2002-12-16 - 1:36 p.m.

OKay...so I hadn't updated in...well...damned near a month...mostly because there wasn't much to say that Rhiannon hadn't already said...

Then came St. Fortunatas.

Others have already discussed how it was a feast of fighting for the unbelted fighters, and a great day, and a bunch of other things.

So really, all I can say is...wow...I wasn't expecting that.

Rhi's Briese de Mear (sp?) wasn't completely unexpected by me...I remembered Balynar's extreme surprise when I mentioned that she didn't have one back at the Celtic Festival demo, and I kinda guessed it'd be coming...and I was planning on palming the camera to take a couple of nice shots as she was getting her award.

On the other hand...best laid plans of mice and men...

Balynar opened his Court and gave out some other awards...and then he started talking about a couple of people who he's seen in the SCA for years who have been very busy...and it started to sound very familiar...

And I got inducted into the Umbonis Ferri Ordo (Order of the Iron Boss, UFO, or Baronial Fighting Order, depending on how you look at it).

Which was a complete shock. Yeah, I know I'd been saying I'd like to be in it...but my time committments and body just hadn't let me give it the attention it needs.

I am the only person in the Barony (that I know of...) who is active in all three martial arts, Heavy, Rapier, and Combat Archery.

But still...I don't feel like I do all that well at the Heavy fighting. I can be death with a crossbow, and with rapier and dagger I can hold my own (I went 2-2 in the double elim tourney last weekend...and even my losses were good losses...I just got skewered before the other guy did). But heavy fighting just...well...eludes me.

I can do it...sometimes I catch the lightning bug in the bottle for an hour or two, and at demos I can be entirely too showy (it helps when you've taken a class on "How to fall down and go boom"...see...being a liberal arts major has it's advantages...I can take a stage header, using the momentum of the sword shot and make it look pretty convincing.

So perhaps I was the first person to get a fighting order for dying over and above the call of duty :) Perhaps he just saw my effort and wanted to encourage it a bit. I guess the reason why isn't all that important.

I was honored, and I still am.

Plus, the scroll is really neat.

And now, unfortunately, I have to get back to work and figure out why we're only paying people 3/4 of what we want to be paying them.

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