms are so numerous and yet people play in so many places, you can get people who don't get recognition because they aren't seen as much by their local group, despite all of the work they do "internationally", as it were.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

I had a feeling those were YOUR fingerprints at the crime scene, tomodachi. ;-D

[la-peregrina.livejournal.com]

Wulfric was picking things out of Castiglione and Juan Ruiz,

Please give Wulfric fond regards from this distant Castilian lady.

It sounds as though you had such a lovely time. Again, congratulations. And thank you for the incense burned on my husband's behalf. We need all the help we can, at this point.

Much love from Akitei.