Oh, and yesterday was even greater because...did I mention Kendra phoned me in the morning? I can't remember. Anyway, she did, as she does every year. I dunno /why/...Ah well. I shall phone her on her birthday, November 24th. Remind me, 'kay?

And Mike phoned me. And that was great. I like Mike. He's great. *sparkle*

Anyway. Time for Golden Swan, Part IV...

Gonna have to check back, see where I left off...

Ah yes. So here is part IV of Golden Swan:

So I get sucked into heralding for the tournament. I swear, I was so absoloutely distraught and not knowing what I was doing. But the fighters, being really an amiable and friendly lot comforted me and helped me gently along until I got the hang of it.

**Inserted afterthought ahead**

Guess what? No, don't guess. I'll tell you. See, I was standing in Pillagers Are Us with Sunny and who should walk in but Sigurd in full armor. Please excuse me whilst I drool. *drooooool* See, I have a bit of a thing for men in armor. And men in garb. Especially what's known as 'fop' garb. Poofy shirts, swirling cloaks, wide brimmed hats. Yes. Those kinds. Them, and men in armor. They just...like...*drool*...Hey! Excuse /me/ for being shallow, but I hafta be at /some/ point in my life, right? So why the hell not now. I like drooling over men (expecially those in armor). It's an entertaining passtime. But he made a lovely figure. He wore all black underneath his armor (which was okay, because it was a cloudy day), and plain undecorated armor. And he clanked. Hee. Like a bag of tin cans. So he says:

"Marie, walk with me a little."

So I'm like, ha! You think I'm actually going to /refuse/ that request? Hell no!...But I didn't say that. I'm not quite /that/ outgoing.

So we begin to walk (towards the biffies I later realize, though neither of us did at the time). And there's the small talk. You know, the 'How are you?' and 'How did you sleep?' etcetera. And then he asks quite casually:

"Is there any lord fighting for you on the field today?"

So I'm like: "Nay. There isn't." And my heart skips half a beat. And it had every right to, because he suddenly turns to me and drops to one knee (oh, girls, this is the /best/ feeling in the world, I swear) and says:

"May I have the honour of holding your favour in battle this day?"

And I was just like, oh /swoon/. Be /still/ my every beating heart! You think I'm going to /refuse/?! And I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. I still get tingly and glowy thinking about it. I swear, it's the greatest feeling...

So I told him certainly! but he'd have to wait 'til I ran to my tent to get him a favor. So I gave him the blue beaded one. The one with the celtic knot, not the one with the M on it. He thought it was very well done. So did I.

Anyway, I had forgotten that I hadn't mentioned that earlier. I had ta go back and check. ;)

*le sigh*...and everytime I cried 'Please salute the one who inspires you on this day' he would turn and salute to me...it was utterly great...fantasmic...(I'm still stuck in the moment. Can you tell? ;P)

And after a couple of rounds, Brennain sidles up to me after I walk off the field and goes:

"Daughter, dear..."

And I smile innocently. "Yes, daddy?"

"Why is that man saluting you?"

Every so innocently: "Because he asked to fight for me."

A smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Wha-a-at? I couldn't exactly /refuse/ him...Plus, he's nice..."

"Ri-i-ight...you stay out of trouble, daughter dear..."

"Yes daddy."

It was amusing. Gotta love those moments. ;)

Anyway, I've been distracted. Now back to your regular programming:

**End of inserted afterthought**

Thank god for heavy fighters, eh? But no offense to the rapiers! I like rapier fighting, personally, but I never get to watch much of it. And I prefer to watch heavy fighting. It's like watching rugby or golf. Like that.

Ya. So I bumble my way through it. By the end I understand (though still can't pronounce some of the names...). Fortunately for me, the other people (except for Bruz) were new at it all as well, so I didn't feel quite as bad.

One funny conversation, though, was over the pronunciation of a certain Knight's squire, Thorin Olafsson. I couldn't for the life of me pronounce it, and I don't know why.

"Look. It's Thorin Olafsson. Olaf-son."

"I'm so /sorry/!"

"No, no. It's okay. Really. Thor-in Olaf-sson. Got it?"

"Thor-in Olaf-sson. Got it."

And I'd promptly walk onto the field and unintentionally completely screw up his name.

And I'd walk off again.

"Thor-IN Olaf-SON."

"I'm so /sorry/!"

"No, no! It's okay! Really. Just...yes. Thorin. Olafsson."

Every time. I swear. It was rather amusing, but I did finally get him name right in the end.

And Sigurd did really well. No offense, but I was actually kind of surprised. I hadn't really been watching him the day before, because he wasn't one of the ones I'd been talking to frequently while waterbearing. But he got to the last three people. I was very proud. It came between him, Lo Tang (the previous Apploedore champion) and a fellow by the name of Finn McClarty (if only everyone had such easy to pronounce names!), who went on to win the thing. He came up and thanked me later for heralding as well.

By the end of the tournament my voice was sore, but still packed a punch, and hadn't faltered or gotten too rough (it was only slightly rough when I talked normally). Missy and Sunny made sure I had plenty of water. *sparkle*

Hmmm...So after heralding I went to the feast hall and helped prep for the potluck feast that night. Set tables. Stole chairs...Oo. Another great story about stealing chairs.

See, we needed chairs again. People had taken them out of the hall (again). So I went chair raiding (again)...

So I was gathering all the chairs together, and had to steal the one that Bliss and some fellow were sitting on, discussing something or another. I had left my stack a few paces off, so I wouldn't have to carry it around. So she was like:

"Aww..you're taking our chair?"

"Yes well...if it's any consolation, you can fondle my breasts." (Bliss seems to like my breasts for some reason, and I don't have any self conciousness about 'em, so I figured it was a good trade.)

"Ooooo!"

But just as I had been saying that, I look over to a very amused and slightly startled looking Sigurd as he was trying not to break out laughing whilst picking up my stack of chairs for me.

So I merely snicker and run off to the feast hall, him in tow. It was greatly amusing. I was greatly amused.

And court was going to happen. But I was still prepping with the other preppies...heeehee....preppies...and my shoulder /really/ started to bother me. So I went searching for someone to squeeze my shoulder as hard as they bloody well could. And guess who I found...yup. You guessed it. Actually, I kind of begged and pleaded for him to fix my shoulder. Twisted his rubber arm, I did. So he fixed my shoulder nice and well and I dissapeared again right before court started. ("Hey, Marie! You keep dissapearing on me! You Herald, then dissapear. And appear for five minutes and I find out you're chopping vegetables in the feast hall, then you dissapear again!")

So anyway. After the feast I headed to the Inn Ni for a little, the Den for a little, then took Sig up on his offer and headed over to the squire's fire (which, amusingly enough, had been made in a metal collinder, or strainer if you rather, because they had nothing else to put it in.)

So I sit around with them and hear story after story about their Knight (Gregory, I think?), who drank too much Coke and giggled like I did, but...well...'manlier'...and could tell the difference between generic Cola and Coke without even opening his eyes or getting out of bed...and I heard stories from mundania, of a couple of the fellows' experiences in boarding schools and private schools...The Barney stories...How Barney blew up a school bathroom one time, and burnt down his tent one time, and so on and so forth...It was amusing. Greatly. And so we sat around 'til three in the morning.

Poor Sig. He had to get up a 6am the next morning to drive home and be at work by noon. And I didn't help either.

At 3am everyone decided to go to bed. The fire was dead, and everyone was tired. So Sigurd offered to walk me to my tent. Which was all good. So he walks me to my tent and gives me a goodbye hug.

So an hour later we still havn't parted. Hey! I was /cold/. Really. I swear. That's what it was. ;) Well, it was to begin with. I was so cold I couldn't feel anything but pain from my knees down. Which is stupid, I know, but I didn't notice until I got up. So he delightfully warmed me up. (Damn him and his fleece lining. ;P)

So at 4am after discussing everything under the sun...well, not /quite/ everything...I did mention once the view I'd most likely remember him as: his lower face, neck and shoulders. We had been standing with the curve of his nose nestled in that little curved place between nose and forehead...you know the place I'm talked of. We talked like that for a long time, because it was hard to be heard with my face pressed against his shoulder. He was a good height to hug. Just slightly taller than me, so I could either look at his face directly or warm myself in the curve of his neck and shoulder...

Anyway, so at 4am I finally insist I must get to bed as I was in a great deal of pain. Frankly, I don't know why. I was just having one of those agh-my-abdomen-suddenly-hurts-with-spiking-pains-and-I-gotta-lay-down moments. It happens to everyone once in a while, I think. Plus, I hadn't been feeling too well the entire weekend. And I insist he must get to bed, if he's going to get /any/ sleep before he leaves...which I think he decided he wasn't...

So he kisses me once on the lips, kisses my hand, and dissapears, and I havn't seen him since. We didn't trade email adresses or snail mail adresses or phone numbers or anything. I dunno. I think it was all for the better in the end. He was just that spark that made the entire weekend all worthwhile, y'know...or the flame...which ever...it was wonderful...

So, Sigurd kerr de Roxburgh (I hope I remembered your name correctly), if you ever read this, thanks. I had more fun that weekend than I had at Clinton. And that's saying a lot. :)

And so I come to the conclusion of my weekend. I wake up to "Last call for breakfast!" and run to the hall without bothering to do more than whip on a dress and pin my hair out of my eyes to find Lord Malcolm had saved me breakfast, the dear. I was so worried I wouldn't get breakfast that I hadn't even bothered to put on my shoes.

And from then on was pretty uneventful (agh, no pun intended, really!), because I can't remember much, other than spacing out in the truck on the way home and eating some ketchup chips. They've become a bit of a tradition. Always on the way home from an event I buy a bag of ketchup chips. Which don't really taste like ketchup, but I don't care. It's all fine and dandy to me.

And thus is the end. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my weekend as much as I did. ;)

I'm tired and hungry. I go eat. Then go find Mike. Mike nice. Mmm..

Ooo! Laura's supposed to phone me tonight!

And Mary gave me a black wool, green fleece lined hood for my birthday! I feel so guilty, because I havn't finished her presant yet. I think I'll give her the celtic knot decorated tumbler I am making.

And I got in the play, Tom Jones, at school! Yay! It's a one act version of the play. I'm Jenny Jones. Later known as Mrs. Waters. It's spiffy and wonderful and I like it. I'm so glad I got in. Cassie got Sophie. Sophie would have been fun to play, but I wouldn't have gotten the part because I'm too big and...well...old and manly looking. ;) Funny...I always get cast as either 'easy' women or evil men...funny that...;)

Anyway, I run. Food. Mike. It's all good. :P

.

Rosie.

Before&After