Pennsic Post!
Aug. 10th, 2008 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
isabelladangeloSo, Friday. I had a lot packed and basically threw it into the car, leaving around noon or so. basically, I kept forgetting stuff and had to make sure I really did pack everything I needed and wait until store opened to go get emergency supplies (like beading wire) so I left a couple of hours later than I wanted to. The traffic was pretty bad, but more for the terrible accident than for construction.
A tractor-trailer ran off the side of the road and down the embankment (which was more of a cliff given the depth and angle) and caught on fire. The driver was okay (or, at least, I think that was the driver sitting there by the side of the road looking down the embankment with the "Dear God!" look on his face) but it looked pretty bad. That caused everything to be back upped on I-70 for a few miles. The construction? Only took a half hour.
I got to Pennsic around 7 with just enough light to put up my tent, throw a couple of things in it, and go park. Parking was so easy this year. I never parked too far from my campsite which was totally awesome. Anyway, I didn't throw everything into the tent simply because I wanted to get my floor down. However, I couldn't get the floor down until I went to get wood...which I couldn't do at 7 pm. So, I had to wait until Saturday.
I woke up, threw on my purple gothic fitted gown to realize I lost a bit too much weight to fit into the gown properly anymore. It's now just a gothic gown. It was very loose (three inches around the waist!) but I didn't really have a choice since most of my stuff was still in the truck and this is what I had planned to wear. So, I put on my dress and veil (the veil lasted maybe an hour. I ended up in a circlet and braids) and went to retain for the Queen & the Princess of the lower Mississippi. That was so much fun. We basically hung out for an hour or so and then went to the greyhound racing. The pups were so beautiful!
After retaining for the morning, I ran back to my household's encampment, grabbed the keys to my truck, and went in search of a hardware store. Lowes, via google maps, does not exist. The place where Lowes should be, according to the directions, is a big field of nothingness next to a dirt country road. That's all.
So I went in search of Home Depot and saw Carter's along the way. I went in the store, in my gothic dress and circlet, and got three pieces of cheap 4 X 8's. One of the guys helped me tie it to the top of the truck. I went to leave when...as I turned the corner, it slipped. So, I managed to slowly go back into the hardware store parking lot. Here's where the fun begins.
I, at first, let the two college guys attempt to tie it to my car, again. (I knew something wasn't right when they thought it was a good idea to go through the front door windows rather than the front doors with the rope). Both of them kept saying they knew how to do this with bungee cord but not with rope. (Ummm, other than the fact that bungee cord is stretchy, the difference is?) I finally decided to step in and explain how to tie it to the top of the truck without it slipping after about 45 minutes of watching them try four different methods that just wouldn't work. My solution? Wrap the boards like a Christmas Ribbon and attach them through cross hatching to the ski rack. It worked. Yes, I had to do 40 mph the entire way back to Pennsic out of pure fear that they might slip again but I did get back.
There was the incident where I lost the green car tag but that was quickly rectified.
So, I placed the wooden pallets on top of the tarps in a 3 x 2 formation. I then placed the wood on top of those. I threw down my rugs, my cot, and put everything into the tent. I loved this floor. It was so nice to walk on a smooth, hard, surface and not the horrible tarp over sticks and grass surface I'm use to. It also made it easy to place the bookshelf, the table and the cot. There was plenty of room for myself and Mom when she came.
Sunday, I followed Baroness Bess around a bit and got a really awesome view of the Opening Ceremonies. Not that I could hear anything, but just watching the pagentry and getting to play paparazzi was so much fun. You can see a few of the videos I took up at you tube and all my pictures I took during all of war up at Flickr. I wore my white dress with blue ribbons that day that Asrune wore on Monday.
Sunday night, was the household wedding ceremony for Dwarf and Lina. It was awesome just to see everyone come up and have so much fun. The mead was perfect (thanks Reyne!) and everyone seemed to have fun. I caught the bouquet...again. :-)
Mom came!!!!!! Honestly, I think I mainly sewed all the morning and was waiting around for Mom to come. I remember going down to Merchant's around 2 or 3 and waiting for about a half hour before I saw the familiar black suburban. I helped her through Troll and got her back to the encampment. She said it was the first time she felt "out of place" in terms of clothing and she quickly changed into the blue dress.
I decided to introduce and re-introduce Mom to everyone as well as show her around the encampment. As we were walking back to say hi to a bunch of people, we both heard what can best be described as "gurgle gurgle POP crunch" and saw a HUGE branch fall right on to Talorc's tent...in front of Talorc.
Maggie, Lina, and I think Alexandra had just woken Talorc up 10 minutes earlier because he had been napping too long. So, Talorc was sitting there, up on a rise, looking down at his tent a few feet below as the branch decided to hit his tent square across the main beam. If he had been in the tent, he would have been seriously injured. The cigarettes and alcohol were not injured in this incident. Check out both you tube and flickr for more on the tent.
The rest of the night, we basically spent all stunned because fo the branch falling. Talorc did get an extra tent from someone else in our encampment (it was a dome tent) and all his stuff was okay other than the air mattress and the tent itself.
I spent most of Tuesday at A & S. I didn't get my dress completely done but it was done enough. I worked on the sleeves while I sat there with Mom. I think she was bored for most of it and just chatted away with people. We both looked around A & S at a couple of points. The miniature of the church was just stunning. I was really blown away by the craftsmanship of the woodwork and the details. I think Mom got some pictures of the miniatures the lady who made it brought out so I'll try and add those to my flickr account later.
There were just so many beautiful pieces of true art at A&S it was just breathtaking. The lady next to me had a display of different natural dyes on woolen yarn using different, period, methods. It was just beautiful and the range of color was pretty awesome.
I also took Mom around to various merchants. She bought me my Christmas present that I'm not supposed to know about or remember (La Moda) and, I think, was just overwhelemed by all the shopping. She bought a pretty clock charm in the shape of a heart on a pretty silver chain as well. It looked really neat.
Around 6 pm, we both got ready for the Attack Laurel party which was just delightful. I didn't get to wear my Eleanor dress because the sleeves just weren't done. So, I wore my Venetian instead and that worked pretty well. Mom had her mint green silk 1530's Italian on which looked awesome on her.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
attack_laurel and her husband both had a lovely, witty, opening speeches and everyone got free (candy) cigarettes thanks to a big donation from Mars Bars big tobacco to the academy. It was really just a great, silly time and I had so much fun talking to everyone I got to talk to.
I'm really sorry I didn't get a chance to go to the class on Venetian Courtesans by Magda (I think?) on Thursday but it was either go to that or fix dinner for 30 people like I was supposed to. I helped fix dinner. Hopefully she'll teach it again next year. If anyone has a synopsis or a handout, would you mind sending it to me?
Midnight Madness baby! Oh, and Atlantian Court.cathgrace got called in to join the order or the Laurels which is very very much deserved. It was great to see the look on her face (I was standing about three feet away) when she got called in. ;-) I had gotten called into court for my coral branch which is neat. I think my Mom loved the fact that she could be there to see that.
The neatest thing about getting my coral branch was not getting called into court, but what happened after court. You see, during court, Jos escorted me up and the Queen asked me how the war was going so far for me. I said I was having a great time.
Queen: I was told that you make beautiful outfits and when I saw you coming up I thought "Oh yeah! Now I see!"
Me: all smiles, gets presented with the Coral branch token
King: Sorry it doesn't go with your outfit
Me: It's okay, I have another [outfit]
So, after court, was the best simply because I had total strangers coming up and congratulating me. I also think I hugged at least half of my friends list (or got hugged by!) that was at Pennsic. It made Midnight Madness just that much cooler.
I bought blue silk thread fromfabricdragonto work on my latest idea. It's a secret project that should be done by next Pennsic, I hope.
Mom had to leave. It was so much fun having her at Pennsic. By the time she left, she wanted a yurt and to dress in Turkish outfits. I think I've got her hooked. :-) While we walked around, she kept commenting on how she liked the outfits I made more than what was for sale. She also loved the tent (I'm not sure what she was expecting since she knew I had made a tent) and was shocked by the prices for a new one ($1500 at least). She left early to go back to the puppies since Dad had to leave on a business trip.
Maggie and I cooked dinner. Or rather, Maggie did and I just helped. We ended up going through the cooler and realized there was more than enough leftovers by that point to make up something. Given the 3 baggies of rice, ton of meat, and random mixed veggies, we ended up with stir fry. To make up for not spending money on food, we bought cider and beer. This made everyone very happy. :-) I also got donuts for dessert.
It was very cool on Friday. I had on my blue linen petticoat, my black wool skirt, my orange wool doublet, black wool sleeves, and was only warm out in the sun in the day. I don't think it got above 72 on Friday. I packed up a bit and went to do a bit shopping again. What mostly happened was we had a bard in our encampment and a bonfire. Talorc burned his tent and the bonfire looked awesome. Again, pictures up in the flickr account and a few videos up on you tube.
Pack out. I packed up my truck and helped with the household stuff. It's a good thing I left early. A very good think. I left at 1. By 3:30 pm, I had just gotten on to I-70 and heard a "clunk" followed by the accelerator not working and a sound like a wet rubber fan hitting metal. I got to the shoulder and called AAA. By 5:15 the tow truck driver was there. We hit some bad traffic due to a very bad fatality near Hancock, MD. According to the CB, a motorcyclist hit the guardrail head on. His passenger was Air vac'd but he was DOA. I saw the body as we passed in the tow truck and, based on the location of the body and the location of the motorcycle, I don't think speed was a factor. (I'd guess he was going around 60).
We got to Gaithersburg around 7 or so and Mom met me there. Ginsie was in the truck which made me feel so much better. There is nothing like seeing your puppy dog (and her seeing you!) after a week. I loved it. We loaded up the suburban with most of my stuff (garb, chairs, and tent) and I threw my key into the night drop off. I'll call them in the morning to find out about my truck.
Overall, Pennsic was great and I'm sorry I didn't get to see everyone but I am happy that I got to see a lot of you. Feel free to comment with your favorite Pennsic pictures and/or whatever. :-)
A tractor-trailer ran off the side of the road and down the embankment (which was more of a cliff given the depth and angle) and caught on fire. The driver was okay (or, at least, I think that was the driver sitting there by the side of the road looking down the embankment with the "Dear God!" look on his face) but it looked pretty bad. That caused everything to be back upped on I-70 for a few miles. The construction? Only took a half hour.
I got to Pennsic around 7 with just enough light to put up my tent, throw a couple of things in it, and go park. Parking was so easy this year. I never parked too far from my campsite which was totally awesome. Anyway, I didn't throw everything into the tent simply because I wanted to get my floor down. However, I couldn't get the floor down until I went to get wood...which I couldn't do at 7 pm. So, I had to wait until Saturday.
I woke up, threw on my purple gothic fitted gown to realize I lost a bit too much weight to fit into the gown properly anymore. It's now just a gothic gown. It was very loose (three inches around the waist!) but I didn't really have a choice since most of my stuff was still in the truck and this is what I had planned to wear. So, I put on my dress and veil (the veil lasted maybe an hour. I ended up in a circlet and braids) and went to retain for the Queen & the Princess of the lower Mississippi. That was so much fun. We basically hung out for an hour or so and then went to the greyhound racing. The pups were so beautiful!
After retaining for the morning, I ran back to my household's encampment, grabbed the keys to my truck, and went in search of a hardware store. Lowes, via google maps, does not exist. The place where Lowes should be, according to the directions, is a big field of nothingness next to a dirt country road. That's all.
So I went in search of Home Depot and saw Carter's along the way. I went in the store, in my gothic dress and circlet, and got three pieces of cheap 4 X 8's. One of the guys helped me tie it to the top of the truck. I went to leave when...as I turned the corner, it slipped. So, I managed to slowly go back into the hardware store parking lot. Here's where the fun begins.
I, at first, let the two college guys attempt to tie it to my car, again. (I knew something wasn't right when they thought it was a good idea to go through the front door windows rather than the front doors with the rope). Both of them kept saying they knew how to do this with bungee cord but not with rope. (Ummm, other than the fact that bungee cord is stretchy, the difference is?) I finally decided to step in and explain how to tie it to the top of the truck without it slipping after about 45 minutes of watching them try four different methods that just wouldn't work. My solution? Wrap the boards like a Christmas Ribbon and attach them through cross hatching to the ski rack. It worked. Yes, I had to do 40 mph the entire way back to Pennsic out of pure fear that they might slip again but I did get back.
There was the incident where I lost the green car tag but that was quickly rectified.
So, I placed the wooden pallets on top of the tarps in a 3 x 2 formation. I then placed the wood on top of those. I threw down my rugs, my cot, and put everything into the tent. I loved this floor. It was so nice to walk on a smooth, hard, surface and not the horrible tarp over sticks and grass surface I'm use to. It also made it easy to place the bookshelf, the table and the cot. There was plenty of room for myself and Mom when she came.
Sunday, I followed Baroness Bess around a bit and got a really awesome view of the Opening Ceremonies. Not that I could hear anything, but just watching the pagentry and getting to play paparazzi was so much fun. You can see a few of the videos I took up at you tube and all my pictures I took during all of war up at Flickr. I wore my white dress with blue ribbons that day that Asrune wore on Monday.
Sunday night, was the household wedding ceremony for Dwarf and Lina. It was awesome just to see everyone come up and have so much fun. The mead was perfect (thanks Reyne!) and everyone seemed to have fun. I caught the bouquet...again. :-)
Mom came!!!!!! Honestly, I think I mainly sewed all the morning and was waiting around for Mom to come. I remember going down to Merchant's around 2 or 3 and waiting for about a half hour before I saw the familiar black suburban. I helped her through Troll and got her back to the encampment. She said it was the first time she felt "out of place" in terms of clothing and she quickly changed into the blue dress.
I decided to introduce and re-introduce Mom to everyone as well as show her around the encampment. As we were walking back to say hi to a bunch of people, we both heard what can best be described as "gurgle gurgle POP crunch" and saw a HUGE branch fall right on to Talorc's tent...in front of Talorc.
Maggie, Lina, and I think Alexandra had just woken Talorc up 10 minutes earlier because he had been napping too long. So, Talorc was sitting there, up on a rise, looking down at his tent a few feet below as the branch decided to hit his tent square across the main beam. If he had been in the tent, he would have been seriously injured. The cigarettes and alcohol were not injured in this incident. Check out both you tube and flickr for more on the tent.
The rest of the night, we basically spent all stunned because fo the branch falling. Talorc did get an extra tent from someone else in our encampment (it was a dome tent) and all his stuff was okay other than the air mattress and the tent itself.
I spent most of Tuesday at A & S. I didn't get my dress completely done but it was done enough. I worked on the sleeves while I sat there with Mom. I think she was bored for most of it and just chatted away with people. We both looked around A & S at a couple of points. The miniature of the church was just stunning. I was really blown away by the craftsmanship of the woodwork and the details. I think Mom got some pictures of the miniatures the lady who made it brought out so I'll try and add those to my flickr account later.
There were just so many beautiful pieces of true art at A&S it was just breathtaking. The lady next to me had a display of different natural dyes on woolen yarn using different, period, methods. It was just beautiful and the range of color was pretty awesome.
I also took Mom around to various merchants. She bought me my Christmas present that I'm not supposed to know about or remember (La Moda) and, I think, was just overwhelemed by all the shopping. She bought a pretty clock charm in the shape of a heart on a pretty silver chain as well. It looked really neat.
Around 6 pm, we both got ready for the Attack Laurel party which was just delightful. I didn't get to wear my Eleanor dress because the sleeves just weren't done. So, I wore my Venetian instead and that worked pretty well. Mom had her mint green silk 1530's Italian on which looked awesome on her.
attack_laurel and her husband both had a lovely, witty, opening speeches and everyone got free (candy) cigarettes thanks to a big donation from I'm really sorry I didn't get a chance to go to the class on Venetian Courtesans by Magda (I think?) on Thursday but it was either go to that or fix dinner for 30 people like I was supposed to. I helped fix dinner. Hopefully she'll teach it again next year. If anyone has a synopsis or a handout, would you mind sending it to me?
Midnight Madness baby! Oh, and Atlantian Court.
cathgrace got called in to join the order or the Laurels which is very very much deserved. It was great to see the look on her face (I was standing about three feet away) when she got called in. ;-) I had gotten called into court for my coral branch which is neat. I think my Mom loved the fact that she could be there to see that.The neatest thing about getting my coral branch was not getting called into court, but what happened after court. You see, during court, Jos escorted me up and the Queen asked me how the war was going so far for me. I said I was having a great time.
Queen: I was told that you make beautiful outfits and when I saw you coming up I thought "Oh yeah! Now I see!"
Me: all smiles, gets presented with the Coral branch token
King: Sorry it doesn't go with your outfit
Me: It's okay, I have another [outfit]
So, after court, was the best simply because I had total strangers coming up and congratulating me. I also think I hugged at least half of my friends list (or got hugged by!) that was at Pennsic. It made Midnight Madness just that much cooler.
I bought blue silk thread from
fabricdragonto work on my latest idea. It's a secret project that should be done by next Pennsic, I hope. Mom had to leave. It was so much fun having her at Pennsic. By the time she left, she wanted a yurt and to dress in Turkish outfits. I think I've got her hooked. :-) While we walked around, she kept commenting on how she liked the outfits I made more than what was for sale. She also loved the tent (I'm not sure what she was expecting since she knew I had made a tent) and was shocked by the prices for a new one ($1500 at least). She left early to go back to the puppies since Dad had to leave on a business trip.
Maggie and I cooked dinner. Or rather, Maggie did and I just helped. We ended up going through the cooler and realized there was more than enough leftovers by that point to make up something. Given the 3 baggies of rice, ton of meat, and random mixed veggies, we ended up with stir fry. To make up for not spending money on food, we bought cider and beer. This made everyone very happy. :-) I also got donuts for dessert.
It was very cool on Friday. I had on my blue linen petticoat, my black wool skirt, my orange wool doublet, black wool sleeves, and was only warm out in the sun in the day. I don't think it got above 72 on Friday. I packed up a bit and went to do a bit shopping again. What mostly happened was we had a bard in our encampment and a bonfire. Talorc burned his tent and the bonfire looked awesome. Again, pictures up in the flickr account and a few videos up on you tube.
Pack out. I packed up my truck and helped with the household stuff. It's a good thing I left early. A very good think. I left at 1. By 3:30 pm, I had just gotten on to I-70 and heard a "clunk" followed by the accelerator not working and a sound like a wet rubber fan hitting metal. I got to the shoulder and called AAA. By 5:15 the tow truck driver was there. We hit some bad traffic due to a very bad fatality near Hancock, MD. According to the CB, a motorcyclist hit the guardrail head on. His passenger was Air vac'd but he was DOA. I saw the body as we passed in the tow truck and, based on the location of the body and the location of the motorcycle, I don't think speed was a factor. (I'd guess he was going around 60).
We got to Gaithersburg around 7 or so and Mom met me there. Ginsie was in the truck which made me feel so much better. There is nothing like seeing your puppy dog (and her seeing you!) after a week. I loved it. We loaded up the suburban with most of my stuff (garb, chairs, and tent) and I threw my key into the night drop off. I'll call them in the morning to find out about my truck.
Overall, Pennsic was great and I'm sorry I didn't get to see everyone but I am happy that I got to see a lot of you. Feel free to comment with your favorite Pennsic pictures and/or whatever. :-)