Collegium wrap up

[gurdymonkey]

Woke up Friday morning with a hellacious knot in my left shoulder that would not quit, so I hit the Marketplace after work and had a massage with yet another young lady I hadn't previously gone to. I explained the issue, she worked on me for 15 minutes and I did feel better for a couple of hours when she was done with me. I went into the market to see if they had any bamboo combs in stock because I'd told G about them and she wanted one, then discovered they carried umeboshi and grabbed a package, then discovered that they had both hachiya (the sort of acorn shaped ones) and fuyu (the tomato shaped ones) persimmons. They had a sample tray with slices and the fuyu were lovely, so I bought a couple. When I got home, however, the idea of actually making umeboshi onigiri smacked of too much effort - I knew I was going to have enough crap to portage to Collegium that a potluck contribution by me would be unneccessary and more trouble than it was worth. I sliced up a fuyu and put it in my bento, pressed what I planned to wear and watched part of "Give me the banjo" on PBS. I need to catch the second half of this documentary at a later date as it was quite good, even if it was causing Gaius flashbacks.

The house was also cold - I attempted to turn on the heat, but the characteristic gas "whump" and burning dust smell of the first burn of the season did not result, so I just layered up and resolved to call Glenn on Sunday. (When I came home Sunday, however, the heat was cranking away so it may have been where I had the thermostat set.)

Woke up bright and early with the knot returned, so I took an uncharacteristically long (for me) shower, had a mug of tea, and got on the road. Collegium was held in a lovely Unitarian church in downtown San Jose. I used a paid parking lot about a block away - I figured the crap in the back of my truck would be relatively secure there. Got out my folding wagon and loaded up gear for my classes and trundled it down the street with plenty of time to set up for my first class.

Note to self, must test the hot pot in an outlet here today and see if it actually works, maybe I'd plugged it into one that didn't at the church. Fortunately, they'd put me in  room right off the kitchen, so I ended up using the kitchen kettle for water. Had a good turnout for the stitched-resist shibori class and an even better one for the tea class. I confess I'd been angsting about the tea class. It was the result of a conversation from several months ago that ended in "You oughta teach a class on that." Except the more I read the more questions I had and the more I realized how little I knew and how big the subject was. So, feeling woefully unprepared, I leaned on Sen Shoshitsu's The Japanese Way of Tea very heavily, made up pots of Lapsang Souchong and Sencha for people to taste, then whisked up some matcha, repeating the disclaimer that I Have Not Formally Studied Tea Ceremony. They seemed to enjoy it, I was able to answer questions and it went well enough. (That said, I declined to furnish an electronic version of my notes to be posted online as I feel this class is a work in progress and I would like to address the subject further at some point.) I suspect I get away with murder as a teacher simply by being enthusiastic about the subject.

I'd asked xrian to be spokesman for my Laurel ceremony and she had agreed. However, as is often the case with SCA friendships, details of how much folks know about one another can sometimes be sketchy. The solution was to have lunch together so she could "interview" me. Felt a bit odd and on-the-spot, but it should all work out.

Attended barone_antonio's class on Italian love poetry. Despite the peanut gallery over on the other side of the table, he tried to present an in depth survey of a wealth of material and left me needing to go back and read some Dante and Petrarch, which I haven't looked at in decades. (I hope he reads this, because I thought it was a terrific class.)  Also hung out at xrian's Good Books/Bad Books class for a bit, and had flashbacks of my review of Mitsuo Kure's Samurai.

Excellent event, liked the venue a lot, even if I spent most of my day down in the basement. Didn't get to socialize with as many folks as I would've liked, but that's OK. Kudos to trystbat and her staff for putting on a great event.