CaySwann
A "G-Rated Journal" That Even My Mother Can Read (because she does!)

Effervescence is a state of mind. It's about choosing to bring sunshine to the day.
Every person I meet matters.

If it's written down, I know it (If it's not written down, I don't know it)
If it's color-coded, I understand it (If it's not color-coded, I don't understand it)


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Today's Feature Image:

Daddy-do and me, 2010


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Demo, Bday, and Dinner

Fri Mar 24, continued - It had been horrible traffic on the way over to the Dudley's for gaming night, so I was incredibly thankful to finally be there around 7:45... three hours after leaving work, and only stopping at home for about 30 minutes. So after all my cooking on Thursday night, not only did I have my good food for work, but enough to have dinner with me before gaming. I brought some Girl Scout cookies to share with everyone else, and had veggies and rice for me for dinner. Saul wrinkled his nose at how "healthy" my dinner smelled, and he sniffed a girl scout cookie to feel better. *giggle*

I also got Saul's measurements for additional garb (costuming) for him, and he picked out several inspirational ideas from my costuming books. I'm not certain what I'm making first, but pants, a shirt, and coat together sounds like an exciting project. The idea is to be excited about sewing in general, to inspire and motivate me to finally get my own garb worked on again.

Sat Mar 25 - I would have liked to have gotten up earlier and out the door to the demo with my home barony, but my roomie made breakfast and we sat down for some leisurely muffins and tea together. It was really nice.

Then I packed my great wheel (spinning wheel), lunch, and my spinning bag, got dressed, did my hair in cute braids at the side of my head, and went off to the demo. I worked on spinning and talking with the public all day, and had a most marvelous time. And several friends were impressed (and possibly jealous) of the yummy salad fixings I brought with me for the afternoon. A couple of them are also followers of my journal, so they gave me congrats on all my progress so far.

I also got to chat with my Baroness and Reevess (the next Baroness) about the formal regalia I've been dreaming of making for the position of Baronial Bard (which I hold). I've seen a wide variety of half- or short-cloaks for some Rapier Championships, and thought a similar cloak might be nice for the Baronial Bard. It would fit anyone, could be just draped over one shoulder, and would be visually very striking. Also, many bards "wear the motley" or a quilted diamond design of many colors, to indicate that they are bards and that they are "on duty" which means you can ask them for a song or story or other entertainment. So I proposed I could do a border in the baronial colors of motley, and the whole cloak in linen with some of the ensignia of the barony. They both loved the idea, and blessed my endeavors. So, time to go shopping and get started! The motley will be time-consuming, so I should start immediately.

I packed everything up and took it home, switched to modern clothing, and got ready to hit the road again. I took about an hour to do some more updates on the theatre website first, since I'd gotten a curious phone call from the Operations director in the afternoon. I'd been behind lately, which hurts the theatre when things are out-of-date, and with a little nudging he wanted to see what could be done to avoid this in the future. So I'm going to do what I can on my end, and he's going to do what he can on his end to give me reasonable lead-times and articulated deadlines. I'm going to try to beat my deadlines each time, and hopefully that will make things better.

This means of course that I also need to start putting aside daily time for my commercial site development too. Ah, there's just not enough hours in the day! I'll make it work somehow! *grin*

So, after an hour on the computer, I headed out to my home shire for the night. I spent the evening hanging out with True. His son, True, and I watched the remainder of Harry Potter 4 together first, then RJ headed off to bed, and True and I babbled and gabbed until all hours. We hadn't gotten to hang out in forever, and had just a wonderful time catching up.

So much fun that Dayle had to phone and check to see if I was still coming over for the night. I finally got into Dayle's around 1:30 am or so (of course she was already asleep), and so I just snuck in quietly and went to sleep.

Sun Mar 26 - Dayle apparently really needed her sleep, and so we didn't get to spend any time hanging out in the morning. I woke early (I'm a complete mutant, I know!), showered, dressed, did laundry [so I could put away the spare bed sheets that I'd used for the night, the bath towel, and take home yesterday's clothes already washed], had a bit of breakfast, and read a book for a while. Then by the time I was ready to leave, she was awake so we chatted for a few minutes, then I hit the road.

She'd gotten a coupon for a new coffee house in the area, so I picked up a latte at 25% off, picked up my mail, and headed back out of town to the Dudley's for Shosh's 18th birthday party. I got there too late to do my grilled veggies for Karen (sorry dearheart!) but the food tables were packed with goodies, so no one went hungry.

It's been so amazing hanging out at the Dudley's for events over the past year, since I met them through Saul and Ben and Erika—the twenty-something kids. But Noah is best friends with many old friends of mine in the SCA, so I'll go to a family party and get to see Natalya, Renata, Aliskye, and others. This time, it took me a good ten minutes to remember Duke Armand's name (I kept thinking "who's the blond duke?"), but wow, I hadn't seen Armand in maybe 8 or 9 years. Certainly, since back when I was happily married. And wonder of wonders, Sir Stephen made it to Shosh's birthday too, and very nearly got a standing ovation from friends excited to see him. Neither Armand nor Stephen really play SCA anymore, but it was certainly "old-home-week" to see such lovely folks after so many years.

I feel "between the generations" sometimes, because I'm friends with all the twenty-somethings and all the forty- or fifty-somethings. I wonder sometimes why there are so few folks my age in my circles of friends. It's puzzling, but maybe I just don't notice how many thirty-somethings are around. (Or I think of them all as part of the younger crowd! *grin*) My older SCA friends are too young to be my parents, and my younger SCA friends are sometimes *significantly* younger than me. Ah well.

After the party, I went to coffee with Ben, Erika, and Saul, although it was really just a quick stop and then they were headed to a play reading. I went on home, unpacked my car, and heard from Cat & Lot. My roomie and they were home at their house, about to order Thai food for dinner. So I grabbed knitting for Mina, spinning for me, and joined them for Thai food and watching the latest Tim Burton flick, "Corpse Bride." He is really a bizarre film-maker!

Afterwards, we browsed lots of photos online of all Lot's friends in Northshield, especially other members of the household at large. I finally now know what Cam looks like, the patriarch of the household. And Lot had this amazing DVD of rapier from Northshield, including "my boys"—video of Gauge, Michael, Rigo, and Matteo, plus Lot. [At least, hmm, I think all four of them were in at least one video. Now my memory is blurred between all the photos we looked at and then the video we watched.]

It was a fantastically fun video, especially since I think of the four Northshield guys so fondly now. Michael is clearly a brother to me (in bizarre and hilarious ways). Rigo, I have such fondness for the fun with had over all the meals. Gauge, bless his heart, actually phones me every now and then... he's probably my crazy little brother that I couldn't possibly dream of keeping in line. *giggle* And Matteo, well the first thing I said to him when we finally met in person was "I'm an absolute FAN of your music!!" I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with him as I would have liked, but we email occasionally now. And I still *adore* his singing and his song-writing.

Gauge asked me on the phone the other day, after I enthusiastically declared "I just =love= you four guys!" ... he asked incredulously, "But why?!? Why would you possibly love us?" And I just laughed and shook my head, "No idea, but you four are definitely family!" Lot also laughed at me, but then again these guys are his family too. It's amazing how the SCA brings together people from across the world.

Mon Mar 27 - And this morning, I'm terribly proud to say, I managed to get up and go in to the gym before work! Yay me! I was rolling out of bed at my normal time, and just decided to jump into work out clothes, pack nice clothes, pack my cooler full of food, and race on in to work. I just barely beat some of the traffic (sat in some of it), and got to the gym around 7:15 am. I definitely want to get an even earlier start to beat the traffic even more, but I got a nice 30-minute work-out in, showered, and headed to my office. I was bouncing off the walls with happiness and energy first thing, and I'm going to keep pursuing this more now.

Oh, and I've been at my job for a year now, if you count that today is Monday [and I started on a Monday].... it's a year tomorrow, if you look at the calendar date. My boss wants to go grab lunch tomorrow for a congrats.

And on a sorrowful note, my uncle Luke passed away this morning from a massive stroke. So please keep Joan, Russell, Andrew, Jakya, and their families in your prayers and thoughts today. My love goes out to all of them.


My cousin Russell, my cousin Jen, and my uncle Luke (Russ & Andy's dad, Joan's husband) - Christmas 2005. We'll miss you, Luke.


* * * * *
So this evening Caterina and I are going to plan meals for camping this weekend, and hopefully she'll have the time to help me take in one of my dresses. The rain is looking ominous off-shore, so hopefully I won't have to drive in too much of it this evening. And I have some serious house-cleaning to do, to catch up with having not been home much all weekend. And I'll need to do some daily web update work before bed, so my evening is packed.

I've been thinking about trying to make it in to work extra early from now on, since it means I have the potential to miss traffic on either end of my commute, giving me more time to get stuff done and less time just sitting trapped in traffic. I'll let you know how that idea works out.

* * * * *
Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: I'm thankful for all the years I got to spend with my uncle Luke growing up, and getting to see him just last year when they came out to CA. May the Lord bless you and keep you, Luke.
* * * * *
Weight Loss This Week:
Sat 3/25 - 15.6 (down -0.2 from Fri)
Mon 3/27 - 16.6 (down -1.0 from Sat) Week 12 starts this week. I'm only 0.2 lbs heavier than my personal best at weight loss last week, which makes me feel really good. I look forward to seeing what I can do this week.


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