Picking Myself Up.

.....Yesterday I was feeling down, but I'm feeling better today. When I first logged into my computer this morning I at first thought it had been a mistake to not shut down comments to my last Live Journal entry. Not because I didn't want to hear other people's opinions, but more because to myself it sounded like I was whining about things I couldn't change. But it is sometimes good just to have other commiserate with you. Makes you feel a little less lonely, and that maybe you have more friends than you realized. And sometimes, people come up with really good ideas when you are least expecting it. :-)

.....So, yeah, I'll take feeling better. :-)

.....Also spent the day catching up with things on which I am WAY BEHIND. Primarily, reports to Kingdom. Ack! But I completed my Seneschal Doomsday Report and sent it off to the fabulous Countess Daedin. Made me feel accomplished! They changed the format this year. Not a lot, but enough to where it took me several hours to finish compiling all the information today and putting it together into the report.

.....If someone had asked me last Tuesday night after the Business Meeting how Dragon's Laire was doing as a group, I would have sighed in exasperation. Primarily due to the actions of a couple of people who are making life difficult. But as I was putting together everything we did as a group last year, I realized that we're not doing so badly. Our trouble-makers are few and they are not malicious, just mis-guided. We had no major accidents. No one embezzled any money. There were no child molesters in our ranks.

.....Our June Faire was fantastic last year. The team, led by angharadalbanes, did a fantastic job. They also took some risks that paid out dividends in new ideas that are being expanded upon this year. I'm seeing an energy in June Faire planning this year that we've been lacking for a couple of years previous to 2009. This was definitely a positive to the year.

.....I was worried earlier that we were having a difficult time getting people to take on active rolls as officers. But when I put together my report I realized that every major office had an officer, and that I had seen every single one of them working hard at something last year. Some were more successful than others. But as you look around at some of the other local branches you start to realize that have a full slate of officers is the exception and not the rule.

.....I also realized hor much I enjoy being Seneschal of Dragon's Laire. There were times I fretted mightily that I couldn't seem to find the time to do things as well as they SHOULD be done. But I cared about my branch and worked as hard as I could, so in that respect I was successful. That made me feel good. So, in reality, putting together this report turned out to be a good thing. :-)

.....Then, I became TRULY accomplished. I finished my financial Doomsday Report for The Crier as well. Which was also a week late. But it is DONE! I e-mailed a copy of it to my Kingdom Superiors, and will get a copy of it in the mail tomorrow. So, Wow! Two major reports done in one day. Now I can clean up the hurricane that hit my office tomorrow and maybe get something else done. :-)

.....I went and purchased some software for the Kingdom Chronicler's Office today from Spamazon. I had been fretting about doing that for several weeks as well. I tried like crazy to find InDesign on the shelf somewhere nearby to where I could write a check to them and walk out with a copy of the software. But it was really strange. No one locally had InDesign on their shelves at all. Not even in North Seattle when I went checking them out last week. It's like publication software is going obsolete!? Eek, I wonder if I'm getting old.

.....I wonder if design software intended for PRINTED publication is going obsolete in favor of electronic / web design? The world is changing faster than I can keep up with it. There will come a day soon when I will have to special order something I can actually pick up with my hands and turn the page. Weird! Is this how our grandparents felt when T.V. took over broadcasting the news?

.....The other thing that made me fret about buying from Spamazon is that I felt strange writing the check to Spamazon to purchase the software. I kept thinking that it shouldn't have been that easy. For the first time I think I realized how easy it is to embezzle money from an organization like the SCA. I have access to this bank account to where I could walk out of the bank branch tomorrow with several thousands of dollars and be on a plane to England in a matter of hours. And it is only my sense of of what is right and wrong that keeps that from even being tempting. What a scary thought! It is not surprising why you hear so many news reports about missing money in Non-Profit organizations. Makes you wonder how much money the SCA loses on a yearly basis due to internal theft.

.....Great! Now I'm going to have nightmares of Master Pyotr stalking me with his shoulder-bag like some Stay-Puff Marshmallow Giant! Ready to pounce if it looks like I'm even reaching for those dollar bills! Shudder! Maybe a drink is in order! :-)

.....Time to go to bed. Zoe is staring at me, telling me to hurry up and get out of here so she can climb on to HER chair and go to sleep. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.