Beltane: Overwhelmed in a good way :-)

[callistotoni]

This is one of those time when I feel like there is too much to report. It doesn't help that, for a variety of reasons, I didn't get to bed until about midnight or so. :-/ . But many, many thanks to all of you that came and made my Salon/Slacker Club/Pavillion Kick-off party the sucess that it was. :-)
At the risk of sounding like an Oscar's acceptance speech, special thanks to misagillian & leohtulf for driving me and my stuff to the event and letting me crash at their place Thursday and Sunday nights, Cindy (is she on LJ?) and helblonde for doing a lot of the food prep, yolsgarrd for doing all my dishes, ali_qat for the housewarming gift (very cute wind chimes :-) ) and all my peeps who came and Looked Fabulous and those who also came and made lovely conversation.

No games got played, except some bocce with visiting Ansteorans (sp?) (and I couldn't help picking up a slight Texas accent after playing with them for a while...) . The writing desk turned out to be a big success and provided the Best Story of Beltane. Suffice it to say that writing love letters, even when they are to a fuzzy white teddy bear, and get you into trouble. ;-)

The Bellatrix crowd did the traditional Sunday dinner at Cattlemen's but due to the huge crowd (about or over 20 people) and a new waitress dinner took 3 hours. Add that to the time to get back home and you can see why it was such a late night.

So sorry I did not see many of you, or didn't get to spend as much time with some of you as I would have liked. And several philoshophic observations:
-- It is interesting to see, once you put something out there, what people do with it.
-- I'm still always surprised how things work out at tourneys, people-wise. The people I see alot outside of events I hardly see at all at events, people I keep in touch with here on LJ I almost never really spend time with at events, but I will have lovely conversations with people I hardly ever get to see, or I get to meet and hang with new people.
-- Not surprisingly, I played hostess most of the weekend. As a consequence I did not stray very far from my encampment all weekend. I wonder if this is a trend that will continue? I suspect that it will. I chatted with Paul about this phenom and he said that it was the same for him and Sue.
-- Having chairs for people makes a big difference in persuading them to spend time with you. I must also figure out how much food to bring to be a good, casual hostess without it turning into a big party every time (which would be too much for me to handle at every camping event, I'm afraid).
-- Trystbat got my thinking more about the concept of personna. I'm hoping she does her "persona hour" because I think I could handle 60 min of that, but not all day. You all know my usual feelings on this topic, but I'm still thinking about the concept with regards to the SCA.

More reflections later, I'm sure. :-)

Comments

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

You were missed, but I understand. I'm hoping to tempt you and himself over for a nice long visit at June Crown. :-)

[sassycat8.livejournal.com]

I was sorry to miss your Salon. It almost tempted me into a day trip, but I think I was better served by staying home. I am thrilled it all worked out well for you!

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

Sorry to just pop in and run out, but glad it all went well. Your pavilion looks *fabulous* dah-link!!

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your wonderful hospitality! I had an excellent time & hope to see you again. I'm getting to like this wacky SCA thing ;-)

And yes, persona, totally one of my fave. specialties, right up there (& deeply entwined with) costume. When sarahbellem & I get to camp next time, I definitely want to plan a little persona party hour for some 16th-c. chatter.

Oh & I keep hearing about your courtier school? Perchance might I sign up? Pretty please? *bats eyelashes* I promise to be a good student.

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

The School for the Courtier has a Yahoo Group; here is the info:

Post message: CourtierSchool@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: CourtierSchool-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: CourtierSchool-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: CourtierSchool-owner@yahoogroups.com

I started this up in late March (after our West Kingdom March Crown Tourney) so the idea is pretty new. I thought it would be nice to organize/provide classes on skills a good 16th C courtier should have. One target audience is the SCA rapier community, and, of course, there are those of us who just love the period. The first get together will be Sunday May 20 at my house in Livermore (my plan is to have most of the periodic-but-irregular classes at my house). No specific topic is planned, other than encouraging people to familiarize themselves with period-appropriate games and providing by (pretty large) book collection for general perusal. As I recall, sarah_bellam said that the date conflicted with something else she was committed to going to. :-(

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, neat! Alas, yes, Sarah & I will be Little Women (Amy & Jo, respectively) on the 20th, but hopefully there will be future class sessions.

[aimeric.livejournal.com]

Had a blast playing crumhorn (wait, I sense a pun in there...). Sorry I didn't get a chance to stick around to play games. I think I'm 0-2 now in that regard :( Overall, I thought everything looked absolutely smashing!

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

And thank you guys *so* much for playing. It was really wonderful to have the music in the background while the Lovely Ladies (and baron_antiono?) were all visiting.

FYI: Gianetta, who was next door in leohtulf and misagillian's encampment, did not previously know that such things as crumhorns and shams existed, so you guys were very educational as well as entertaining! :-)

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that you were doing that this weekend. It really complemented the Bellatrix hosting of Mike's White Scarf vigil, and all of the lovely foreign fencers visiting from out of kingdom.

Oh, and I love being a host a Bellatrix. Everyone comes to visit.

Writing of love notes to the short and fuzzy will continue! I love that "safe" (except for rumors!) piece of courtly love.

[cindymarelene.livejournal.com]

I so enjoyed being a part of your very cool happening. Thank you for letting me. I think the persona hour idea is very interesting. I think it could be a terrific opportunity to step outside oneself and get really creative. Mine never goes beyond "14th C Italian" and I'm just myself in different clothes, because that's what I'm comfortable with. But I think it could be a lot of fun, and a great excuse for research into the times and places that interest us.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

As a willing victim of multiple persona disorder, the following may be of interest. If nothing else, it may explain why Saionji no Hanae is not "Jehanne in a bathrobe."

http://www.wodefordhall.com/persona.htm

re: Thoughts on Persona

[cindymarelene.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I found this very interesting. Your research shows a lot of dedication. I think that as my involvement in the SCA grows, my desire to "do it right" does as well. Having joined as a somewhat thoughtless teen, I simply grabbed a name that sounded good to me and went forward. I think it will be a lot of fun to do more research on the time and place that interest me, and really learn about it.

For callistotoni

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Good food and discourse;
An elegant company
Met on a fair day.
Bright haired, warm hearted, our host
Vies with the sun of springtime.

Re: For callistotoni

[callistotoni.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank You, that is beautiful. :-)