I've clearly failed at keeping this journal up to date, but I blame school, and work, and homework, and fun stuff, and...well, I'm sure you get the point by now, right?

In brief recap, by month (hopefully  I won't forget anything at this point..)

December:

The 12th Night celebrations in the Barony of Nordskogen were awesome. Soooo glad I ventured out and went! Much to our surprise, my friend B and I met up with a goodly number of people from our Shire. (Yep, live in the Barony when at home, and in the Shire when at school) Garb was indeed finished in time, but in retrospect, there are many things I'd tweak to improve it, given the time and opportunity. 'Twas fun meandering through the merchants and drooling over trim that I'd never use, for fear of wasting. Oooh, and the one lady who was selling her fabric remnants. I stopped by twice, and still managed to preserve the contents of my wallet. My closet, at least, appreciates that.


Pastor warned us that he'd be giving his final resignation at the beginning of a new year. Entered a time anxious pre-grieving while trying to hide it. We'll be losing a pastor after God's own heart, and likely a church that's lost it's focus.


January

Pastor gave his official resignation, last sermon will be on my birthday... not quite sure what to think of it, but I know I'll be home for it. Openly grieving and searching for a new church.

Back to school! Oh my goodness, this semester is so light  (and yes, that's with 10-11 hrs of work, and 16 credits!) in comparison to previous semesters. My goal is keep a decent sleep schedule, and be proactive about my teaching practices. Oh, and I should probably start looking at finding a replacement president for fencing club next year. No such luck yet.

Fencing's back in full swing with a regular attendance of... 5? at best. SCA folk have a better attendance rate then 'my' half of the club, but each has their own phase, I suppose.  Hopefully things will pick up.

February

Pastor's officially resigned now. It's a bit of blessing being back at school, where it's not a constant reminder. However, the thought's still painfully there, and it's going to be a while before I'm really 'okay' with the whole thing. Thanks, Ranelwen, for inviting me over for tea when I got back to school- 'twas a lovely tea, and good transition from all that had happened earlier that day

Spent a lovely afternoon crafting with and mutual friend R for my bithday (and R's). Plans were started for a StarWars themed event that fencing club will be hosting just before final's week.

The Shire went North for the Stellar University of Northshield- a full Saturday of SCA classes and the like. 'Twas a great deal of fun- I attended a class on persona building, garb making, English Country Dances, and I feel like I'm forgetting one. In any case, FUN! I know officially love English Country dances.... I probably already did, but forgot, now that I think about it. I did so enjoy dancing back in elementary school, but didn't want to admit it. Anyways..

March
The Shire hosted Lupercalia, and I helped! Well, I hung out in the kitchens for most of the event, and helped with set-up and take-down, but I was there the entire time. The usual kitchen shenanigans (hello, shirtless dishwashing men... I'll be leaving the kitchen now) ensued, and a great deal of fun was held by all. I think the idea of an all day day-board went over well as a replacement for an elaborate Feast that fewer and fewer sit through.  One of these days I need to get around to making cheese. Lady N's was glorious. Oh, but what am I saying? ALL of the food was amazing.  If things couldn't be better, it was a glorious moment as several friends were called into Court to receive awards, one including Lord M's long deserved AoA. Vivant unto all!

Spring break flew by. I spent most of it with my preschoolers, and it was awesome. I've missed my kiddos!

'Twas regaled with all sorts of stories from Gulf Wars as Lords M and FmB returned after Spring break. Accordingly, Fest mood's been off and on all month. Enough said there.

StarWars event planning is starting to pick up speed. Now that the track team has kicked us out of our fencing space for the month, we'll get some work made on making the posters ahead of time, and spreading the word.

So, the big news for this month. Several of the folks that I regularly hang out with ( and included) managed to convince me to join them in playing Pathfinder. My last argument of not having enough time kinda fell through the roof when they pointed out that I'm sitting through sessions (as I turn the events into prose-story form) anyways. So, yeah. Meadow, meet another layer of your inner geek.

You'd think that'd be enough, right? Nope! I have decided (foolishly?) that writing 2 campaign stories (still finishing up the last one, and will be doing the same for the one that starts tonight), 3 research projects and miscellaneous other homework isn't enough; not even if you factor classes, tutoring, field experiences, ASL club and fencing into the picture. Can anyone guess where this is going? CampNaNo, of course! My goal though, is a bit different this time around. I'm aiming for 30K. I don't want my schoolwork to suffer that much, especially as I need to get into Block 3 next fall.  I'll be continuing (read: rebelling) to write Idhrenaura/the West Wood Wanderer's saga. While I made a great deal of progress during my last two Camp NaNo's (yes, it's progress, whether I failed or not is... mostly... irrelevant), there's still a ton of stuff that I don't know about her, and her future.  

Misc: aka, I don't know when:
A fair amount of henna doodling. It's a dangerous thing to have henna in your dorm freezer, and two online classes. Now, I'm really just trying to use it up so I can make a decent batch that lasts more then a few hours after curing. That's why there's so few pictures.

I have the beginnings of a persona now!! Christiana Gailart lives in France in the early 1400s, but recognizes the English crown. She one day dreams of France being restored to it's proper honor, but recognizes that the best way to get along in this day and age is to recognize the English throne. She is, however, considering some unofficial training in rapier, just for a second blade to protect her family when her father is out, since she is the eldest, and has no brothers.

Yup. My life in a nutshell. Adventures all around!!