Just an update...

12th Night went very well, although I did not get to do much, I saw lots of lovely people. I was responsible for gate so I sat at gate Friday from 2 to Midnight with a 30 minute or so dinner break. I went home got four hours of sleep and came back to work gate from 7:00 to 6:00. Fortunately, some very nice friends spelled me for a couple of hours (about noon) and I got to go visit the merchants and the arts and sciences room. There wasn't much happening in either room at that particular time. I came back about 3, I think and closed gate up at about 5... people had stopped trickling in at that point and anyone who came in there after got a bonus, I guess. I had good volunteers the entire time but I didn't want to leave the cash box with anyone I didn't know. I tried figuring out the gate sheets and the cash box but I couldn't get them to balance so I had Ceridwen lock it up to deal with later.

After closing gate I went to dinner with Jay, Candy and Lukas at Olive Garden. We visited for a while; then Jay and I went back to the Adiantum party and Candy took Lukas back to where they were staying for the night. It was fun to see people but parties overwhelm me so I struggled to stay for the visiting rather than run away and hide because of the noise and crowd. We left about 11 though.

Jay and Candy also gave me a beautiful necklace as a Godmother gift. It's a silver chain with a large pearl pendant. The pearl is Lukas' birthstone (and incidentally mine). I adore the gift, although I don't wear jewelry modernly. It does provide quite a temptation to do so. They also gave me a period video and baby pictures. ;>D

Sunday I slept in a bit but was back to site for the Queen's Rapier Championship by 9:30. I wasn't fighting this year, since I haven't picked up a rapier in two years. I also can't commit to the travel or the fealty oath. I don't swear fealty for religious reasons so I don't think I should participate in QRC even if there doesn't seem to be the remotest chance that I will win. Stranger things have happened, I hear. Instead of fighting, I marshaled the entire tournament including the final round. It was a great privilege and, of course, an up close seat to witness the fighting. While I was there my Baron brought a young man to see me who is interested in learning rapier... This makes a total of six so I am thinking seriously about a Saturday morning practice. It means I won't get to sleep in any day of the week and also infringes on the time I could work for mom and dad. So it's a hard decision to make. I do miss fighting though and I can't make it to the Wednesday practice.

Immediately after the fighting I went to try to balance the gate account again. Rachel and Ceridwen helped but we never did get it to balance. I think it's because everyone had to sign in and not everyone marked that they were pre-registered or comped so I counted money that wasn't collected. I certainly hope that is all it is anyway. Ceridwen was going to look at it more closely with the rosters of non-paying participants in hand.

Jay and Candy left shortly after I returned and then I hung out with people next to the fire, then for dinner, and in the bar afterwords. I had a great visit with Liz and got to know AnnMarie a little. Someone asked who our icons were in the SCA-- this being after a discussion of the special window panes posted in the front of the hotel. It was an interesting discussion. It makes me think about what makes someone/thing iconic in my eyes. I don't know that I have an answer yet. I didn't have too many that I consider icons. It bears thinking on and I don't think I'm the only one thinking on it. Liz also gave me some things to think about to deal with my participation in the SCA and what excites me. I also had a nice visit with Alexandra.

I got home a little before 11 and got up to go to Alex and Amy's condo in the morning. We were hoping to do some yarn crawling with Liz and AnnMarie before they had to hit the road. We went to soft horizons and I adored yarn but didn't buy any. I have a lot of yarn that I don't know what to do with yet so I'm not buying things for which I don't have a project. There were some tempting ones though. Several Jitterbug colorways appealed to me as did the pink and white Smooshy. After AnnMarie and Liz left, we went out for sushi and then to the Southtowne yarn shop. I bought a book and a sheep measuring tape. I spent more money than I should have. Then I invited myself back to Alex and Amy's and Amy took me stash diving in her stash. I got some loverly new yarns. I feel like I'm taking advantage but Amy said she was glad to get rid of some. *blush* In my rush to leave the house I left my knitting so Amy loaned me some needles and we had a quiet day of knitting on the couch. I looked through her stitch libraries and tried, without much success, to figure out a pattern to put on socks. The problem with the stitch library is it's designed for flat knitting, not round. It takes a lot to convert some of the patterns. I left before supper and came home to fall into bed before 8:30.

Today was back to work and then curling up on the couch instead of swimming due to extreme tiredness.