Arontius of Bygelswade

.....I actually enjoyed May Crown. Unlike TBT, I'm very much a provincial, so I don't suffer the same angst she does in re-living personal history. When TBT started in the SCA, she shot up the ranks like a comet. Became a Laurel within a few years, and a Royal Peer (Princess / Viscountess) very early on in her career. She hung out with all the cool people early and was an integral part of many a momentous occasion in Artemesia. When she travels to the big Kingdom Events, so sees an overlay of the excitement of days past. The thrill of adrenaline. The knowledge that you could affect things on a very large scale.

.....For me, I started out very slowly. For the first three years of my SCA career practically the only event I attended was June Faire. After that I took on very small jobs and hung out with only a small group of friends. Then slowly built on that foundation. I played almost exclusively inside the confines of Dragon's Laire for almost a decade before I started exploring the big world of An Tir. So when I attend the big Kingdom events, there is still a sense of awe that permeates them. When I roll into site, there is the excitement of knowing a new King and Queen are going to be decided, or Crowned, shortly. There are people to meet that I don't see all that often. There are experiences to have that aren't a part of the fabric of Dragon's Laire.

.....The Kingdom Events are also enhanced, of course, by being the Baron and Baroness. You are there to represent a group of people who are vital to the make-up of the Kingdom. I do my best to watch out for them and enhance their experience in any way I can. Being an introvert by nature, this can sometimes be difficult and I am out of my comfort zone on a regular basis. But I think the exercise is a good one for me. I certainly learn much, make new friends, and experience things that I fondly recall later. For all the whining I do about how difficult it is to wear a Coronet, I will miss it when it is gone and am glad to be doing what I am doing now.

.....The drive was a long one on Friday, but the scenery was good. Lots of good conversation with TBT. We don't often get that kind of extended time alone to discuss any and all subjects under the sun, so I took advantage of the time and kept her talking the whole way to site. :-)

.....We caravanned with Madrun and Dylan (in Florence Radcliffe), Dame Eleanor (in Lord Burghley), and Gwenllyn & Tsuruko (in 'the Tahoe' :-)). I'm not big into caravanning with others as I like to go at my own pace. But it is a good feeling to know that there are people traveling with you in case something troublesome comes up. Stopping for a bit to eat and you have instant companionship. And there are others to help you find your way if you get lost. :-)

.....We ended up getting a start from the Mullenix Park-And-Ride at about 8:30 to 8:40AM. Gwenllyn was LATE!!! :-) We made good time though going over Snoqualamie Pass and stopping for lunch in Wynatchee. About three quarters of the way to site we ended up following along with Jess Roe of Prose And Steel, who drives a little slower than I would have liked. Which surprised me considering the type of person he is.

.....We rolled into site about 3:30PM. Jullila (the Autocrat), julillamagna, greeted us at the gate, with her ever present smile and wave. An attitude she managed to maintain the entire weekend. She did an absolutely fantastic job of being the Autocrat Team Chairman for May Crown. I hope she does more of these events as she is a natural. After a break of course.

.....THL Mateusz had a site marked out for the Barony fairly close to the Erics, right behind Merchant's Row. We had a rather good turn-out for the weekend. We had ten pavilions in our enclave and nineteen people in that area alone from Dragon's Laire. Over in the RV Ghetto were also Master Ralg and Dame Ellen. Over in the Royal Encampment were Master Cedric, Dame Brighid, Don Talentus, THL Jenae, and Lady Magdalena. What is that? Twenty-six people? I would definitely consider that a good turn-out.

.....TBT and I shared a pavilion. THL Madrun was to our right. Lord Radmund started out to Madrun's right, but was moved across the street by the burst water pipe later in the evening on Friday. To our left were Dame Gwenllyn and Tsuruko Sensei in the 12x12 with awning that I lent them for the weekend. To their left were Master Andras and THL Liesel, along with CeCe and Lady Elisabeth Trostin and her daughter Cassie in their own tent. Across the street from them were THL Alaricus and THL Kassandra in their large tent. THL Renart and THL Aelianora were next to them. Then Mateusz and THL Rycheza. Dame Eleanor was beside them. With THL Caius and THL Nidda in the final tents (before Radmund moved in next to them).

.....The weather on Friday was not bad at all, although the sun was fierce. Set-up of pavilions did not take all that long. We headed out to dinner at about 7PM and had dinner at an Australian Steak house on the north side of Omak, which was tasty. After a stop at Safeway for ice and water (after we learned that water to site had been shut off), we made it back to site around 10PM. At that point I thought about wandering site, but I was done for the day and just went to bed.

.....The night was cold, but not unbearably so. I managed to sleep rather well and slept in the next morning until at least 5:30AM or so. Gwen and Tsuruko woke up around 6:30 or 7AM and make short work of preparing breakfast, for which I was very grateful. I took off fairly soon after for my 8AM Pelican meeting.

.....If I end up having any influence whatsoever, I'm going to push to move the Pelican meeting out to 9AM or 10AM (or later) at September Crown. Wish me luck! :-) The meeting itself was really foo-free for the most part (or, the foo that was experienced was expected, which made it not so bad to experience). It went by rather quickly as well. A little after 9AM, I was wandering back to camp to pull stuff together for the rest of the day and putting them into the Dragon Bag, which made its usual appearance at the Pelican Meeting. :-)

.....At 10:30AM we met with a group of the Western Regional Barons and Baronesses at the Aquaterra Pavilion to talk about the June Faire Board of Directors as a concept. I had invited Madrun and Magdalena along for just that purpose. But the majority of the time, almost two hours, was spent talking about Serjeantry. It is interesting how Serjeantry as a concept is really taking off again around the Kingdom. It is modifying itself to fit new uses. Everyone has ideas on what they want to see happen with it, which is making each Barony's 'plan' more and more different from both the original model and from each other to fit their own individual culture. A very fascinating conversation it was. There seems to be consensus that we should do more as a Region together, but there is still a lot of gap to bridge before we can really talk of combined Trials.

.....We lined up for the Grand Processional a little after 12:30PM. There were not a whole lot of branches represented after the seventy-seven fighters were introduced to the Crown. But it was good to come together as a Barony and process into Court. I think that most, if not all, of us in attendance for the weekend processed in. A rather nice sight that was. :-)

.....After the Processional, TBT and I handed out our tokens to those fighting in the Crown lists. Master Cedric and Master Andras were first as they were direct representatives of Dragon's Laire. But we also presented tokens to Sir Rauokinn and Mistress Inga, two people both TBT and I find incredibly inspirational.

.....During the fighting of Crown we had a lot of fun from the Baronial Pavilion recognizing practically everyone who crossed in front of us. Many were surprised, but most found our antics to be amusing and were friendly in return. I think people like being recognized in any situation, even in such a silly capacity.

.....The silliness only expanded though during the evening Court. TBT and I sat directly behind Countess E. and we messed with each other the entire time. We passed out booze by the bottle, teased each other incessantly, and, I think, even managed to embarrass Master James in his capacity as Court Herald. Although he deserved it with how he butchered names of those being called forth! :-)

.....Upon completion of Court we migrated back to camp for dinner. Even though we didn't plan a communal dinner, practically everyone there shared a little of what they had made for themselves. Then we gathered around the firepit for the evening bardic gathering. It started off a little rocky, as per usual. But picked up steam as the evening progress. We were rarely, if ever, in key. But everyone there had fun, which was the intent. Lady Magdalena joined in at one point with her absolutely wicked sense of humor. Master Cedric sang with us a little, completely off-key, which matched my off-key rather well. So it was still a win as far as I was concerned. :-)

.....Caius and Nidda pulled out their ukelele's after a while and played instrumental to a few songs. They ended up playing one of my absolute favorite songs of all time, Hallalujuha. I know the words by heart, but couldn't seem to make the decision as to whether I just wanted to listen to it sung, or to sing along. It ended up being a hodge-podge on my part. But I still enjoyed it immensely.

.....After a couple of hours we all grew tired of singing and migrated in different directions. I followed Brighid and the Seneschallettes over to the big party of the evening. But I didn't stay long as I was rather tired at that point. I ended up in bed by 11PM. I AM getting old. :-)

.....The next morning was another early rise. I was up around 6AM and started quietly breaking down camp before everyone woke up. By the time TBT was stirring, all the decorations were down and ready for stowage. The Curia meeting started at 8:30AM, and I managed to get quite a bit of the campsite put away before having to run.

.....The Kingdom Financial Committee meeting was extra long due to the discussions on Kingdom Events. I did witness Jenae and Magdalena present their bid for An Tir / West War. They were very professional! :-) The bid was a shoe-in, although I did get volunteered to help. Etiennette insisted that their event have its own warranted Exchequer and they asked me to do it. I could not say 'no'. :-) Besides, it will not be a big deal at all. I just reminded myself that I have a couple of questions to e-mail Etiennette about funds for the event.

.....I gave my September Crown report a little later, and it was probably the shortest report I've ever given! I was antsy at that point as I wanted to breat down camp and get on the road! :-) And about an hour and a half later, we were. Still in our caravan. We made it home by 6PM.

.....It was a good weekend. I enjoyed it. And I missed Lobelia only a little bit. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Last night was the April Baronial Business Meeting. There was definitely a vibe of craziness in the air. It felt rather odd. And I've been obsessing over things from it ever since. I'm hoping that by writing some of them out here I'll pull them out of the hampster wheel of my mind and I can obsess over something else, like NORWESCON. :-)

.....One of our long time players was at the Business Meeting last night. I've seen this person maybe a handful of times over the past couple of years. But they've decided to basically 'return home' for a while and play. Which is probably a good thing for them. I've never left for any length of time, but I've always thought of the SCA as a dysfunctional family of sorts and as in any family, a good place to go to for support when needed.

.....This person may have an interesting time reconnecting with the Barony though. There were several interesting moments last night where people were confused about the questions raised or how to answer them. May have to keep an eye on this one.

.....Ever since the SCA Lawsuit recovery we've been taking an even closer look at our Baronial Finances. How we spend money. How we raise money. What can we do to improve how we do both. To raise awareness, the Baronial Exchequer put together a listing of inflows and outflows from 2011, and used it to set the budget for 2012. Then the Deputy Baronial Exchequer went through that Spread Sheet to give the numbers to the Baronial Populace in attendance last night.

.....We've done similar in the past, and I never know what to expect as it has run the spectrum. From full interest to eyes glazing over from boredom. Last night there was real interest. Which is fantastic! I wish more people were interested in how the funds were generated and spent. But the Deputy Exchequer did not have the answers to the questions raised. Neither did I for that matter. And they were good questions! The first one being if we could get more defined event costs and income by averaging out a number of years, which might be more accurate. The next question being to see some more details in what the expense totals actually were. The Deputy Exchequer is going to take those questions back to the Exchequer and get some more clarification.

.....We had our first Serjeantry Candidate withdraw last night. For good reasons. They need to concentrate on personal life and TBT & I applauded what that person is doing. We made sure to emphasize that they've submitted a Letter of Intent. If they want to start up again next year, or the year after, we'd fully support them in that.

.....We were concerned about another Candidate and had a discussion with them last night. Modern Life is been an issue for this Candidate and we wanted to make sure they understood that they could continue the Trials through to next year's class if they needed to do so. But we were told that Serjeantry was that important to them and they wanted to continue. We certainly wasn't going to argue with that one.

.....Later on that evening, someone mentioned something that really had me obsessing. It was mentioned that the job of Baroness was actually much more difficult than being the Baron. I, frankly, have been thinking about that statement ever since. I find the job of Baron rather difficult to start. I'm not sure I'd want it to be more difficult than it is. :-) I also thought that I had the workload balanced out with TBT rather evenly. I'm thinking that maybe we should take a second look at that. Are there things we can take off of TBT's plate to make things easier for her? TBT's strengths are not mine. And I've tended to think the reverse was true as well. But it is something definitely we need to look at.

.....I need to go and finish packing for NORWESCON. We were up until midnight last night and I'm rather tired. :-) Go figure. :-) Better make a list so that maybe I'll forget less. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Waiting for a process to complete on my computer. So I think I'll post a little on Live Journal. :-)

.....Someone once described Dragon's Laire to me as 'A seething cauldron of chaos interspersed with pockets of brilliant clarity and sheer genius. Sort of like Rocky Road ice cream.' :-) Actually, what they said was far better, but this is what I took away from the conversation and have remembered ever since. And I laugh every time I think about it. :-)

.....Last night was Fight Practice, as usual on a Tuesday night. I had hoped to get several things done, but spent most of it in conversations with people. Angharad and I talked about the June Faire gate hand-out. At the last June Faire Board Meeting I said that I would dig it up so she could use it as a 'go-by' for this year's hand-out if she needed it. She didn't, of course. But it started us talking about how she was gained the tasking for this year, which was partly my fault. But it all worked out for the best as Angharad will be able to churn it out easily, and it will look great.

.....I find it funny sometimes how much communications among people is really a game of telephone. The original thought and intention could be one thing, but by the time it reaches its intended target the meaning and intent could be radically different from where it started. Nothing unexpected there, but the reminder for me is that what I'm thinking and what I'm saying may be two very different things and I need to keep that in mind.

.....Angharad was also talking to me about all my 'to-do' lists that I post on Live Journal. They are a good way to keep organized, but only if they do not get to the point where they are overwhelming. I could have five hundred items on my list. But because it is such a monster to begin, if I start forgetting things was that list useful at all?

.....Angharad had a good idea on how to help this issue. It was simple, but billiant in its own right. We need a secretary to keep our 'to-do' lists. Their job would be to capture all of our Action Items, get us to assign Due Dates to them, and then make sure we are reminded that they need to be done (so they are not forgotten) and maybe to help us find help in getting them done.

.....We have Gwen, who keeps our Calendar of Events (as well as multiple other duties). She is pretty loaded with stuff to do already. So are the rest of our Core Retinue. It would be nice to find someone relatively close by, who could handle our eccentricities (not an easy thing to do in its own right :-)), who could keep us organized on our 'to-do' listing. Something to think about as I don't think a solution is going to jump in front of us and announce its presence with a shout. :-)

.....I'm actually starting to feel a little better about things. We're doing our best to keep up with everything. Will everything be remembered? No. Will everything be perfect? No. But we're moving forward and it'll all happen. That's a hard lesson to learn. But I'm slowly learning it. I'll call it a win.

.....Aaron / Arontius.

.....Echoing Giovanni's LJ entry of earlier this morning, I was also rather glad to see Angharad's post to the Dragon's Laire e-list. I had been mulling over something similar to say, but her post was short and to-the-point. Several people jumped right on it, which is a good thing.

.....There seems to have been a general current of unease lately which was really showing on the D.L. e-list. I'm not entirely sure of the cause, and it may have nothing whatsoever with Dragon's Laire or the SCA at all. But maybe people will take a second or two, at least for a while, to think about their e-mails (and re-read them) before they are posted.

.....I know that Her Excellency was getting frustrated with what was happening. I may show up at the December Business Meeting and find that my A** has been fired as Seneschal because Angharad has shown she can do a much better job at bringing the Barony together than I can. :-)

.....I certainly do not want the D.L. list to turn into some version of the Step(pe)s. Maybe it'll take a little more diligence to ensure that real negativity is nipped in the proverbial bud before it grows. No one likes being told what to do though, and monitoring the list that closely smacks of control.

.....Will have to give thought to that.

.....Whine alert - Still wishing that I had ready access to my personal e-mail at work, and the ability to access LJ more often.

.....Aaron / Arontius.