A sprig of leaves

[gurdymonkey]

Friday:

Managed to stay in bed until about 8 AM, padded downstairs to put on some tea, when it occurred to me that I had not done anything about dressing the monkeys. George still looked like a refugee from the Cantigas de Santa Maria and Hikaru and Akio were in nekkid hot tubbin' snow macaque mode, as always.

I banged out three little monkey kataginu with some white muslin, bias tape for obi and George's hachimaki (which he did not come home with), and added some stripes with a blue paint pen.
By the time I'd finished, it was time to take the last few things down to the car and collect Ishida-dono at the airport.

Made excellent time to SFO and waited only a couple minutes in baggage claim until he turned up. Fujiwara no Nagamochi was coming in from Madison, WI on another flight, but had expected to be able to mass-transit his way to meet us for lunch in Japantown about 1:00 PM-ish, as the cab of my Tacoma was designed by and for tiny Asian men and the center seatbelt is almost surely decorative.

Narrowly avoided an accident on 101 just north of the airport and impressed my passenger with my road-warrior-like skills. We put the truck in the garage and headed down to Nijiya to pick up a bottle of Oni Karakuchi as kproche had warned me he hadn't had time to get any. I'd used all my reuseable shopping bags to pack event supplies in, so the big 1.8 liter bottle went into a paper grocery sack. Over to Benkyodo for mochi and manju: I told the lady behind the counter to make me up an assortment box. As we left with our purchase, the guy sitting at the counter saw the sake poking out of the top of the shopping bag and grinned: we got that reaction several times. While waiting for Mochi to show up, I took Tom to check out Soko Hardware, Asakichi, Daiso and Kinokuniya. He found a few items to round out his feast ware. Still no sign of Mochi. I called him. He was still waiting for a bus (I suspect but did not elicit a confession that he'd gotten on something going the wrong way and had to back track). By the time he turned up it was closer to two than one.

We got lunch at Kushi Tsuru - they're reliably good, then we parted company with Mochi, (after I double checked his transit directions) and started driving back across the Bay to get to the hotel - and of course hit a fair bit of afternoon traffic much of the way. I handed Tom the list of restaurant phone numbers and had him call to see if we could get reservations for the Benihana across from the hotel for 6. No go: they didn't have anything until 9 PM and I'd announced that my UnVigil was at 8. Claim Jumper said they could take our big party at 6, so he made the reservation while I drove.

It was after 4 when we got to the Hilton. I checked in, was assured that I could use my Christmas Visa gift card to pay the hotel bill as long as I secured it on a personal credit card, and then found Ii Saburou Katsumori and Abe Akirakeiko, in from Atlantia, working the gate with Francisco.

Bunch of people descended on my truck and between the bellman and my folding wagon, we got everything in one trip, though we had to take separate elevators. I'm not USED to having minions. It was a little disconcerting and very nice. My poor sugoroku chest, having had an unpleasant run-in with my truck tailgate at some point this season, was carefully brought in, the corner joint having come unglued. Although it's an easy repair involving a bit of sanding, new wood glue and some clamping for a bit, I had an, "and they're giving me a Laurel for this shoddy crap???" pang. (The trip up to the room widened the fissure and I'm going to have to bring it into the house and deal with it before it goes out to an event again.)

No sign of layla_lilah, but G was in her room, cranking away at unfinished garb. I unpacked, hung up my garb as best I could, shoved the suitcase in a corner and began unpacking and plating the party refreshments I'd brought, then we went down to the lobby about 5:50 to meet up with folks and walk across to the restaurant.

Just about anyone who was coming in from the south Bay was stuck in traffic. Despite the reservation it was about 20 minutes or so before we were seated. layla_lilah straggled in just as we were sitting down, and Raj turned up as orders were being taken. By the time I got my salad it was 7:20. I bolted the meat and cheese off of it, made my apologies and headed back to the room to change and get ready. layla_lilah got Raj to help her ferry her party food load and other stuff up to the room in HER folding wagon).

kproche and bovil and a couple of other folks helped turn one of the beds sideways to give us more floor space, by which time party guests were showing up and I was pouring drinks and answering the door and people were hugging me and filling my hands with all sorts of amazing gifts and I was mostly forgetting to remind people to write cards to hang on the wish tree, and trying to find places to put all the prezzies where they wouldn't be in the way because the room was getting pretty darn crowded and people weren't spilling over into G's adjacent room, probably because she had sewing machines and ironing boards and they figured she was trying to get her stuff finished, and la_peregrina was trying to videotape All The Things (and oh, by the way, crowds and cameras both tend to make me uncomfortable, though at least this was a friendly crowd). The door was opening and closing constantly and Staffan showed up with THREE bottles of shochu (because he's trying to kill me) and kproche and bovil and Pallidus were bonding over the San Jose Tech Shop in San Jose and I got Joan to try sake for the first time and everybody loved the Sho Chiku Bai kinpaku and I was happily sipping The Antique and feeling completely overwhelmed but in a good way.   It wasn't quite the stateroom scene from "A Night At The Opera" but you get the idea. The Asian Invasion contingent mostly hung out for the duration with other folks cycling in and out. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, though.

At one point Aelf asked if he could have a private moment with me, so we went into G's room. Aelf was Gaius' squire and a bigger goofball you'll never see, but he was looking very anxious, like he'd run over my puppy and was trying to figure out how to break it to me. He said he'd failed in a quest. After Gaius had passed, he'd put together his knight's belt, coronet and other items into a box and given it to the Kingdom regalia. There was a Laurel medallion - and now he couldn't find it for me. Nobody knew what had happened to it. I told him that if it was meant to be mine it would turn up and if not, it was all right, he hadn't failed anyone and not to worry about it.

A few of us went down for the midnight court because I figured Erzebeta's Laurel Ceremony might be the only other one I'd get to see. It was also a good time for a mental review. Sat in one of the back rows with kproche and bovil, then left during the reading of a law change.

It wasn't quite 2 AM by the time we knocked off and went to bed. layla_lilah corked off pretty quickly after lights out. My brain wouldn't shut off. I'd been "on" all evening and I couldn't sleep. At all. "Watashi wa, kami ni kakete - CRAP!" I couldn't remember the oath. I couldn't remember it. And would there be time for me to rush downstairs to catch modehistorique's Laurel ceremony and get back in time to get changed for mine and "Watashi wa, kami - CRAP!"

Saturday:
Up early enough to go across the street for a breakfast sandwich at Panera with some of the crew, then came back to start getting ready. Even with the first installment of Last Court pushed back, I realized I wasn't going to make Sarah's ceremony. G and layla_lilah went off to do something or other and I started ironing my mo. No matter how I pack and fold that thing, it ALWAYS needs to be pressed to look decent and there's acres of the thing. Didn't put on the radio or TV, just me and the iron going back and forth in a very Zen silence. Took the garment steamer to the karaginu and it looked beautiful, even though it kept wanting to slip off the hanger.
Read some of the notes on my wish tree, feeling guilty because several of my SCAsian friends had signed theirs in kanji and I haven't practiced my signature in months and yet I'M the one supposed to be getting a Laurel?

Pounded down a decent amount of water and snacked on some leftover fruit and a piece of store bought kasutera, then it was time to start dealing with tooth black and make-up, by which time the other women were back and rattling around between the two rooms and I began missing the ironing.

Got most of my clothes on un-assisted, having nested the hitoe and uchigi with false layers together and tack stitched them together in a couple places before putting them on, then shrugging the uchigi back off my shoulders like a stole until I could arrange the false collars between the hitoe (tucking the ends under my himo) and then pulling the uchigi back, and adding the uwagi with the phoenixes. Urtatim assisted with the karaginu and getting the mo ties under my arms so I could tie it in front.

The wig. Well, it's a better wig than my old one, but I have so much hair and it's so blasted thick that even with a wig cap, getting it on was a struggle. bovil later suggested a crapload of hairspray would've kept things from slipping around, but given the vagaries of my estrogen production later, I wanted the option of abandoning it and shaking out my own hair if things got insufferable.  Even with the comb in the front digging into my scalp it wanted to slide back. And it had bangs, long ones, but not long enough for sidelocks, so some judicious pinning was needed.

I tucked the translated fealty oath into my uwagi and brought a couple safety pins along, planning to pin it to my left sleeve right before the ceremony. Then it was downstairs to find the rest of the entourage and wait for court.

The children of three friends had been invited to process with us, bearing the monkeys. (The one on the right is wearing one of my yukata and obi and belongs to allergicone, the one in the middle is part of the "village" I sometimes camp with at Cynaguan events and I've known her since she was teeny, and the four year old samurai on the left and I have just gotten to know each other this year. He kept looking up at me and saying very politely, "Is it time yet?" and I had to keep telling him I didn't know yet.
Her Highness of Cynagua came over and attempted a couple portrait shots. (Courtesy Kelli Thompson, copyright. 2011)
Caolinn Rose offered me water. I sheltered behind a baby grand piano to keep my hems out of traffic.

Then it was time. We lined up. layla_lilah arranged my hems and train, my "guards," kproche and bovil were at my back and all my friends were in front of me in pairs, G leading us all with the banner and the children following her with the monkeys. I prayed the aisles were clear.

As I passed through the door at the side of the hall and turned left I heard Etenraku. (A full gagaku arrangement can be heard here.) Suddenly the carpet was no longer clutching at me. Abe-hime had learned it on recorder, Ii-dono was drumming and they'd put Ishida on a small hand held gong and it was beautiful and right.  I gained the center aisle and saw my escort, friends from all over the Known World, my former Prince and Princess arrayed along the sides. Their Majesties were waiting form me, a mob of Laurels up front beyond where G had stopped with my banner. I stopped at the foot of the dais, knelt and bowed smoothly, rose without clotheslining myself on a single hem and turned to hand off my fan to layla_lilah. A guardsman offered his hand, I grasped my left nagabakama leg as if it were a long skirt and ascended two steps to kneel before Rolf and Aurora.

xrian, my spokesperson, addressed the assembly. Not too short, not too long, didn't make anyone cry (least of all ME in all that oshiroi!), it was a good speech. I didn't need more than one spokesperson, not with a mob of well accoutred visitors from outside the kingdom in my escort.

I answered yes three times. Then I held out my right hand to Their Majesties, who were expecting both hands but didn't miss a beat, probably figuring It Was A Japanese Thing, as I raised my left arm enough to read the oath pinned to the inside of my sleeve. In my haste, I ran right OVER poor cryptocosm's lines in, apologized,  and swore fealty in Japanese:

私は、かみ　に　かけて、ウエストキングダム　の　こくおう　と　おうこく-に、 ほうし　と　ちゅうせい　を　ちかい　ます。
かたり　と　ちんもく　を、　いく-こと、くる-こと　を、　こうげき　と　ていし　を、
王国　が　なやめる-とき、こうどうーし、せいかん-する こと を。
きゅう-する とき も,　と-める とき も、へいわ-な　とき　も　たたかい-の　とき　も、 せい　ある　とき　も　し-す　とき　も、
いま　この時 から、王-が　その　おうい　を　さる　とき　まで、
し-が　私を　むかえ-に 　くる　まで、あるいは　せかい-が　おわる　とき　まで、
私、サイオンジーノーハナエは、こくおう-の　せいとう-な　めいれい-に　したがう-こと　を　ちかい　ます.

Watashi wa, kami ni kakete, uesuto kingudomu no kokuou to oukoku-ni, houshi to chusei o chikai masu.
Katari to chinmoku o, iku-koto, kuru-koto o, kougeki to teishi o,
Oukoku ga nayameru-toki, koudou-shi, seikan-suru koto o.
Kyuu-suru toki mo, to-meru toki mo, heiwa-na toki mo tatakai-no toki mo, sei aru toki mo shi-suru toki mo,ima kono toki kara, O-ga sono oui o saru toki made,
shi-ga watashi mukae-ni kuru made, aruiha sekai-ga owaru toki made,
Watashi, Saoinji no Hana, kokuou-no seitou-na meirei-ni shitagau-koto o chikai masu. (Translation courtesy of crimsongriffin.)

The ceremony calls for the King to respond: "This we do hear, nor fail to remember and We for Our part do swear fealty to you." Rolf ad libbed, something along the lines of "This we do hear - we don't UNDERSTAND it, but we hear it." (I hear there's video so  hopefully someone got the reaction, it was great.)

I didn't see who handed the first Laurel medallion to the Queen except for a flash of black sleeve. (I found out later it belonged to Aurelia D'Ouessant.) Then Edward le Kervere (who had been plying me with bacon the morning Their Majesties popped the question) presented a second one for her to hang around my neck. Aurora knew better than to try to mess with the wig and just laid it on top of my ponytail.

"Is there a cloak?" Stupid question: it's tradition that there's a kingdom cloak and the newest Laurel preceding gets to put it on the next one. Again, I didn't see who it was (Theia), but I looked up at Their Majesties and smiled and said, "Oh good, I was a little cold."

That's when they flashed the scroll danabren had made me. I had asked her to do it, I'd told her what I had in mind and she cranked it all the way to eleven. I took some detail shots of it today and you can see them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157628801555639/with/6670159961/

I was announced as Saionji no Hana Sensei. I managed to toe my hems around in the right direction, get off the dais with the help of the same guardsman, and went forth to be mobbed by my peers, some of whom actually bowed first, then hugged. (Actually I think the Laurel may be for being able to hug people without getting oshiroi on THEIR Twelfth Night clothes. Though I later "marked' Achmere and Miles, both of whom were in black wool.)

bovil found a spot near the pool to take photos. (Unfortunately it completely filthified my hems. This week's laundry will be epic, )

Stuck around downstairs long enough to swear fealty to Uther and Kara after they stepped up, then went up to the room to take it all off, pee and scratch my nose, what BLISS!

One of the side effects of spending several hours in karaginu mo is the desperate need to have it off and relax for a little while. Changed into jeans and tee shirt and a bunch of us went across the street for burgers at Fuddruckers. Came back after dinner and I changed into my orange ombre kosode for Best Party Ever The Sequel. I was thinking, "Oh, good, we'll finish off what's left." Only new bottles kept mysteriously appearing, including a SECOND bottle of the precious Takara Antique. The Trader Joe's sparkling sake turned out to be drinkable. And there was all that shochu Staffan brought, and we got into the umeshu.  This time folks spread out into G's room and I was able to migrate about back and forth and even sit down and get Mochi to knead my neck for me.

Sunday: We found a cafe in downtown Concord and had breakfast there, then back to strip down the room and check out. I was taking the first load to the elevator when I heard stage whispers behind me, "That's her!" I turned to find Their Highnesses of the Mists in the hall behind me. "Did we make too much noise last night, Your Highnesses?" "Best Laurel Ceremony EVER!" declared the Princess with a huge grin.

Got packed out, went to check out and the clerk (who looked about twelve years old) couldn't get the Visa gift card to go through the system, so I couldn't use it. I guess I'll buy gas and groceries with it or something, then.

Said goodbyes to folks, then convoyed over to St. George Spirits with kproche, bovil and layla_lilah for a visit to their tasting room - K was hoping to pick up some empty bottles for a project and layla_lilah had never been.

Still pretty tired and I've had a sore through all day, but it was pretty amazing. Despite spending so much of the event closeted in my room and missing a lot of people, my ceremony was all that I could hope for and more. Having "Clan Tousando" on hand was fun too. We made a great impression.

Now Ishida's trying to convince me to go up to An Tir for the war over July 4....