A delayed update
Sep. 12th, 2005 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badseed1980FINALLY! Internet is back up here at work. Now I can finally post this lovely long entry, written last Thursday, which I had saved as a text file. Without further ado...
STONES
So, the vacation is over and here I sit at work. *Yawn*. After the past week, I'm glad I only have two days of work before the weekend. The short version: Stones Rising was wonderful, in spite of a few scary bits. Absolutely wonderful. For the long version,
After what seemed like an endless workday last Tuesday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pierceheart picked me up at Wellington Station for the first stage of the drive. We ate at a seafood joint that he remembered fondly from his childhood. Alas, while his food was quite good, mine was mediocre. We spent the night at his parents' place, and got out on the road fairly early the next morning.
The drive was pretty much uneventful.pierceheart drove like a demon, and we got to the Farm by mid-afternoon. As soon as we got near the Coffee Dragons (a canopied area where the amazing Mama and Grandpa Dragon serve donation-funded coffee at all hours), we were ambushed by p_firesinger, elissa_carey, and opal_kitten for hugs and greetings. It was wonderful to see them all again. We ran into others as well in the process of making our way down to our campsite. When we got there, E confirmed that we were welcome to set our tents up in the area behind her site, since our usual area was taken. Yay! We took out my family's Tent Mahal first, and got it set up. We had just begun working on the fly when I heard a buzzing around me. Sounded like a fly. I tossed my hair to get rid of it. Shortly thereafter, I felt a sharp pain in my arm. Ow! What the fuck? Then another, in my leg. Then another and another, all over my limbs. I was freaked. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I gave a shriek and ran for E's campsite, where I discovered that I was being chased by a swarm of bees. E, along with her neighbours, helped brush them off me. Shortly thereafter, pierceheart dashed into E's campsite too. I got stung eight times. pierceheart got three, and E got two. Apparently, we'd set up next to a nest in the ground. Fuck. Fortunately, a great guy who HATES ground wasps nuked the nest that evening. Even so, setting up pierceheart's tent behind lothiriel_1 and mine a little ways down from her, seemed like a safer move. That night, we went to an opening ritual led by p_firesinger and elissa_carey, and danced at the fire circle. I let a young girl wear my new jingly coin belt for a while, since she kept eyeing me when I was dancing with it, in a semi-belly dancer outfit. It's fun to put a smile on a kid's face.
Thursday, the work started.pierceheart did stuff with a big rock. I tried to find something else to do. When I was unsuccessful, I took the time to sort of putter around until he was done. That evening, we hit the Yurt for a party with p_firesinger, elissa_carey, and opal_kitten. 'Twas fun. However, I will never again drink wine from a wineskin except in occasional sips. When you're holding an opaque container full of red wine instead of a glass, you can't see the level of the liquid change. Oops. Woke up feeling ooky the next morning.
That said, Friday was when the REAL fun started. I worked withpierceheart on the Megalithic Practicum, that is, hands-on experience with the big rocks on an up-close-and-personal level. I helped use pry bars to lever a 6000 pound stone, learned about how chunks of wood are used for cribbage to keep that puppy in the air, got used to quickly moving rollers from the rear to the front to keep the stone moving, and hauled on a towline to turn the thing around on its pivot point like a top. YAY!!!! The stone's enormous size and odd shape made it damned ornery. I believe two prybars and a rope were broken on that stone, as was a chain. Although it had already been dubbed "Great White", we ended up calling it "The Bitch". Inevitably, perhaps. Friday evening, pierceheart took some time out from the large group activities to hold our own private New Moon ritual. Of course, all our tools weren't as good as could be desired, nor were all of them even consecrated. We forgot some words, and occasionally had moments of, "wait, what goes next?" All in all, though, it was amazing. After that, we attended the evening's ritual: a Shabbat ritual that was quite interesting. We then walked along a dark and narrow path to see many beautiful shrines that wee set up like little bright spots in the night. We finally came to the place where the second stone had been set for the Night Pull. When we all gathered together, we took the ropes and began to haul, singing as we went. It was a joyful experience. Our Fearless Leader, OPW, did little and said less, yet somehow we managed to do almost the entire distance to the Circle without a hitch. We pulled by the light of the torches, and entered the circle still singing. It was so fast and so easy, and so good. After the pull, we went to the Yurt again, this time joined by bittercat and her friend F as well as the Yurt clan. We had a hell of a time, laughing and talking late into the night.
Saturday dawned beautiful again. We slept in a bit late, and ended up eating bison burgers and sausage with E and company (too many names to list them all) for brunch. Then it was time for the Long Pull. This started down in our area, the Big Bottom, and went all the way up the hill by the kitchen to the Stone Circle. We started out great. We laughed as we went, and teased all the people who stood by the roadside watching us, taunting them to get off their lazy arses and grab a rope. When we arrived at the showers, the infamous Juggler (whose mission is to cause us to fail in every pull and rising, though it's really a way of encouraging us) said something that brought tears to my eyes. See, every year, they put signs on the pathways where we do the Long Pull. They use cornmeal to put, oh, stuff like how far we've come at that point and the like. This year, the cornmeal under our feet as we pulled the stone had been mixed with some oftmchassells's ashes. In a way, I think it reminded all of us that his spirit was with us as we worked to make the circle grow. The hill by the kitchen was tough. OPW knew it would be. He bet us $20 we wouldn't be able to make it up in one go. Lots of people saw his bet. When we started the pull, it was obvious we had enough power to do it. We roared and yelled as we dragged that rock. With all the noise, no one heard the scream to stop until a bunch of people were yelling it at once. It turned out a girl who was at Stones for the first time had fallen, and was almost dragged under the stone. Only her hanging on to the rope saved her from a messy death or maiming. This reinforced my belief that people should NOT be that close to the stone until they've done a few pulls. Fortunately, she was fine, though shaken. We had so much power going that we finished the pull surprisingly early. lothiriel_1 did an amazing Highland sword dance for us in the circle while E piped a tune. lothiriel_1 is a natural performer. I saw the way she got high off the audience's energy. Yeah, I can dig that. :)
That night was a short ceremony involving a mournful tune from E on the pipes, and a giveaway of tiny leather medicine bags. We brought the little bags on a tour of many different altars which had been set up all around the Farm. We put small chips of the Stones into them, along with sacred herbs, sea salt, earth, etc. It was beautiful. Thenpierceheart and I returned to the Stone Circle for our shift on the Warriors' Vigil. It was quiet. When it was over, we stopped by the fire circle briefly before stumbling off to bed, thoroughly exhausted. At 4am, I half-woke to find pierceheart throwing his clothes on and leaving the tent. I assumed he was heading for the bathroom, and fell asleep again, my earplugs blocking all sound. When he came back into the tent, I woke again. He got into bed, and since he felt cold to the touch, I wrapped myself around him to warm him up. He said something, so I took out my earplugs. He was shaking not from the cold, but from an adrenaline rush. He told me what had gone on: a fire started at a campsite a ways out from us. Two small propane cylinders blew, and people were screaming. He and some others dashed to the rescue, putting out the fire with sand and earth, but not before it destroyed most of that campsite's kitchen tent. Thank the gods, no one was hurt. That's my sweetie: he may wish he could stay in bed and go back to sleep, but when he's needed, he throws himself into the situation and helps out. I'm proud of him.
Sunday, afterpierceheart and I painted ourselves with woad, we all met for the ceremony in which we honoured the vigil-keepers: warriors, drummers, dancers, bakers, etc. We broke bread all together in the morning sun, feasting on the yummy loaves with butter and honey. We filed into the Circle, and soon began the Rising. We hoisted the two remaining stones into place almost without a hitch. We finished so early, that we had about an hour and a half until the kitchen would be ready for us for the feast! Feast was good, and welcome: I was bloody ravenous. Afterwards, we went to the ceremony of the Consecration of the new stones. Then it was party time. The boy and I went to a friend's campsite for drinks, fire, drumming, and dancing. The party started small, but grew in noise, energy, and guests. There was howling at the moon. There were slower periods of drumming, with flute accompaniment, where I got into my belly-dancing stride and did a sorta chiftitelli kinda thing, though it was a different rhythm. Our friends A and M brought a teeny kitten they had adopted--a stray found nearby--and pierceheart and I were named official kittysitters. Few things rival the sheer squeeful joy of a few-weeks-old kitten sleeping curled up against your chest. *bliss* When 3am came around, I wasn't really even tired, the energy was so high, but the boy and I headed back to our tent so we could get enough sleep to face the next day.
Monday began, like the previous Monday ended, in a flurry of packing. Then came food. Then came the closing ritual. The words and the songs made us cry. When it was over, there were LOTS of goodbyes to say. We said them sadly. Then we finished packing, went to shower, and garbed ourselves for the Maryland RenFest. We got out of the Farm much later than we'd intended, and for a while were afraid we'd miss the RenFest entirely. Butpierceheart's demonic driving and our error in the faire's closing time saved the day. Sadly, we missed seeing L there because he was hurtin' for certain, and in no shape to stay all day to meet us. We ran into other friends of pierceheart's, though. One of them who worked at the RenFest offered to let the boy fire one of the cannons at the closing of the faire. Can you say "kid in a candy store"? :) My boy made a BIG bang, and no one got blown up. He was PSYCHED. After that, we headed for the Royal Mile in our garb, looking forward to real Maryland crab cakes and nummy scotch. Alas, they were OUT of crab cakes! AND out of the first three scotches we asked for! AND out of the dessert we asked for! Plus, my menu was out of date and half missing. What a letdown. Fortunately, our fish and chips were tasty, and the scotches we finally got were very good indeed. Then we headed to the boy's parents' Maryland place, where we spent the night (they were still in Connecticut).
We got out early in the morning and began the long drive. When we got to Connecticut, my poor boy was road-fried. We stayed the night with his parents again, and were on the road early. He dropped me off to unpack and do laundry, and then joined me for grocery shopping and cooking: Thai coconut-lemongrass-ginger grilled swordfish, noodles with spicy peanut sauce, and grilled veggie kebabs. MMMMMMMM.
Now real life has started up again. This entry is long, but I really wanted to put it all out there to remember. :) And now, back to work.
STONES
So, the vacation is over and here I sit at work. *Yawn*. After the past week, I'm glad I only have two days of work before the weekend. The short version: Stones Rising was wonderful, in spite of a few scary bits. Absolutely wonderful. For the long version,
After what seemed like an endless workday last Tuesday,
pierceheart picked me up at Wellington Station for the first stage of the drive. We ate at a seafood joint that he remembered fondly from his childhood. Alas, while his food was quite good, mine was mediocre. We spent the night at his parents' place, and got out on the road fairly early the next morning.The drive was pretty much uneventful.
pierceheart drove like a demon, and we got to the Farm by mid-afternoon. As soon as we got near the Coffee Dragons (a canopied area where the amazing Mama and Grandpa Dragon serve donation-funded coffee at all hours), we were ambushed by p_firesinger, elissa_carey, and opal_kitten for hugs and greetings. It was wonderful to see them all again. We ran into others as well in the process of making our way down to our campsite. When we got there, E confirmed that we were welcome to set our tents up in the area behind her site, since our usual area was taken. Yay! We took out my family's Tent Mahal first, and got it set up. We had just begun working on the fly when I heard a buzzing around me. Sounded like a fly. I tossed my hair to get rid of it. Shortly thereafter, I felt a sharp pain in my arm. Ow! What the fuck? Then another, in my leg. Then another and another, all over my limbs. I was freaked. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I gave a shriek and ran for E's campsite, where I discovered that I was being chased by a swarm of bees. E, along with her neighbours, helped brush them off me. Shortly thereafter, pierceheart dashed into E's campsite too. I got stung eight times. pierceheart got three, and E got two. Apparently, we'd set up next to a nest in the ground. Fuck. Fortunately, a great guy who HATES ground wasps nuked the nest that evening. Even so, setting up pierceheart's tent behind lothiriel_1 and mine a little ways down from her, seemed like a safer move. That night, we went to an opening ritual led by p_firesinger and elissa_carey, and danced at the fire circle. I let a young girl wear my new jingly coin belt for a while, since she kept eyeing me when I was dancing with it, in a semi-belly dancer outfit. It's fun to put a smile on a kid's face.Thursday, the work started.
pierceheart did stuff with a big rock. I tried to find something else to do. When I was unsuccessful, I took the time to sort of putter around until he was done. That evening, we hit the Yurt for a party with p_firesinger, elissa_carey, and opal_kitten. 'Twas fun. However, I will never again drink wine from a wineskin except in occasional sips. When you're holding an opaque container full of red wine instead of a glass, you can't see the level of the liquid change. Oops. Woke up feeling ooky the next morning.That said, Friday was when the REAL fun started. I worked with
pierceheart on the Megalithic Practicum, that is, hands-on experience with the big rocks on an up-close-and-personal level. I helped use pry bars to lever a 6000 pound stone, learned about how chunks of wood are used for cribbage to keep that puppy in the air, got used to quickly moving rollers from the rear to the front to keep the stone moving, and hauled on a towline to turn the thing around on its pivot point like a top. YAY!!!! The stone's enormous size and odd shape made it damned ornery. I believe two prybars and a rope were broken on that stone, as was a chain. Although it had already been dubbed "Great White", we ended up calling it "The Bitch". Inevitably, perhaps. Friday evening, pierceheart took some time out from the large group activities to hold our own private New Moon ritual. Of course, all our tools weren't as good as could be desired, nor were all of them even consecrated. We forgot some words, and occasionally had moments of, "wait, what goes next?" All in all, though, it was amazing. After that, we attended the evening's ritual: a Shabbat ritual that was quite interesting. We then walked along a dark and narrow path to see many beautiful shrines that wee set up like little bright spots in the night. We finally came to the place where the second stone had been set for the Night Pull. When we all gathered together, we took the ropes and began to haul, singing as we went. It was a joyful experience. Our Fearless Leader, OPW, did little and said less, yet somehow we managed to do almost the entire distance to the Circle without a hitch. We pulled by the light of the torches, and entered the circle still singing. It was so fast and so easy, and so good. After the pull, we went to the Yurt again, this time joined by bittercat and her friend F as well as the Yurt clan. We had a hell of a time, laughing and talking late into the night.Saturday dawned beautiful again. We slept in a bit late, and ended up eating bison burgers and sausage with E and company (too many names to list them all) for brunch. Then it was time for the Long Pull. This started down in our area, the Big Bottom, and went all the way up the hill by the kitchen to the Stone Circle. We started out great. We laughed as we went, and teased all the people who stood by the roadside watching us, taunting them to get off their lazy arses and grab a rope. When we arrived at the showers, the infamous Juggler (whose mission is to cause us to fail in every pull and rising, though it's really a way of encouraging us) said something that brought tears to my eyes. See, every year, they put signs on the pathways where we do the Long Pull. They use cornmeal to put, oh, stuff like how far we've come at that point and the like. This year, the cornmeal under our feet as we pulled the stone had been mixed with some of
tmchassells's ashes. In a way, I think it reminded all of us that his spirit was with us as we worked to make the circle grow. The hill by the kitchen was tough. OPW knew it would be. He bet us $20 we wouldn't be able to make it up in one go. Lots of people saw his bet. When we started the pull, it was obvious we had enough power to do it. We roared and yelled as we dragged that rock. With all the noise, no one heard the scream to stop until a bunch of people were yelling it at once. It turned out a girl who was at Stones for the first time had fallen, and was almost dragged under the stone. Only her hanging on to the rope saved her from a messy death or maiming. This reinforced my belief that people should NOT be that close to the stone until they've done a few pulls. Fortunately, she was fine, though shaken. We had so much power going that we finished the pull surprisingly early. lothiriel_1 did an amazing Highland sword dance for us in the circle while E piped a tune. lothiriel_1 is a natural performer. I saw the way she got high off the audience's energy. Yeah, I can dig that. :)That night was a short ceremony involving a mournful tune from E on the pipes, and a giveaway of tiny leather medicine bags. We brought the little bags on a tour of many different altars which had been set up all around the Farm. We put small chips of the Stones into them, along with sacred herbs, sea salt, earth, etc. It was beautiful. Then
pierceheart and I returned to the Stone Circle for our shift on the Warriors' Vigil. It was quiet. When it was over, we stopped by the fire circle briefly before stumbling off to bed, thoroughly exhausted. At 4am, I half-woke to find pierceheart throwing his clothes on and leaving the tent. I assumed he was heading for the bathroom, and fell asleep again, my earplugs blocking all sound. When he came back into the tent, I woke again. He got into bed, and since he felt cold to the touch, I wrapped myself around him to warm him up. He said something, so I took out my earplugs. He was shaking not from the cold, but from an adrenaline rush. He told me what had gone on: a fire started at a campsite a ways out from us. Two small propane cylinders blew, and people were screaming. He and some others dashed to the rescue, putting out the fire with sand and earth, but not before it destroyed most of that campsite's kitchen tent. Thank the gods, no one was hurt. That's my sweetie: he may wish he could stay in bed and go back to sleep, but when he's needed, he throws himself into the situation and helps out. I'm proud of him.Sunday, after
pierceheart and I painted ourselves with woad, we all met for the ceremony in which we honoured the vigil-keepers: warriors, drummers, dancers, bakers, etc. We broke bread all together in the morning sun, feasting on the yummy loaves with butter and honey. We filed into the Circle, and soon began the Rising. We hoisted the two remaining stones into place almost without a hitch. We finished so early, that we had about an hour and a half until the kitchen would be ready for us for the feast! Feast was good, and welcome: I was bloody ravenous. Afterwards, we went to the ceremony of the Consecration of the new stones. Then it was party time. The boy and I went to a friend's campsite for drinks, fire, drumming, and dancing. The party started small, but grew in noise, energy, and guests. There was howling at the moon. There were slower periods of drumming, with flute accompaniment, where I got into my belly-dancing stride and did a sorta chiftitelli kinda thing, though it was a different rhythm. Our friends A and M brought a teeny kitten they had adopted--a stray found nearby--and pierceheart and I were named official kittysitters. Few things rival the sheer squeeful joy of a few-weeks-old kitten sleeping curled up against your chest. *bliss* When 3am came around, I wasn't really even tired, the energy was so high, but the boy and I headed back to our tent so we could get enough sleep to face the next day.Monday began, like the previous Monday ended, in a flurry of packing. Then came food. Then came the closing ritual. The words and the songs made us cry. When it was over, there were LOTS of goodbyes to say. We said them sadly. Then we finished packing, went to shower, and garbed ourselves for the Maryland RenFest. We got out of the Farm much later than we'd intended, and for a while were afraid we'd miss the RenFest entirely. But
pierceheart's demonic driving and our error in the faire's closing time saved the day. Sadly, we missed seeing L there because he was hurtin' for certain, and in no shape to stay all day to meet us. We ran into other friends of pierceheart's, though. One of them who worked at the RenFest offered to let the boy fire one of the cannons at the closing of the faire. Can you say "kid in a candy store"? :) My boy made a BIG bang, and no one got blown up. He was PSYCHED. After that, we headed for the Royal Mile in our garb, looking forward to real Maryland crab cakes and nummy scotch. Alas, they were OUT of crab cakes! AND out of the first three scotches we asked for! AND out of the dessert we asked for! Plus, my menu was out of date and half missing. What a letdown. Fortunately, our fish and chips were tasty, and the scotches we finally got were very good indeed. Then we headed to the boy's parents' Maryland place, where we spent the night (they were still in Connecticut).We got out early in the morning and began the long drive. When we got to Connecticut, my poor boy was road-fried. We stayed the night with his parents again, and were on the road early. He dropped me off to unpack and do laundry, and then joined me for grocery shopping and cooking: Thai coconut-lemongrass-ginger grilled swordfish, noodles with spicy peanut sauce, and grilled veggie kebabs. MMMMMMMM.
Now real life has started up again. This entry is long, but I really wanted to put it all out there to remember. :) And now, back to work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 01:39 pm (UTC):) Heather
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 01:39 pm (UTC):)
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 03:03 pm (UTC)Miss you and Morgan though...:(
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 03:29 pm (UTC)Thanks for the update!
I hope you all will be able to attend in the future. It would be a shame not to see you more often, but I understand that logistics can get icky. :S
Re: Thanks for the update!
Date: 2005-09-12 04:53 pm (UTC)It's Stones' or Lammas with our Coven.
I hate the fact that I have to choose.
Re: Thanks for the update!
I'd have the same issues, I'm sure, if I were still in one.
Re: Thanks for the update!
Date: 2005-09-12 05:15 pm (UTC)Re: Thanks for the update!
Remember, too, that college students and teachers and other educational professionals are also affected by the Labor Day date. It's not just about children.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 04:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-12 05:51 pm (UTC)