(no subject)

[anotheranon]

Jury duty let out early today. I got home and took a very hard 3 hour nap. I desperately needed that, because I had one hell of a crazy/fun weekend!

First move: driving to Ohio. I'm finding one of the things I love about getting on the road is the scenery that crops up before your eyes as soon as you get out of the city - rolling hills, misty valleys, the trees just barely starting to turn [sigh].

I get to hadesgirl and mjpg's door in this mellow state of mind and my jaw fairly hit the floor when jlsjlsjls answered! I'd not seen her since Toronto in spring 2003, and she and hadesgirl had conspired to surprise me. I honestly had no clue - and was very pleasantly surprised!

First night talking, eating yummy Italian food, and much more talking :) Got a (relatively) early night in preparation for the first day of the Knowne World costuming symposium on Saturday.

Saturday: JLS and Hadesgirl helped me dress (I need to do a side laced kirtle one of these days), and one coffee and bowl of oatmeal later I went to the hotel and promptly ran into shemhazai who took me directly to the Vale of Temptation (aka the vending area). I behaved in the book room, though it hurt, oh, it hurt!

I was very impressed with the quality and variety of classes. I especially enjoyed Kass McGann's discussions of both Polish and Scottish/Irish clothing - I'm still blown away by the efficiency and economy of cloth use in both cultures (ok, it's something only another costume geek could appreciate :P). Also she gave herself time to go off on fascinating tangents that gave the costume study some historical context. Indeed, all of the classes were so well done that my mind is still busily sorting and filing away...

That night, after feast, Shemhazai came back to Hadesgirl's place - I had wanted them to meet, as I thought they'd quite get on. I was right :) We stayed up talking about strange fic, pop culture, and watching the delicious BBC production of Tipping the Velvet - sexy, sensuous, heart tugging, funny - and now I want Edwardian dandy suits. And yes, Shem, I'll look into the Victorian corset ;)

Hadesgirl set up the sofa for Shemhazai and we had a relatively early night. H.'s cats must have been terribly confused - the human count in the household went up one every night, but they were down one cat (unfortunately, poor Billy, the little old man-cat, died the day before :()

Next morning up and about to make the biscuits I'd promised. They went almost alarmingly well - I've never had them rise that high! Everyone seemed quite pleased (be assured, my mother's are still better than mine)! And yes, Ghiardelli cocoa in carb-free milk is very heaven with these!

There were only two classes I wanted to go to on Sunday, so afterwards Shem, her friends S. and C. and JLS bundled into the van and went up to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Of great interest was the Renaissance ecclesiastical textiles exhibit, but I also lurked around the armor room and took a look at the recently acquired Apollo Sauroktonos.

By the end of the day I was very tired and sore (standing does that to me), and after Shem dropped JLS and I off we hooked up with hadesgirl and mjpg for some heavenly Indian food. Had a very slow moving evening with the rest of "Tipping" and some more chatting, including a phone call with timcharmorbien :)

The drive back was pleasant, but I've gotta learn to stop death-gripping the steering wheel - here I am two days later and my wrists still hurt!

And D. greeted me with banana bread seasoned with cinnamon (!!!)

I should definitely plan these adventures more often - it's a pity we're all so spread out and there's got to be a reasonable middle point. Also, I'm glad I got to introduce some of my LJ friends to each other - I like it when my friends get on with each other as well as I do with them :)

Bake off next time, definitely!

Comments

[hadesgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, partner! I'm SO glad you had such a good time. It was a pure joy to have you here. You and JLS managed to pull me out of the melancholy I'd been wallowing in for some time. It was a real shot in the arm, believe me! Hope we can do it again - and not a year later!

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I'm glad we managed to pull you back up :) You needed that, clearly, and IMHO you STILL need that weekend alone with no distractions!!

[hadesgirl.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'm planning for it sometime soon, just as soon as I can swing it financially. Mikey can have a conjugal visit, of course, but otherwise it's just going to be me on my own. Two nights of solitude and books and maybe a little writing, and room service and maybe even a bubble bath.

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

there's got to be a reasonable middle point.

Stockholm? London?! I'm happy to read you had a great time. you so deserved it! :)))

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Well, tommdroid represents the eastern edge of our friend-group spread and I represent the western edge. According to my atlas (and ignoring north/south factors), our exact halfway point is the west coast of Newfoundland. :P

If we allow for the fact that the rest of you are much further south than we two, our best bet is the Azores; closer to Sweden than North America, but the only dry land anywhere NEAR the true midpoint. ***grin***

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

No dry land = CRUISE! Maybe this lot (http://www.gothcruise.com/) would serve our needs. It's a bit further south, but better than running the risk of hitting an iceberg!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

VERY interesting (although they'd likely toss the pink-wardrobed overboard the second we set foot on the deck ... LOL!!!!!). Would have been nice if they'd actually had the prices behind the link marked "Prices" (yeah, I know, I'm quibbling ***grin***, but it'd be nice to have an idea of the going rates for this kind of thing).