Atlantian 22nd Year

Wednesday, May. 28, 2003
3:21 PM

We had a plan, and then it rained, revisited.

Most everyone has noted that it did in fact rain this past weekend. It was not as bad as I originally thought, but not as good as I'd hoped. The weather, that is. Despite the damp (ok, soaking) conditions, I had a good time.

We camped with our very cool awesome friends, who rapidly became aware of how much tent the 16' x 20' pavilion really is (including dining fly). We had many hands pitching in to help put it up, so fortunately it really wasn't a major task. Discovered we are missing a few ropes so we'll need to get some replacements before Pennsic. Need a few pole caps too...

Anyway, the boys and Susie armored up to go fight and Izzy and Sorcha and I organized the stuff. I felt like it took me way too long to get into garb but I finally did and we made our way down to the field to see what was going on and have some munchies for lunch. The afternoon passed by pretty quickly and then it was time for court. I figured I'd go, because I generally like court, while Kevin stayed in camp to cook dinner. Court naturally started late and went on for what seemed like forever, so by the time I got back to camp dinner was ready, extremely yummy steak, salad and potatoes. Best of all was the company around the dinner table. We had a grand time hanging out, joking with each other, messing around. That dinner time was one of the high points of my weekend.

Most of the guys split after dinner to go fulfill their peerly obligation. Izzy and I headed down to the luau after cleaning up from dinner, figuring we had probably missed the debut of the Island Maidens. However, we got there as the, um, spectacle was beginning. All the guys were very good sports about the whole thing, and as the Blue Duke says, it's good to laugh at yourself sometimes. I also do agree that a luau should not become a repeating tradition for SCA events, no offense meant to MENG. She did a great job with the party and the fundraiser, no question.

Anyway, Kev and I didn't stay long at the party. It was crowded and I was feeling toasty and tired and not terribly social. So we walked back to camp and hung out there with our buddies for a while. I want to say thanks to them (you know who you are) for allowing me to vent about a couple of (unrelated) things. Last week was a tough week in some ways, and I had a couple of difficult moments on Saturday. But ranting about it to understanding friends definitely helped a lot.

Woke up Sunday morning to rain, rain and more rain. Made getting out of the tent and doing anything extremely undesirable. So everybody hung out in our tent, chatting and playing with Regan, waiting for the rain to let up. Sorcha and I went to their hotel room for showers, which helped my outlook on life greatly. Had warm soup for lunch when we got back which also helped. The boys and Susie went to go investigate the melee fighting while we tidied up a bit. The rain started to ease up, but Pavla called her folks for a weather report, which indicated that it wasn't going to get any better - thunderstorms predicted for Sunday night and rain all day Monday. We made the command decision to pack out early and head over to Aradd's for the remainder of the weekend. With everybody helping out it didn't take long to pack everything up and take the pavilions down. The canvas was at least only damp and not soaking by that point. I have to say that making that decision was the best thing from my point of view - I was already damp and not especially happy about it and I didn't feel like enduring more of the same.

So we headed over to Aradd's place and basically puppy-piled into his apartment. Kevin cooked the meal that was already planned for that night, so we had Chinese stir fry and potsticker casserole. We watched PCU, one of my favorite no-brainer movies and had some Mighty Fine Bourbon. Finally we all collapsed around the living room on various couches, futons and sleeping bags. I slept like a rock that night, a major change from the week before.

Monday morning we went out to Panera Bread for brunch and then gathered up our stuff and headed for home. We hit a little heavy traffic on the way home but not as much as I had anticipated. We got the car and the truck mostly unpacked, got the pavilion walls hung up in the garage to dry and the rugs laid out on the deck. I was amazed that I had the energy for all that, but I guess it was because we'd taken it all down the day before and I'd gotten good sleep.

So all in all it was a good weekend. As usual, I regret not being able to spend time with as many people as I wanted to. I'd intended to catch up with some folks on Sunday, but the rain kind of put a damper on that (ha!). A lot of people left early, for which I did not blame them, and I was pretty much ensconced in the tent until we decided to pack out. I didn't go shopping at all, which is probably just as well, and I didn't get to see the A&S stuff, which I also regret. Our camp rocked the party though, and I look forward to camping with these guys again.

Yesterday and today has seen rug vacuuming and garb laundering, as well as canvas folding in a little while. I must say I am heartily sick of rain. It's the end of May, it's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny! Harrumph.

On the bright side, I got to see my niece Cailin yesterday. She is 3 months old and can hold her head up pretty well now. She wants to sit up (well, be propped up in a sitting position) and look at everything - she does NOT want to be lying down. She grinned at me and I became a blithering idiot. She is a cutie patootie!

Well, this has turned into one long entry and I've got some other stuff to do. Ciao!