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OK, I have been very slow at posting this week. The reason? I’m freaken’ TIRED from last weekend! Whoever said that one cannot catch up on sleep hasn’t seen me this week. As uncharacteristic as it has been, I have been fading by around 9:00ish every night so far. Tres etrange, n’est ce pas?
The biggest source of stress this past weekend lay in the question of whether or not the weather and environment would cooperate. Saturday was the date of Gyldenholt Unbelted Tourney – the biggest event that our Barony does. And the weather looked gloomy. “Plan B” which involved delaying the tourney until a later date, simply would not work given the overburdened calendar. So there was nothing to do but wait and see. We had two factors that gave us hope – the forecast showed an end to days upon days of pummeling rain by sunrise on Saturday. And the actual location that we planned to use had really great drainage. Yet, these two factors provided little comfort as the heavens opened up, letting loose torrential rain, hail, and even some tornadoes. Friday afternoon was, in so many ways, the perfect storm for me. Between noon and 5:00pm, if it COULD go wrong, it did. Work turned extraordinarily stressful. The weather beat down upon us. Email after email flooded in to me at home from people (many of whom I don’t even know) advising me (sometimes politely, and sometimes down n’ out rudely) to cancel the event. And, of course, there were all of the last minute questions that came in from the boys regarding Friday night’s activity – Paul’s birthday bash.
By the time I got home on Friday evening, I was a frayed and freaked-out basket of stress and anxiety. Trying my best to keep a smile on my face and NOT freak out over everything that could potentially go wrong, I readied myself as best I could for the events of the weekend. Let’s see. I had event packing to do, and the guest room to prepare for the arrival of our friends from Vegas who were driving out for the event on Saturday. Oh yah… and I had to perdy myself up for Paul’s birthday dinner that I organized. OH! Don’t forget the present! The boys all had their instructions, and I had directions in hand. Once Paul got in the door and readied himself, I held back from venting in his direction about my stress as best I could, grabbed his brightly colored wrapped birfday pressie, and headed off to the White House in Anaheim. Arriving early, they ushered us into our own private dining room. I don’t think I even sat down before I ordered a gin n’ tonic – STAT!
The dinner went wonderfully, with INCREDIBLE food, fantastic company, extraordinarily cute waiters, and a fun time all around. Paul seems to have liked his pressies. I was particularly pleased with the one I gave him. You see, I gave him Consumme’ cups in our china pattern. For those that don’t catch the reference, you will have to look back in my journal to the December Victorian dinner for the full effect. By the time the dinner ended, the rains stopped, and I looked up at the sky with one last pleading request for a good Saturday. Then, it was off to the house to await what would be the midnight arrival of our houseguests.
Saturday morning, I woke up as the sun rose, revealing a mostly blue sky. “YES!!!!!” I thought to myself. “Yes! Yes! Yes YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I danced around in the bathroom seeing that it would indeed be a pretty day. At the risk of sounding cocky, I am SOOOOO glad I stuck to my guns and did not give in to the doomers-n-gloomers. So a hot shower and a quick load up of the Jeep later, I was off to the event. Arriving during set-up, I looked around at the field that had indeed fully drained. And yes, I must confess, before anybody got there, I did do the “We were RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT!” dance with my Baroness. Childish, sure. But gods only know, we needed it!
The event itself went very well, I think. Attendance was good. People smiled. A couple of little “incidents” were handled well, privately, and discreetly. And for the most part, while I had some anxieties throughout the day, I wandered around to make sure there were no more fires than there needed to be, and low and behold, there were not. Between a very enthusiastic event staff, and an amazingly patient and mature B&B, things went well and we all had a great time.
When all was said and done, I left site following the completion of all clean-up and lock-up, and headed home to what would be a house full of people for the after revel. I think that the last people left at 11:30. And this time, we had another set of houseguests who would be staying to attend a meeting the next day. Oy!
Sunday, we woke from bed to gather the group for breakfast at Pop’s – our local breakfast/lunch joint that I just absolutely adore, before heading to the Laurel meeting. Since I secured the site, I headed there a bit early to meet with the site rep and check on room arrangements. The site rep’s were just wonderful, and had done everything I had asked. The meeting went well, and culminated with a group of us going out for dinner and cocktails afterwards. By the time my hubby and I got home, I collapsed on the couch and was falling asleep by 8:00pm.
All in all, a very, very good weekend, but one with much more stress and anxiety than I would have liked.
The biggest source of stress this past weekend lay in the question of whether or not the weather and environment would cooperate. Saturday was the date of Gyldenholt Unbelted Tourney – the biggest event that our Barony does. And the weather looked gloomy. “Plan B” which involved delaying the tourney until a later date, simply would not work given the overburdened calendar. So there was nothing to do but wait and see. We had two factors that gave us hope – the forecast showed an end to days upon days of pummeling rain by sunrise on Saturday. And the actual location that we planned to use had really great drainage. Yet, these two factors provided little comfort as the heavens opened up, letting loose torrential rain, hail, and even some tornadoes. Friday afternoon was, in so many ways, the perfect storm for me. Between noon and 5:00pm, if it COULD go wrong, it did. Work turned extraordinarily stressful. The weather beat down upon us. Email after email flooded in to me at home from people (many of whom I don’t even know) advising me (sometimes politely, and sometimes down n’ out rudely) to cancel the event. And, of course, there were all of the last minute questions that came in from the boys regarding Friday night’s activity – Paul’s birthday bash.
By the time I got home on Friday evening, I was a frayed and freaked-out basket of stress and anxiety. Trying my best to keep a smile on my face and NOT freak out over everything that could potentially go wrong, I readied myself as best I could for the events of the weekend. Let’s see. I had event packing to do, and the guest room to prepare for the arrival of our friends from Vegas who were driving out for the event on Saturday. Oh yah… and I had to perdy myself up for Paul’s birthday dinner that I organized. OH! Don’t forget the present! The boys all had their instructions, and I had directions in hand. Once Paul got in the door and readied himself, I held back from venting in his direction about my stress as best I could, grabbed his brightly colored wrapped birfday pressie, and headed off to the White House in Anaheim. Arriving early, they ushered us into our own private dining room. I don’t think I even sat down before I ordered a gin n’ tonic – STAT!
The dinner went wonderfully, with INCREDIBLE food, fantastic company, extraordinarily cute waiters, and a fun time all around. Paul seems to have liked his pressies. I was particularly pleased with the one I gave him. You see, I gave him Consumme’ cups in our china pattern. For those that don’t catch the reference, you will have to look back in my journal to the December Victorian dinner for the full effect. By the time the dinner ended, the rains stopped, and I looked up at the sky with one last pleading request for a good Saturday. Then, it was off to the house to await what would be the midnight arrival of our houseguests.
Saturday morning, I woke up as the sun rose, revealing a mostly blue sky. “YES!!!!!” I thought to myself. “Yes! Yes! Yes YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!” I danced around in the bathroom seeing that it would indeed be a pretty day. At the risk of sounding cocky, I am SOOOOO glad I stuck to my guns and did not give in to the doomers-n-gloomers. So a hot shower and a quick load up of the Jeep later, I was off to the event. Arriving during set-up, I looked around at the field that had indeed fully drained. And yes, I must confess, before anybody got there, I did do the “We were RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT!” dance with my Baroness. Childish, sure. But gods only know, we needed it!
The event itself went very well, I think. Attendance was good. People smiled. A couple of little “incidents” were handled well, privately, and discreetly. And for the most part, while I had some anxieties throughout the day, I wandered around to make sure there were no more fires than there needed to be, and low and behold, there were not. Between a very enthusiastic event staff, and an amazingly patient and mature B&B, things went well and we all had a great time.
When all was said and done, I left site following the completion of all clean-up and lock-up, and headed home to what would be a house full of people for the after revel. I think that the last people left at 11:30. And this time, we had another set of houseguests who would be staying to attend a meeting the next day. Oy!
Sunday, we woke from bed to gather the group for breakfast at Pop’s – our local breakfast/lunch joint that I just absolutely adore, before heading to the Laurel meeting. Since I secured the site, I headed there a bit early to meet with the site rep and check on room arrangements. The site rep’s were just wonderful, and had done everything I had asked. The meeting went well, and culminated with a group of us going out for dinner and cocktails afterwards. By the time my hubby and I got home, I collapsed on the couch and was falling asleep by 8:00pm.
All in all, a very, very good weekend, but one with much more stress and anxiety than I would have liked.
