Pennsic!

[isabelladangelo]

I posted on of the pictures I took last night. This is another one from Midnight Madness. I at least managed to get to Pennsic for that. I missed all my other fav activities but that doesn't mean I didn't have fun -by a long shot. I don't think I've ever had that much different mead in my life!

I brought too much -of course. Tuesday I didn't get dressed until two or three. This was because I did get there early -10ish- but I had to set up my tent, get the floors for my tent (two pieces of $20 plywood are amazing as floors!), and get food from Walmart. This year, I knew it would be impossible for everyone to keep up with my food allergies. Buckwheat and Tomatoes are the worst and, luckily, the easiest to avoid. Most people have zero trouble remembering those. The berries (strawberries are okay though!), and peppers one is just me being vigilant and seeing how much is really in it. (A drop of Tabasco sauce won't hurt but eating an entire bell pepper will. Also, it's pretty easy to avoid) It's the corn allergy that is really annoying. Corn is in EVERYTHING. I can still have a very small amount without getting sick but I need to limit it in a day. Drinking an entire can of Coke would not be a good idea but a couple of Reese's cups (they have Dextrose!) won't hurt if that's all I have with corn for the day. Yeah, it's complicated and confusing so I just went and bought my own stuff. That way, only I have to figure it out.

BTW, cooking rice on the fire in a cast iron pot is awesome. I had a lot of fun with that and cooking hot dogs. I ate rice mellow smores while everyone else had real ones. They weren't warm but they were good! And I believe rice mellow and peanut butter on a sourdough English muffin is a perfect breakfast.

Anyway, I had to get my own food since I wasn't on the food plan. Bring the boards for the floor back to cap was interesting. They make you tie it down yourself at home depot to the roof of your car. o_0? I just put my hazards on and went down the right lane as much as I could on 422. I was not about to go over 40 mph with two large flat projectiles on the top of the truck -no matter how well I thought I had tied them down.

So, that afternoon, I put on my pink and green Florentine and just sort of hung out. I recall going shopping with the boys and that was about it.

Wednesday was a lot more fun. Probably because I was more awake and aware. Spending all of Sunday night awake, taking two different planes on Monday, and then only sort of crashing around 8 or 9 Monday night to get up at 2 and leave the house at 5 am on Tuesday sort of made me an interesting person.

I wore my Elizabethan again, which was a heck of a lot of fun. Nobody -and I mean even my own beloved baroness of my household- recognized me unless they looked directly at my face. Even then, it took a couple of seconds. I went down to merchants early to pick up some spangles to add to my coif. I was determined to sparkle that afternoon since we were going to Atlantian court and then Midnight Madness. More sparkles, the better.

I sewed the spangles on pretty quickly using white silk thread so the entire coif is still very much period. I probably should take a picture of the thing and post it now that it's officially done. It's red silk on white linen with seahorses (Spike!) and seaweed. It's pretty cute and I've worn it off and on as I've been fiddling with it. I might add more spangles to it but it's pretty much done.

So, I wore that, my black velvet hat, my black velvet surcote, pink stays, blackworked skirt, and my ruff that refused to stay in place all day. i was sparklely. :-D And yes, people took my picture. I'll see if I can find any.

My baroness, her daughter, and her daughter's boyfriend, sat directly behind me in court. Court, of course, was facing the lovely setting sun so I whipped out my oh so period 18th Century sunglasses and wore those. Hey, they may be 200 years too late, but they look a lot better than being blinded or wearing plastic ones. It wasn't until I turned around to start talking to them that Bess said "Oh! It's you!" and started laughing.

Anyway, Midnight Madness -a lot of people, very little in the way of deals. Some of the stores were giving "Tax Break" type sales and that was about it. I didn't get anything -partly because I didn't need anything- but I did walk around a LOT and had fun just people watching. Check out the photos I managed to get.

Thursday -I wanted to wear my black velvet Italian until I realized I had ripped one of the lacing holes out. Whoops! It would take too long to fix to wear that day so I wore my pink linen one with my Dutch cloak. A lot of people like the jacket/cloak because it looks nice but it's also very functional.

I went to classes (hi, msmcknittington) and then followed people around to parties in the evening. That was amusing. From molly_world's awesome bling in her tent -she had her half of the tent with her arms on the walls and her husband's half with his arms; it looked awesome- to the great Throne hiding. A certain baron of a certain barony had his throne left out on his field. He assumed it was still under the day shade. It was not. Some other enterprising individuals decided to hold it for safe keeping in a separate baronies baronial encampment. I took pictures of the captive throne. While -probably- I had more mead in my hands. Mead is good.

Friday I went shopping and got fun things like a book about Knights for Odin, a pretty illustrated book about a Japanese Folk tale on kites for Marxer, a wooden snake for Marxer, and a nice trivet for Mom that she needed. Most of the rest of Friday, we tore everything down. I yanked up my floor to add it to the very pitiful sacrifice fire. It was a sad little thing this year. There are plans to take it over and make it much better next year.

Basically, Friday night, I was packed. It took me all of five minutes to load my car Saturday morning because I had packed up Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, some other individuals weren't quite as ...ready? And decided to pack up all their stuff -and I mean all of it- Saturday morning. We didn't get the truck loaded until right before noon. I was not pleased. The entire purpose of taking down structures like the shower and the kitchen Friday night had been so we could just throw them in the truck Saturday morning and GO. I guess some individuals didn't get the hint and pack their own stuff -which, of course, needed to be done first before they could help load the truck. Oh za fun...::headdesk::

Anyway, noon comes and we are all finally ready to leave. I got completely off the site and on the road at 12:47. I was inside my parent's house at 5:15. And no, I was not trying to go for a land speed record from Slippery Rock, PA to Washington DC. I found a short cut that only takes you on the toll road for a very short time. The tolls really cut into your budget if you are going back and forth from Pennsic normally. I think it's around $12 one way if you are going from I-76 to I-79. I skip I-79 completely and take 422 down to 22 to 99 to I-70/76. I'm on the toll road just long enough to rack up a $1.85 in tolls. Much better than $12. The new route also cuts about an hour off my drive.

Marxer was very happy with his toy snake and his new book. He informed me that Aunt Ginsie missed me but she was a very good dog and that he loved her. Ginsie had two seizures while I was gone -of course- but she seems okay now. My Mom and I think we might know the reason behind her seizures and I need to just never let anyone board her. It's too stressful and I'm not sure they are giving her her meds properly.