The Great Bay Area Cold Snap of 2011

[gurdymonkey]

Snow was predicted. Higher elevations may have gotten some, but we didn't. I woke to driving rain and high winds early on Friday morning, hard enough it actually blew the front door open at work at one point. (I suspect someone had come in without closing it properly a few minutes early, but still.) By 10:30 or so, the rain had stopped and the sun came out, though it still remained windy and chilly throughout the day. Nonetheless, weather reporters continued to predict the possibility of snow.

I didn't even have to scrape frost off my windshield Saturday AM, though my neighbors did. For some reason, one side of the street was more susceptible than the other.

I did, however, have an obligation to be in Carmichael bright and early to attend Their Highnesses at Golden Rivers Championship. I donned silk long johns under my clothes for the drive, threw a couple packets of miso soup mix into my event bag and was on the road in time to get to site before 10 AM. As is custom, I got "dressed" in the parking lot: fleece tabi and "beater" geta (for mud), white linen kosode, orange ombre kosode, green uchikake belted shut with orange brocade obi and hiked up, Black fleece gloves and an orange and green pashmina shawl to cover my head and neck were not in the least "period," but it had been 32 degrees in Alameda when I left the house and highs were predicted to get only into the 40s. Emma brought a fire pit  she and several of the ladies kept hot water for tea and cocoa going all day.  Some people actually knew how to dress for the weather, but it was unusually cold for Sacramento for this time of year. (I ended up loaning out the pashmina for awhile because one young lady was running around bare from chin to cleavage and the resultant gooseflesh was epic. She returned it when she felt "too warm.")

Colbain, big, tough Army vet fighter guy and yet another member of the entourage I'd never met until that day after Thanksgiving garb workshop came up to give me a hug, stepped back, and took a long look at the broken-fan uchikake. "Did you make this?" "Yes." "That's so awesome," he said, in almost reverential tones. His Highness likewise liked it - especially as I was rockin' the orange (his favorite color) underneath it. (I need to make some adjustments to the lining as it's not hanging as pretty as I'd like, but I need to wear this one more. It's so gorgeous.

One of Their Highnesses' kids was running around shivering in not enough clothes, so I got my upholstery-fabric-and-flannel dobuku out of the back of the truck and put it on her. In minutes it was covered with blueberry muffin stains, but it's beater garb. (I think it went home with them too. No worries. I can always make a new one if it doesn't come back). His Highness had some ideas for activities at Mists Cynagua War that were highly amusing and which I cannot discuss here, but should be fun if we can make them happen.

Gilbert and I had first "shift" attending Her Highness, which basically consisted of following her around and holding stuff for her while trying to stay out of everyone's way, the latter being a moderate challenge given that neither Gilbert nor I are small people. Add in the fact that I'd worn my beater geta, expecting mud, and Her Highness having a tendency to move pretty quickly. Other than that, it was easy and enjoyable duty.

Got to see Anna Serre for the first time in forever. She handed off a nice little Momokawa three-pack of Diamond, Pearl and Asian pear sake from allergicone  as I'd missed them at Twelfth Night. baroness_eilis  also had a Twelfth Night prezzie for me, pretty little rice bowl in a drawstring bag with an ukiyo-e kabuki samurai on it.

Had my miso, checked out the Page School in time to participate in a read-aloud retelling of "Momotaro" and learn a little song to go with it. Micah suggested trying to teach folks the dance "Tanko Bushi" with him on fue (flute) and me drumming at an upcoming event. (I did not get to drum with him as he did his taiko class with the kids while I was with Her Highness). I told him about the Children's Day stuff I got from Vail and my plans to display it at Beltane.

Parked my stool in Rolf and Aurora's day shade and finished putting His Highness's eboshi together while chatting with Gwenhwyfaer, Isolde and Her Majesty. When your queen insists you try a deep fried pickle, you smile, say thank you and swallow the revolting thing. I can cross that off my bucket list, though admittedly, they may be better when still hot.

The six-year-old-at-Christmas look on His Highness' face when I waved the finished eboshi at him across the list field was so worth it. More importantly, it fit his big noggin, the coronet went on over it with no problems and he pronounced it much warmer than going bareheaded. I went with a tate-eboshi shape, so he has the option of starching it to stand up or wearing it soft and floppy. I also gave Her Highness her jinbaori. (Perhaps I can sew for myself now! What a concept.)

I hit my limit, however, and decided to get on the road before I was too tired instead of sticking around for the feast.

Took it fairly easy today, though it was nice enough out that I decided to go out for a bit. I used up the rest of a Christmas gift card at Borders on an instant immersion Japanese language CD set, a paperback novel by Tom Holt that looked amusing and a couple of cards. While the only REAL way to learn a language is to be forced to speak it regularly, it would be nice to be able to communicate a little better when the Far West folks come out here. While I have built a decent vocabulary in Japanese over the years, it's almost entirely nouns. It's time to learn some verbs. And sentences even. (Besides, when I flipped through "Japanese For Dummies", I spotted things I KNOW were wrong. "Sensei" is NOT pronounced "Sen-seh." It ends in a dipthong, it's "sen-say.")
The only reason I haven't played with it yet is that I crashed and napped when I got home.

Comments

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

Something that really helped me in starting Japanese was to learn hiragana early on. Even if you don't plan to take on reading, pronunciation makes so much more sense when you think of the words via hiragana rather than the Roman alphabet.

Nihongo ga hanasemasen!

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

This thing has no workbook and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad. I just struggled through Parts 1 - 7 of "Basic sounds." I can repeat a sound and a single word, but trying to rattle off said word in a phrase when I don't know the rest of the words in the phrase is tough. I expect it to make a bit more sense as I go, and I always did pretty well at the audio exercises in language lab when I was in college, so it's a matter of doing this regularly.

However, I do already own two dictionaries and a small grammar which contains hiragana and katakana charts, courtesy of James.

Re: Nihongo ga hanasemasen!

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

That would be hanashimasen. You'll hear a lot of ~shimasu and ~shimasen at the end of polite-form verbs.

If you need some (free) visual resources, here is a brief list to start with. I really like this one.

Have fun! (Warning: this stuff can be addictive) <--says addict.

[melaniewing.livejournal.com]

Deep fried pickles fresh from the fryer are really good. I thought I would hate them when my husband made them, but I was wrong.

I have been trying to learn the Japanese language for a long time (and failing) and I have to agree with reynardine about learinging Hiragana.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

With the exception of french fries and the occasional order of tempura, I'm not much for breaded and deep fried anything. Seems like a waste of a perfectly good dill pickle to me.

[kareina.livejournal.com]

No amount of fealty could get me to taste a deep fried pickle, but then not only do I not really go for fried foods I have an aversion* to anything containing even a small amount of wine or vinegar, and I'm not interested in even being in the same room as an open container of pickled anything.

*I am not willing to get close enough to find out if it is an allergy or if I simply don't like it.