Golden Rose Tourney

[stitchwhich]

Best:
* Getting to help.
* ACCEPS. We had 123 advance reservations, of which only 40 were via the mail or hand-delivered. All the rest were via ACCEPS. I'd say that indicates a real need for general adoption of the program. I have some quibbles about the format of the final report but they are only quibbles, easily worked around.
* Having Marion the Red & Merwenna Maycock take over the troll table on Friday so arnbiorn and I got to go to dinner with Calli & baronessadriana and Amy & Chris, even though where I wanted to eat was too bland for some of them. I did get to learn that I like the rib sauce at that restaurant chain. Too bad I was too tired to remember which chain it was!
*I need to remark on Merwenna Maycock, too. She emailed me in advance to volunteer to help with the Troll table on Friday, specifically so I could go to dinner or get a break, then she came with her son, trolled in and gave me a donation on top of that, and only then informed me that they were there for just the evening, to help, as they could not attend the actual event. And then she worked, sitting between me and middleaston (see next bullet).
* Hanging with middleaston at the Troll table on Friday night. He'd come out to help, and paid to attend, just so he could help out on Friday as he didn't expect to be able to attend on Saturday. I was glad to see him at the event on Saturday afternoon, after all, after his school's graduation ceremony.
* Seeing Baron Donald MacGregor(!) for a brief while. It made me miss him and Fred even more...
* Lovely site tokens by Chris!
* The lady who gathered many of the lovely site tokens from many people around the field and put them in a little pouch that was made in Arielle's colors, then gave them to Val to give to his lady. May she enjoy her lap-full of roses!
* Hanging with Nia and duchessmel, even if it was for a very short time.
* Working the reservation/checkin desk (I'm avoiding "troll" this time for you grumpy ones) with Lady Elizabeth de Bardeleye debardeleye. It was one of those really good "teamwork" sort of days and I loved it.
*Seeing cbellfleur in her all new lovely red outfit, all handsewn of linen. It was a joy to see her glowing with accomplishment and looking so very spiff, too!
* Eating the dayboard food prepared by lordmoe and Matthew of Tir-Y-Don. Matthew took very good care of his Moe, by the way, Isuelte, and so did Her Excellency of Caer Mear - I caught both of them in the kitchen afterwards, with Moe kicked out - and Her Excellency wasn't letting Matthew do much of the clean up either!
* Seeing one of our barony members (and GDH watchees), Lord Ivarr, step up at the last minute and volunteer to Marshal the Archery competition. He'd told us on the way home from University that he was not attending the event so he could work the following weekend in order to have time off to go to Kingdom Archery the weekend afterwards - but when the call came out, he stepped up and took the financial hit (and the possible loss of the bigger archery event) in order to serve. The generosity of people warms my heart.
*Toothpaste in a child's hair. :)
*Everyone who trolled in a friend or loved one, bringing their blue cards to us or delivering signed waiver forms while their F or LO was sweating out in the sun, working. Do you know, I think all of the folks who did this did it with a smile.

Um, that bullet thing isn't gonna waork - I have too many "happy moments" to record. And a whole lot of friends I was so thrilled to see (Hi Elizabeth & Finnlach!)

Not-So-Good:
*Being surprised and disappointed at the number of people, and especially the rank of those people, who did not register at the Troll table. I know it is old-fashioned of me, but I truly do believe that with higher rank comes higher responsibility so it hit me hard, on a day celebrating Courtesy and Chivalry, to learn of Peers who had not actually bothered to check in. Especially the ones who were on the field without their waiver cards being checked. It brought sorrow and rage to my heart.
*Making errors while checking thorugh the 14 pages of attendees and ending up accusing 4 innocent people of not checking in - they were very, very gracious when they came to the desk and I found their names. Very gracious.
* Sitting with my back to a ladies' room that I couldn't duck into and having to walk out to a porta-john instead. It was hard, hard I tell you! But I noticed that when we told people that Lord Moe might not have enough water to prepare his sideboard if folks used up the well water by using the toities, everyone seemed to get wide-eyed and oh-so-careful. Even the ones who didn't partake of the sideboard.
* Seeing so many grudges clung to and expressed. Take those rocks OUT of your backpacks, darlings!