Pennsic Recap - In Abysmally long length.
Friday, Peace Week :
We, in a clever attempt to be ahead of the game, loaded the van Thursday night. Friday, I left work at 4, grabbed Sunneva and Letia, and off we went. 8 hour drive, uneventful, we pulled into Pennsic at 1:30 AM.
My loveable, blessed Laurel had unpacked the air mattress and blown it up for us ahead of time. We emptied the van, and zonked out. It was nice.
Saturday, Peace Week :
Having left the van in the common area overnight, we made the first priority of the day a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Obtaining a list from Letia, Nikulai, and Lucia, we headed off. Stuff was bought. Much stuff was bought. Between us, we had four separate check-outs.
I hit A.C. Moore and found Artist Trading Cards! Perfect for the Children's Fete Activity. I bought them out. 100 cards. Also bought stuff to make my A&S display. Stopped at Panera to split a sammich with snotface, and then we headed back to camp.
I don't remember what I did the rest of the day, but I suspect it involved a nap.
Sunday, War Week
Their Excellencies informed me that my penance for opening my yap and interrupting their Majesties during Ymir court (oi.) was to go to opening Ceremonies on Sunday morning. So I got dressed in my nice clothes, and carried the standard all through the day. Bless Calli for giving me a pouch that had water in it. The bagpiper was two people back, so I heard no singing, or talking or anything but Scotland the Brave, (which thanks to Xav / Solvarr, was NOT what I was hearing.)
Yay for solidarity for Atlantia. Boo for having six Windy Kitties in front of Caer Mear's bajillion people. Boo for being hot. Yay for War being declared and not surrendered in the same speech.
Went on a first shopping reconnaissance, in favor of procrastinating making my A&S project. When I got back, I started to just cut my cardboard, when the Voice of Authority (a.k.a. Lucia, who I thought was deeply ensconced in a book) whipped out, "Ruler!"
I whined, and was overruled. (Ha!) After careful measuring and more careful drawing, the cutting was allowed. I spray-painted the whole thing blue, and set it aside to dry. Went to gwacie 's Silverpoint class with 'prentice seester. Got lost trying to find the darn A&S tent, because it was laid out funny. Was late, snuck in the back, thought it was totally cool, and am planning to bug a jeweller friend to buy some scrap sterling silver wire. Then dinner, then off to Eme's protoge'ing / Felix's being put on vigil, and applauded both heartily. (Winced for shirtless Felix getting iced by the dukes. They poured it sloooooooowwww..)
Got back to camp intending to do the title and gluing bits on my project and being done with it quick so I could get back to the vigil to maybe sneak in and say hi. As I finish with the title, the comment of "It looks like a science project" was made. And this annoyed me. So I proceeded to whitework the sides around the window. New kid in camp bumped my project, while I was painting, and was nearly strangled.
Project finished at 11:30 PM, in time for A&S tomorrow morning. Go me. No one was strangled in the course of my project.
At some point that night, I made tacos. Way, way too much tacos. Yummy tacos with vegetarian-fail beans, and home-made salsa.
Monday, War Week
Sunneva, Letia, Merwenna, and I headed out to the A&S display to peacock it up for Atlantia. I was honestly surprised at how much positive attention and feedback my display got. (It was very research-geek heavy, so I didn't expect people to stop much and actually read the information. It was surprisingly gratifying every time someone stopped and read one or two. Letia was hanging out at Guild Mirandola on Friday when she heard someone say, "The Pigment Mythbuster Lady said.." )
I hope I wasn't misquoted, but I was edumacating people!
I even got interviewed for the Pennsic Independent!
No one picked a fight or argued with me about any of them, though a couple people scrutinized my sources quite intently, glared at me, and moved on. This one Laurel who I didn't know stopped by first thing at the display and said, "I need to take a copy of these and show them to a calligraphy and illumination laurel in our kingdom!" And she started scooping copies. I asked her if she'd mind coming back when the A&S display was over, and she could absolutely have a copy. She agreed. AND SHE CAME BACK AT THREE. So I gave her copies.
So someone's getting gobsmacked with my documentation, but *I* didn't do it. I just want that clear.
I did run around a bit to look at everyone's displays. I totally drooled over Master Ranthulfr's tools and book. His wife is also surprisingly talented as a knitter and spinner, and she's very sweet. I had made veil pins to give out as favor tokens for the displays, and I almost didn't have enough.
There was an absolutely GORGEOUS scroll done on a roll of parchment that I would have LOVED to claim. Her calligraphy was as crisp as one could desire, which can be difficult on parchment. Seriously totally awesome.
There were lots of very talented and absolutely awe-inspiring displays. I left dreaming of doing all sorts of crazy beautiful things, without regard to my skills or experience.
Tuesday, War Week
I found my name in the Pennsic Independent as Lavia Zanna. Was grateful it wasn't worse. Especially given the proximity of the V and B key to each other.
More shopping before the Baronne's tea. Mixed up a pitcher of mojitos, margaritas, and ginger beer. Proceeded to roast, as I had split a seam in my green dress and had to put on the overdress. (which I love, but hoooooooot).
Dinner, then Baron's Beer Bash. Ducked out to go chat with Dosalena of Guild Mirandola, and Master Ranthulfr, who promised me some info from De Arte Illuminandi, which I can not find a copy of.
Bought some more indigo and some absolutely phenomenally beautiful azurite and malachite.
Somewhere, Girard informs me that the Allied Champion's battle would not only need every available Atlantian fighter, but that I could possibly get done before the Children's Fete.
Wednesday, War Week
I'm itching to hit people, so I get armored up, thinking I could get a few thwacks in, and ditch out early. Apprentice sister and Laurel are planning to hit town to do laundry. She kindly offers to take mine as well. I shove what I want washed in her laundry bag, and tell ehr to leave the tunics on the drying rack so I have something to wear to the fete.
I did not realize that the Allied champion's battle was such a grueling monster. Met another female fighter from the West, which was awesome. Managed to last oh.. maybe 30-40 minutes of the entire battle that I wasn't sitting down and trying to breathe. Fun times. More Cardio is in my future.
Graciela tips me off as to the time, right as they go into Sudden Death, and I have to split. Back to camp and shower. Try to get tunics.. Realize drying rack is empty. My only other clothing options are a heavy wool dress, or a heavy velvet Italian dress with a train that I'm not sure fits any more. Swear and curse a lot because I have to borrow the Laurel's clothes without asking, when I'm planning to go play with ink. I take the pink tunic, because we were asked to wear pink, and run to the fete. (There is no mention of lunch here, because there was no lunch. I had promised to help set up, and now I'll be lucky if I'm there before the children show up.)
Children's fete, ZOOM. Find a slightly frazzled Eme, get instructions, and proceed to write 108 children's names on my little artist trading cards. They seemed to like them a lot. Most kids love having personalized objects, and with the funny names we all have, sometimes they're hard to come by.
When I was out of cards, I took over the doll-making for Vitha, who had to split back to her merchant's booth. When the fete was over, there was rice and detritus everywhere. Packed up all the doll-making cloth scraps back into the bag. After we got all the furniture shoved back into the proper places, I went to grab a broom to try and get the most horrible rice mess cleaned up. Insert comedy of communication with the Coopers, before I get handed a push broom. When I get back to the barn, I'm the only one in there who isn't from Aethelmarc and intent on setting up the dais for court. Crap. Get rice swept up, Eme magically appears in order to work the dustpan-posterboard for me. Return the broom, finally start to head back to camp at 5:30.
Run into apprentice sister. Carp at her for stealing my clothes and completely forget to thank her for doing my laundry in my severe crankytude. Notice I have managed to get ink on the laurel's tunic. Swear more. Go find Vitha to return bags of scrap and stuff. Slowly, oh so slowly trudge back to camp, hoping the laurel won't disown me for possibly ruining some of her garb. (Her Investiture garb no less. With the hand done embroidery on neckline and sleeves. Oi.)
Make two sandwiches and wolf them down. Apologize to the Laurel about 8 bajillion times, while she tries to insert "No really, it's ok. It's fine, I'm not upset." into the conversation. Am still cranky and pissy and anti-social, so I decide it'd be a good night to go read in the tent. Completely forgot the Pearl meeting, but in retrospect, it was for the best.
Read book, fall asleep. Prentice seester wakes me up to go get my armor stuff off the drying rack 'cause it's going to rain. I grumble and go stumbling out to go denude the rack as my contacts are already out, rendering me legally blind. It might be important to note here that in the heat, I had gone with a sports bra / bike shorts ensemble for sleeping. And that was IT. So as I step out, supposedly helpful apprentice sister turns the light on. Allowing me to display my completely underclad, frizzy, and sweaty self to the two guys who happened to be walking by. So I yell at her to turn the light off.
Still have not thanked her for doing the laundry. About an hour or two later, I realize that apprentice sister has left the tent. Wonder if it's because I was being a bitch. (Yes, it was.) Sleepily apologize when she comes back. Sleep. Realize somewhere around 2 am, that I've forgotten to call husb and let him know I'm not dead in a ditch. Try calling, phone won't work due to hellacious thunderstorm directly over head. Send a text message that reads like I'm blind stinking drunk. Assure husb I'm not drunk, just blind. And possibly stinking. Go back to sleep.
Thursday, War Week
Wake up, realize that I was a cranky bitch, and decide to get up early and make breakfast, since I'm sure Apprentice sister didn't sleep well, since she never does when its raining. Step out, and realize that the rain-fly has had catastrophic failure due to rain. My armor is soaking wet. My arming coat is soaking wet. My good intentions evaporate rapidly into more being pissed off, because now I can't fight in the bridge battle, which I like, and there's a hellacious mess.
By the time I start cleaning up and fixing the tent ropes and all that, 'prentice sister is awake, so she starts cleaning up. We get it mostly picked up and I start breakfast. Girard wanders by to see whether I'm ready to head to the field, and I'm not, and I'm cranky. He points out that the newbie fighter isn't fighting today due to one mother of a hangover and I could steal his armor. Said armor is stolen and cobbled together with mine to make one whole fighter!
*Edit - There was a bit of a worry when we realized I had no shirt to wear under the armor. This was resolved with generous donation of a recently returned t-shirt belonging to galeran . :D
Yay! I can fight bridge battle! Boo! We're all running late because of me. Try to wolf down breakfast, grab everything, and head to field. I apologize for making us late. Girard says, "It's not like they ever start on time anyways. We'll be fine." Two seconds later, the cannon, heralding the start of the battle blows. We're not past the gate yet.
So we all miss the first bridge battle. Second bridge battle, we win, yay! Third bridge battle, I am one of the last 20 people standing on the bridge, due to some massively nasty ballista and archer fire. I am small and nimble, and have managed to dodge at least three of the bolts which were coming right at me. We're past the halfway point, so we're all assuming that we're winning. We are not aware that our flag was moved because we won the last round. All of our commanders are gloriously dead, so we're praying they don't charge. They point out that there's no one behind us. We inform them that we have enough still. Some newbie next to us yells, "Well, why don't you charge *us* then" Everyone tells said newbie to shut up, because we are aware that we know two things. One, how many of their guys it would take to roflstomp us (40). And two, how many they were planning to use. (60)
We lose the third bridge battle, and call it a day. I spend a bit helping the combat archers sort arrows. Someone yells at me to sort by color and not kingdom, when the only kingdom I'm pulling out are Atlantia, and the rest I am sorting by color. (I ignored them, because I didn't see the need to have to sort things twice. I wasn't insisting they do it my way, and I was checking the actual label information so I would only have to do it once. Whatever. Someone else told me to never mind.)
Tired, drag back to camp. Take Shower, get dressed for Japanese tea ceremony class thing in three layers of habatoi silk. Decided to disregard other three layers until absolutely necessary. Go wander down to make sure I know where the class will be. Confirm class location, check to make sure there's no pre-signup thingus, and head back to camp to try not to sweat for the next two hours. When time comes, put on extra three layers, get obi tied properly, and head to tea ceremony twenty minutes early, hoping that my attempt at Heian (14th-15th century Japanese) will not garner scorn. I have a fan, my white socks and sandals as requested, and a paper parasol. Realize I perhaps should not have worried quite so much. I was not the first one there, and the tea ceremony was being done in a room where the only attempts at ambience were the bamboo mats and the authentic kettle and water bucket. The teacher had lived in Japan for a while, and while she was knowledgeable, her presentation was a little scatty. The attendants ranged from those wearing decent (if modern) Japanese garb to a lady in a green stretch velvet choli, and black harem pants, who had also forgotten the class fee money, which upset me on behalf of the teacher.
After that off to Atlantian Royal, where I kept getting double takes for being in Japanese. Atlantia party, got to chat with their Highnesses who seem like sweethearts. I'm looking forward to their reign. Wandered off to Calontir to watch Beer Spear, and Scutum Racing. Her Majesty Calontir is deadly with a spear. Yakked with Vels for an hour or so. He has new job in self-employment, and new lady who hopefully will limit his tendencies for catastrophic injury. ;>
Got to meet a nice archery/bardic laurel named Master Dolan who was a great conversationalist. He nicely walked me back to camp under the pretense of continuing the conversation, but it was really out of courtesy so I wouldn't walk back in the dark by myself. He told me if I came back the next night, I would hear Calontir sing, but the party night was hit or miss depending on the rate of boozery, which Vels had helped speed along with some generous donations of dangerous libations. I also got to see if not actually meet Master Andrixos of the various songs and legends, which was awesome.
Friday, War Week
Field battle! Cannon goes boom! Livia Charge. Livia Squish. Reset. Livia Charge Uphill as fast as she can, which isn't impressive. Livia arrives. Livia Squish. Reset. Charge! ... Charge across the field uphill. Again. See Girard, who is carrying a polearm, go zipping across 100 feet the other way. Uphill. Follow baron, gasping for breath, and hoping not to pass out. Manage to find baron just as everyone's dead. So we go running more uphill. A medical hold is called for a nasty leg injury of some variety. Fighter is hauled off on a backboard, hold is released. We go running off again in search of targets. Downhill this time, but I'm so wiped it does not matter. A small fighter with a white belt and round shield is legged and sitting there. So we pause to kill her. AS we're running off, we hear, "Go Windmaster's!" ... Wait, what?
A minute later Girard says, "I think we killed Sir Fern." A former Baroness of Windmaster's Hill. Oops.
More wandering around looking for targets. More desperate wishing for breath. Cannon goes off. Trudge back to our side to fall down.
We won the war. Yay Atlantia / East / Western Bloc!
Get back to camp, and start packing up the Laurel, who looks like she's planning to pass out on me any minute now. I ask her if she's eaten, she says yes. Ask her if she's drunk anything, she says yes. Tell her to sit the hell down, and point.
She is not good at sitting down and pointing. I tell her to sit down again. This lasts thirty seconds. Eventually I tell her to sit while I haul all the packed stuff out of the tent so she can see how little there is left. We also call the pavillion ride, who is known to consider 2 hours "late" the point at which she'll call. We realize this may be a problem tomorrow, since my plan does not include waiting for the pavilion to leave. We call said person. . She says she'll be around either "around noon or possibly four ish.."
... Um no. camp stewards would hate our guts if they're sitting there at six p.m. waiting. Make alternate plan, which involves packing all of my and prentice seester's stuff and dropping the pavilion tonight, so it can go to the storage shed. This means we are sleeping in the common tent tonight.
This was not a bad plan, except that people felt the need to provide my apprentice sister with the stuffed kittyhawk, which she proceeded to poke me with, until I got up to get her some hot chocolate because she wasn't wearing pants. (I was extremely comfy, I'll have you know.)
There may or may not have been an assault upon my person by the barricade in the food court, but I would like you all to know those saying I walked into it myself are vicious and slanderous liars.
I got her her hot cocoa, and called Max to let him know I wasn't dead or in the ditch, and crashed out for the night.
Saturday, War Week
Drive home - uneventful. Long. Full of potty breaks. Letia.