My SCA-dian Life

1. What is your SCA Name? Cynewise æt Sceaduwuda

2. What time and where do you portray? 8th century Saxon living in England.

3. In plain English describe your device. White with blue drops (think rain), a black tree with roots showing with white acorns. Would you like blazon with that lol?

4. How long have you been in the SCA? Spring of 2000.

5. Do you have any special titles you have earned? Lady

6. What kingdom and local group do you belong to? Shire of Vulpine Reach, Meridies.

7. Do you have preferred colors for your SCA Persona? I look good in red, my device is blue, black and white.

8. What is your war that you look forward to going to every year? Gulf Wars...want to go to Pennsic someday.

9. Do you hold any offices? A&S Officer right now...taking over Chronicler and Herald office soon.

10. Favorite memory from an event? Gulf Wars, I think it was in 2002? We had a really big shire encampment. I just remember feeling like part of a big, happy family. Just like the SCA should be, to my mind.

11. Are you a fighter? No.

12. Are you crafty (making things)? I can be. Like weaving small wares.

13. Do you teach classes at events? Yes, persona development, medieval games.

14. Do you play instruments at events? No, I sing but don't play.

15. Do you dance at events? Sometimes, when I'm not exhausted from working the event itself.

16. Do you feel that there is enough flirting and chivalrous behavior in the SCA? NO, and glad you asked! There certainly ISN'T! Would LOVE SOME OF THAT...GUYS ARE YOU LISTENING, LOL??

17. Are you a "Black Hat" or a "White Hat"? Am I a WHAT? No clue...

18. What is one of the reasons you've remained in the SCA? I love it. My family, really more family than my blood kin. My shire is my home.

19. What peerage(s) do you aspire to? Wanna be a pelican, and a laurel.

20. Who was Crown when you joined the SCA? Gareth and Sabine.

21. If you are a Peer, who was the Crown that elevated you? N/A

22. Have you lived in more than 1 kingdom and which ones? No, always been in Meridies.

23. Have you helped found a group? No.

24. Have you had any house affiliations? Ty Gafrewig Wen, Mistress Bronwen's household. That's all right now.

Check it out!  I am so pleased as to how it turned out!

So, Camp Lookout is NOT going to be the site for Glad Tydings after all...our seneschal and her deputy nixed it after it was determined that we could not do Foxes there.  Seems that was the only reason they were considering having GT there in the first place, as it was rather pricey. 

So GT will be at Second Presbyterian downtown.  There are many benefits to the venue change:

1.  SP will not charge us beyond whatever donation we feel free to make to them. 
2.  francesca_tessa's feast budget can go up! 
3.  Still an industrial kitchen so food can still go as planned.
4.  Better location (NOT on top of a mountain!) so no worries about inclement weather, beyond the truly bizarre.
5.  A HUGE Fellowship Hall, and a gym where people could actually do something!

Good things all around, for sure.  We are making an appointment now so that tobiasmorgan and francesca_tessa can go look the place over and see what we will need out of shire storage. 

Our December flyer is done and ready to go to PC.  It will be a full page.

OH, AND I ALMOST FORGOT!  I am to be the new editor of Seasons, the bi-monthly newsletter for A&S in the PopChiv!!!  SQUEEE!!!

Please send me articles!

So our seneschal Genevieve, our knight marshal (and deputy seneschal) Magnus and I went up to see Camp Lookout Saturday.  It went pretty well.  We are going to have problems if we use that site for Foxes and we use the large field for combat, as it is straight up a big hill and pretty far away from the rest of the camp.  We can always get an ATV and trailer and haul people up there, but that will add to the event cost, and the site is almost twice what we pay now.  For Glad Tydings, it will be a fine site though.

tobiasmorgan and I are trying to hammer out a schedule.  We have decided to have an Elizabethan banquet, which means food is included in the event cost.  Food will be made available all day long for noshing, and various dishes will be brought out as needed.  We are trying to get our local Celtic band Olta to come and play, and trying to hammer down exactly what activities will take place there.

We are going to have Glad Tydings at Camp Lookout in Rising Fawn, GA!!!

Cohutta Lodge was a HUGE waste of time.  The woman would not get it through her head that if we could not cook our own food, we would not use her site.  She just tried to shove their catering services down our throats.  I wrote her a nice little email, HA!  

So tobiasmorgan and I took the weekend off from event planning.  We have both had much mundane stress, and the site was the big thing that we needed to settle.  Now that that's done, the rest of the event planning can be dealt with.  It's all semantics at this point.

PLEASE COME TO OUR EVENT!

So Cohutta Lodge in Chatsworth, GA may come through as a site for our event in January.  I am excited!  We are all going to look at it on Sunday evening.  When I say "we all" I mean tobiasmorgan and francesca_tessa and myself. 

Also I am in the process of writing my SCA resume.  It's much harder than I thought it would be! 

tobiasmorgan and I are in the throes of planning this event.  We may have found a site. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have been remiss in posting to this journal but I temporarily forgot the password to it!  But no matter, it came back around. 

In other news, I have written an article "A Quick and Dirty Guide to SCA Officers," or something like that.  It's for a (hopefully soon to be published) issue of Fox Tales that will be a newcomer's edition. 

Also finished report for troll discrepancies.  Now to get someplace where I can print it out (no printer here) then get to the post office and get this all out of here.

So the workshop went off great.  I was very happy.  About 19 people attended, and a lot of people did glass bead making and blacksmithing.  We ate like pigs, had good Celtic music, and a fun time was had by all.

So at our shire's last business meeting, we decided that, in honor of our shire's 30th Anniversary, we would host an event in early January for 12th Night.  And tobiasmorgan is co-autocratting it with me.  We are trying to find a site very quickly so that we can have that in place ASAP, because it is really going to depend on what site we get as to what we can do.  We are just planning a day event, no overnight, but we do want a feast.  Depends on the kitchen facilities we are able to find. 

Have to run for now, but something mundane that will GREATLY impact my SCA life...I have a computer and high-speed Internet at home now!  Now if I can just be at home briefly to enjoy said machine, life will be great.  I can do lots of research and post to my blog in a more timely fashion now.

I have been remiss.  Have not updated my journal.  So while I am in the library waiting for the rain to stop, will do so now!

First, Foxes.  Troll (I thought) went off without a hitch, and now I am finding out all kinds of paperwork discrepancies, an injury that did not even get reported and I did not know about, and...sigh.  Being troll coordinator is turning out to be a much bigger pain than I anticipated.  But I just keep telling myself, it's good experience, it's good experience!

I got very heat sick and had to leave site Saturday night.  Really surprised I lasted as long as I did.  Tobias took me home, and he was not doing much better than me.  He ended up being event herald because Alex got elevated!  And I have to say, Tobias did an awesome job. 

Yes, I did say Alexander Ravenscroft is now a Pelican!  That was so awesome.  He was on Cloud 9.  And the garb that he wore to court was GORGEOUS!  Of course, Alex is never hard on the eyes anyway, you know, lol?  But he looked like a giant vanilla ice cream cone!  Too sweet!

I MISSED FEAST!!!  That was a real pain.  I wanted to eat feast...THERE WAS LOBSTER ON THE MENU!  I have NEVER had lobster at an SCA feast!

And I GOT A NEW PEER, SQUEE!!!  Mistress Molli Rose Kekilpenny.  Here's what went down:

Since I was running troll, every time I saw a Pelican, I made a point to tell them about my situation and asked to sit down with them sometime in the future and "pick their brains" about future peer relationships.  Then Molli and Mistress Bronwen showed up Sat. morning, and when I told Molli about my predicament, she said, "well, that's settled, you're mine!"  So that's it.  Not very exciting, but a perfect (or near-perfect) peer match for me. 

Now I have to do an SCA resume, which is somewhat intimidating as I've been playing for 7 years now and haven't come close to writing down everything I've done.  Sigh.  I have had people tell me I should keep track of it, but I never did, and now I regret it.  Classes I have taught, articles I have written, all the little things, you know?  Word to the wise...if you are new to the game, keep track of that stuff!  You WILL need it someday!

And for the future...on Labor Day our shire is hosting a workshop entitled Playing with Fire.  Should be a lot of fun.  Glass beadmaking, pewter casting, blacksmithing, open-fire cooking, music all day, and a huge potluck Monday night.  Can't think of a better way to spend Labor Day than with my SCA family!

So I was able to speak to Leslie, my errant peer, last night.  She did confirm (adamently, lol!) that she is NOT coming back to the SCA.  She says she does not necessarily want her yellow belt back.  She said for me to save it to give to my first protege when I become a Pelican.

Also, she dropped a BIG HINT ABOUT COURT.  Supposedly, someone we know (in Vulpine Reach, not sure if it's a local person or someone that used to have ties to our shire) is getting elevated.  And I don't think she meant to spill the beans, but she did.  She said it's "someone we know," and "good things will happen in court" and I should definitely not skip it this year.  Like I ever skip court at my shire's own event, ha!

Francesca is going to help me make a banner of my device.  She has the overhead projector and transparencies to do it.  I am excited!  I need heraldic display for MGT, and just for general principal as well.

Foxes.  Foxes.  Foxes.  Can't really think of or do anything SCA-wise till after that.  

Am running troll.  Unfortunately, found out that by default, this also makes me CONSTABLE for the event.  Yuk.  A little more than I bargained for!  (I need a brute squad...any volunteers?)

I am at Francesca's house where she is embroidering her little fingers off.  The prize she is making for the heraldic competition at Foxes is AWESOME LOOKING, and it isn't even half-done yet!  

And have made a decision.  I am no longer wearing my yellow belt.  Mistress Lijsbeth has gone awol and does not look to return.  I have tried mundanely to get in touch with her to no avail.  But if I keep wearing her belt, I won't get belted to anyone else.  And as Yseult said, "the belt is symbolic of a relationship, and if there is no relationship, why wear the belt?"  Well put I think.

I don't really want to stay on site at Foxes (heat), but looks like I am going to anyway.  Davoc wants troll open till 1 AM, then open again at 7 AM.  So I could go home, but that puts me at probably 4 or less hours of sleep.  I am going to try to buy a big mucking fan to go right on top of me or as close to me as I can get it.  Maybe that will enable me to sleep at least some.  

After Foxes, may day trip Red Tower with Francesca.  But for sure am going to Meridian Grand Tourney.  Have done some costume research at Francesca's yesterday, and decided to go with a Roman look, as it is easy to make, very cool, and looks awesome with the right accessories.