Wellspring 08 - Better Than A Flaming Penis, Part 2
First off, possibly the best thing about Wellspring? Four days without being subjected to the All-Neil-Diamond-All-The-Time station that my Mom's found on Sirius. My poor, tortured ears...
Good thing I can retreat to my bedroom where I can listen to Kaki King, whom I adore since hearing her play on NPR on Beltaine. "Life being what it is, we all dream of revenge. Open your eyes for one second- roll them at me".
First story- the Mystery Entry in the Artisan's Competition.
When I got to the Lodge/Studio building where the show was to be held, there were a bunch of entries waiting for me that people had dropped off. Most had names & info attached, or the artist stopped by while I was setting up to let me know who they were-- except for one. There was this really nice quilted piece sitting on the table with the others with no note or anything to let me know who did it. So I left the line for the artist's name blank, figuring I'd find out who had entered it at some point & awarded it First Place in the Folk Art division, as it was very well done (& the only entry in the category). I made a point to mention it during my announcements about the competition & the reception over the course of the weekend bot no one came forward to claim it. Monday morning rolls around & I go check to see what pieces are still waiting to be picked up & the only one left was the quilted piece. This left me in a bit of a quandary- do I take it home in hopes I can track down the owner or do I leave it there in case the owner simply hadn't had a chance to claim it? I decide to leave it for the time being & check back after I get my tent & such packed up. After a while, I check back again & sure enough it was still there, as were a number of the Brushwood Seasonal Campers. I asked them if they knew anything about it & it turned out that it belonged to the campground & wasn't an entry at all. They were highly amused to learn that it had been given an award. :-)
For some reason, I'm really amused by the whole thing- partially because I spent so much time over the weekend wondering who'd done it.
And I really think the Artistan's Reception will become a yearly activity with the Competition. It worked really well for getting people into the Studio to see the work-- once again proving the adage, "IF there's food, people will come." Next year I'm going to be organized enough to have other people bring food, too, instead of doing it all myself. Extra-big thanks to my grovie Maggie who managed to receive my psychic brain-waves to her that I needed help chopping veggies & fruit & such, & for serendipity_9 & her hubby who donated some cash to me to help cover the cost of the food when they found out I'd paid for it myself & wasn't planning on getting reimbursed from the Guild for it. I put myself in a bit of a spot with the prizes, though. I'd grabbed a bunch of blank journals that I made a while ago & had sitting around to be the prizes for the winners. That worked great except that the Best of Show (which I'd link to on chirael's Flickrstream, except that his pics from the show are gone now for some reason...) was a group project, a Bratog Brighid done by a total of 10 women from Sassafras Grove (and was *sooooo* cool!). One little journal to be split between 10 people just didn't seem right to me. Fortunatly, I'd brought along some of my chain-making stuff in case I found myself in need of offerings, so I made some little charms for them- one for each woman. They were a basic single loop-in-loop chain of 9 links, with a red tigereye bead at the end, as of the stones I had they looked the most fiery. I'd initially wanted to do some pearls because I thought they'd look nice but the holes were way too small for the wire I had, so I tried some garnets I had with me & had the same problem. The tiger eye beads worked great, though, & the women who were there seemed to be very pleased with them. :-) (Some of them seemed really surprised to find themselves receiving an award from the Artisan's Guild at all. I love pleasantly surprising folks- it's fun!) :-D
My other Tale from Wellspring this year (and is where my curious choice of title came from) is How Grey Got Broken By Our SD. (Poor guy!)
Grey, Rach & Rach's husband P1 all decided to enter the Warrior Games this year. The last game was the Circle Challenge, in which a large circle is drawn on the ground & two people try to wrestle each other out of the circle. First one to touch outside the line loses. Well, in the first round, Grey & Rach got paired up & they tied when both of them fell out of the circle at the same time. Between how Grey landed & Rach landing basically on top of him, there was a "pop" & a "click" & when he stood back up, Grey looked a bit off-kilter. The good folks of the Warrior's Guild who were running the event immediately stopped everything & helped him, sending runners for ice. Rach, feeling quite guilty, volunteered to drive him to the nearest hospital, which we figured was back here in Erie (less than an hour away). Meanwhile, Grey proved himself to be the lost member of Monty Python by joking about it the whole time- "Not Sparky again! I saw him last time I was here!" (Sparky being the EMT-in-residence at Brushwood) P1 & P2 (yes, we've got two guys named Patrick in our Grove) both commented about the British stiff upper lip- I thought it more of a smirking upper lip, considering his humor. We SnowWater folks at camp commented that we knew exactly how the conversation went on the ride to & from the hospital-- Rach- "I'm really sorry!", Grey- "It's alright. Stop apologizing." I also felt a bit bad for P1- he went on to win the Circle Challenge (& earned the nickname Bulldog in the process) but I don't think he took as much joy in it as he would have otherwise. Although he did announce that he was fighting for Grey in the final match, saying he was going to "Win one for the Grey-per." (Which somehow doesn't flow as well as Gipper.)
After the match was over but before dinner, we got a call of Rach that Grey's collarbone was broken in two places, no surgery needed at this point & they were coming back to camp. Grey had great fun for the rest of the evening showing off a copy of his x-ray & explaining where the bones were *supposed* to be as compared to how they were in the picture. The fine folks of the Warrior Guild presented him with a "Get Well Soon" card, which was really sweet of them. Grey liked the comment, "Memories last a long time but x-rays are forever" best of all, I think. Rach of course is still feeling horribly guilty so of course we're all teasing her mercilessly. Because that's what Grovemates are for. :-D
I would like to mention that I was very impressed with how the Warrior Guild folks handled the accident, especially tanrinia & seamus_mcnasty who not only halted everything while seeing that Grey was properly taken care of but also checked in with us Snow Water folks to see what news we had & how he was doing. Much as it sucks that something like this happened, everyone in the Guild handled it with great professionalism & I know Grey himself thought they did a stellar job. I really hope they're not beating themselves up too badly over this.
Ye Gods, it's after midnight already. I still don't have the hang of this "going to bed at a reasonable hour" thing down yet. Good thing I'm good with 6 hours of sleep.
Good thing I can retreat to my bedroom where I can listen to Kaki King, whom I adore since hearing her play on NPR on Beltaine. "Life being what it is, we all dream of revenge. Open your eyes for one second- roll them at me".
First story- the Mystery Entry in the Artisan's Competition.
When I got to the Lodge/Studio building where the show was to be held, there were a bunch of entries waiting for me that people had dropped off. Most had names & info attached, or the artist stopped by while I was setting up to let me know who they were-- except for one. There was this really nice quilted piece sitting on the table with the others with no note or anything to let me know who did it. So I left the line for the artist's name blank, figuring I'd find out who had entered it at some point & awarded it First Place in the Folk Art division, as it was very well done (& the only entry in the category). I made a point to mention it during my announcements about the competition & the reception over the course of the weekend bot no one came forward to claim it. Monday morning rolls around & I go check to see what pieces are still waiting to be picked up & the only one left was the quilted piece. This left me in a bit of a quandary- do I take it home in hopes I can track down the owner or do I leave it there in case the owner simply hadn't had a chance to claim it? I decide to leave it for the time being & check back after I get my tent & such packed up. After a while, I check back again & sure enough it was still there, as were a number of the Brushwood Seasonal Campers. I asked them if they knew anything about it & it turned out that it belonged to the campground & wasn't an entry at all. They were highly amused to learn that it had been given an award. :-)
For some reason, I'm really amused by the whole thing- partially because I spent so much time over the weekend wondering who'd done it.
And I really think the Artistan's Reception will become a yearly activity with the Competition. It worked really well for getting people into the Studio to see the work-- once again proving the adage, "IF there's food, people will come." Next year I'm going to be organized enough to have other people bring food, too, instead of doing it all myself. Extra-big thanks to my grovie Maggie who managed to receive my psychic brain-waves to her that I needed help chopping veggies & fruit & such, & for serendipity_9 & her hubby who donated some cash to me to help cover the cost of the food when they found out I'd paid for it myself & wasn't planning on getting reimbursed from the Guild for it. I put myself in a bit of a spot with the prizes, though. I'd grabbed a bunch of blank journals that I made a while ago & had sitting around to be the prizes for the winners. That worked great except that the Best of Show (which I'd link to on chirael's Flickrstream, except that his pics from the show are gone now for some reason...) was a group project, a Bratog Brighid done by a total of 10 women from Sassafras Grove (and was *sooooo* cool!). One little journal to be split between 10 people just didn't seem right to me. Fortunatly, I'd brought along some of my chain-making stuff in case I found myself in need of offerings, so I made some little charms for them- one for each woman. They were a basic single loop-in-loop chain of 9 links, with a red tigereye bead at the end, as of the stones I had they looked the most fiery. I'd initially wanted to do some pearls because I thought they'd look nice but the holes were way too small for the wire I had, so I tried some garnets I had with me & had the same problem. The tiger eye beads worked great, though, & the women who were there seemed to be very pleased with them. :-) (Some of them seemed really surprised to find themselves receiving an award from the Artisan's Guild at all. I love pleasantly surprising folks- it's fun!) :-D
My other Tale from Wellspring this year (and is where my curious choice of title came from) is How Grey Got Broken By Our SD. (Poor guy!)
Grey, Rach & Rach's husband P1 all decided to enter the Warrior Games this year. The last game was the Circle Challenge, in which a large circle is drawn on the ground & two people try to wrestle each other out of the circle. First one to touch outside the line loses. Well, in the first round, Grey & Rach got paired up & they tied when both of them fell out of the circle at the same time. Between how Grey landed & Rach landing basically on top of him, there was a "pop" & a "click" & when he stood back up, Grey looked a bit off-kilter. The good folks of the Warrior's Guild who were running the event immediately stopped everything & helped him, sending runners for ice. Rach, feeling quite guilty, volunteered to drive him to the nearest hospital, which we figured was back here in Erie (less than an hour away). Meanwhile, Grey proved himself to be the lost member of Monty Python by joking about it the whole time- "Not Sparky again! I saw him last time I was here!" (Sparky being the EMT-in-residence at Brushwood) P1 & P2 (yes, we've got two guys named Patrick in our Grove) both commented about the British stiff upper lip- I thought it more of a smirking upper lip, considering his humor. We SnowWater folks at camp commented that we knew exactly how the conversation went on the ride to & from the hospital-- Rach- "I'm really sorry!", Grey- "It's alright. Stop apologizing." I also felt a bit bad for P1- he went on to win the Circle Challenge (& earned the nickname Bulldog in the process) but I don't think he took as much joy in it as he would have otherwise. Although he did announce that he was fighting for Grey in the final match, saying he was going to "Win one for the Grey-per." (Which somehow doesn't flow as well as Gipper.)
After the match was over but before dinner, we got a call of Rach that Grey's collarbone was broken in two places, no surgery needed at this point & they were coming back to camp. Grey had great fun for the rest of the evening showing off a copy of his x-ray & explaining where the bones were *supposed* to be as compared to how they were in the picture. The fine folks of the Warrior Guild presented him with a "Get Well Soon" card, which was really sweet of them. Grey liked the comment, "Memories last a long time but x-rays are forever" best of all, I think. Rach of course is still feeling horribly guilty so of course we're all teasing her mercilessly. Because that's what Grovemates are for. :-D
I would like to mention that I was very impressed with how the Warrior Guild folks handled the accident, especially tanrinia & seamus_mcnasty who not only halted everything while seeing that Grey was properly taken care of but also checked in with us Snow Water folks to see what news we had & how he was doing. Much as it sucks that something like this happened, everyone in the Guild handled it with great professionalism & I know Grey himself thought they did a stellar job. I really hope they're not beating themselves up too badly over this.
Ye Gods, it's after midnight already. I still don't have the hang of this "going to bed at a reasonable hour" thing down yet. Good thing I'm good with 6 hours of sleep.