It was a pretty good weekend.
Aug. 31st, 2004 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdspiritlandExcept for the fact that the mundanes across the way from the event complained about the noise and made the drummers stop drumming for the fire dancers, The Long and Short of It was pretty nifty! For those few of you who don't know, The Long and Short of It was an SCA event that I attended.
I went to a belt favors class; the lady teaching it was doing it with cross stitch, which I already knew how to do. So she was telling the other students what to do, and then looked over at me and said, "And if you already know how to do this, just keep going..."
There's also the matter of my shirt. I only packed one shirt this time, my old white one. I also, however, packed the bottle of Green that Joseph made for my handfasting to Tyson a year and a half ago. There was still a quarter of a bottle left, and I figured that we'd finish it there. However, I forgot that liquid can seep through a cork. When I opened my bag, my old white shirt was now my new green shirt--the Green had spilled, staining the entire shirt pistachio-green and making it smell like creme de menthe. So now, I'm "Nellie, the Slightly-Less-Green-Than-Joseph". At least I didn't have to worry about deodorant.
Capt. Emilio and Esteban camped right next to us. I didn't know that he was as fond of me as he apparently is--I was walking down the sidewalk, and he yelled, "Oh my God! I haven't seen you in forever!" and proceeded to sing the "Miss America" theme song. I said, "Yep, I try". To which he responded, "Well, then, you're Miss Moca Sozinhia." Cool.
And finally, there was a bardic contest being held by the Harpers. I decided to enter--I mean, what the hell? There was a regular competition and a bawdy one. With the bawdy one, I sang Twiddles. For the regular competition, I recited this sonnet, which I wrote:
Sonnet Number Four
There is a sea within your eyes of blue
where mad waves break, white-capped and tempest-tossed.
Their storm engulfs me when I gaze on you—
one look, and in their waters I am lost.
Bare-ribbed, my ship lies battered near a rock,
with bare-ribbed sailors manning every port.
Lungs filled with brine, I realize in shock
that soon my ragged breaths will be cut short.
Once you’ve passed by, my mind returns, now free
from thoughts of shipwreck on the churning tide.
The fatal beauty of that scene haunts me
and brings forth a conclusion, long denied:
since death may be a blessing in disguise,
what better way to drown than in your eyes?
Now, keep in mind, this was my very first bardic ever. There were 12 other entrants in the normal contest, and 4 in the bawdy. And I hadn't practiced my song beforehand.
So you can understand how shocked I was when the judges announced me as the winner for best poem. And how much more shocked I was when I won the entire bawdy competition. For the poem, I received a string of mountain jade beads that one of the judges had made himself. For the bawdy competition, I got a book of erotic poetry.
I love historical reenactment, even if it was a sanctioned event. ;)
I went to a belt favors class; the lady teaching it was doing it with cross stitch, which I already knew how to do. So she was telling the other students what to do, and then looked over at me and said, "And if you already know how to do this, just keep going..."
There's also the matter of my shirt. I only packed one shirt this time, my old white one. I also, however, packed the bottle of Green that Joseph made for my handfasting to Tyson a year and a half ago. There was still a quarter of a bottle left, and I figured that we'd finish it there. However, I forgot that liquid can seep through a cork. When I opened my bag, my old white shirt was now my new green shirt--the Green had spilled, staining the entire shirt pistachio-green and making it smell like creme de menthe. So now, I'm "Nellie, the Slightly-Less-Green-Than-Joseph". At least I didn't have to worry about deodorant.
Capt. Emilio and Esteban camped right next to us. I didn't know that he was as fond of me as he apparently is--I was walking down the sidewalk, and he yelled, "Oh my God! I haven't seen you in forever!" and proceeded to sing the "Miss America" theme song. I said, "Yep, I try". To which he responded, "Well, then, you're Miss Moca Sozinhia." Cool.
And finally, there was a bardic contest being held by the Harpers. I decided to enter--I mean, what the hell? There was a regular competition and a bawdy one. With the bawdy one, I sang Twiddles. For the regular competition, I recited this sonnet, which I wrote:
Sonnet Number Four
There is a sea within your eyes of blue
where mad waves break, white-capped and tempest-tossed.
Their storm engulfs me when I gaze on you—
one look, and in their waters I am lost.
Bare-ribbed, my ship lies battered near a rock,
with bare-ribbed sailors manning every port.
Lungs filled with brine, I realize in shock
that soon my ragged breaths will be cut short.
Once you’ve passed by, my mind returns, now free
from thoughts of shipwreck on the churning tide.
The fatal beauty of that scene haunts me
and brings forth a conclusion, long denied:
since death may be a blessing in disguise,
what better way to drown than in your eyes?
Now, keep in mind, this was my very first bardic ever. There were 12 other entrants in the normal contest, and 4 in the bawdy. And I hadn't practiced my song beforehand.
So you can understand how shocked I was when the judges announced me as the winner for best poem. And how much more shocked I was when I won the entire bawdy competition. For the poem, I received a string of mountain jade beads that one of the judges had made himself. For the bawdy competition, I got a book of erotic poetry.
I love historical reenactment, even if it was a sanctioned event. ;)
