How I spent my Pennsic 34
Aug. 26th, 2005 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontThe trip up was unremarkable, though I observe that traveling to (and from) Pennsic in the dark has gotten rather old.
The first week was marked by all manner of serendipitous timing. The first night I was there, I offered![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
blackpaladin use of my air pump for his air mattress, which meant that I actually *did* get to see wanderingpixie that evening after we'd spent a lot of time on Land Grab Saturday just missing each other. Later that same evening, I happened by Troll just as someone I knew was trying to troll in; it was his first Pennsic and his friends hadn't warned him he'd have to pay extra money to get in (non-member and first week charges). I was able to lend him the money to get in, when he otherwise would have been stranded until his friends actually found him. A few days later, I was working at Mystic Mail when a lady stopped in to use the service -- the lady who'd gotten me into heraldry so many years ago when I lived in Williamsburg. The rest of the first week went very much along similar lines: I would, by chance, show up some place where my presence was desired, or I would be thinking about how I'd like to see so-and-so and they would stop by wherever I happened to be. I got to troll in my kingdom's Queen, as well as sue_n_julia and quite a few other friends.
The first week had some rough spots too: a fair bit of drama, a couple of unhappy nights, and weather that was just plain oppressive. The first two days Heralds Point was open were unusually heavy (compared to the first two days of years past). A lot of the drama came to a boiling point on Middle Friday night; as a small part of that, there is now someone out there I have never met who I hope I never do -- and who I hope receives justice for sins committed. Beyond that, the drama is not really something to discuss in this blog entry. But overall, the first week was generally a good time for me. Middle Saturday concluded with an extemp party at Heralds Point, mostly courtesy ofsue_n_julia with contributions from Evil Kirsten and perhaps some others. I fell into a conversation with Richenda, which we continued for *quite* a while after the party broke up.
The good timing that had marked most of the first week turned almost completely *BAD* for the second week. About the only instance of good timing wascellio finding me at the Point and inviting me for dinner the following evening -- that was a most enjoyable time, with very yummy food, and I hope to be able to share meals with you in the future! Other than that, timing throughout Week Two pretty much sucked.
Wednesday evening of the second week, and Thursday morning that followed, were particularly rough for me. Somehow I managed to pull together on Thursday afternoon and sing well in the Choir concert that evening, but things pretty much disintegrated on Friday evening and Saturday.pedropadrao and especially sister_devora were feeling very similar effects. Finishing up loading the van and trailer in the dark, and going home overnight, did not help matters one bit. It has taken me this long to try to get myself together and post a synopsis with anything resembling equanimity.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Massive thanks towanderingpixie who really helped keep my last few days from going totally out of control.
For next year... assuming fate allowes me to go to Pennsic 35, I'll probably go, but a number of things will have to change.
First off, I will almost certainly drive myself. The benefits of riding up with WW&tP are far outweighed by the costs (in stress) of having to help unload, set up the merchant booth, tear down the merchant booth, load up, and leave whenever they decide to. The last two years have really driven that point home, and this year showed that last year was not as much of a fluke as I'd thought. The single-day packout on Saturday is the real killer. What I want to be able to do at War's end is to tear down my own stuff (and the common stuff for my camp), help tear down Heralds Point, pack my stuff into my vehicle, and have a relaxing Saturday evening with friends -- dinner and conviviality -- then sleeping on Saturday night *before* driving off into the wilds of mundania. The cost I pay in gas will be worth it. I know this will put added strain on WW&tP, but if I had to help them pack out next year, I just wouldn't go to Pennsic at all.
Second, I will find some other way to keep myself fed.sister_devora did a marvelous job of cooking the second week and she got far less praise for it than she deserves. But my schedule was too irregular to allow me the full benefit. And during the first week, the scheduling problems between me and the kids (who were supposed to cook the first week) made it even more difficult for me to get food from the meal plan I was supposedly on. Next year, sister_devora won't be cooking there, either. So I am going to stop expecting regular food from WW&tP... and will come up with some other plan.
Third, I hope we'll have internet access at Heralds Point again. Yes, it caused some difficulties at Pennsic 33, but there were benefits too. And one personal benefit for me is that I won't have to work at Mystic Mail -- it's nice enough to work there, but it was too much of a time drain during Week Two.
Fourth, I need to take most of a day off from Heralds Point early in Week Two. If I sound likewanderingpixie here, it's because she's right. I also think we should seriously consider changing our hours on the evenigs we're open late -- say, from 4-8 on Saturday and Wednesday instead of 5-8 Saturday and 2-8 Wednesday. The Wednesday hours really did a number on us.
Fifth, I need to consider getting new roofing and walls for my tent. Preferably something that breathes more than the plastic I've got now, which is far far better than nylon, but still gets the interior too damn hot during the day. I want to keep the interior structure (with the pipes and all) -- but if I can improve the ventilation and circulation without compromising waterproofness, that will be a MAJOR bonus.
There's probably more things I want to (or should) do differently next year, but I either can't think of them right now or don't want to discuss them in this entry. As it's rather late, I think I'll stop here.
Overall: not my best Pennsic ever, but not my worst.
The first week was marked by all manner of serendipitous timing. The first night I was there, I offered
blackpaladin use of my air pump for his air mattress, which meant that I actually *did* get to see wanderingpixie that evening after we'd spent a lot of time on Land Grab Saturday just missing each other. Later that same evening, I happened by Troll just as someone I knew was trying to troll in; it was his first Pennsic and his friends hadn't warned him he'd have to pay extra money to get in (non-member and first week charges). I was able to lend him the money to get in, when he otherwise would have been stranded until his friends actually found him. A few days later, I was working at Mystic Mail when a lady stopped in to use the service -- the lady who'd gotten me into heraldry so many years ago when I lived in Williamsburg. The rest of the first week went very much along similar lines: I would, by chance, show up some place where my presence was desired, or I would be thinking about how I'd like to see so-and-so and they would stop by wherever I happened to be. I got to troll in my kingdom's Queen, as well as sue_n_julia and quite a few other friends.The first week had some rough spots too: a fair bit of drama, a couple of unhappy nights, and weather that was just plain oppressive. The first two days Heralds Point was open were unusually heavy (compared to the first two days of years past). A lot of the drama came to a boiling point on Middle Friday night; as a small part of that, there is now someone out there I have never met who I hope I never do -- and who I hope receives justice for sins committed. Beyond that, the drama is not really something to discuss in this blog entry. But overall, the first week was generally a good time for me. Middle Saturday concluded with an extemp party at Heralds Point, mostly courtesy of
sue_n_julia with contributions from Evil Kirsten and perhaps some others. I fell into a conversation with Richenda, which we continued for *quite* a while after the party broke up.The good timing that had marked most of the first week turned almost completely *BAD* for the second week. About the only instance of good timing was
cellio finding me at the Point and inviting me for dinner the following evening -- that was a most enjoyable time, with very yummy food, and I hope to be able to share meals with you in the future! Other than that, timing throughout Week Two pretty much sucked.Wednesday evening of the second week, and Thursday morning that followed, were particularly rough for me. Somehow I managed to pull together on Thursday afternoon and sing well in the Choir concert that evening, but things pretty much disintegrated on Friday evening and Saturday.
pedropadrao and especially sister_devora were feeling very similar effects. Finishing up loading the van and trailer in the dark, and going home overnight, did not help matters one bit. It has taken me this long to try to get myself together and post a synopsis with anything resembling equanimity.Highlights:
- Getting to see sue_n_julia who I hadn't seen in at least three years. I missed you two a *lot*!!!
- Seeing other folks that I hadn't seen in almost a year, like liadan_m and Margaret and house_elf and blackpaladin and Mari, and getting to meet page_of_swords.
- Long walks with wanderingpixie; it was really nice to get to know you better.
- Excellent new court garb (thanks to liadan_m). So what if I had to get sewn into it.
- maugorn's busking all around the place.
- The improv scene by page_of_swords on the baby-name book entry for Alice/Ailis. (Ailis may hurt me for finding it amusing, but I did...)
- Birch beer!!
- The Choir concert. We nailed the Kyrie, mostly nailed the Gloria, and we even almost got the six-part Ave Maria right despite not enough rehearsal time on it.
- Being there for Brid and Andrea getting their Pelicans in East Kingdom Court.
- Working Troll.
- Juli, Marti, Elisabeth Laurel, Soileann, and the Heralds Point Gang in general.
- I'm sure I'm forgetting good stuff...
Lowlights:
- The weather, never the hottest I've ever seen at a Pennsic, but ugly nonetheless and never showing any sign of truly letting up. We didn't even get the traditional War Thursday storm.
- No giselle0002 -- and I'm not the only one who really really missed you! (Although I will be a bit selfish and note that if you'd been there, I wouldn't have gotten to spend nearly as much time with wanderingpixie.)
- Not getting to see enough of some people, most notably kyleri (and I didn't see much of siobhan1214 except in Choir).
- Most of the last 72 hours I was there, from when I got out of the new court garb to when we left the site -- and ESPECIALLY most of Saturday. 'Nuff said.
Massive thanks to
wanderingpixie who really helped keep my last few days from going totally out of control.For next year... assuming fate allowes me to go to Pennsic 35, I'll probably go, but a number of things will have to change.
First off, I will almost certainly drive myself. The benefits of riding up with WW&tP are far outweighed by the costs (in stress) of having to help unload, set up the merchant booth, tear down the merchant booth, load up, and leave whenever they decide to. The last two years have really driven that point home, and this year showed that last year was not as much of a fluke as I'd thought. The single-day packout on Saturday is the real killer. What I want to be able to do at War's end is to tear down my own stuff (and the common stuff for my camp), help tear down Heralds Point, pack my stuff into my vehicle, and have a relaxing Saturday evening with friends -- dinner and conviviality -- then sleeping on Saturday night *before* driving off into the wilds of mundania. The cost I pay in gas will be worth it. I know this will put added strain on WW&tP, but if I had to help them pack out next year, I just wouldn't go to Pennsic at all.
Second, I will find some other way to keep myself fed.
sister_devora did a marvelous job of cooking the second week and she got far less praise for it than she deserves. But my schedule was too irregular to allow me the full benefit. And during the first week, the scheduling problems between me and the kids (who were supposed to cook the first week) made it even more difficult for me to get food from the meal plan I was supposedly on. Next year, sister_devora won't be cooking there, either. So I am going to stop expecting regular food from WW&tP... and will come up with some other plan.Third, I hope we'll have internet access at Heralds Point again. Yes, it caused some difficulties at Pennsic 33, but there were benefits too. And one personal benefit for me is that I won't have to work at Mystic Mail -- it's nice enough to work there, but it was too much of a time drain during Week Two.
Fourth, I need to take most of a day off from Heralds Point early in Week Two. If I sound like
wanderingpixie here, it's because she's right. I also think we should seriously consider changing our hours on the evenigs we're open late -- say, from 4-8 on Saturday and Wednesday instead of 5-8 Saturday and 2-8 Wednesday. The Wednesday hours really did a number on us.Fifth, I need to consider getting new roofing and walls for my tent. Preferably something that breathes more than the plastic I've got now, which is far far better than nylon, but still gets the interior too damn hot during the day. I want to keep the interior structure (with the pipes and all) -- but if I can improve the ventilation and circulation without compromising waterproofness, that will be a MAJOR bonus.
There's probably more things I want to (or should) do differently next year, but I either can't think of them right now or don't want to discuss them in this entry. As it's rather late, I think I'll stop here.
Overall: not my best Pennsic ever, but not my worst.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-26 04:00 pm (UTC)I enjoyed the choir performance. That Ave Maria sounded hard.