To Florida and Back Again - A Laurel's Tale
My trip did not have a very auspicious beginning on Friday morning. DH asked what bags I was taking while I was printing out boarding passes. I told him and thought he put both in the car. We get to the airport and realize that my cat bag, which is doubling as my purse, is still on the table back in M'boro. With my license, money, etc., in it. DH breaks LOTS of speeding limits to get me to M'boro and back. Uses gasoline from the lawnmower container so we don't have to stop, and gets me back to airport. Luckily (and strangely), there is no line at security. I run through, don't stop to put my shoes back on and race to the gate in socks. They are just about to assign my seat to a standby passenger. So, whew, I'm on the plane.
Make it to Gainesville without any more serious incidents and get picked up by Jim and Andi on her way home from work -- yes, she could not get Friday off.
Head to their condo which is very cool and soooo much bigger than their house in Nashville, if a bit disheveled from pre-feast frenzy. And ... they still have the spider *shudder* After a brief snafu regarding James (he thought he was being picked up from school, his parental units thought he was riding the bus), we sent Jim, Dave and Alex ahead to site to put up the tents and make camp. Me, Andi, Beth/Liepa (some of you might remember from Glaedenfeld days), Grace and Biff and James (who are HUGE BTW. They kept growing in Florida. They were not supposed to do that :) ) head off to run a few more shopping errands. We also stop to get everyone dinner and head to site.
Two of the three tents are up. So we unload and continue making camp. Then up to the feasthall (at around midnight) for one of the Friday night tasks that cannot wait. We have to blow out 180 eggs. Madhavi is stuffing the shells for a conceit in the feast and the Sat morning breakfast crat is using the eggs.
Beth and I decide that she is better at poking and I'm better at blowing. Several gentlemen hear our conversation and much hilarity ensues. I end up blowing while Beth and Andi poke. We finally get them done and stagger to bed.
Saturday, we do a chunk of prep work in the kitchen -- Madhavi, Liepa, Alessandra and I mostly. There is a feast Sat night and the feastcrat, rightfully so, has most of the kitchen staff and space in use. I poke me head out long enough to watch Grainne and Lorcan crowned and say high to the other Meridians there. We kick off around 5 p.m. and take showers and change clothes and head to Ormond Beach for dinner. We eat at a nice Grille along the river (where the gator photo from FB was taken) -- and yes, we had gator bites, too. Just not from that gator. Then found a public beach access and walked and played in the surf for awhile. It was gorgeous and relaxing, although the kids got themselves soaked of course and were quite cold on the ride back.
Sunday, I was up and power-dressed for the laurels meeting at 10 a.m. Knew several laurels there already from before and met a few more. Their meetings are a bit different from ours -- one thing I really like is that they have a tradition of the apprentici escorting their laurel to the meeting and hanging out for like 5-10 minutes. It's a great way to introduce your associates to people and get faces and names straight, something we struggle with. I plan to suggest it to Our Circle.
After the meeting, spent some time kibbitzing with various folks. Met Master Evan and LOVE him. He's hysterical. How he manages to wear full Elizabethan in FL heat, I don't know. Mistress Lakshmi from the East Kingdom also arrived and it was so nice to finally meet her in person. And Lalita Dasa and several other folks I have heard a lot about from Andi but never met.
Feast prep is in full swing. Madhavi has planned for this feast to be more than food -- the hall is beautifully decorated with paintings from Indian illuminations and Indian hangings, the more than 20 servers are all dressed in cholis and saris with appropriate jewelry (that was quite an assembly line -- Madhavi and others provided all the stuff). I thought I was going to get to serve when several servers dropped out, so I got all dudded up, but they had a few more volunteer and Catriona and Madhavi were emphatic that I EAT the feast.
Feast was served a dish at a time by the servers. They did a special puja ceremony when the Crowns came in that was quite impressive with all 20 servers. There were also 6 performances throughout the feast -- a Hindi poem by Lalita Dasa, a Bharata Namanan dance by Lakshmi, a funny folktale by Sir Somebody (didn't catch his name), a song by Aveline, a dance by Hyrrokin and I think a Kathak style dance by Lakshmi. It was very cool. For a kingdom not known for period feasts, I think this one blew the socks off people. Just walking into the hall was stunning and the handwashing, the performances, the servers -- it really did create the atmosphere that Madhavi was aiming for. She did good :-)
Probably my favorite dish was the purple yam fritters. It looked like someone pureed Barney and fried him. And they were YUMMM.
At the end of feast, Her Majesty called out the feastcrat and staff and Madhavi received the Order of the Tradewinds, which I believe is the equivalent of the Meridian OVO. So, that was very cool.
Sunday night, we crashed in a hotel. Grace and I had had enough of Florida weather and during the rain showers Sunday afternoon, Jim and Andi and the kids tents all flooded and everything, including the beds, were soaked.
We had a nice breakfast Sunday morning and they all headed back to site for camp teardown and I headed to the airport, where Delta severely pissed me off by having me chase my gate changes around three different terminals -- Errrr!
But arrived home safe and was very happy to see my guys waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator.
Make it to Gainesville without any more serious incidents and get picked up by Jim and Andi on her way home from work -- yes, she could not get Friday off.
Head to their condo which is very cool and soooo much bigger than their house in Nashville, if a bit disheveled from pre-feast frenzy. And ... they still have the spider *shudder* After a brief snafu regarding James (he thought he was being picked up from school, his parental units thought he was riding the bus), we sent Jim, Dave and Alex ahead to site to put up the tents and make camp. Me, Andi, Beth/Liepa (some of you might remember from Glaedenfeld days), Grace and Biff and James (who are HUGE BTW. They kept growing in Florida. They were not supposed to do that :) ) head off to run a few more shopping errands. We also stop to get everyone dinner and head to site.
Two of the three tents are up. So we unload and continue making camp. Then up to the feasthall (at around midnight) for one of the Friday night tasks that cannot wait. We have to blow out 180 eggs. Madhavi is stuffing the shells for a conceit in the feast and the Sat morning breakfast crat is using the eggs.
Beth and I decide that she is better at poking and I'm better at blowing. Several gentlemen hear our conversation and much hilarity ensues. I end up blowing while Beth and Andi poke. We finally get them done and stagger to bed.
Saturday, we do a chunk of prep work in the kitchen -- Madhavi, Liepa, Alessandra and I mostly. There is a feast Sat night and the feastcrat, rightfully so, has most of the kitchen staff and space in use. I poke me head out long enough to watch Grainne and Lorcan crowned and say high to the other Meridians there. We kick off around 5 p.m. and take showers and change clothes and head to Ormond Beach for dinner. We eat at a nice Grille along the river (where the gator photo from FB was taken) -- and yes, we had gator bites, too. Just not from that gator. Then found a public beach access and walked and played in the surf for awhile. It was gorgeous and relaxing, although the kids got themselves soaked of course and were quite cold on the ride back.
Sunday, I was up and power-dressed for the laurels meeting at 10 a.m. Knew several laurels there already from before and met a few more. Their meetings are a bit different from ours -- one thing I really like is that they have a tradition of the apprentici escorting their laurel to the meeting and hanging out for like 5-10 minutes. It's a great way to introduce your associates to people and get faces and names straight, something we struggle with. I plan to suggest it to Our Circle.
After the meeting, spent some time kibbitzing with various folks. Met Master Evan and LOVE him. He's hysterical. How he manages to wear full Elizabethan in FL heat, I don't know. Mistress Lakshmi from the East Kingdom also arrived and it was so nice to finally meet her in person. And Lalita Dasa and several other folks I have heard a lot about from Andi but never met.
Feast prep is in full swing. Madhavi has planned for this feast to be more than food -- the hall is beautifully decorated with paintings from Indian illuminations and Indian hangings, the more than 20 servers are all dressed in cholis and saris with appropriate jewelry (that was quite an assembly line -- Madhavi and others provided all the stuff). I thought I was going to get to serve when several servers dropped out, so I got all dudded up, but they had a few more volunteer and Catriona and Madhavi were emphatic that I EAT the feast.
Feast was served a dish at a time by the servers. They did a special puja ceremony when the Crowns came in that was quite impressive with all 20 servers. There were also 6 performances throughout the feast -- a Hindi poem by Lalita Dasa, a Bharata Namanan dance by Lakshmi, a funny folktale by Sir Somebody (didn't catch his name), a song by Aveline, a dance by Hyrrokin and I think a Kathak style dance by Lakshmi. It was very cool. For a kingdom not known for period feasts, I think this one blew the socks off people. Just walking into the hall was stunning and the handwashing, the performances, the servers -- it really did create the atmosphere that Madhavi was aiming for. She did good :-)
Probably my favorite dish was the purple yam fritters. It looked like someone pureed Barney and fried him. And they were YUMMM.
At the end of feast, Her Majesty called out the feastcrat and staff and Madhavi received the Order of the Tradewinds, which I believe is the equivalent of the Meridian OVO. So, that was very cool.
Sunday night, we crashed in a hotel. Grace and I had had enough of Florida weather and during the rain showers Sunday afternoon, Jim and Andi and the kids tents all flooded and everything, including the beds, were soaked.
We had a nice breakfast Sunday morning and they all headed back to site for camp teardown and I headed to the airport, where Delta severely pissed me off by having me chase my gate changes around three different terminals -- Errrr!
But arrived home safe and was very happy to see my guys waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator.