Well, I've been super busy... or sick.

I'm experiencing a little bit of burnout right now. Were I back in Ansteorra, I would simply take a three month break and then get back into the swing of things. I can't currently do that here in Meridies. I'm the Seneschal of my shire and I'm the Kingdom list mistress. I was thinking I'd take another kingdom level office when I step down from this one in May, but I don't believe I'm going to go for it right now. I seriously need a break. I love the SCA, I love Living the Dream, but right now I'm depressed about a lot of things and very stressed out. I will still attend meetings, I just don't want to HAVE to be at EVERY shire function. Admittedly, the fact that we have so many is largely my fault. However I was just trying to find avenues through which my shire could stay connected, stay focused, and keep learning. I've done that. Thanks to the participation we've had from everyone, we've gone from being a shire of 10 active members and maybe 5 fringies to a shire of about 30 active members and 10 fringies... well- make that 31. Isabel just had a baby. So I've been fighting the depression, fighting the burn out, and finding interesting things to do.

I am creative, but I'm not good at starting things out. I can take an idea and run with it, but I can't seem to actually start the ideas. So one thing that has happened as a result is that I've been asked over and over by different chronicler's from my group to submit articles. I'd say that I was going to, but then I wouldn't do it, because I'd come up with a subject that was too broad and impossible to research, or a subject that was too narrow. Otherwise, I'd simply not come up with anything at all. Well, this time our new chronicler said what he wanted. At our November meeting, he said "I'm doing a newsletter next month and I'm focusing on Christmas. Please submit something." I thought... 'Okay. Christmas! I can work with that.' The result is, I think I probably wrote half the newsletter by myself. I researched and wrote an article about Christmas in France in the Middle Ages. I found a recipe for the buche Noel. I found a story that was told around the fires on Christmas Eve in France. I even managed to come up with an "obscure Christmas facts" page.

So now, I'm still studying France. Well... I'm French. Go Figure. Anyway... I'm studying French Mythology- which has proven really tough, and I'm learning French Music. My idea was to sing a regular French Song at Magna Faire. However, as I was researching Christmas, I decided that it would be better to sing French Renaissance Christmas Songs at Magna Faire. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm learning French Christmas Songs. The studying is a little frustrating. I keep running across songs that say they are "Traditional" and that they have "always been done" but when I find the author or look into the history, they weren't written until the 18th and 19th centuries. I said something about it on Facebook so Yves sent me a bunch of websites. Then Cynewise sent me some music and Iachin dug out a book he's going to get me some information from. Too cool!

Diamond (Destructo puppy, Houdini puppy) is keeping me really busy too. She's very entertaining and I have to fight with her for my side of my bed. **Sigh** It's going to be really hard to get her to lay in her doggy bed when I make it. I love having her next to me though. She lays right up against my back with all her warm fur.

We're also getting ready for Christmas at church. We finished recording the new CD in October and went right in to Christmas music. We have to have it memorized by next Wednesday. The church musical service will be on Sunday Dec. 13th. The general music service will be at church the next evening. It's a lot of work, but I beleve it will be a blessing to all who hear. :-)

So those are some of the good things. To sum the bad things up, I've gained a whole lot of weight reallly fast. I have a physical on the 10th to try to figure out what is going on. This last week, I've had strep. Can you say "Ouch?" Now try driving an hour to work, working all day, and then driving home with a fever. Yeah... it wasn't fun. Thankfully, my fever broke on Wednesday evening. I was still miserable Thursday and Friday, but not quite as miserable as I was on Wednesday.

Another good thing.... I went to a speech competition at my sister's church yesterday. It was a lot of fun. The girls all did a good job writing their speeches. Some did really well in the delivery too. Others, well... they need a little more practice. The majority of them read their speeches instead of delivering them. Overall, as I said earlier, they all did a good job.

I think I wrote something like 22 claims this week in the three days that I was there. I don't really think I did too much of anything else. My Cranberry apple bake went over really well- no leftovers- at the Thanksgiving pot- luck. This coming week, I need to concentrate on getting my mail read, sign the travel vouchers, pay the CE doctors, and get rid of a claim I got back from DQB. .. somehow.

Now... I've FINALLY done my Seneschal's report for October. I did my report for November at the same time. I'm almost done with the Crown List report- I sent the brackets to Yves so he could edit the PDF file.

I guess that's all for now. I'll write again when I have more time.

For real!!! Just F***ing really!!  Come on!!! I REALLY hate my mundane life!!  Well... I hate the part that's just me anyway. I love my family, my church and church family, and my job and my friends at work, and the very few (like one or two) mundane friends I have outside of those things. But when it comes down to strictly me crap, I hate it!!

I am so sick of being single it's not even funny!  I haven't been looking anymore because I have decided it is totally futile. There just isn't anyone out there for me. It still HURTS though.

However, that's not today's trigger. TODAY's trigger is that I just spent $350 to get the car fixed. I got the car back last night. It wasn't running rough before, but when I started it yesterday it was running so rough it was shaking. Then today, it just totally quit. The lucky part... and the part that is due ONLY to GOD watching out for me... that it quit less than 3 blocks from home and I was able to push it... with some help from a couple of people who were kind enough to stop and help... into the parking lot of another apartment complex and then walk back home. I already know that it's going to cost another $140- $150 to fix the problem... because the garage called my brother in law and told him what was wrong and then he called me. The fuel injector, pump, or whatever the F it is, is spurting fuel into the carburetor. It was idling high before... but it was running smoothly until the timing belt decided to break. So they took the thing apart to fix the timing belt, put it back together, and now it doesn't work! I know that it's more than likely not their fault. It's just freaking frustrating!!! I can't get a break with cars... or really I can't get a fix with cars. I seem to BREAK them on a regular basis.

Anyway... that just triggered off a whole lot of other crap that was already in the back of my mind that you've all heard before... so there's no need for me to write it all again. I'm just going to go try to stop my downward spiral before I end up in the hospital.

Ugh!! So I got the bright idea that I wanted to do a couple of the Norse Apron Dresses. Really, I just want them because they look fairly easy to wear. They also look a whole heck of a lot easier to work in- minus the jewelry- than a Tudor. They appear to be simple to dress up or down. I'm not Norse... I'm French... which is really a culture descended from the Norse anyway. Well, that's neither here nor there. So true to form for me... I go searching for a pattern on-line. I found one. Only... when I did all of the calculations it said, it didn't turn out right. Of course, I didn't realize this until I had already cut into my fabric. I cut out the front and back panels. Then I looked at the measurements for the side panels. I thought... "Surely that can't be right!" It doesn't make sense for the side panels to be larger than the front and back panels! So I looked at the layout picture on the web page. Sure enough, the side panels were about 8 inches smaller than the front and back panels. So, I went through and did measurements again. I came up with the same thing. Now... my fabric is 58" wide. And even with seam allowances, I'm NOT 58 inches around. By the way... that's how I realized something was wrong. It didn't seem possible that a dress that's supposed to be somewhat fitted and supportive would take over 10 inches more fabric than it would take to wrap around me. The really awful thing is... I CUT INTO MY FABRIC!! It's my favorite fabric too! I have had this fabric for a year and a half now trying to decide what I wanted to do with it! **Sigh** So... I'm going to hope that I can work with what I have. I think I can. My gussets won't be as wide as they should be though.  I'm going to take my measurement and divide it by three. Then I will use 1/3 of the measurement for both the side panels combined and 1/3 of the measurement for each the front and the back panel. I think that was the general idea of the pattern. I just hope I'm right. **Sigh** If it turns out, then I will post a picture of it.

Why do I even make plans?? I had intentions of starting to pay back some of the people I owe money to. 

I went to get my tire fixed. Simple right? NOT!! The place that Chrisie reccomended didn't answer their phone and didn't call back. I ended up having the car towed around the corner.  That was $50. Then it got really expensive. The front passenger side tire had a hole in the side wall and couldn't be repaired. They didn't have any used tires the size that is used on that car. The front driver side tire was "ok, but not good". That one had to be replaced too. The tire that was the spare... the spare I JUST had fixed and hadn't driven on yet... was flat and had 4 or 5 holes in it. The verdict?? $210! Now to make it just that much worse... my front brakes are going to need to be replaced in a couple of weeks.  That will be another $180. I can't win for losing!!! I start to land on my feet and then something comes along and knocks me right back down. Arrrrrgh!!!!

I just got done watching the Miss America pageant. I was really pleased with the winner, Miss Indiana Katie Stam! She was one of my favorites because I felt that her personality just shined right through up there on the stage. My other favorites were Miss California, and Miss Iowa because their personalities also came through in the talent competition! They made me laugh with their reactions to being called. Miss Georgia was the first runner up and of course she was absolutely gorgeous! Her personality also came through, but she seems to be a more seious type. I really wasn't super impressed with Miss Tennessee. She's pretty. She had a great talent. However, when asked the question at the last elimination about whether she thought America was moving past its prejudices, she kind of gave a non- answer. I liked her up until then.

I do have to say that I do not like the new format of the pageant. I think  it's kind of cruel to the contestants to make them sit on the stage during the talent competition hoping that they won't still be sitting there at the end. I like the old format where they announced the semi- finalists who would compete in each portion of the competition and they all went backstage. Likewise, I don't like the end where they had 7 contestants standing there, but only 5 of them would receive scholarships. It's kind of cruel to have 3 women left in line, one of them the winner, and the other two not placing at all. Most of them were graceful about it. I'm glad that they are all winners and that they can be comforted by the fact that having not won Miss America, they are still the representatives of their states. I just think the new format is kind of cruel.

Now starts the round of pageants that will lead up to the Miss USA pageant in September. I seem to have missed that one. I must have been at an event.

Having been in a couple of pageants myself, I should know the difference between Miss America and Miss USA other than the fact that Miss America goes to Miss World and Miss USA goes to Miss Universe. However, I don't really know what the difference is. Oh wait... I think I just got it. The pageants I was in were while I was in college. Those pageants led to the Miss USA pageant. The locality pageants such as "Miss Lawton, Miss Edmond, Miss Oklahoma City", and the like (Which I wasn't in) led to the Miss America Pageant. They're both Scholarship pageants, but one is for college students and the other is for unmarried ladies between 18 and (I think) 25.

One of my favorite movies is "Beautiful". It's about a girl that wants to be Miss America so bad that she gives her daughter to her best friend and works really hard to keep anyone from discovering that she'd ever had a baby. It all works out in the end. I know that the jobs of Miss America and Miss Universe have to go to ladies who are not single parents... there's a Mrs pageant line for the married ladies... because of the demands of the job. What do you think of the requirement that the title holder doesn't have children. Do you think it's fair?

I haven't  been tagged... but 4 of my friends have these lists up. They look pretty interesting and I discovered I have some things in common with some, and some diabolical differences with others. So I decided it would be cool to do this too. I probably wouldn't have done it if I'd actually been tagged. Heh!!

1. I make snap judgements based on my instincts about people when I first meet them. I either befriend them or I don't. If I don't, I'm polite but not involved until that person does something I think is really cool and I find I do like them or they prove my instincts correct. I know... it's bad. But that's me.
2. I have an awful temper. I have an almost infinite fuse, but if I ever actually lose my temper just get out of the way. Don't worry, you'll see it coming. According to my mom, my eyes turn red and my nose flattens out.
3. I love Sushi!!
4. I'm not a dominant person. I just act that way when I feel I have to.
5. I was chief justice of the supreme court for two semesters in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature.
6. I was a traffic appeals court judge and a student appeals committee member at around the same time.
7. I'm an Accomplished Toastmaster and am only 15 speeches away from being a Distinguished Toastmaster... Public Speaking.
8. I was the chairperson for the Student Activities Committee of the Student Government Association. I got to go to Campus Activities conferences and I met Carrot Top and Margaret Cho before they were Famous.
9. I was President of the Residence Halls Association at the same time. I was really busy!
10. I was third runner up in the Miss Black UCO pageant. I may have done better if I'd had more confidence in myself. I still ended up with a small scholarship as a result.
11. I have been singing as long as I can remember.
12 I love to cook gourmet type meals. I hate cleaning up afterwards.
13. I love to sew and I don't mind cutting the fabric out. I HATE cutting the paper patterns out. My champion used to do it for me if I was over his house.
14. I lived in Hawaii for a year.
15. I play the flute and I can peck my way around on a piano.
16. I modeled in two runway shows when I was 10. I think I may have kept with it if my dad hadn't gotten transferred.
17. I went to my first SCA meeting while I was in college, but didn't actually join the SCA until the end of 1995.
18. I learned to be a list mistress by running a swiss 5 tournament at my second event.
19. I met Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King while I was participating in pageants.
20. My bachelor degree is in Political Science... surprise, surprise.
21. I love heights and am therefore thrilled with roller coasters.
22. I don't like to fight. I used to let my little sister finish all of my fights for me. However, when one of my friends actually got the nerve up to beat up my little sister, I walked to her house, asked her mother if she could come outside, and then beat the he** out of her in her front yard before my mother was able to catch me.
23. I love to laugh! If a man can make me laugh AND he can sing, it's ALMOST a guarantee that I will go out with him if he asks me. One or the other? It depends on if I'm physically attracted to him.
24. I am a sucker for animals. My favorite place to go to is the zoo... but I haven't made it to the Nashville Zoo yet. :-(
25. I was very politically active when I was in Oklahoma. I worked on a gubernatorial campaign and I was one of the state executives for the college aged group.