This week end was a bit surreal for me.
For many weeks I have been making a project for a competition in the
S.C.A. (Society for Creative Anachronism). For anyone not familiar
with this society, it's a bunch of people that dress up in medieval
clothing and get involved in things like art and fighting. It is
really fun, and fabulously geeky. My girlfriend has been involved in
this for 32 ish years. So she's been doing it a while. It also
meant if I entered this society I was going to have to bring my A
game. (I didn't want anyone to think I was a slacker, or that I was
the cute but stupid girlfriend) I also didn't want her to look bad.
So I decided that after my 3rd event that I was going to
have to enter a competition. Turns out it was tournament of the
roses. I purposely picked a medieval character that was completely
different from her, she does Viking things and I do Mongolian things.
So I figured out what I wanted to do, and found an online document
about how to document the thing I was making and used that to write
my documentation. The stipulations from the tournament didn't
specifically say I had to document anything, but my college
professors voices kept ringing in my ear and I just had to. I
created a calligraphy project. A rose in any medium was my task. I
painted a large red calligraphy roll with the Japanese/Chinese
character rose on it, then did a sumi-e painting of a rose starting
to bud. Then I got a little bit compulsive. I had to carve a
signature chop. I didn't want to “translate” my name, but
instead chose an artist name and double checked it with a Chinese
friend of mine. I carved it out of fimo (kind of a clay) and
stamped it. I gathered all of the supplies and brought them to the
competition. I was really rather quiet nervous, as I saw that there
were other competitors who had been in the SCA for years. They were
all fantastic. I was a little surprised when my name got called to
say that I won.
The other big thing that happened is I
spoke at the metaphysical centre this weekend. I had been anxious
about it for a long time. My family had been praying for me, and
friends. But as soon as it walked through the door I had peace. The
rest of the centre was a flurry of activity, and things were a little
bit late setting up, but I didn't mind at all. My talk went off with
out a hitch, praise God. It has been a rather full week end and I'm
exhausted!
