Crusades weekend

Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004
6:12 PM

We are back from Crusades, truck not unpacked yet but we've had showers and a bit of a nap. Life is good.

So for most of last week we were waffling on whether we were going to camp at Crusades or not. I have sworn off cabin camping so it was the pavilion or daytripping. It's been a really busy couple of weeks so packing all the crap that is required for camping did not sound appealing there for a while. But our friends managed to convince us (and offered to help us get our shit together) so we did camp in the end.

I think I'm going to resort to bests and worsts - I have a lot to say but don't really have the energy to type all that. =)

Bests:
- Our awesome friends who helped us get our shit together (finishing the camp bed, packing the truck, putting up the pavilion in the dark, etc.)
- Not freezing at night
- Having a functional, if unfinished, camp bed
- Successful Laurel Prize Tourney with tons of cool entries and fun people
- Talking to artisans and encouraging them along their path. I talked with several folks who expressed frustration with various problems, and I tried to come up with possible solutions for them. Mostly, I tried to make them feel like somebody cares about what they're doing.
- Getting cool stuff from Spanish Peacock! I got the prize for the LPT (a wax tablet), and some knitting needles and a bone sewing needle for myself. I am reacquainting myself with knitting after not doing it for over ten years - yep, I still remember how.
- Watching two cool folks join the household of a close friend and our consortium of households by extension. It's always good to have more friends. Yay for Gorm and Rhi!
- Dinner with the CT. Always a relaxed and fun time.
- Hanging out after court with a cider in hand and laughing with friends.

Worsts (not many):
- Getting roughly five hours of sleep Friday night (actually Saturday morning). Ugh.
- Scrounging every last table I could get my hands on for the LPT (which is kind of a good problem - lots of entries). Most of them were kinda grubby, but fortunately many people brought fabric to lay their work on anyway.
- Feeling like I missed seeing a bunch of people because I was in the hall all day. I kind of feel like I only saw half the event. Oh well.
- Hearing about friends in distress. Knowing I can't do anything to help fix it, feeling sad for them both and sure that there are two sides to every story.
- The doumbek party in the camp next to ours that seemed like it would go on forever. I got to that done now point around 11:00 and just wanted to go to sleep. And boy, I hates me a doumbek. Then came the drunken singing, which was only slightly better. Wished I was next door to Byram's party so at least I could be kept awake by good singing.

I do enjoy camping with my friends and so I want to be able to continue that. I'm just such a light sleeper that camping is rapidly becoming an unpleasant experience as far as sleep is concerned. Everything else was great. The weather was fantastic, even though it was too warm for hot drinks at night. Cider did nicely, though.

This week I have to work a few days and then I have a couple off, which will be good for making progress on Liz's mosaic. Then the Robin Netherton lecture on Saturday and a patterning workshop on Sunday. Then, Italy! I can't wait to get on that plane.

Ciao!