Resolutions 2021

I’m normally not the type of person that does resolutions on New Years, just because it’s a new year.  I tend to adopt real resolutions when they make sense in my life, which typically seems to be around my birthday.  Getting older does that to you, I guess.  My typical “New Year Resolution” is always something that should already be a habit, but isn’t because I never committed to the practice when I was a child.  No amount of dedication can crate the habit for long in my adult life. (And no, I’m not telling you what it is.)

Coronavirus Quarantine Update

Family activities!

Most of my life from the beginning of the year until the Pandemic hit in mid-March, was learning how to navigate the school system, now that A has come to live with me for the next two years.  I mentioned last summer that B and I were taking guardianship of her, and she moved in with us right before New Years’.  School systems are not designed to teach new guardians how the system works, and it sucks.  Since A is in High School, the administration assumes that parents already know what they need to know to work within the system. Parents get a parallel path of learning when their kids go to school in Kindergarten, that just isn’t provided to older kid’s parents.

Catching the rock

What I love

“Being asked to join the orders of peerage is kind of like graduating from a college program that requires you to defend your thesis. Except you don’t know when you are defending, what your result was, or when you’ll be told you can graduate. it takes a lot of work, can take a long time, and is a big accomplishment.” ~ Olyeg the Quiet, who was announced as a Laurel-elect in the same court I was announced as Pelican-elect.

Building a fire

One of my friends, who happens to be a survivalist, posted today that the first thing you are supposed to do when you find yourself in a disaster is to build a fire.  Not because a fire is the first thing you need to survive (water is actually more important), but because the act of doing so will calm and focus you, allowing any panic to subside and for you to make better choices.

Family Summer

Family photos last summer

Last fall my dad died.  While it wasn’t exactly sudden, it wasn’t expected either.  He was 70 years old.  I’m so very glad we got to spend a week of my summer last year with him.  While my dad had a will and had made his general wishes known, for the most part, the state of his affairs was not in a place that made his passing easy on my mom.  It almost never is, of course, but the issue was compounded by the hoarder gene that I inherited.  B and I made plans to return in the spring/summer (as soon as his work allowed a break) to help my mom deal with what was left. 

Carnival Glory

Our ship

Last fall, B and I booked a cruise with a few friends for this summer.  Deposits were cheap (on sale for $50) and B seemed less hesitant about a cruise this time around.  It was a risk, but had been too long since my last cruise, and I needed to let go of my ideal conditions.  After all, if you always wait for the right time it will never come – you have to make the best of what you already have.  Our itinerary out of New Orleans was 2 days at sea, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel and a final day at sea.  We had 34 people in our party – mostly SCAdians or related to SCAdians.  Despite some SCA drama that went down the day before embarkation, I had relatively little SCA talk on the cruise. 

Cruise Life

There’s magic in the horizon, where the ocean meets the sky

Cruising is definitely a different kind of vacation.  Cruisers will tell you that it’s the best of both worlds: the inclusiveness of a resort and the ability to see a lot of places.  You get to unpack once for multiple destinations, and eat and drink all you like.  Naysayers will tell you about being seasick, about all the surprise expenses on a cruise (and there are a lot!), and about feeling rushed in ports to meet the boat.  I find the truth to be somewhere in the middle (like most things). 

Peer Fear: my SCA Story

Social time!

The household that brought me into the SCA in college was a party household, and a non-Peer house.  The shire I started in did not have Peers.  The Royal Peers in the closest neighboring shire where quite uppity towards folks of my household.  So, I began my SCA years in an environment of learned “Peer Fear.”  We had parties that actively discouraged “hats” and everything.  Peers at these parties were definitively “slumming it” according to those in the household.

There will come a time

Walking with Good and Evil ~ photo by Kungaloosh

We are a small kingdom, with baronies only in the corners of our Kingdom.  Our Kingdom has this perception that we are family, and that means we all must genuinely get along.  It’s not just the expectation of a good working relationship, or respect for another’s skills, but an actual good friendships from all members of the kingdom.  This just isn’t possible for most humans. 

Kaziranga

Kaziranga National Park

What a delay in this entry!  I’ve had this entry half written since January, but alas, life got in the way.  I  was able to finish it this week though.  The entire reason for this trip was to visit the Kaziranga National Park in Assam.  This is a bucket list item for many native Indians, and my professor was no exception.  It is a national reserve for the one horned rhino and is home to a great number of tigers, though spotting one in the wild remained an elusive task.