Falling Leaves

[jducoeur]

Before I forget, this deserves a diary entry...

Last week had an undercurrent of tension as we all watched the weather reports -- the predictions for Saturday kept see-sawing between "cloudy with occasional showers" and "Doom! Doom, I tell you! Doom!". I managed to provoke an email conversation about what the *heck* we were going to do if this kept up; fortunately, that got headed off by the autocrat managing to arrange the indoor site, neatly circumventing the Doom.

That said, it was still pretty damned wet. I got to the site about 11:30 with a ton of stuff; one of the Feldings escorted me around to the back entrance to the hall. (Did you know there was a back entrance to Alumnae Hall? Turns out that there is -- you just have to drive halfway around campus to get there. Past Tower Court, around Lake House, through the back parking lot, down the foot trail, past the mountain goats and *la voila*! -- a little tiny parking lot.) I waited about half an hour for the rain to let up before bringing in my stuff, and then finally gave up and got a number of people to do a fast sprint through the rain with one box each.

The rain having washed out essentially all of the afternoon plans, the first part of the day officially became "Indoor Gaming", so I was kept busy. I taught a couple dozen people a variety of games, and was gratified that most of them seemed to enjoy it. Taught Ashtepada for the first time (I need to learn this well enough to teach it more concisely) and taught Tarocchi to a group of Feldings who had enough fun that they then taught it to some others.

One notable addition to the afternoon was a large delegation from Quintavia. They came in force, bringing a welcome table aimed at the newcomers, snacks for the afternoon, and gifts for His Excellency in Court. Not sure of precisely what brought all that on, but it was a lovely boost to the day.

Court was reasonably brief. Notable business included dsrtao formally stepping up as Golden Gryphon, Hunter being inducted into the Perseus, and me taking GunDormr as an apprentice. He specifically wanted an indenture, so I composed some text (not really period, but loosely based on some 18th century examples) and tpau kindly calligraphed it up pretty. Ciana carried my banner in (just for once, I actually remembered the thing) and ladysprite held the book; I like to get all of the "family" present involved. (keshwyn, we'll need to find a chance to introduce you to GunDormr, if you haven't already.) The scroll went off well (Fu got the timing of the reading just right, so the audience got both of the jokes nestled in there). We cut the scroll in half with GunDormr's knife (of course), and he presented the Baron with a 16th century coin as payment for witnessing the ceremony.

The I Sebastiani performance was, IMO, quite good -- above average for the troupe, solid from start to finish. I would agree with what seems to be the consensus that the "puppeteering" scene with Rhonwyn and pamelina was a show-stealer, the funniest piece of physical comedy that I've seen from I Seb in years.

Dinner -- well, okay, I rolled a failure there. I had intended to make the Potage from Meat from Cariadoc's Miscellany; my audacious plan was to do most of the cooking on-site in a crockpot. In the end, the result just didn't come out right; my best guess is that the crockpot simply didn't get it hot enough to cook the eggs properly. That being the case, I decided that not only was it not appealing, I wasn't entirely certain that it was safe, so all ten quarts got thrown out. Le sigh. Adding to that the fact that I had forgotten to bring the loaves of bread that were supposed to go with it, and I had precious little to contribute to the potluck, so I waited until the end of the line to take what was left. Fortunately, the potluck table was groaning this year, and there was still plenty left over at the end.

And of course, the dancing went well, as it almost always does at this event. I occasionally have to remind myself that I'm lucky to live in a group where the dance floor gets the better part of a hundred people at a non-dance-centric event, and even when we're down to just the diehards at 10:30 we still have 20 people up. Does my heart good to see so many of the novices up and dancing; hopefully we can get some of them to come to dance practice.

And thence packing and home. Fortunately, the rain let up by evening, and things began to dry off quickly as the wind picked up, making loading much easier than unloading had been...

Comments

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

Did you know there was a back entrance to Alumnae Hall?

One of the (few) advantages to taking kids to events, who are older than toddlers but don't have the attention span for much of anything else: about 10 years ago or more, I'd been around (including 'round back of) most all of our regular event sites. Doesn't mean I knew how to get there by driving, though the route you describe is probably about the only way it could be.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Did you know there was a back entrance to Alumnae Hall?

For some 20 years... :-) Or more. It's not as far as the former toxic waste site, but almost as far.

[jducoeur]

Interesting. I'd been back there via Service Lot in the past, but with Service Lot gone, it hadn't even occurred to me that it was still accessible. (Which it is, but it's one *heck* of a lot further...)

[matildalucet.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reporting on the potage. I was curious how that was going to work. :-)

What I have done fairly happily in the past is make the potage up and chill it well (for camping events, actually freeze it) and just reheat it onsite. If I was to use a crockpot instead of a camp stove, I think I would avoid the freezing and just keep it in a cooler until about 2 hours before dinner, then crock it.

I do NOT recommend putting it in a pot with a lid that does not latch closed, driving it someplace and stopping short enroute. There was one Accademia session that did not get all the potage I had made. That incident might be part of what finally provoked me into making a crockpot carrier so at least any disasters would be contained. (If you have a round crockpot, I'd be happy to loan you the carrier any time.)

[jducoeur]

The idea seemed to make sense at the time -- the cooking time required for the potage is relatively short, and it mostly consists of adding the right ingredients at the right times. I *suspect* that it would even work with a more modern cooker. (The other lady making stew had one with a better temperature control, which would have helped.)

Oh, well. Need to be reminded occasionally that "clever" does not always mean "smart"...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

They came in force, bringing a welcome table aimed at the newcomers, snacks for the afternoon, and gifts for His Excellency in Court. Not sure of precisely what brought all that on, but it was a lovely boost to the day.

It was lovely, and very welcome, but for me it was also quite embarrassing. It didn't even occur to me to do something like that (or ask the Chatelaines to, or ask the Chatelaines to work with me to) and I feel that was a real missed opportunity. Having our next door neighbors come in and do something we should have thought of ourselves, while appreciated, is more than a bit humbling.

[jducoeur]

Well, take it as a lesson for next year. It's not something we've tended to do in the past, but it might be a habit worth cultivating. (Especially at the borough events, which have a higher proportion of pure newbies...)

[dreda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, His Excellency dropped us a note about it, and I thought it was a spiffy idea, too. I am sorry that we were unable to come - the weather-based rejiggering of the schedule and a long-standing evening committment just made it not possible - but I am totally up for stealing the idea. We did manage to communicate directly with some of the newcomers and ask specific people to look out for them, but it's certainly something that would have been most expediently done by us directly. (And certainly, as you point out, better in the long run to be done by us instead of our neighbors.)

Another idea for long-term mulling, also, is What To Do if we can't make it to an event. Certainly, it makes sense to turn to you, but that puts a whole lot of onus and work on you, since you're not actually deputy to the Chatelaines. Maybe a team of little deputy Chatelaines...but then, of course, do we want to promulgate the idea that reaching out to newcomers is only something done by the designated officers? A mix of both, I think...

[jducoeur]

Worth noting that the "Chatelaine Squad" is an idea I was specifically planning on for the Magisterium, although I burned out before I could do anything about it. I still think it's potentially a good idea, if done carefully...

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

In the future, I think had I known you wouldn't be at the event I would have made more of an effort to be "on my game". Though to go to the level the Quintavians did was something I hadn't even thought of.

Do you have my cell number? I usually avoid giving it out - I'm pretty tight with my boundaries and with who is able to reach me when and where. I was pretty irritated last event, for example, when one of the provosts called me on a Saturday night as I was sitting in someone's hot tub. However, while I don't give it to most people (even officers), I think you two should definitely be on the list.

I think it is entirely reasonable at a borough event that if you are not going to be there, Chatelaine-type responsibilities would fall to me. I know that I already majorly dropped the ball by forgetting to anticipate that random students might wander by to see what the fuss was - I didn't even bring the flyers with me. For other events, however, we should negotiate that.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

And in future, you should totally be on the list of people we tell. We told the new folks, and we told Jehan, and lightly poked some people in general, but you would have been a particularly apropos person to tell. Duly noted.

No beating up of self. We learn. If we fail to learn, though, the beatings may commence. Like that beating that should be administered to the person who called you while you were in the hot tub. But feel free to mail the number to my gmail account - or the Chatelaine account - and we'll trade.

[rising-moon.livejournal.com]

There is definitely an opportunity here, one we've hit on the past -- just not one that we've applied to every event. :) A welcome booth/display is an excellent idea. Dreda and I still have the photographs, guild sheets, fliers, business cards, signs, etc. that we set up at the Boston Common Info booth last April. Let's use them!

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

I forgot to take a picture of the board they had, but it was really well done. It was a simple photo collage of in-garb pictures of people doing various activities or being various things: Fighting, cooking, dancing, court, Royalty, etc. It was done on one of those fold-up 3-panel cardboard things that stands up on its own.

Plus, they had cookies.