August: Pennsic Postmortem

No, not THAT kind of postmortem! I'm alive and uninjured. Not even a sunburn.

As always, I had a BLAST at Pennsic LIII (53)!! I saw folks I hadn't seen in a while, made new acquaintances and friends, and generally enjoyed all the activities in which I participated.

I didn't take any classes through Pennsic University, but I led a productive Slavic Interest Group meetup that got attendees excited about having a Slavic track of classes at next February's online session of the University of Atlantia.

I didn't play in any of the dance bands at the European Dance Tent, but I did some dancing, and I was part of the Broken Consort that performed as part of the European Music Expo. That was an excellent experience. I played soprano recorder during our performance, but I purchased a used Aulos tenor recorder from a friend in the consort. I can play five notes with the left hand, but I need to figure out how to stretch my right hand out more to cover all the holes.

I took the Pennsic bus around the lake. I hadn't seen the lake in so many years. My feet don't want to take me there anymore. Pennsic is bigger than Disneyland (but not Disney World).

I kept track of my Pennsic-related spending (well, up to the last couple of days, when things always get hectic). This will help me figure out how much it really costs to go to Pennsic, not just in terms of the preregistration fee.

This year I finished the Camino de Pennsic, and I received a very nice pair of pewter scallop shells as a thank-you gift.

People gave me other things: a battery-powered fan, a corduroy tote bag, a cereal bowl, a cot as wide as a twin bed. I've given up on my wooden IKEA twin bed, because I just don't have the spoons to assemble it after setting up my tent and lugging all my belongings inside the tent. The assembly process is VERY finicky; the bed just wasn't designed for repeated setup and takedown. These past two years I've been using a narrower cot that I bought at a discount-type store, but I've never been able to get completely comfortable on it. This year I added a narrow swimming-pool float (shaped like a mattress, of course) to my bedding stack, but that helped only minimally. At times I felt as if I was trying to sleep on a balance beam. The new-to-me wider cot will accommodate an inflatable twin mattress and I should feel more comfortable in the future.

Biggest gift of all: one of my campmates and I made a handshake deal that she will give me a double bell wedge tent that she's not using. It doesn't come with ropes, stakes or poles, but I have the first two things, and my newly retired landlord can probably help me get the proper poles. Finally, a period tent made of white canvas!!

(The kind and generous offer of a tent came up after a long discussion over one breakfast, during which I expressed my frustration about water coming into my tent because the door to the tent doesn't close properly. For reference purposes, here's what my modern canvas tent looks like: 

 

The inner screen door is supposed to zip at the bottom to hold up the lip of the vinyl floor, but after [probably] 40 years, those zippers are shot. Thus, there is a big gap between the vinyl and the canvas, and during a storm the wind pushes the canvas outer doors inward and the water drips onto the floor. I've made various attempts to try to stop this from happening:

  

Plus, I still get puddles in the far corners of the tent where I stack things in plastic bins. The stuff in the bins doesn't get wet, but those puddles are still annoying as hell when it comes time to drop the tent and take it home. I was trying to brainstorm possible solutions aloud, which led to the tent offer.)

Let's face it, I'm getting old and I may have only a few more years before I give up on Pennsic. Instead of struggling with a tent that is older than some of my friends, maybe it's time to enjoy a better pavilion.

I've already found tutorials on how to put up a double bell wedge tent and how to take the thing down and fold it up. Yep, I'm excited!

I have another good story from Pennsic, but I think I'll wrap up this entry for now. 

July: Another month of two baronial newsletters

In the wee hours of Saturday the 11th, I finished the July issue of the Drekkar, the baronial newsletter. (Yes, I know I should italicize it, but I'm too lazy.) It's due between the 25th of the previous month (in this case, June) and the 5th of the current month (July), so this issue was late. However, I've been late multiple times and the Kingdom Chronicler hasn't said boo about it. (Sssh!)

Since there is no baronial business meeting this month, and therefore no meeting notes to publish, I thought I'd do a bare-bones newsletter for August and publish it on July 25, when I leave for Pennsic. However, I was just informed this weekend that the Baronial Letters of Intent NEED to be published in the Drekkar by July 25. (I guess I should heed what I've already published!)

So that's just one more thing I have to do before leaving for Pennsic ... on July 25.

Here is the "to-do" list as it currently stands:

• Write two short freelance articles for pay
• Pack everything I could possibly need for two weeks at Pennsic (which probably means drawing up a fresh packing list to keep track of all the stuff)
• Buy odds and ends that I need for Pennsic (fresh batteries, non-perishable food, etc.) 
• Sew some new garb that is in progress
• Get some stuff together for the Slavic Interest Group meetup at Pennsic
• Pay a couple of bills that can't wait until after Pennsic
• Put the August Drekkar together and send it out
• Download the music I need for either the Known World Choir or the Pennsic Broken Consort (or both!) and practice it
• Warp up my inkle loom with the next Baltic pickup pattern I want to try
• Attend one more Laydes Fayre rehearsal
• Keep the appointment with the cardiologist (who had better NOT tell me that I shouldn't go to Pennsic)
• Write a note to my editor about the freelance feature article I will be working on between August 10 and September 30
• Pick up a bin or two of stuff for the Children's Fete from our Youth Officer and bring it to Pennsic with me

Plus all the usual stuff of day-to-day living (cooking dinner, doing laundry, serving as the timer for the Greenbelt Toastmasters Club meeting, yadda yadda). 

The end of May

Right now I'm working on the June newsletter. I've written a lot of obituaries in my life -- mostly about old people, but also about a 5-year-old with a brain tumor, a victim of Pan Am Flight 103, and an elderly couple who died 12 hours apart after 49 years of marriage. But it sucks to be writing about a longtime friend. And not for the first time since I became the baronial chronicler in August 2024.

I hate death.

On a happier note, last week I spent a couple of days at Balticon, where I hang out with some SCA friends who don't go to Gem Joust, as well as non-SCA friends. I was one of the ringers for the Renaissance dance class that my friend Patches always teaches there. It was also a "Needles, Fiber & More" weekend -- a weekend every six weeks for working on some fiber-type project and reporting the results to a Facebook group. Dame Scholastica started this during the pandemic and it's still going on. I did a bit of knitting at the con; my inkle loom is too clunky to lug along to an indoor convention. I partially warped my next band, but I have to finish that. After all, it's newsletter time.

I'm trying to decide whether I'm going to On Target, a Lochmere archery event that's taking place this coming Saturday. I think I'm likely to enjoy it, but the weather might not be the best. Then again, we're still talking a long-range forecast, so things could change.

Finally, I am planning to lead a Slavic Interest Group Meetup during Pennsic 53. It will take place on Tuesday, August 4, at noon in one of the Pennsic University tents (exact location TBA). I might teach a class on Lithuania too, but it's too late to get it into the printed program book, so interested people might not notice it.

How things stand, mid-April

I enjoyed both Spring Coronation and Night in the Port. The latter was the Barony of Lochmere's annual rapier event as well as its Baronial Investiture. Laydes Fayre performed four vocal selections before the afternoon Great Court, and five of us Laydes performed an instrumental processional for the Last Court of the outgoing Baron and Baroness.

Yesterday I finished up and sent out the April baronial newsletter -- eight days late, unfortunately, but still better than my performance in March. This time last year I fell WAY behind, but my mundane-work-for-pay schedule was different.

Before I get any further, I should probably explain that I have several different "threads" of SCA activities going on, more or less simultaneously (or ebbing and flowing).

First of all: service. I'm serving as baronial chronicler. I'm Sea Tyger Pursuivant, the deputy senior herald in charge of education (though whether or not we'll have a University of Atlantia session in June is still up in the air). Those obligations aren't going away.

Second: Lithuanian studies. Often I shove this topic onto the back burner because so much else is going on in my life. However, I have a few goals in this area: schedule another Slavic Interest Group meetup for Pennsic 53, start working on a display or class about women in the medieval Baltic region, and maybe even start a website for SCA resources about the Baltic region.

Third: dance and music. I participate in the local dance group almost every Monday, even when my feet are hurting. I would really like to get back into instrumental music, because there will come a time when I am just too old and physically messed up to dance. I play soprano recorder and am trying to learn alto recorder (different fingering). I can also contribute percussion if necessary.

Fourth: weaving. I'd put my inkle loom aside for a while, but last Pennsic I took a class in Baltic pick-up weaving, and I love it. I'm slow at it, but I don't care. For once I am doing a craft that feels authentically aligned with my persona! I'm keeping a Flickr album of my work so far. I'm hoping to get as much done on the second band (gold design on a brown background) as possible before Storvik Novice Tournament on the last weekend in April, so that I can enter it into the competition A&S display there.

Fifth: Everything else ... making garb, fixing garb, knitting, making lucet cord and kumihimo braids, wire weaving, writing pysanky (called marguciai in Lithuanian), and doing all the other things I've tried over the past two decades.

Progress report, late January

As I promised at the start of the month, here's my report on the things I've been doing in the SCA.

Regarding the Drekkar: I published the January issue when I was supposed to, and now I'm working on the February issue. I'm thinking about getting together a memorial issue for Baroness Gracie in March, but I can't do that project now because I have to write a feature article for pay (nothing to do with medieval history!) that's due at the end of February.

The highlight of my SCA month was the second annual Highland Hearthglow, hosted by the Barony of Highland Foorde. Once again, the setting was rustic and cozy, way out in the middle of the woods, and the staff of roughly 40 people paid attention to every detail, from the Arabic and English signs to the handmade chess set. This year's theme was the Golden Age of al-Andalus, with food representing the cultures of Muslims, Christians and Jews in the city of Cordoba circa 900 CE.

Some things were outside the control of the very competent staff, such as the bitter cold outside and the Internet outage that prevented live streaming. We'd heard of the winter storm heading our way, so the staff began and ended the event two hours earlier than planned. The schedule got flipped around a bit, but nothing that ruined the atmospheric charm. I paced my eating a bit better, so that I actually had room to taste things from all four courses without feeling so stuffed I couldn't eat another bite. The dishes I liked the best: monk's beef, the fish and the rice pudding.

(Note to anyone reading this post several months after January: Highland Foorde may archive the website later in 2026 in order to make way for information on the next Hearthglow in January 2027.)

I'm uploading my photos of the event to this Flickr album. My apologies for the lack of annotation.

Today (January 31) was supposed to be the date of Lochmere's Midwinter's Revel, but it had to be canceled because of the continuing deep freeze. That snow-and-sleet storm that hit us on January 25 produced "sleet-crete" that is about as easy to clear from roads and driveways as slabs of concrete. It's been ridiculous. Total misery. We might get temperatures above freezing on Groundhog Day.

Because of the cancellation, I had the chance to attend a class through Virtual AEthelmearc AEcademy in our neighboring kingdom. A gentleman known as Lord Algirdas Wolthus in the SCA talked about the archaeology of medieval Novgorod. Really interesting!

2025: The year of unexpected change

Many a time I've started off a blog post by apologizing for not having posted for a long time. This time I make no apologies. I want to assure everyone that I'm still in the SCA, but as for other changes in my life ... I didn't ask for them.

Last Christmas -- December 25, 2024 -- I had a really nice day with my partner, Nick. We opened our presents, watched the Disney Christmas parade on TV, and had three great meals, including his family's traditional roast beef dinner with blue cheese sauce. Nick cooked it all. Then, after dinner, he started feeling lousy and ... long story short, he died in the emergency room. He had a sudden large hemorrhage in his abdomen (not his aorta, but another major artery).

Needless to say, his death flipped my world upside down. My SCA friends, from my landlord and landlady (whom I met at my very first SCA event in January 2004) to recent acquaintances, have been completely kind and supportive as I process everything that has happened.

Although Nick and I met at Pennsic in 2005, he stopped playing in the SCA in 2006, if I recall correctly. He was just more interested in watching science fiction on TV. However, he never stopped me from going out to SCA events and activities and having a good time with my pals. Since this blog is supposed to be about my medieval activities, I'll focus on that topic.

In my last post I mentioned a posh, all-day feast called Highland Hearthglow. It was a smashing success, with four well-documented courses of extravagant French dishes from venison to eel pie. (In case you're wondering, the latter tasted like fresh-water fish.) Candles on the tables and a gaming room downstairs added to the medieval ambiance. If you're wondering what the event looked like, go to this page for a slideshow, the menu, etc.

I've kept up with all the SCA events and activities I would have attended had Nick not passed away. I still dance with Three Left Feet and sing with Laydes Fayre. I learned, way back when I was a young adult, about the power of social activities to elevate one's mood during times of struggle. I had been laid off from my first post-college professional job, and I spent the wintertime weeks between that employment and my next job getting involved in the local community theater group, which was staging A Man for All Seasons. I was the "stage secretary," meaning that I made the rehearsal coffee, phoned people who didn't show up for rehearsal, and occasionally stood in for missing cast members. These mundane tasks nevertheless brightened up what would have been otherwise a dreary, depressing time of my life.

Anyhow... Since Nick died, I've been to a baker's dozen SCA events and demos, including Hearthglow, AwesomeCon (the "comic con" for Our Nation's Capital), and Pennsic War 52. I've had to make adjustments, such as sharing a paid pet sitter with my landlord and landlady for the two-plus weeks of Pennsic. (Nick used to stay home and take care of all the cats.) Certainly I didn't sew all the garb I had hoped to create during the winter. The fabric from Dame Brenna's stash is still in my storage unit, and the other fabric I bought during Joann's going-out-of-business sale is still sitting in a large bag under my kitchen table.

At Pennsic this year, I had a generally positive experience. Now, the first week ("Peace Week") was stupidly hot and humid. I mean, the temperature hovered above 80 degrees (F) at 11 p.m. However, I wasn't there for the entire week; I had to drive back to Maryland for a three-day seminar called "Quantum Information for Science Communicators." Why, yes, I really do lead an interesting life! Then I returned "Forward Into the Past" (an old SCA catchphrase) to find that the weather up in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, had changed. It was NICE! Lower 80s during the day, 60s at night, and MUCH lower humidity. And, unlike last year, no rain! Huzzah!

Through Pennsic University I taught a class on "circle dances," as I had done in 2024, because my friend Patches asked me to teach something. And when the Dean of European Dance asks you to do something, you do it. 😀 Also at her request, I led the dance portion of the Blue Feather Ball. It's the big social event for Clan Blue Feather at Pennsic. We didn't have too many people showing up for dance practice at the dance tent, but participation was more enthusiastic once we moved the dancing to the Great Hall. The ball organizers didn't have a wireless microphone, so it was a bit hard for me to make myself heard among the general din reflecting off the concrete floor, but I think people had a good time anyway. It helped that I had a good turnout of musicians, too.

On another day, I led a "meetup" (scheduled as a Pennsic University class) of people interested in the Slavic Interest Group. The group was founded at Pennsic in 1995, when the former Soviet Union states were still getting the hang of being separate countries and people in Western nations were just trying out this World Wide Web thing. The group's founder doesn't really play in the SCA anymore, so I would like to try to keep the group going. About a dozen people attended, although one fellow of Ukrainian descent dominated the conversation.

The highlight of my War: my friend Patches was elevated to the Order of the Pelican at Atlantian Great Court on the second Wednesday of Pennsic. The ceremony was outstanding and I am so proud of my friend. Vivat to Magistra Sonya Flicker called Patches!!!

Atoning for a long-ago joke

Long before I joined the SCA, I was involved with a fellow with a bachelor's degree in physics. I don't want to get into details of that miserable portion of my life, but I will reveal that he would call humanities and social-science classes "basket weaving." It was his shorthand way of putting down those subjects, and I doubt he was the first to do so.

Fast forward to the first week of August ... I went mundane camping with my SCA household, and I made a basket! And it took a fair amount of effort. I wouldn't compare it with other difficult things I've done, like taking graduate-level astrophysics exams ... but still, I had to pay attention to the details of what I was doing.

At first I'd thought I'd missed the basket weaving. One household member, known in the SCA as Faolán, taught the class on Sunday, August 1. However, I'd had other plans for that day and had to do some freelance work during the week, so I couldn't arrive until the morning of Thursday the 5th.

Nevertheless, my friend Johanna had bought a huge amount of basket-weaving supplies in preparation for camping week, and so on she asked, "Who wants to make a basket?" Even though I'd brought other crafty things to do, of course I replied, "I do!"

Now, these basket-making supplies were not in the best shape anymore. After Sunday's class, somebody (unknown, but not Johanna) put Johanna's wet wood and reeds into plastic bags. Trying to be helpful, I'm sure. But the plastic-bagging allowed dark mold spots to start growing on the strips of wood. Oops! Still, we decided to press ahead and weave baskets.

The first step, of course, was to re-soak the basket materials in water to make them pliable. We had to repeat this step many times as we went along, because even on a humid day the wicker starts drying out after half an hour or so. The actual weaving began with a 7 x 7 grid woven to form the bottoms of our baskets. Even though the baskets were starting out square, they would end up being round on top. (Go to your local thrift store to see how many baskets are like that.)

Some images of the progress:

I was amazed at the amount of work that it took to make the basket. Not exhausting work, not filthy dirty work, not intellectually daunting work -- just a lot of attention to the details of what I was doing. Johanna emphasized that we had to keep pushing down the woven strips as we went around and around, and that took some hand strength. At times I had to pause to deal with muscle cramps in my hands -- that doesn't often happen to me. Yet Johanna's advice turned out to be correct and greatly improved the look of my basket.

When I began the basket, I thought it would take just the one afternoon of the middle day (I camped for three days and two nights). But dinnertime came, and we were still nowhere near done. The next morning, I wanted to prioritize packing up my stuff so that my canvas tent could be dry when I dropped it -- I didn't trust the cloudy skies. And, lo and behold, I missed the rain and mostly the rain missed us too. But it still took from just after lunch to just after dinner to finish up everything. And finally we had our baskets!!

In this image, my basket is on the left, Tirzah's is on the right, and Johanna's is in the middle.

The next day, once I was home, I left the basket to dry in the sun. Then I soaked it in a 1:10 solution of bleach and water. That killed the mold spores and lightened the mold stains, which are still there, but much less noticeable. I may apply some sort of finish to my basket, but I haven't decided yet.

So, there you have it, my first basket! In case you are interested, I found a short history of medieval and Renaissance baskets on YouTube.

A few years ago, my friend Teleri gave me a copy of the book Plaited Basketry with Birch Bark by Vladimir Yarish, Flo Hoppe, and Jim Widess (Sterling Publishing, 2009). Apparently, basket weaving with birch bark is very much a Russian thing. I don't really have a source of birch bark, since such trees are less common in Maryland than they are in my native New England, and buying the stuff online would get expensive. Perhaps I could start experimenting with heavy paper or something like that.

At any rate, I have added one more type of craft to the List of A&S Things I Have Tried Since 2004. And never again will I make one of those physics-student "basket weaving" jokes.

This year so far, part 1

We're now more than three months into 2019. So far I've been to a a couple of baronial business meetings and a few SCA events in other Maryland baronies (Lochmere and Bright Hills, specifically). At the end of March I attended an unofficial event, Storvik Performers' Revel, which is intended to be by and for performers to show off their skills in a relaxed setting (and to eat the food produced by a couple of talented chefs).

At the beginning of January, I marked the 15th anniversary of my first SCA event: Storvik Yule Revel 2004. That day I met so many people for the first time ... and, strangely enough, quite a few of them are still in my life today. I am definitely grateful for how those people have enriched my life.

This has been another one of those seasons in which Their Majesties Atlantia have seen fit to bestow some long-delayed Peerages and Orders of High Merit (Grant of Arms level) on people who should have received those awards in the past, but didn't for whatever reason. My friend Janina Krakowska, one of our former Baronesses of Storvik, received her well-deserved Laurel for embroidery; my friend Sonya Flicker, who organized the 2017 Known World Dance and Music Symposium, was inducted into the Order of the Golden Dolphin for service; and another longtime Storvik and Southwind friend, Tirzah MacCrudden, was elevated to Laurel at Ymir in February.

Also, Baron Stefan of the Barony of Black Diamond became a Laurel in dance, Baroness Wynne became a Pelican, and a longtime scribe, Baroness Daniela, became a Laurel for calligraphy and illumination. I could go on and on....

On the personal front, I've been plugging away as a freelance writer, so I'm not rich by any means, but this year may end up a bit more remunerative than the last. (*crosses fingers*)

In the news I've found a couple of items of interest to the Baltic region. First of all, a 5,000-year-old barley grain was found in what is now Finland. So people were doing at least some rudimentary farming in that area back in that time, not just killing and eating seals and fish.

The other news item garnered more press coverage than the little detail about ancient barley. The Smithsonian Channel showed an hour-long documentary on scientists who studied Casimir Pulaski's bones and concluded that he may have been an intersex person. Casimir Pulaski was, of course, the Polish nobleman who crossed the ocean, proved his cavalry skills to George Washington, got promoted to brigadier general, and was killed in Savannah, Georgia. (Pulaski's birthplace, Warsaw, was still part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth when he was born in 1745, so Lithuanians could theoretically claim him as well.) Pulaski has long been a hero to Polish Americans; when I was a kid, my neighborhood in my Massachusetts hometown had a Pulaski Playground, though I didn't learn about the origin of that appellation until I was a bit too old for the playground equipment.

Apparently, when Pulaski's bones were disinterred so that his memorial could be rebuilt, anthropologists found that his skull and pelvis were shaped more like a woman's than a man's. It took a while, but finally the bones were confirmed to be Pulaski's through a mitochondrial DNA match with his grand-niece. His baptismal record suggests he was "debilitated" (or something like that in Latin), so he may have had congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), which would have made his body produce excessive androgens despite female chromosomes. (I'm using male pronouns because he was raised as a male and probably considered himself completely male. Given the relative status of the genders for most of European history, it's not surprising that he was designated male, even though he might not have looked like a "regular" baby boy inside his diaper.)

In addition to the Smithsonian Channel show, the research was covered in the Washington Post and the Guardian, among other media outlets.

One final note: Thanks in part to a post in the Kingdom of Atlantia's unofficial Facebook group, I've been finding a lot more SCA-related blogs, so that they don't all fit in the Blogroll anymore. I'm going to start a separate page for lists of blogs and other interesting websites. That will be a work in progress, so please don't expect it to look organized right away.

Links and more links!

Recently I have been exchanging Facebook messages about medieval Baltic topics with a couple of my Slavic Interest Group (SIG) friends, Mistress ffride (Kingdom of Lochac) and Lady Magdalena (Kingdom of Aethelmearc). As a result, I have lots and lots of browser tabs open. Before my computer's memory gets tied up in knots, I really ought to save those links somewhere and close those tabs. What better place to save such links than right here?

Without further ado:

Link that mentions the Gediminas Sceptre in the context of Baltic cosmology. I really wish this page provided some sources.

Academia.edu page for a Lithuanian graduate student in archaeology. Her name is Augustina Kuriliene.

A Vilnius museum's exhibit on Grand Duke Alexander.

History of the palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Some tiles from a cathedral (in Lithuanian). One of those medieval tiles shows a woman wearing what may be a very tall, flat-topped hat. In another tile, two rabbits seem to be consulting a recipe book while cooking a stew. In a third tile, two rabbits appear to be roasting a human chef over a spit. (Revenge of the bunnies!!)

PDF of a 2003 article on Lithuanian archaeology by Daiva Steponaviciene.

Website of some Lithuanian group called Vita Antiqua (I believe Daiva S. is involved with it).

This page seems to list all the commemorations of Lithuanian historical events that will take place in 2015.

Evidence of Lithuanian platform shoes. (Somebody wanted to look taller!)

Another 16th-century tile, this one showing rabbits fending off the hounds. (Somebody really, really liked bunnies!)

Finally, here are a few links that are not specific to the Baltic and Slavic regions but that I find interesting anyway:

The Tudor Tailor website is a companion to the series of books on 16th-century clothing.

Free, downloadable monographs on various topics pertaining to English archaeology.

A Web page on inkle weaving.

Beautiful clothing that one of my friends made for the Baron and Baroness of Dun Carraig (a nearby SCA branch).

And, finally, did you know that there's an authentic butterbeer recipe from the Tudor era? Now you can combine your SCA brewing with your Harry Potter fandom! :-)

As far as the rest of my SCA life goes, well, things are always quieter this time of year. Earlier this fall I skipped a couple of SCA events that I really would have liked to attend because of cash-flow issues. At least I had great fun participating in a "medieval maker faire" demo that Storvik was invited to organize as part of the University of Maryland at College Park's celebration of the 60th anniversary of the publication of Lord of the Rings. This fall Storvik has been welcoming a number of newcomers, both from the university and the region at large. And our barony is planning a performing-arts event in January 2015. And I'm still knitting socks for Lady Sonya's sock classes. So things are quiet but good.

My excuse this time...

OK, here is what happened between this blog post and the last one. (Some of it, anyway.)

The second weekend in May was the annual Lithuanian Festival in Catonsville, Maryland, but it was also full of other demands on my time. My dance group was supposed to perform at the Maryland Faerie Festival, quite a bit north of Catonsville, and a couple of friends of mine were moving their stuff from one apartment to another in Hyattsville, near Maryland's border with the District of Columbia. As things worked out, the dance group agreed to perform on Sunday, so I figured that I could go to the Lithuanian Festival on Saturday -- getting out the door earlier than I normally do -- and then see if my friends needed any help when I got back.

As always, I had a great time at the Lithuanian Festival. Someone had brought in his collection of Lithuanian beer cans, and I was amused to see that some of the brands were named in honor of the great victory at the Battle of Zalgiris:

I really enjoyed the tasty potato pancakes fried up as a fundraiser for Malunas, the Baltimore-based Lithuanian dance group.

And finally this year someone was actually doing a marguciai demonstration and selling basic egg-decorating supplies:

When I got home, I called my friends, whom I met in the SCA as Pedro and Devora, and asked them if they still needed help. Pedro answered the phone and said that they were all done moving stuff for the day, but he thanked me for my offer of help just the same.

It was the last time I ever spoke to him.

The following Thursday, Pedro had a massive hemorrhagic stroke. He had brain surgery to try to relieve the pressure on his brain, but to no avail. He passed away on Memorial Day at the age of 42.

I had met Pedro and Devora at my very first SCA event. Later he became my heraldry teacher; I looked up to him as if I was his protege, even though he never became a Pelican (he was the protege of Master Herveus, one of the SCA's top heralds). Still later, as his interests shifted toward his old love of amateur astronomy, he joined my science-writing group and we were once both on the same "trivia night" winning team -- our intellectual strengths and weaknesses complemented each other brilliantly (I didn't know which vegetable symbolized Wales; he didn't know which rock group had Paul Hewson for a lead singer).

Losing Pedro, and knowing that Devora had lost the love of her life, was like a giant punch to the gut in an otherwise good time of my life: I had been working a temporary job at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and cranking out freelance articles on the side. The loss has been hanging over me ever since, whether I'm practicing my heraldry, looking up at the night sky, or catching one of Devora's Facebook posts.

I didn't go to Pennsic War this year, not because of a lack of money, but by a time squeeze -- since Pennsic started earlier than usual, it overlapped the "crunch time" at the end of my Smithsonian contract. I missed Pennsic terribly, of course, but as we say in the SCA, real life always comes first.

So, now that the weather is getting cooler again, I'm trying to get back into the groove. Storvik has a new Baron and Baroness who have a lot of ideas for things to do. The Kingdom of Atlantia's Twelfth Night will take place in Storvik next January, which also happens to be the 10th anniversary of my first-ever SCA event. Anniversaries tend to make me pause and take stock of where I've been and, more importantly, where I still want to go. I may make some posts on this topic in the near future.

In the meantime, I know where I'm going this weekend: to the next Slavic University, again in the Kingdom of Aethelmearc. Woo-hoo!

Finally, congratulations to Lithuania for its election to one of the non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. And for the second half of 2013, Lithuania holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union. Lithuania is truly coming of age as a 21st-century nation!

Post-Pennsic Post

Yeah, I like alliteration. :-)

I spent last week at Pennsic 41 (the second half of the event). Of course I had a fabulous time despite the periodic bursts of wind and rain. My "modern" canvas tent, which may be as much as 35 years old, held up like a champ.

The Slavic Interest Group (SIG) meeting is always one of the highlights of Pennsic for me. Some of my SIG friends were missing -- either they didn't get to War or they were off doing something else -- but it was a pleasure to chat with newer folks, and a happy surprise to find out that one or two of them remembered my past classes on Lithuania. We shared snacks and booze (*smile*) and left with tentative plans to have another Slavic University in central Pennsylvania, perhaps sometime next year.

I also took an afternoon class on basic inkle weaving and even bought myself a small inkle loom. I really want to practice good, consistent weaving with constant tension. Also, I suspect that an inkle loom will be the perfect platform for me to practice the kind of pick-up weaving that I see in Lithuanian woven bands. However, I've got to learn the basics thoroughly first.

Finally -- and this has nothing to do with Pennsic -- back in July there was a Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival in Boston. Wow, I would have loved to attend it, at least as a spectator. I want to peruse the website more, but I'm just posting it here as a placeholder now. So many interests, so little time....