If you had invoked me before you began this journey,

So first off, I'm writing this while I sit at work, with a headset on. It's been pretty quiet lately, which is nice. Especially when you did well last month and managed 14 surveys with 100% satisfaction.

Not as many surveys this month, but hey, still 100% and I'm happy. Hopefully I can swing a spiffy work schedule the next round (in three months).


Of course, there's the usual personal bits, but we won't go into the body issues and so forth. That's annoying and I really don't need to inflict it on anyone else.


More importantly though, are things going SCA-wise. The new schedule (and swap!) means that I can hit more events (mostly), since Saturday's more popular than Sunday down here. This was particularly useful this past week because it meant that I was able to hit the Baronial Arts and Sciences competition. Because I could I decided to go for Champion... Hey, I've got two projects set and it's not hard to churn out a paper (certain people will read that statement and laugh, I'm sure). Ended up being a good thing actually, as I won.

So Neep (who's last year's champion and now A&S minister) and I spent awhile yesterday talking about the arts and things we'd like to see.

I'd like to chat some with raventhourne about it all at some point down the line as well. Hrmmmm

So things are actually going pretty well. Felt lousy for a couple days - resulting in some sick time taken from work - but Ryan and decided it probably had mostly to do with the fact that I take lousy care of myself and it finally caught up with me. (Let's not go into the details, beyond to say that I should know better by now.)

Consequently, I've had a few unexpected days off. It means I've gotten a large chunk of new clothing done for Coronation (yay!) and most of what's left is handwork. Since I can easily just plow through that at work, while I'm on the phone, it's lifted quite a bit of worry/stress off me. Still need to get things done for A&S, but I'm working on revisions/additions for the research paper, and my naalbinding is no longer at the let's kill someone over the lack of info, ok? stage.

Speaking of work, looks like this month is on a definite upswing. My surveys aren't horrible and I've gotten some very good work done. It's a bit of a relief, all things considered, to hopefully have the bad times behind me. They've come back to haunt me in my new schedule, but have been working things out/plans with Ryan and it's going to be alright. Having swapped the Saturday for a teammate's Sunday also goes a long way - means that my days off are Thursday through Saturday and I'll be able to go to more events. This will also relieve a bunch of tension/stress, because getting out and doing things are necessary.

Otherwise, personal life is ok. Ryan and I have started going to the gym again, just a few times a week, and we're also redoing/managing diet stuff. I actually just got my hair cut today for the first time in a long while, and actually went with a fairly drastic (for me) change. It's now noticeably shorter. I told the woman 'no shorter than a bit below my chin, I don't want to have to do much (read anything) for it to look decent, and otherwise, just do whatever.' The end result is definitely something I can live with and makes me look a bit more... I don't know, like I care a bit more?

In short, life is good and I am happy right now. Woo!

Good weekend. Wish I could have hit Great Helm both days, but really not complaining with just one.

Of course, I ended up working sort of late on Saturday, which meant we both just kind of spent the evening being lazy and trying to figure out how in all the hells the NCAA basketball tournament is organized because why in all the hells is Harvard listed in the West bracket?

This is what happens when we're both sort of mrrrr? about things.

Sunday was interesting though. I got a small chunk of the first wolf done for Ryan's new tunic, and Ryan started working on trim for some of our stuff as well. Generally, the fighting was good and there was more than a few good moments. Getting to hang out with friends is always important as well.

There was also joking about us running for B&B... *sigh/snort*

Hearing my laurel raventhourne cheering from the throne was awesome. scribe_ari's comment after court made me grin. "Congratulations, you just won an inter-kingdom arts competition. You don't suck."

My pickled eggplant, as you can see above, didn't suck. I won the category in the A&S competition and am happily plotting further ideas. Next year's categories look good and I'm already planning. It may become a distinct possibility that I have to drive down to Tucson the night before the competition to pick one of 'em up, but I'm more than willing to do so in the name of subtelties.

Otherwise, as war often does, I've got more plans floating in my head. This time, at least, they're more along the lines of 'here's stuff to do that will make existing plans even better.'

Oh yes, and food.

Ryan and I chatted more. We're going to Pennsic this year it would appear - multiple things have aligned, which is blissful. When we know I've got the time off, we'll handle the pre-reg and sort out shit like camping (eek! never done out of kingdom war).

Here's what's left:

-finish up purple tunic
-finish up hangerrock
-finish up brown coat

-if possible, get yellow tunic done.

All these things mostly require detail work. The longest part is properly pinning them, because I'll happily sew through everything fairly quickly.

Tomorrow, I'm going to spend the day at work finishing up the hangerrock. That night, it's going to be edits on the documentation (which it really needs) and otherwise being busy.


I'm actually feeling pretty damned good about all this right now.

After a few days of chaos and agony (oh yeah, and sickness), I seem to have hit a sort of groove. This is a relief, mostly because I'm in one of those moods where all I can think of is 'oh god, so much to do!'

But it's not as much as I anticipated, when I put it down on paper.

Everything for war will get done. At the moment, I've got the following left:

Sewing
-finish purple tunic (new gores, neck, sleeves, hem)
-finish white tunic (hem)
-make yellow tunic (including cutting out blue bands from other tunic)

Non-Sewing
-finish documentation (tightening up research, finishing the production)
-make goat curry (likely this week on a day off)


Plus, I'm starting to get things together for at the least Baronial A&S (though Ryan's pushing me towards Kingdom as well). I have a few ideas floating about in my head, including at least one research paper. It's still a few months out, but it's something to plan.


Let's see... Otherwise, stuff is going well. Work's on a definite upswing, which is good. See, I've had a few months of consistently bad surveys, which when you know you're doing pretty damned good sucks. It was nice hearing my manager say 'you really are doing pretty well. I can't understand what's happening.' Validation, if you will.

Oh yes, and two people I am very, very, fond of will be the next Crown of Atenveldt. I'm absolutely thrilled for them - they'll be awesome and it shall be a very good reign.

I'm in a good mood right now.

This past weekend saw a cancelled event on Saturday, which meant that it became an impromptu craft day. Ryan and I went over to raventhourne's - he worked on armor, I cut out tunics and underdresses. Sunday was War Practice, but I was unable to go because of work.

At any rate, I sewed up the first of the underdresses today, and discovered that I'd borked the measurements. Sleeves were cut a bit too narrow, and it threw everything else off. This resulted in a bit of annoyance and frustration (and a few texts to my awesome laurel. who I had to be reminded it was perfectly fine to contact...) before I realized what happened. The gussets aren't perfect, but they work much better. I think on the outside layers, though, I'll be adding a thin strip of fabric along the sides to make it a bit more loose as well.

Hrmmm...

Otherwise, things go well. I've been enjoying going to scribble quite a bit, even though it feels like I take forever to finish scrolls. Plus the brain just stalls out at some point, it seems, if I work on it for too long. But it's good for me to

Ryan stayed home sick today. he spent the morning curled up in bed while I ran errands. Now, though, we're in the living room and while I work on things, he's working on new armor. This pleases me greatly.


And finally, here's the list of stuff for Estrella as it stands.

-finish pickled eggplant (getting done tomorrow)

Ryan
--tunic and fighting pants
--two long-sleeved, white, under tunics (not decorated)
--one over-tunic (minimal decoration)

Me
-new apron dress: have pattern.
-boy's tunic:: cut out. needs to be modded/sewed
-long-sleeved white underdress: sewn. needs to be hemmed.
-long sleeved white undershirt: cut out. needs to be modded/sewed
-new short sleeved underdress: cut out. needs to be modded/sewed

one of the things i'd like to do more this year, in general, is to write more. i've got a private journal i keep on my machine, but i should also keep better track of my projects.

so i've been working a large amount of overtime in the past two weeks or so. ryan and i discussed how that money was going to be spent (because at the moment, we're pretty comfortable), and it was decided that we were going to spend most of it on sca gear/kit supplies. with me out of school (finally), and life mostly settling down, we're pretty much ready to get things worked out and, well, make a better impression.

as it stands, here's what it looks like we're getting

-lots of linen
-some patterns from reconstructing history (safavid persian for both of us. i *will* use the sari silk i have...)
-shoes for ryan
-a reliquary for my russian kit
-some small things for ryan
-there will be money spent at vikings u like at estrella, most likely


i feel like this is going to be a good year, and i look quite forward to it.

"I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen–I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones who look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline of good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of The Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies too. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

- Neil Gaiman

The nice thing is that right now, my work systems appear to be working properly.

Of course, I was down yesterday (which meant that I had an unexpected day off), so spent it being semi-useless. Now, by semi-useless, I mean that I sort of wandered idly around the house and hunted for things and plotted projects. Ok, it wasn't quite idle, because I ended up getting some very good things sorted out.

Oh yes, and did three loads of laundry.

Found the wool and silk that I want for a new coat for Ryan, the wrap-one in Nille Glaesel's Viking book, as well as linen for a few other small projects. Again, mostly for him, though I'm making myself a new set of viking clothing.