weekend in PA: Nova Schola

[damont]

Semi-obligatory name-dropping from Saturday: math5, siobhan1214, merricke, bunnyjadwiga, Becka, h3salthea, degrimm1, aliwodehalle, beckishadow, bertana, joef_johnm, kandy_elizabet, Corwin, Scolastica, John, Arpad, Marti, Carowyn, Apollonia, and I am forgetting the names of several others that I did talk to.

We left home Friday evening about 1800, which after a dinner break got us to our crash space about 2300. Event preparation was still ongoing, and with one thing and another sleep did not happen until well into the single digits. Saturday morning there was slowness getting up, but I did manage to print out the class handout with the basic steps for Petit Vriens and Amoroso, grab some breakfast (but not coffee), load up Annabell, and head for the event. We got there just before 1030, though there were phone calls en route to deal with a serious mental oops. We got a decent parking space, but the lot filled up rather quickly; by the time siobhan1214 and merricke got there, the spaces were all full. I found my classrooms and the consult table, but otherwise I spent the next 100 minutes finishing the cleanup from the earlier mental oops. Thus it was lunchtime before I got any coffee, and I was very short on sleep from the previous three days.

aliwodehalle showed me how to use her iPod external speaker-pack (sweet), and I previewed the two dances so I would know what to expect from the music. I then went to the consult table and continued lunch, doing a small handful of consultations, and hanging out with math5 and beckishadow. The dayboard was excellent, thanks to John and Elizabeth and their crew. I was in mid-consult when I was informed that it was after 1400 -- the time my class was supposed to start! -- and I ran to the classroom. There were still 2 gentles there, and a third one came in behind me; but as it turned out, the first two thought is was a class on making armor, not on heraldry, and so they left. The third one had been in the SCA a long time and was well versed in the basic armorial style I was discussing, so we cut it short. She was impressed that my basis for the entire class was two words; she'd never thought of it that way, but she fully agreed! Then back to the commons area we went, where I said hello to h3salthea and did another consultation.

I didn't have any newcomers for the dance class. As it was, we danced as a single set, which allowed us more flexibility to try out some more "artistic" variations and flourishes. The layout of the room wouldn't have supported too many dancers for Petit Vriens or Amoroso, so it worked out okay. I just wish I'd had a chance to teach the dances to some newer gentles. Then it was time to pack up. After helping clean up the site a bit, nine of us headed out to dinner at a local Mexican place (a good choice, as the two 9-year-olds liked what they got to eat). I never did hear that there was to be a post-revel, but I was pretty tired by the end of dinner so it was probably just as well.

Sunday was a day for sleeping in, and making stupid mistakes. Completely unrelated to that, my back spazzed out again about 1230. We eventually fed ourselves and the van, and ice cream also happened. Then we headed home, stopping at stefsoap's en route to drop off fabric, and also stopping for dinner later on.

We were pretty wiped when we got home Sunday night, but I had to stay up to deal with a significant problem in the front yard. At least it wasn't raining, but my back was not at all happy about it, and poor-quality sleep has been an issue ever since.