Dwarf Planet in Purple

On this date SEVENTY-FIVE years ago, my parents were married!!

They had to hold their nuptials at 7 a.m. -- yes, THAT early! -- because, back then, Roman Catholics got hitched only on Saturday morning, and the first Saturday of July was especially popular because the factories traditionally shut down for the first two weeks of the month and everybody went on vacation at the same time. It wasn't until I was a college graduate that I knew it was possible to take a vacation at a different time.

And today it makes FIFTY years since my mother made me mow the lawn while my father did his Saturday errands. I was 13 going on 14 and I *hated* doing yard work.

But then Dad came home and he was carrying a white vase filled with 25 large red roses, which he presented to Mom for their 25th anniversary.

Later that day we went to a camp on Lake Shirley. It belonged to the family of a woman whom my Uncle Pete was dating (they would marry the following year and she would become my Aunt Bev). Uncle Pete had brought fireworks up from the Carolinas and I played with the sparklers while my older male cousins shot off firecrackers and Roman candles. I think we were there until three in the morning.

Obviously, as a younger teen, I wasn't in a position to arrange a fancy party for my parents' 25th. I was just starting to think about planning a 35th anniversary party for them when Dad died.

It was seven years ago today that I danced in the Lithuanian folk dance festival in Baltimore. I had such a blast, even though I didn't have time to journal about it while it was all happening.

And, speaking of journaling ... TWENTY years ago today I made my first LiveJournal post. Who would have "thunk" it would have triggered many other events that shaped my life. And who would have "thunk" the site would end up in Russian hands? The world of today is indeed strange.

I wish I could post lots of photos, but I don't feel like doing all the linking. I am tired and I want to go to bed.

I tested negative for covid-19 several days after Balticon and have felt fine ever since.

The weekend after Balticon, I spent a Sunday at AwesomeCon, the commercial "comic con" for Our Nation's Capital. My barony had set up a booth in the exhibit hall to attract new people, and my role in the proceedings was to teach dancing for an hour. Patches, who knows much more about teaching dances than I do, had been drilling me on the ins and outs for more than a month. Something like 70 or 75 people showed up to learn an alman, a couple of English country dances and a few bransles. Thank goodness the room was equipped with a speaker that I could plug into my phone. I had brought along my friend's battery-powered speaker, but I think the carpeting and clothing would have muffled it up completely.

After AwesomeCon, I turned my attention to church stuff. Because we would be holding our annual congregational meeting virtually for the third straight year, I volunteered to run the electronic voting. So I signed up for an account on ElectionBuddy and performed test after test to try to get everything right. I think it turned out OK; some people said they didn't get their ballots, which had ended up in their spam folders, but that's to be expected. I let out a giant sigh of relief after sending out the official ballots and turned my brain off by taking a nap on the couch.

A few weeks ago, I learned that my former partner in the Lithuanian dance group back in 2016 had died. He went by the nickname Vyts (pronounced "veets") and had really badly bowed legs and was a terrible dancer. Plus, he said he had been divorced three times, and I couldn't help feeling that he was auditioning me as a possible wife #4. (The boy toy called him my "Lithuanian boyfriend.") I saw him at the Lithuanian Hall from time to time -- the last time in April when I went up there for a dancing event. (I am not dancing anymore -- I was just in the audience.) He looked as if he'd had surgery on his legs because they were straighter. I didn't have much to say, because I know from his Facebook posts that his political views were entirely opposite mine ... bleah. Still, it was a bit of a shock to learn that he had dropped dead at the age of 65, almost 66. Apparently he really was a big supporter of the Lithuanian community in Baltimore.

I know I'm rambling here, but I can't let June 17 end without noting that today is the 50th anniversary of the one day I went to school on a Saturday. The school board in my hometown could not end the academic year on Friday the 16th, because we would have been one day short of the state regulations. The teachers strongly preferred getting the school year over with on a Saturday rather than Monday, so that's what we did. (Not that we ever did any learning on the last day of the school year. It was always like "watch a movie, then get your report card.") And that's how seventh grade ended.

My strongest memory of the day is that someone let off a stink bomb in the playground crowd just before we were allowed into the building, and our assistant principal, Mr. R., stood on the steps of the main doors and shouted, "I see who you are! You're in trouble now!" That stentorian voice of his could silence hundreds of tweens and teens like nothing else before or since. We tiptoed around his massive bulk and crept to our homerooms.

And there was a giant disruption in the Force in the form of the Watergate break-in, and nothing was ever the same again....

Just keeping busy with my own crises and the church crises and the Ukrainian crisis.

Worried that the crisis in Central Europe will spread to the Baltic states.

I am amazed that LJ is still up and running.

So, still chugging along. Still plugging along on the boring assignment for the European marketing firm. It's having a "team meeting" via Zoom tomorrow morning (that's mid-afternoon in Stockholm). Maybe I will get some brownie points for it.

At some point last week I had to push aside the boring assignment to get my information together for teaching a Virtual University of Atlantia class. After a hiatus of several years due to general laziness, I decided to teach "Medieval Lithuania" again, especially since I could do a screen-share on Zoom and use slides. In a physical classroom (or classroom tent as at Pennsic) I feel weird about doing the PowerPoint-and-projector thing, because it's such modern technology. But since we are unabashedly using high-tech teleconferencing stuff anyway, why not use it to full advantage?

Because I'd registered for other classes earlier in the day, I didn't have time to practice the talk, but my students seemed to enjoy it. I had students from at least six different SCA Kingdoms, including two from Lochac (Melbourne, Australia)! zhelana was one of the students too, from the Kingdom of Meridies. It was great to hear voices of people I know only online, even if it was just for a moment. (Yes, Mistress Sigrid did a lot of the student talking....) Today, several *other* people posted on Facebook that they'd like to hear the class, and Mistress Teleri wants me to teach it again at one of the Storvik A&S gatherings ... so I think I'm starting something here....

In terms of weather, today was absolutely gorgeous. Gorgeous! I had to spend a lot of time on Zoom, though, because it was our church's annual meeting, and we had to have it virtually because of the pandemic. I was especially interested to hear what people thought about the proposed budget, because I've been on the budget team, but then I zoned out during a procedural discussion. Toward the end I ate some leftover pasta for lunch, and later I took a mid-afternoon walk around the local lake.

Packing for Massachusetts tonight! I haven't been "home" since 2015. About time....

I updated my "Lady Patricia" blog with my two batches of Lithuanian cookies: http://ladypatriciaoftrakai.blogspot.com/2018/12/cookies-or.html. The entire second batch was consumed at Tina's party last night.

Between cookies and Washington Revels and parties, I'm finally feeling a bit festive in my personal life. Of course, politics in Our Nation's Capital sucks ROCKS. 2019 is going to be an economically tough year, I fear.

Back to packing. Happy Holidays, everyone.

1. This week saw the 40th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78. I remember it well. I was a freshman at BU and I was not expecting the storm to be so bad. I walked backward across Commonwealth Avenue to get from my work-study job to my dorm. A few hours later, the snow was so heavy and the wind so strong that the view from my 16th-story room was a complete whiteout. It was as if the outside world had vanished.

2. Four of my friends lost immediate family members this week (two mothers, one sister, and one grandmother). Death, GO AWAY!

3. At least last night I had a great time going contra dancing at Glen Echo Park with Patches and Melinda. It was my second time there -- the first was two or three years ago -- so I was able to use the "second time free" coupon I got at my initial visit. The men at contra dances tend to remind me of the men at SF cons -- "the odds are good, but the goods are odd" -- but they are polite and friendly.

4. Speaking of dancing: A couple of nights ago I learned that the 2020 Lithuanian folk-dance festival will be in Philadelphia. Yay! If I participate, I would probably have to spring for a hotel room, but at least I wouldn't have to pay air fare.

5. And next Friday will be the 100th anniversary of the restoration of the Republic of Lithuania in 1918. It's such a momentous occasion that the Pope has waived the no-meat-on-Fridays-in-Lent requirement for Lithuanian Catholics. (Of course, I am now a UU, but I still understand this.) The boy toy and I plan to go to the Lithuanian Hall for celebratory eating.

Why, yes, I *know* I haven't written for a few weeks. Because ... Svente! That's the Lithuanian word for "festival." Last weekend was the big Lithuanian folk dance festival up in Baltimore, also known as Šokių Šventė 2016. I haven't been writing much about my participation in the Lithuanian folk dance group since last October, but it's been building to a crescendo ... and, finally, an awesome festival.

Oh, gosh, I could go on and on about how wonderful that festival was, even though it took me a day to get over it (I am getting so OLD). Truly awful national news this week, though, and I need to get up early in the morning for Storvik Novice Tourney and Baronial Investiture -- only my third SCA event of 2016. I feel so out of practice....

I already summarized the weekend on my "Patricia of Trakai" blog, so if you don't already subscribe to its feed, here it is.

Tomorrow, back to my freelance writing work.

OK, so why was this woman standing in front of the Maryland National Guard armory holding a long string-and-wood thing and with a funny-looking tasseled pouch hanging out from below her jacket? Read on.

Yesterday I decided to go to the Bright Hills Birthday and Investiture. Yeah, I figured that I would get there after the morning court ceremonies, and I knew the feast was already sold out, but at least I would get to spend a nice afternoon with friends, instead of sitting at my keyboard and stewing over missing a fun event. At this point, I probably know more people in Bright Hills than any other barony except my own.

I zigzagged in a general northerly direction to the event site, which looked vaguely familiar, so I probably did attend another event there in the past. It's up near the PA border, in real farm country, and I drove through the hamlet of Boring to get there. The temperature up there was at least 10 degrees colder, with more rotting snow on the ground and a sharp wind. (Thank goodness for indoor events.)

When I first got there, the Kingdom Seneschal was leading a discussion on the "northern principality" issue. It had already started, and I couldn't quite hear everything because there was too much noise from the back of the hall. Oh, well, I'll just have to see what develops on the mailing list.

After that was lunch. Bright Hills can make even a simple lunch tasty. Lady Ingeborg (the wire-weaver) invited me to sit with her and a newcomer (I think her name was May). Then the newcomer and I watched part of the "bardic bear pit" in which Lady Ingeborg was competing. I also started a bit of tablet weaving using a pre-warped loom I bought from Herveus at Darkover.

Next, I decided to check out the merchant area. I asked some questions of Herveus, and then I went to see Fabricdragon, because you can't ever have enough pearls for an Italian Renaissance outfit (see, I was thinking of the upcoming Three Left Feet paid gig on the 26th). I ended up buying two strands of pearls of varying sizes and color tones; I think they'll make a nice necklace.

Right after my purchase, a guy I didn't recognize came up to me and asked if I was the herald of Storvik. When I said yes, he said, "The King would like to see the Storvik baronial herald now." Well, I thought that was rather strange, because there was no shortage of heraldic firepower at this event -- at least four of the heralds in attendance, including the current Clerk of Precedence and former Wreath Sovereign, are much more senior than I. And even though territorial barons and baronesses sometimes allow outside baronage to hold court in their lands, it isn't done often, and then only for unusual circumstances (for example, they want to present an award to someone who's about to go off on military deployment).

When I got to the other end of the hall, Lady Alexandra was just starting King Bryan's court (the Queen was taking a nap). His Majesty was presenting the Opal to a woman whom I think was a past baronial herald, so I figured that's why I was invited to the court, as I am a Companion of the Opal myself. (Storvik's Baron William and Baroness Sorcha were among the onlookers, but not doing anything else active.) King Bryan presented several other Opals and Coral Branches.

Then I heard *my* name called. It almost didn't register with me! (Well, with the background noise...) I knelt before the King on my left knee, which is slightly more accommodating of contact with hard floors than the other one. The King asked me if I could speak Lithuanian, and I said not much, but I knew that "thank you" is "aciu." Then he said that he has heard lots of good things about my Lithuanian studies, and that it was great that I have been studying such a small country -- at which time I said something like, "But it used to be a much bigger country!" I'm sure I was blushing quite a bit and my face was pulling the blood out of my brain or something. Bottom line, the King inducted me into the Order of the Coral Branch for arts and sciences.

I got lots of congratulations afterward; plus, a woman who said she is 77 years old sat me down and said she wants to write a historical novel about Queen Jadwiga. I don't know if anything will come of that, but we exchanged phone numbers, and she said she has a copy of the book Lithuania Ascending, which I have been really eager to read (and which is really expensive to buy).

Tale to be finished tomorrow... I will just note that my Coral Branch came on the same day as Zygmunt's elevation to Laurel in the Midrealm, so it was a really good day for Polish-Lithuanian studies in the SCA!