Am I The Only One Who Is Out Of Breath? :-)

[arontius]

.....I enjoyed May Crown quite a bit, but it sure took a toll on June Faire preparations. It feels like I'm sprinting to catch up in time to make the Faire next weekend. :-)

.....On Friday I met Madrun and her crew down at the Bremerton Ferry for our caravan across Washington State. I enjoyed hearing stories of the exciting life of a Social Worker on the Reservation. Several hair-raising stories. I knew Madrun was accomplished and a trooper, but I hadn't realized just what she did there. I was certainly impressed.

.....We stopped in Yakima for lunch at Miner's, which is a rather famous burger joint. I should have been more careful about what I ate, but the burger looked really good at that moment. I paid for it the rest of the trip as the body couldn't decide whether it really wanted it or not. :-) But it did taste really good.

.....We pulled into Kennewick at about 3PM and signed into the Fairgrounds. We went looking for space within the established camping areas and quickly realized that there was not enough space for the Baronial Encampment. I gravitated towards a shady area behind the Royal Pavilion where I was camped for July Coronation last year. My inclination was to just start setting up and claim possession, but the fact that I've been a part of many autocrat teams where I HATED people doing this that prevented me from actually doing that very thing. We finally struck a pretty good deal with the Camping Team on site. We took a shady, grassy area on the far side of the RV area. It actually worked out brilliantly as it was a.) shady, b.) allowed the entire Barony (whomever wanted to do so) to camp together, c.) we were not far from the erics, and d.) we were near the RV encampment. I think it was a win all around really.

.....After set-up, I was thinking of dinner. Their Excellencies grabbed me by the arm and took me off to Red Robin in town. I should have suspected something was up by how quickly I was pulled into this, but I was tired. After dinner Cedric convinced the staff of Red Robin to embarrass me as much as possible by getting the rowdy portion of the restaurant to sing 'Happy Birthday' to me. I turned bright, glowing red. And His Excellency scored the dessert. :-)

.....Saturday was a full day. I was still feeling a little off from the day before, so I didn't have much for breakfast. I kept thinking the Pelican meeting was at 8AM, but was reminded that Their Majesties had sensibly decided to start the meetings at 9AM. The meeting was relatively short and foo-free, which I prefer immensely.

.....I relaxed and visited for a couple of hours before the Processional and Invocation. Which it was announced that Sir Sven was fighting for Sir Raoukinn, which is WAY cool. I happen to be quite the fan of Sir Raoukinn! :-)

.....The Seneschal's meeting at 3PM was also foo-free and thankfully straight-to-the-point. I was not in the mood for a wandering attention meeting and I lucked out. :-)

.....The Finals were truly epic to watch! It was Sir Sven and Sir Tiernan. They both died once and then had a double-kill. The field was deathly quite as the last battle was fought. And then Sir Tiernan won! As much as I wanted to see Sir Raoukinn crowned as Princess of An Tir, I was truly overjoyed to see Tiernan and Miranda with the An Tir Coronets on Their heads. They are truly nice people who will be a wonderful King and Queen. Really, no matter who won the Finals of this May Crown, the Kingdom as a whole won. I really like Crowns that end in this fashion. :-)

.....After dinner, I was dog tired. The wind was epic and I was cold. Part of me wanted to go and wander the camp, but the bed won me over and I went to bed early. I was ever so thankful that I packed a few extra blankets. I stayed nice and warm, no matter how cold the night became.

.....I was still feeling off on Sunday morning, but I drug myself together and started breaking down camp when I was up and dressed. The Financial Committee meeting was set for 9AM and my protege, Isketol, was ready to present a bid for Kingdom Arts and Sciences Championship (and Bardic Championship) to be held in Dragon's Laire. I knew we were just one of two bids, the other being a really good bid from Adiantum. I was nervous and jumpy and fully expected Adiantum to be awarded the bid. However, Their Majesties and Highnesses brought up several good points, the chief of which was that since Adiantum already had Twelfth Night, it would be more fair to allow Canadians to have less distance to travel for the very next Kingdom Event. I totally agreed and was glad Their Majesties and Highnesses saw the same thing.

.....I was excited during the presentation and did interrupt Isketol on several points with additional information. I felt badly later as I should have kept my mouth shut and let Isketol run with the bid. But I did apologize later and I don't think Isketol will hold it against me.

.....At one point during the presentation Her Royal Highness, Miranda, looked over at me and asked if I and Marquessa Laurellen were on board to help with the event. I said we were and she smiled. I was very grateful for that as it helped me settle my nervousness and made me feel as if I actually mattered. It was cool and she had perfect timing with those words and smile. She was most certainly thinking of the good of the Kingdom as a whole, but still, I owe her a lot for making me feel so much better with that.

.....After that, the meeting became something of a blur. But I did hear Master James present a bid for the Canton of Silverhart (with the Barony of Wealdsmere) to host Twelfth Night, 2012. The trip over the passes in January will be dicey. But I think that Silverhart will be appreciative of having the Kingdom come to them in January and will treat us well.

.....I went off to grab Heather and packed her up in less than an hour, including the stuff I was taking home from Madrun. I had intended on caravaning back with Madrun. But when I was ready to go, Madrun had another hour or so with her household in breaking down their encampment. I was anxious to hit the road and get home. I was still not feeling great and was missing TBT a lot. I felt badly about abandoning Madrun, but she seemed to be O.K. with the plan, so I decided to just roll with it.

.....The drive home went faster than I thought it would. Traffic was not horrible and the weather cooperated nicely. I made it home in about four hours and a little change. I unpacked the important parts of the van and then collapsed for the evening.

.....TBT had arranged for a gathering to celebrate my birthday. In the end Brummbar, Ralph and Ellen showed up. I was grateful that I was remembered (and many people called me and sent me e-mails to say 'Happy Birthday' as well). But after about an hour, I practically pushed everyone out the door. I was soooo tired. :-)

.....Ralph and Ellen gave me this really cool wood turned bowl for my birthday. We have it on display in the Living Room. Rhys made me a glow-in-the-dark bead mobile which is already hanging over my desk at work. :-)

.....This week has been rough though. I'm still trying to catch up with having taken Friday off. And being distracted with June Faire preparations is not helping one little bit. Sigh! It's going to be hard to make it through to next Wednesday unscathed. :-)

.....I finished the last of the contracts under my control (the tables and chairs). Lobelia now has a new refrigerator and generator service. Suzie has a new clutch. Now I just need to get my damned license renewed so I can actually drive these things around! :-)

.....Lots to do! Let's go!

.....Aaron / Arontius.

Comments

[hrollaug.livejournal.com]

em... you didn't renew your DL before your birthday? Its really easy, as you could have renewed on-line

As I recall there is no "post" grace period, when a co-worker went in, the day after her birthday, she had to retake the entire test (that was years ago, maybe it has changed_