Thoughts

From Kareina;

1) Why do you refer to him as "Bossman"?

Years ago when I met him, we were both in the US Navy. He outranked me but we didn't work in the same areas... so once we began living together and he'd bark some order at me (out of habit), I'd reply with a snappy, "Yes Sir, Bossman! Right away Sir!" and he'd roll his eyes and relax back into "normal human" mode rather than Bossy Navy Dude mode. Over the years the order-barking has abated and the sassy title has mutated into a loving nickname. Which no one other than me gets to use.

2) How and when did you find the SCA?

I'd read about it around 1974 in an article in the back of the book "Warlock In Spite of Himself" and was intrigued. A few years later I was stationed just outside of Berkeley, CA, so I called various departments of UC-B to see if any of them could point me towards the organization. The folks I talked to claimed to have never heard of it. We married, moved to Japan, then Hawaii, then Colorado - it had gone out of my thoughts. I assumed it was one of those organisations that had quickly blossomed and faded. Then almost 25 years after reading that book a member of my Coven mentioned a fun 'event' she was planning on attending but bemoaned the fact that she had no suitable clothing to wear. It was an SCA event. I sewed clothing for her, my youngest son, and myself and went. We had a marvelous time camping in the woods and singing around the fire, and there was no looking back after that.

3) If you were able to go back in time who would you choose for your guide, and where would they take you through? (Ok, so I liked the question, even if I didn't have a good answer)

Palestine during the time of Christ, guided by the centurion stationed in Capernaum who'd had the dying servant. As a Roman, he'd have the authority and wherewithal to take me nearly everywhere we'd want to go, and since he was compassionate I'd have no fear of injury. And I could finally see, and understand perhaps, the culture which produced Jesus.

4) You once posted about the hassles of changing which types of food you log. Are you still logging food and has the food log triggered any changes in your life?

I am still logging my daily food intake. It has become much easier than it was during the first few years, probably because as consumers have begun demanding healthier foods, they are easier to inexpensively acquire. I have found that my tastes have changed - some things I once craved or considered 'comfort foods' now taste more like dusted cardboard than anything else, or are so greasy that I no longer enjoy them. Many of my daily 'go to' foods have become habit to the point that in these last two months of coping with the withdrawal symptoms I had from the botched prescription, I almost ached for those and resented having to eat the high-carb starchy things which would stay down. Eating that many carbs made me feel unhappy and uncomfortable. Food logging has definitely improved my health and my taste (in a gourmet sense).

5) What is the furthest you have ever traveled to attend an SCA event/what event was it/any good stories from that event?

The furthest I've travelled has been from Norfolk, Virginia to San Antonio, Texas for a Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium. At the end of a meeting we found that merchants had set up in the hallway. Standing in front of one of them was a woman dressed in a beautiful gold cyclas and tall headpiece with veils. My first thought when I saw her was one of sadness, as a couple we knew had quit the SCA to dedicate themselves to their large family and I'd missed her so much... even after the years which had passed I recognized the gown worn by that shopper as one my friend had worn during her reign in Atlantia. I thought that it must have ended up in Gold Key and I was seeing whoever it was who'd borrowed it for the event. Yet when the woman moved it was with the same grace as Niobe had always exhibited. So I pretended to shop, hoping that somehow it was indeed Niobe after all but knowing it probably would not be.

I bent nearly double over those darned wares in order to see who it was - those veils were FULL! - and couldn't contain my gasp of surprise when it turned out to actually be her! Then she gasped too, her eyes lit up, and we hugged. She was there to accompany her eldest son who wanted to return to the SCA but wasn't sure about going to the event alone and she had not expected to know anyone in the event since it had been so long and so far away since her last appearance in the SCA.

We spent the rest of the free time talking, far into the evening. It was so wonderful to see her and to catch up on her life's story, and to compare notes about our faiths and the challenges in living it (she is of a fundamental Christian sect while I am Wiccan and her faith is so sure, and so steady, that she can meet those of any walk with acceptance and love. She does not judge.). I truly love that woman.

She and her husband are the royals who ended up elevating me to the Order of the Pelican. There was a news story made during the time of her reign (she reigned mostly alone since her husband was unexpectedly posted overseas just after they stepped up), so if you are interested it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMkvLG7ls0s . You can see her elevating Finnr, he who brought Viking reenactment to the Americas, in the middle of the video and the final scenes are when they stepped down, just minutes after they made me a Pelican. (Oh, and very, very briefly my eldest son appears juggling with his friend Sean - Sean is the one doing all the talking while Zack is far to the side, just a tall boy with a mass of golden hair in a ponytail.)(And if you knew her - Jaelle of Arimeda is in the video too, at Finnr's elevation.)

From molly_world
1) What has been your biggest challenge in the SCA?
2) Which virtue do you most admire? Why?
3) If you could give up one day of your life to speak with someone from your past, who would it be and why?
4) What outfit do you own that absolutely makes you strut everytime you wear it?
5) If I was coming to your home for dinner, what would you prepare to knock my socks off?

and

From laruse
1. What do you find is the most common misconception about modern pagans?
2. The Navy was very hard on you but what positives did you take from it?
3. If you could wave a wand and magically make one thing about the SCA change, what would it be?
4. I know you had back problems, and wore a brace for a while. What kind of problems did you have and did the surgery help? Are you better for the most part?
5. East coast or west coast? :-)

and finally from isenglass
1. Do you choose your protoge's/apprentices, or do they chose you?
2. (personal, therefore optional) How did your early abuse affect the way you chose to parent?
3. Did you know that you used to scare the crap out of me?
4. What advice do you have for someone who is trying to balance their activity in the SCA and raising children?
5. What advice would you give to a newcomer to your group?

( clicky clicky for all my nattering )

1 -- Leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2 -- I will respond; I'll ask you five questions (different for each person.)
3 -- You'll update your journal with my five questions, and your five answers.
4 -- You'll include this explanation.
5 -- You'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

For the sake of those who read so much that they over-run their friend's list daily, I've cut Geffrie's questions and my answers ( Read more... )

I'm afraid that I waited long enough that Tegan might not find her Inverview questions so I'm going to write them here. 'Twon't hurt my feelings if you skip this part:
1 - If you could spend one year being the elbow-sidekick of any person in history, who would it be and why did you choose them?
2 - I know that you're dealing with pain that keeps you from the art you love right now... what do you plan on doing once you can pick your torch back up (other than teach at Pennsic)?
3 - If you could take a person from history and adopt them as a baby *now*, knowing their path *then*, who would you want to parent?
4 - Do you recycle?
5 - Which color(s) do you find the most restful and which ones the most jarring in areas around you (or to wear)?


Okay, that's done. The weekend was quiet. I, of course, am directly responsible for the lack of rain at Highland River Melees because knowing that it *always* rains and deciding that I believed the forecast (thunderstorms) and didn't want to day-trip it with a 4-5 hour drive through that ... I stayed home. And there was no rain. Of course. Arn tells me that it only rains when I attend. But I went to Sapphire this year and didn't last year or the year before, so I think his corrolation may be off.

It's all Aldis' fault. I was embroidering on a Roman Tunica 'just for fun' because I was avoiding doing anything useful for a while when she called and we visited like old school chums. And now I'm all fired up and have been sewing my Viking garb again. While still grafting out the needlepoint cushion I'm going to make and also getting some guy-garb done for a friend who has been waiting far too long for his clothes. But the hangerroc has place of honor on the kitchent table (my work area. What, you thought it was for *food*?) next to my most recent read-it-again fantasy book, my medicine for the seasonal sinus infection (pray for me - I go to the allergist for my very first allergy tests on the 30th. Whoopie. I don't think) and my - - cherries! Yes, cherries, Ladies and Gentlemen, are in season again! It's tome to eat, to munch, to savour, to pick our few other dining delights by whether or not they accompany cherries well. Ah, yes, glorious, juicy, flavorful cherries. I LOVE this time of year! Just after they start to get rare, it will be berry season. Yum.

Arn's making two oak benches for our SCA life. I shudder to think. now, I don't mind oak. In fact, I think it's darn beautiful. But it's heavy and expensive and a total waste to use it to make benches specifically to leave around the baronial fire pit at Pennsic. And to think that back-damaged me or any of the barely 5-and-a-half-foot-tall women in my camping group are going to be able to move, much less put together, either of this benches. But after my intial questions about his project and his blowing-off of my concerns, I've shut up. Because that's what spouses do in such situations.

Besides, they're going to look really, really grand as replacement seating at my kitchen table right after Arn figures out that I'm right.

Heh. Oak. If he goes with the tung oil finish that he's considering, they should be about the same color as our teakwood table.


So who am I to tweak the genius with the power tools?

*grin*

The Rules
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments on my blog.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

From Kailyn, who started this for me:
1. Military service is taking a bit of a bashing in some quarters these days. What is the most valuable thing gained from your military service? The biggest drawback?

The quick and easy answer would be "my husband" since I would have never met him otherwise, but that circumvents your intention I think. I had to sleep on your question. I think the most valuable thing I gained was self-respect. I don't know how I'd be catagorized politically but there's a deep core of patriotism in me, an appreciation for how unique our country's philosophy is and how - coddled - a child growing up here is in comparison with other places. I grant that some places are "better" in that regard than the US, but most aren't and aren't in a particularily frightening way. We consider it abnormal, for example, that a child go to bed hungry... or be afraid for their lives. So as horrid as my childhood was to folks on the outside of it, I grew up with an awareness of how much worse it could have been and wasn't, thanks to the agency of our various levels of government. And I wanted to give back. So I did. And as Heinlein explored in some of his books, I feel that I've earned my francise and make a point of exercising and refreshing it every fall. Biggest drawback? Living in an environment that promotes crudity and bigotry. Until I'd joined the Navy, I'd never experienced such non-personal hatred from someone else, nor had it promoted by the people around me. Neither, btw, did I use cuss words or know the bigotry terms for other races or behavior traits beyond "nigger". It was quite an eye-opener.

2. We met at one of your first events. Do you remember the event and meeting me? What were your impressions?

Oh My Ghod. Um.... no I don't remember! But I have this horrid feeling that I must have done some sort of newbie stupidity for YOU to remember. Great. I have hazy memories of you in a scholarly context - witty, intense, and intimidating in field of knowledge. I remember thinking that it'd be a worthy goal to try to be up to the standards that you and your friends set at Atlantian University. But you know, I don't remember how far into meeting you that was. And you can laugh - the first time I saw you relaxing and bright with partygirl happiness, I was stunned. I had you pegged as someone who never relaxed!

3. You've recently become a double Peer. What challenges does this present to you?

Deserving it. The Laurel, anyway. I'm a button-counter and a bottle-polisher. Little of my private studies translate out to something that a person can see and cite as something concrete, someone who can help a person with their own studies or skills. I know that few members of the Order actually polled positive for me and I understand why... but while I understand it, I can't figure out how to remedy it. Displaying a level of excellence in Art or Skill takes concentrated and dedicated time, which I would have to deduct from supporting my local group and clothing the new folks who need help. And concentrating on one area of study would take time from others - there are too many others! So I'm trying to find ways to set aside "personal" time to really dig and get to do projects that fire me up and allow myself the luxury of indulging that creativity without feeling guilty about not working on someone else's need. It's a balancing act.

4. What’s one thing you’re not doing now in the SCA that you’d like to be?

A better problem-solver. I'd like to be able to help the mechanism that supports our hobby move effectively and compassionately yet not get sucked into only seeing the political/administrative side of the SCA - nor encourage others to get sucked in, either. When I'm gone, I'd like to be remembered as someone who got things done, and done well, by the folks who work in the background while those who are here just to have a good time only know me as someone who teaches embroidery or buys water and sodas for the Pennsic troll booth...


5. What has been your greatest parenting challenge? The greatest reward?

Shawn. Both questions. He came into my world so different than anyone I'd ever known and with such unique personality traits. Smarter than anyone else in the family and born with a physical handicap that prevented him from expressing it. Always overshadowed by a talented older brother to whom everything came easy. Shawn spent his childhood sullen and angry with occassionial outbreaks of happiness. My only goal was to get him through his teens without him dead or in jail - truly. It was so hard for him... and he was so smart that all of the behavioral training techniques dreamed up by child physchs were effective for (at most) two weeks before he'd figure out what we were doing and simply *disallow* their effect. Children come to us trusting that we're going to dedicate ourselves to helping them discover and shape their potential. I spent years mourning my inability to be the mother that child needed. I questioned my goals and actions everyday. The teachers and some of his doctors wanted to drug him into lotus-land - not because he was actually suffering from the conditions that would support those drug choices, but because they just couldn't find any other solution. I was encouraged to place him in an ultra-disciplined military school. To send him away... I knew it'd break him. Yeah, he'd turn into what Society expected of a child but he'd be a stranger to himself and his creative and loving potential would have had to be sacrificed to achieve that. I finally had to take a leap of trust and make myself believe that he came to us because we really were the best parents this unique boy could have and that the Gods and our Higher Selves wouldn't let me screw him up too much. That decision of faith is one I will never regret. He's outgrown his physical handicap and with that growth he's recovered the joy in life that he showed as a baby. He's compassionate yet upright, honest and hard-working at need. He's more than his parents were at that age. I never expected to be alive when he would be able to show the "him" I believed in. I'm so very grateful that I am.