Mon Jul 4 – Happy July Fourth, everyone!

After a lazy morning with Dayle, clean clothes, clean linens, and car packing, I headed over to my sister’s house for the family holiday. She is our awesome party hostess, and it’s always a pleasure to hang out there for get-togethers.

One of my Ohio cousins has had his first child, and his parents were able to fly out to see their first grandbaby. Then my cousin’s wife had several of her family friends come, too, plus some of my sister’s friends from work showed up, so it was a wild blend of people who’ve never met each other but who all enjoyed having the kind of family that just invites everyone in. There were a half dozen kids running round the pool, dozens of adults gathered around the buffet or the barbeque or the living room, and of course a brand new baby to ooh and ahh over. And probably 3 or 4 digital cameras all going off, paparazzi like, and we all had to exchange business cards to promise to send each other photos.

What did we ever do back in the day of film cameras? *laughs*

It was *fantastic* to see Joan and Luke (my aunt and uncle in from Ohio)—both because I just love seeing my family, and because Joan was really sick over the past several years. And so it was just that much more precious to see her healthy now. She teaches Biology or Anatomy or something like that, in the local college in my childhood hometown, and it turns out that many of her former students worked at the hospital where she was admitted. So the word got out and students kept visiting her, telling her how much she motivated them to get where they were now. I’m amazed at the educational streak in our family, and this was just another time to feel proud of my family.

After spending the day with Jan, it was time to drive back to the shire for fireworks at Caelfind’s house. I found a wonderful tiramasu at Whole Foods, for my buffet/potluck donation, and got there just in time to see most people hanging out with the last of their dinner and/or dessert.

Most amazing, however, was seeing all my heavy weapons sword-fighting friends geared up for fencing. There are not a lot of places where heavies fighters will do rapier fencing, or where rapiers will do heavies, but our Shire is one of those places. I’m continually impressed with their efforts to break down the walls between different sword forms, and it warms my heart to call these guys (and gals) my family, too.

As it moved from sunset to dusk to dark, I ended up holding an impromptu spinning class with some of my friends. (That would be “spinning” as in yarn and fiber arts, not stationary bicycling.) It was very fun to be able to impart some new ideas to Morgana and Lynn, and even Mary Taran is looking forward to giving it a try again sometime soon.

The fireworks, themselves, were lovely…although it was really weird because there were so many (illegal) fireworks going off not only in the immediate neighborhood, but in three *adjacent* neighbor yards. The kids actually were more interested in the glow sticks and creating a glow-in-the-dark game of Quiddich on swim noodles for brooms. It was almost more interesting to watch the kids than to watch the fireworks from the harbor. Plus the fog ceiling just continued lowering throughout the show, obscuring some of the fireworks completely in half.

But all in all, a wonderful day.

Sun Jul 3 – Church was church, nothing new to report. Fighter Practice was fantastic, including the new stretching routines coordinated by Caelfind and Eogan. I still have issues with my left shoulder, and so Caelfind has given me some specific stretching to work on it and recommended ibuprofen to get the swelling down over the next several weeks.

I spent some time working with several different fighters today, and specifically sought out Bob’s advice on left-handed sword-fighting. His explanation style really clicked for me, verbally, so I plan to continue getting his input regularly. I’ve noticed that different fighters just don’t make sense to me in one way or another, but Bob has the kind of verbal approach that clicks in my head. Other fighters, it seems that it would be best if I watch and imitate their moves—visually their fighting style makes sense. And I’m finally getting a better sense of how to take all the different input from all the different people, and start distilling it into what is uniquely my style.

Morgana and Brian, Dayle, and I went to Pirate’s Grub and Grog last week, so this week Morgana, Brian, True, and I went over to Roxbury Deli for dinner. [There is something amazing about any ol’ hot gruel served right after you’ve been on the fighting field, swinging a sword!] And although I had gyros last night, the gyros looks amazing this time too.

Then I picked up some donated shire goods from Morgana’s, delivered them to Etain’s, hung out with her and Alaric and all the kitties, until finally exhaustion started to hit me. Hearing Dayle’s voice in my head, I gave her a call to see if I might be able to stay at her place, rather than drive all the way home. Morgana had offered, but I hadn’t packed an overnight bag, so I had turned her down earlier in the afternoon. But once I got that tired, staying at Dayle’s and doing laundry while we sat watching tv or chatting sounded like a wonderful idea.

I keep pajamas and clean socks etc. in my car, so I could at least put on clean jammies while hanging out. Ken has just gotten home from Korea, so I didn’t really want to impose, but he was sleeping and so it didn’t seem like I was causing too much of an interruption of any alone time of theirs. And Dayle welcomed me warmly, so I took her at her word that I wasn’t inconveniencing her. Tomorrow is the big ol’ July Fourth, with lots of driving and visiting, so I’m very very thankful for Dayle’s hospitality.

Sat Jul 2 – CP Prize was fabulous, and exhausting. I brought along “Coffee Bar of Splendor” and had a wonderful time making hot and cold drinks all day long. The theme of the event was a medieval pilgrimage, where you could get pilgrim’s tokens at different festival game booths. The kingdom newsletter (the CP) was hoping to earn $3,000, and reportedly earned $10,000 at the event. How fantastic!

Even better, some friends are hosting a weekend/camping event for a Dyestuffs Workshop in late August. I’ve been worried a little about getting my registration in, because the reg fee just wasn’t in my budget so far. But they came up with a great idea (because they kept coming back for drinks from coffee bar all day)—they offered a discount registration fee if I would bring and host coffee bar at the event. Done! I’ve already spent money on coffee bar ingredients, so I’m more than happy to host it in exchange for a discount (and it’s a very significant discount!).

After tearing down and packing up from the event, eight of us went out for Middle Eastern & Greek food nearby. It was an amazing dinner, so if you ever find yourself in Pasadena, I can *highly* recommend “Burger Continental.” I never would have guessed the menu, based on the restaurant name, but it was scrumptious. And if you’re trying to feed 2-4 people, try ordering the “Royal Feast” sometime. It came with something like 4-7 appetizers, 3-6 entree items, and completely overwhelmed the two people who ordered it.

Finally, I was supposed to jet off to rehearsal at the studio, but one of the guys caught up with me as I was walking down the street. We ended up sitting outside of a Barnes & Noble and chatting for nearly an hour. I finally got to learn *tons* more about him, giving me a better respect for what he’s been through and how he thinks.

It also got me thinking on the way home about how *I* think, what fascinates me, and the patterns in my life of the people to whom I’ve been attracted. You know how they say that women always go for the bad boys? Now, I’m not saying this has ever been a pattern I agreed with, but I finally put my finger on what it was about certain guys I’ve liked in high school or college. I just don’t *have* a huge dark streak or chaos streak in me. And so dark, brooding, intense guys are a fascination the way dangerous and poisonous things are fascinating. The ones that don’t smile that often, that I just want to make smile? Ah ha! Knowing this puts it all into perspective!

Yes, different people I’ve been attracted to look somewhat alike, act somewhat alike (with a few notable exceptions), and this usually translates into vague red flags for me. Especially when I meet someone that reminds me of my ex-husband. But now I really *get* why they’re all so similar.

So I ended up having a really good cathartic cry about some of this in the car ride home, but I’m much better now. *laughs* It’s always wonderful to get my bearings, to feel stable and normal again, and to see more about the world around me. I love understanding and wisdom.

We’ve announced Phase One complete! Please, enjoy the new website that I’m most proud of (and I’m so thankful to have learned so much from my co-designer!):

http://www.darachshire.org

* * * * *
Back to your regularly scheduled journal entries. *grin*

Well, that’s not bad. Just a half an hour to gather my notes from June, post everything, and start a recap entry.

Sorry about the “flurry method” of journaling, but since I believe that every new day is a new chance to make better habits, I won’t exactly promise that I plan to do better, but it is on my mind.

Let’s see, what else happened in June to catch you all up…

The biggest thing is that my roomie Mel and I are planning to move out and get our own place. Our third roomie is dating this guy who moved in with us. We said we would give it a try, and it’s really too small an apartment to have four people and two cats. (Felines, not me. *grin*) So Mel wrote me an email one Wednesday with “Do you think our apartment is too crowded? Would you like to move out?” and then we spoke to our roomies that night. Well, actually only Mel and Mer and Geoff spoke because they started without me. But the misunderstandings were cleared up when I got to talk to Mer late that night (a chance meeting in the kitchen) and then both of them on Thursday night.

They’re going to try and find someone to move in with them since Geoff really doesn’t want to have to move again. (I don’t blame him, I had three addresses in 2004 so I know how tough it is.) Mel has been doing a lot of walking around our neighborhood, checking all the “For Rent” signs and looking at apartments. So far we’ve looked at five places, put in an application on one, and are considering a second one. July’s going to be tough because if we really get a new place, we may have to pay rent on two places at the same time for a while. But I think this is going to be a healthy move for all of us—they’ll have room for all of Geoff’s stuff, plus they just got engaged!, and Mel and I will have room to spread out a little too.

Mel is even planning to help me dig into all my storage boxes and finally get rid of stuff I no longer need to be toting around, which thrills me to no end. I’ll get to unpack all my books, which I’ve put off doing since we’re suddenly planning to move.

Adventures in June also included two additional fighter practices: First, one week that I just used a sword to do slow-work (learn to move the sword correctly all in slow motion). Thomas and I also did a ton of javelin practice, and I was just bouncing with excitement. Literally, jumping up and down happier than I’ve been in years.

And then an old friend, Angus, has decided to sell all his SCA stuff because he can no longer fight (more medical reasons to put down the sword). So he opened up his backyard to the Shire for a yard sale last Sunday, and I got there really really early with the intention of buying armor. Most especially, I was hoping to get a helm. And I was in luck! I bought a helm!!

After the yard sale, we all headed back over to the park for the actual fighter practice, and I wore my new helm for the majority of the afternoon. I did more slow sword work, some work at the pell (a practice form that you hit), and got quite a bit of instruction from both Wilhelm and Sabas. The hard thing about getting into fighting is that everyone has advice, and I’m having to re-learn to filter and soak up the knowledge without feeling scattered about it. But the guys are so well meaning, and have even written emails apologizing for confusing me. It wasn’t exactly a confusion, but just a “gee, how do you guys do it when everyone tells you something different about fighting?”

I also got some great advice about how to re-do the padding in my helm, how to get the rust off the helm, and all that. It is so much fun getting back into all this!! Yippee!!

And finally, on the fighting front, some friends of mine are also gymnastics coaches. They’re going to help us all learn how to work out, stretch, and recover from injuries so that we can be better at our fighting. Rather than just be “weekend warriors” we’re all going to learn how to workout during the week to afford the energy to do the sword-fighting on the weekends. There are a couple of guys who do this (workout 5x a week to be capable of this sword hobby we love so much) and they are incredible inspirations to us all. I’m glad that my excitement about fighting is happened at the same time all my friends are going through a revival on how to do this *safely* and *correctly* because I know that my fighting experience is going to go on a healthy path.

Work has been a very swamped experience lately—mostly because they gave me a project I absolutely loved working on, and they gave me someone else’s project because he had to leave town to be with family. So I’m working long hours and enjoying my work, but it’s tough to squeeze everything else in at the same time.

Some other bits of my past month: A 40th birthday party and celebration of chocolate with Brian and with Elizabeth. Saw two live shows at my Mom and sister’s community theatre, got to spend the night at my sister’s and spend some time with my nieces. Dinner with a co-worker from my last job—she and I are going to set weekly goals for working out and eating right and check in with each other regularly for encouragement and accountability. Dinner with a shire friend who has been driving between Ventura and San Diego to see her grandson. So she stops off in Orange County for a dinner break, and we got to catch up on life together. I may try to go swimming with her when I’m in town on the weekends.

And the big project this past month: Hope and I have completely redesigned the shire website. We’re launching the redesign today, so if you go to www.darachshire.org you might see our “Be Right Back!” page, or later in the day you’ll finally see the new re-design. When the new site is finally up, go to the “Webwright’s Page” and click “Refresh” on your browser… you’ll see the photos on that page rotate between four images of Hope, me, and Hope and me together. One of them is really really silly, so enjoy.

That’s it. Those are the highlights for June, and Happy July everyone.