Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Be very wary of Mr. Bush's effort to tame the press. Watchdogs can be mean, dumb and obnoxious, but it would be even more dangerous to trade them in for lap dogs." -- Nicholas D. Kristof, 2006-07-04 (thanks to twistedchick

I left Pennsic [I really need to update that page...] late Sunday, realized I was too tired to do the trip safely in one shot in so large a vehicle, and pulled over a few times for naps. Not great sleep in the cab of the truck, but better than trying to stay awake. Got into Baltimore yesterday afternoon and unloaded all the easy stuff -- what's left is to pull out the three 4'x8' platforms and figure out where to store them, and to figure out where to put the small refrigerator that had been atop the platforms with my stuff, 'cause that goes back to Virginia with the rest of the contents of the truck.

Between loading, driving, and unloading, I'm exhausted and achy. I still plan to go to 3LF rehearsal tonight (if I don't get the truck to Virginia beforehand, I'll have to skip out halfway through to take care of that) and HCB rehearsal tomorrow. Not sure when whether I'll get around to posting the many Pennsic-related bits I'd planned to relate here -- I also need to clear up some mundane issues, return phone calls, clean up my house, get my nails done (War was a bit hard on them), and try to catch up on sleep.

If I've recovered enough by then, I'd really like to attend the Storvik post-Pennsic revel. We'll see. For now, this much: great weather (I can only recall one War with better weather, and not by much), great to see friends (though I never made it to anyone else's camp to go visiting like I'd planned, and didn't see everyone I'd hoped to), better at pacing myself than in past years (though I've not managed to optimize that yet), some distracting drama and psychodrama and politics (both at the camp level and at the event level), a few souvenirs some war booty, sold a few CDs, got two tunes written (the aforementioned co-creation with Mike, "The Armigerous Goose", and another by myself that has the working title "For Want of a Catchy Title", which I plan to rename later), managed not to let any migraines get beyond the "you ought to do something to head this off" stage, missed John ap Wynne's ceilidh but did get to Clan Cambion's Celtic Happy Hour (which was lots of fun -- though I was taken by surprise that they knew a different melody for "All Things Shall Perish" than I did), only made it to one class (but a very inspiring class that, as a side effect, gave me insight into something I'd been wondering about for a while), heard the Known World Choir give a kickass, rockin' concert of period Spanish music, heard the filthy alternative lyrics to "Mother's Lament" several times, played snare drum at the Pennsic Ball (and felt guilty for not getting back to play for dancing any more after that), and watched the Viking Boat Burning from across the lake again (much easier to see with a 900mm lens (actually a 300mm lens and a 3x teleconverter -- I shot a few frames and then invited the members of the camp I was standing in to use my camera as a telescope)).

I still need to find out the name of the professional-sounding Middle Eastern band at the party on the other side of the ravine into the wee hours of the very last day of War.

It was a good War. Not the best Pennsic I've had, but a very long way from being the worst. It was good to be 'home' for two weeks, even if I didn't manage to do everything I wanted to do while there.

As was pointed out by several people, "Have a nice War!" is not a combination one hears often the everyday world.

I've peeked at my friendspage but don't expect to even begin trying to catch up until Thursday.