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hrjI'm skipping my lunchtime bike ride today to make good on my promised recaps of last weekend. First, the general post, then the feast-specific post.
Now, you have to understand that my SCA life includes four must-go events: the two kingdom collegia, the A&S campout, and the Mists Bardic event. And this year's Spring Collegium has been planned as the setting for the Perfectly Period Feast for well over a year, which moved it from "must go" status to "death will not release me" status. But event dates are malleable and not always fixed as far in advance as our plans to attend those events. So it was that a year ago when I decided to take advantage of Costume Con being relatively local (San Jose) and actually attend for the first time, I didn't yet know that I was going to be double-booked. If it hadn't been for the feast, I might have decided to skip collegium. So instead I settled for not getting emotionally invested in any particular bit of Costume Con and figured I'd enjoy as much as I could. And when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
callistotoni found herself in a similar position and was bemoaning the prospect of the drive between CC and the PPF (San Jose to Sacto), I suggested we team up for the adventure.
This plan had multiple advantages: 1) She didn't have to do any driving for the mad dash to and from Sacto; 2) I got company on the drive; 3) We both had a built-in roommate for Costume Con; 4) I got some one-on-one time with someone I admire and have been hoping to get to know better.
Having reviewed my vacation consumption, I decided to take Friday off work, which was a wise decision. Things didn't really start at the Con until noonish, so I had a lazy morning and was able to finish up my contribution for the CC doll display and do my packing without excess pressure. I rolled in to the con right around noon, registered, found the doll display room, went and got my display from the car and got it set up. I hit the dealers' room briefly then ensconced myself in the coffee shop with a late lunch, the script for the feast, and a magenta highlighter. Having satisfied myself that I wouldn't entirely blow my part on that end, I did a bit of wandering around to see other displays and then ended up joiningjoycebre (I think -- I'm basing the ID on other folks references to her journal) and friends for a light dinner, during which callistotoni showed up and I was able to get my room key.
I concluded that I could join in the spirit of the evening's mixer (the Victorian Underwear Party) by showing up in my 15th c. underwear (the only actual costume I brought to the con was my clothes for the feast). It was a nice place to mingle and bump into people, although as usual the cocktail party style isn't really my thing. Even less typically "my thing" was the Pretty Pretty Princess party afterwards (complete with pink drinks), which I went to primarily because I knew the people throwing it. The party rapidly hit the sound volume where my brain shuts down, which made a nice excuse for going off to bed early, because ...
At 6am Saturday morning the alarm went off and after a room service breakfast,callistotoni and I hit the road. We'd slightly underestimated how long it would take to get to the collegium site and arrived a little after the start of classes. I checked in with bonacorsi about which classes wanted to use my computer projector then caught the end of a class on working in bone and ivory. But after that I was too much in twitchy event-prep mode and just hung out in the main hall doing random tasks, toting stuff from vehicles, and generally trying to feel useful.
And then the feast (see next post). After which we bugged out as soon as reasonably possible after helping sort things out post-feast and got back to the Con hotel around 1am (I think). You might have thought I'd sleep like a log, but my lower legs were a bit sore and my brain insisted on doing a lot of post-event processing (like composing my "lessons learned" post that I sent to the feast e-mail list) so I didn't get as much rest as I'd hoped.
Sunday was "historic day" at Costume Con, and given that I had to miss something, I'm glad it wasn't that. The roomie and I had breakfast in the cafe, went our separate ways for a while, met up around noon so I could help her into her 16th c. Venetians, then split again until the evening masquerade. I reprised the outfit I'd made for the feast (see previous post for photo link) and got a nice amount of ego-boo from random passers by. One of the nice things about an event like costume con is that you have a perfect context for striking up conversations with random strangers -- you have to do is find something to like about what they're wearing and compliment them on it! I finally managed to return some DVDs toloupnoir which I'd borrowed last fall during the road trip. (I hadn't meant to be such a flake about returning them, and I'm guessing she'll think twice about ever lending my anything again.)
In the mid-afternoon they were doing a "guided tour" of the doll exhibit and I went to be available for questions and ended up being asked to give a brief lecture presentation on them. Back up a little. I wanted to do something to actually participate in the con programming, and since they had a doll display, I figured that my archaeological dolls were a natural. I picked four that made a nicely varied visual display (the two Bronze Age figures, Bishop Timotheos, and the Bocksten man) and then brought along some of the items from the Egyptian and Holy Roman Emperor groups to show-and-tell during the guided tour.
For dinner, I fell in with Margo Anderson (not sure if she has an LJ handle) and some friends of hers. The rest of the evening was taken up by the historic masquerade, for which I hooked up with the roomie and various other SCA friends. The masquerade proper was very enjoyable and quite a reasonable length, but the "halftime" break while the judges were out went on entirely too long. I'd actually been looking forward to the break entertainment -- Avalon Rising -- but the sound mixing was excruciatingly bad and I joined the mass exodus for the lobby and more general mingling. (By the end of their performance, the mixing had been improved considerably, but I felt a bit sorry that between the sound problem and the length of the break they ended up with next to no audience.) So eventually the judges came back and the awards were given, including an extremely well deserved Best in Show for the "Empress Eugenie and her Ladies in Waiting" thatsarahbellem was involved in.
And after that I changed, packed, and drove home -- making it into bed around 1am once again, with work the next morning. Makes me tired just recounting it all.
And in the next post, the feast.
Now, you have to understand that my SCA life includes four must-go events: the two kingdom collegia, the A&S campout, and the Mists Bardic event. And this year's Spring Collegium has been planned as the setting for the Perfectly Period Feast for well over a year, which moved it from "must go" status to "death will not release me" status. But event dates are malleable and not always fixed as far in advance as our plans to attend those events. So it was that a year ago when I decided to take advantage of Costume Con being relatively local (San Jose) and actually attend for the first time, I didn't yet know that I was going to be double-booked. If it hadn't been for the feast, I might have decided to skip collegium. So instead I settled for not getting emotionally invested in any particular bit of Costume Con and figured I'd enjoy as much as I could. And when
callistotoni found herself in a similar position and was bemoaning the prospect of the drive between CC and the PPF (San Jose to Sacto), I suggested we team up for the adventure.This plan had multiple advantages: 1) She didn't have to do any driving for the mad dash to and from Sacto; 2) I got company on the drive; 3) We both had a built-in roommate for Costume Con; 4) I got some one-on-one time with someone I admire and have been hoping to get to know better.
Having reviewed my vacation consumption, I decided to take Friday off work, which was a wise decision. Things didn't really start at the Con until noonish, so I had a lazy morning and was able to finish up my contribution for the CC doll display and do my packing without excess pressure. I rolled in to the con right around noon, registered, found the doll display room, went and got my display from the car and got it set up. I hit the dealers' room briefly then ensconced myself in the coffee shop with a late lunch, the script for the feast, and a magenta highlighter. Having satisfied myself that I wouldn't entirely blow my part on that end, I did a bit of wandering around to see other displays and then ended up joining
joycebre (I think -- I'm basing the ID on other folks references to her journal) and friends for a light dinner, during which callistotoni showed up and I was able to get my room key.I concluded that I could join in the spirit of the evening's mixer (the Victorian Underwear Party) by showing up in my 15th c. underwear (the only actual costume I brought to the con was my clothes for the feast). It was a nice place to mingle and bump into people, although as usual the cocktail party style isn't really my thing. Even less typically "my thing" was the Pretty Pretty Princess party afterwards (complete with pink drinks), which I went to primarily because I knew the people throwing it. The party rapidly hit the sound volume where my brain shuts down, which made a nice excuse for going off to bed early, because ...
At 6am Saturday morning the alarm went off and after a room service breakfast,
callistotoni and I hit the road. We'd slightly underestimated how long it would take to get to the collegium site and arrived a little after the start of classes. I checked in with bonacorsi about which classes wanted to use my computer projector then caught the end of a class on working in bone and ivory. But after that I was too much in twitchy event-prep mode and just hung out in the main hall doing random tasks, toting stuff from vehicles, and generally trying to feel useful.And then the feast (see next post). After which we bugged out as soon as reasonably possible after helping sort things out post-feast and got back to the Con hotel around 1am (I think). You might have thought I'd sleep like a log, but my lower legs were a bit sore and my brain insisted on doing a lot of post-event processing (like composing my "lessons learned" post that I sent to the feast e-mail list) so I didn't get as much rest as I'd hoped.
Sunday was "historic day" at Costume Con, and given that I had to miss something, I'm glad it wasn't that. The roomie and I had breakfast in the cafe, went our separate ways for a while, met up around noon so I could help her into her 16th c. Venetians, then split again until the evening masquerade. I reprised the outfit I'd made for the feast (see previous post for photo link) and got a nice amount of ego-boo from random passers by. One of the nice things about an event like costume con is that you have a perfect context for striking up conversations with random strangers -- you have to do is find something to like about what they're wearing and compliment them on it! I finally managed to return some DVDs to
loupnoir which I'd borrowed last fall during the road trip. (I hadn't meant to be such a flake about returning them, and I'm guessing she'll think twice about ever lending my anything again.)In the mid-afternoon they were doing a "guided tour" of the doll exhibit and I went to be available for questions and ended up being asked to give a brief lecture presentation on them. Back up a little. I wanted to do something to actually participate in the con programming, and since they had a doll display, I figured that my archaeological dolls were a natural. I picked four that made a nicely varied visual display (the two Bronze Age figures, Bishop Timotheos, and the Bocksten man) and then brought along some of the items from the Egyptian and Holy Roman Emperor groups to show-and-tell during the guided tour.
For dinner, I fell in with Margo Anderson (not sure if she has an LJ handle) and some friends of hers. The rest of the evening was taken up by the historic masquerade, for which I hooked up with the roomie and various other SCA friends. The masquerade proper was very enjoyable and quite a reasonable length, but the "halftime" break while the judges were out went on entirely too long. I'd actually been looking forward to the break entertainment -- Avalon Rising -- but the sound mixing was excruciatingly bad and I joined the mass exodus for the lobby and more general mingling. (By the end of their performance, the mixing had been improved considerably, but I felt a bit sorry that between the sound problem and the length of the break they ended up with next to no audience.) So eventually the judges came back and the awards were given, including an extremely well deserved Best in Show for the "Empress Eugenie and her Ladies in Waiting" that
sarahbellem was involved in.And after that I changed, packed, and drove home -- making it into bed around 1am once again, with work the next morning. Makes me tired just recounting it all.
And in the next post, the feast.
