Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It's been a handful of days since I updated Live Journal last. Lots of things to think about these days. You wouldn't necessarily think of Holloween as a thoughtful day, but it has become so. :-)

.....Today is aelianora's birthday. I hope it was a good day for her. I probably should have called, but I didn't think about doing that until just a few minutes ago and don't necessarily want to interrupt her evening.

.....Today is also Catelin Spenser's birthday. It's been over a year now since her death. I miss her quite a bit. I'm still curious as to what she would be saying to me now that I'm about to wear the Coronet as Baron of Dragon's Laire. I'm sure she would have had a great deal of interesting advice for me. :-)

.....Starting to get my brain wrapped around the step-up, in less than two weeks now. The 'to-do' list is still daunting, but the actual ceremony should happen more-or-less with at least a reasonable amount of dignity. Something that was more difficult to achieve than I would have thought. TBT has been knocking herself out with the step-up clothing. I think I'll be wearing better clothes for that one ceremony than I've ever worn to date, either in the 'real world' or the SCA. :-)

.....Tomorrow I have to be in Tacoma at 0800 to check in for Jury Duty at the Federal Courthouse. Not necessarily the best timing as there was a Port Gamble June Faire meeting scheduled for the same day. Ack! And I still need to go in early and get the Monday morning reports out the door as there is no one else available to put them together. Sigh! It could be a long day.

.....Being the Federal Court though there might be the chance that I may actually sit on a Trial. Every time in the past I was called into Jury Duty I was summarily booted out of the room due to my affiliations with Bill Bogan, who takes care of the breathalizer machines on the Olympic Peninsula. I've been kicked off of trials at least three times now because of that. I'm kinda hoping that it doesn't happen this time. Although it could be problematic if the trial runs through November Crown Council. I'm sure Their Majesties would be cranky with me if I had to miss my own ceremony. I wonder if Their Current Excellencies would be cranky with me if they had to hold on to the Coronets a few weeks (month? years?) longer than expected. :-)

.....Speaking of cranky people, I think we're finally going to get The Crier bank account out of my hair. Master Pyotr has volunteered to make the drive over here so that he and I can sit out at U.S. Bank and wait through the entire process of moving the account over to his name. Wow! What a headache that has been. Every time I've gone into U.S. Bank to start the process they've come up with some new rule or process they neglected to tell me about the time before. Although being the Chronicler's Exchequer isn't exactly a difficult job I think that I'll miss it some.

.....The step-up ceremony has been interesting to write. I immersed myself in Anglo-Saxon writings and then made an attempt to write a ceremony in the same style, using a framework set up by Her Excellency Brighid. I'm finally getting to the point where I'm, almost, satisfied with the results. Although the culling process has been tough. Anyone who knows me knows that I use ten words to describe something that should only take two. So learning brevity along with style, has been quite the learning experience.

.....I think that the Chaucerian verse I've been writing for scroll texts will be more interesting, except for the fact that everything I've written so far sounds more like Dr. Suess than Chaucer. :-) Sigh! I used to think I had the potential to be a writer. Now I think that maybe I'd better consider going back to school and learn how to write! :-)

.....Work has been really interesting. One would think that the Big Boss moving on to 'other things' would make me the happiest person on the planet. And on some levels it has been an incredible relief. He is not altogether 'gone' yet and still spreads terror in liberal amounts. But I don't see him nearly as often as I used to. And it has been a hard thing to learn to 'move on without him' and learn how to think again.

.....I've been working for this guy for almost four year. In that time something I learned to do, but never really noticed, was to not put a whole lot of effort into anything I did directly for him. It was understood on some level that no matter what product I put together, he would hate it, relay to you how stupid you were, and then procede to explain in minute detail what he wanted. Over and over and over and over again. So, the usual 'thing to do' was to throw together whatever reports, charts, writing, etc. that he wanted, without putting a whole lot of effort into it. With the full knowledge that he would hate it and then tell you what he really wanted.

.....But now, I no longer have to produce for him. It is his successor now, my former mid-level boss. And he is so overwhelmed at the moment that he is basically allowing us to run our own show. Ack! We have to think for ourselves, and produce reports that we have to defend ourselves. With no one telling us what to do. From one extreme to the other. I much prefer the current thought process to the former. But it is going to be a little bit before I feel completely comfortable walking on my own again.

.....It's almost 9PM and we've had no trick-or-treaters at all. I guess that the Rhys Monster is going to make out on chocolate this year. All of the candy that neither TBT or myself can't eat will have to be consumed by 'someone'. :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.