A Fine Learning-Experiences Day

Whereas last weekend was all about dashing between many little things, this one was a concentrated burst of 100% Pure Undiluted Event. We hoteled Great Northeastern War, so it was just one day, but it was very much the point of the weekend (and, indeed, the preceding week).

We each had one major project for GNE, and each was something New and Different. Mine was getting back into the combat archery side of things; msmemory's was running Royal Court for the first time. In each case, the project consumed the past week. She volunteered to do Court at midweek, and spent the latter half of it consumed with getting this formidable thing organized. For me, after a couple of months of indifferently saying "yeah, I ought to get off my butt", everything clicked last week, with lucianus1 loaning me the bow and arrows on Sunday and new_man selling me a new set of armor on Tuesday. Both needed some adjustment and fixups, so that was my project for the week, right up until I tossed the helm (with glue still drying) into the car as we left for the event on Friday night. The drive was uneventful and faster than I'd expected, with the traffic jams thinning as we got to northern MA and then going away; all in all, it was a good omen for tomorrow.

Saturday was as pretty a day as one could ask for -- I can only hope that Pennsic's weather is anywhere near so nice. So we got over to the site promptly, I got armored up, and over to the field for inspection. The armor passed without comment (yay!); the only hitch was that my experimental leather fletches proved too floppy and unstable. Oh, well -- they're not hugely necessary. I got a reasonably good workout, shooting in two moderate-length Castle battles and two short Wall battles; my accuracy still sucks, but that's what practice is for, and I did get a few good hits. I got taken out in the middle of the second Wall when my bowstring snapped -- no great tragedy, since I was starting to tire anyway. (The bow is fun, but stretches a lot of muscles I don't normally use.)

After a cool-down, we had the second half of the day's project, running Royal Court. That went extremely well (despite my fumble-fingeredness nearly causing a disaster or two). msmemory had lined up a cast of thousands to do the very long Court (about 40 items of business), and everyone did their part splendidly -- even the relatively new Court heralds read their bits with aplomb, and tpau was invaluable dealing with stuff backstage. I got to read both Terpsichores (for Orlando and Ciana), and all of the Manches (including one for lady_cassia). It was a fine day for Lochleven, with not just the Manche but also a QoC for dervishspin and several well-earned AoAs. Congratulations to everyone!

Sunday was sort of Karmic Payback day for the things that had gone so right the previous couple of days. Traffic on 95 was wretched; the weather got very indecisive; and I was moving like an 80-year-old from all the terribly interesting new charley horses I'd developed. But somehow it still all worked out nicely. The traffic encouraged us to meander down Route 1 instead of the superhighway, something we'd been meaning to do for years. We had lunch in Freeport and a bit of extra shopping in Kittery; the rain let us have fun, while discouraging us from spending *too* much time wandering from store to store. The storms, when they did hit, were short but fun, with huge heavy raindrops and good lightning. And I could take a certain satisfaction in my well-earned limp for the day. Besides, between the limp and the rain, I wasn't going to be able to mow the lawn, and that had been the only reason to get home promptly. So we instead enjoyed ourselves, spending seven hours going inefficiently from Auburn to home.

All in all, a fine weekend, with a real sense of accomplishment all around. Wouldn't want quite that level of intensity every week, but it's an invigorating change of pace...

A Fine Learning-Experiences Day

Whereas last weekend was all about dashing between many little things, this one was a concentrated burst of 100% Pure Undiluted Event. We hoteled Great Northeastern War, so it was just one day, but it was very much the point of the weekend (and, indeed, the preceding week).

We each had one major project for GNE, and each was something New and Different. Mine was getting back into the combat archery side of things; msmemory's was running Royal Court for the first time. In each case, the project consumed the past week. She volunteered to do Court at midweek, and spent the latter half of it consumed with getting this formidable thing organized. For me, after a couple of months of indifferently saying "yeah, I ought to get off my butt", everything clicked last week, with lucianus1 loaning me the bow and arrows on Sunday and new_man selling me a new set of armor on Tuesday. Both needed some adjustment and fixups, so that was my project for the week, right up until I tossed the helm (with glue still drying) into the car as we left for the event on Friday night. The drive was uneventful and faster than I'd expected, with the traffic jams thinning as we got to northern MA and then going away; all in all, it was a good omen for tomorrow.

Saturday was as pretty a day as one could ask for -- I can only hope that Pennsic's weather is anywhere near so nice. So we got over to the site promptly, I got armored up, and over to the field for inspection. The armor passed without comment (yay!); the only hitch was that my experimental leather fletches proved too floppy and unstable. Oh, well -- they're not hugely necessary. I got a reasonably good workout, shooting in two moderate-length Castle battles and two short Wall battles; my accuracy still sucks, but that's what practice is for, and I did get a few good hits. I got taken out in the middle of the second Wall when my bowstring snapped -- no great tragedy, since I was starting to tire anyway. (The bow is fun, but stretches a lot of muscles I don't normally use.)

After a cool-down, we had the second half of the day's project, running Royal Court. That went extremely well (despite my fumble-fingeredness nearly causing a disaster or two). msmemory had lined up a cast of thousands to do the very long Court (about 40 items of business), and everyone did their part splendidly -- even the relatively new Court heralds read their bits with aplomb, and tpau was invaluable dealing with stuff backstage. I got to read both Terpsichores (for Orlando and Ciana), and all of the Manches (including one for lady_cassia). It was a fine day for Lochleven, with not just the Manche but also a QoC for dervishspin and several well-earned AoAs. Congratulations to everyone!

Sunday was sort of Karmic Payback day for the things that had gone so right the previous couple of days. Traffic on 95 was wretched; the weather got very indecisive; and I was moving like an 80-year-old from all the terribly interesting new charley horses I'd developed. But somehow it still all worked out nicely. The traffic encouraged us to meander down Route 1 instead of the superhighway, something we'd been meaning to do for years. We had lunch in Freeport and a bit of extra shopping in Kittery; the rain let us have fun, while discouraging us from spending *too* much time wandering from store to store. The storms, when they did hit, were short but fun, with huge heavy raindrops and good lightning. And I could take a certain satisfaction in my well-earned limp for the day. Besides, between the limp and the rain, I wasn't going to be able to mow the lawn, and that had been the only reason to get home promptly. So we instead enjoyed ourselves, spending seven hours going inefficiently from Auburn to home.

All in all, a fine weekend, with a real sense of accomplishment all around. Wouldn't want quite that level of intensity every week, but it's an invigorating change of pace...