After months of discussion, planning and apprehension, I was packed off to the wilds of somewhere-in-Washington for a four-day SCA event called Autumn War.

Lilith, Lyse and I arrived after sundown Thursday evening. The event site greeted us by unleashing a swarm of yellowjackets. You see, the place Lil’ had selected for her tent turned out to be right over an underground nest. Oops. She took several stings, including one right on the top of her head… and Lyse took a sting under the fingernail for having to go in after that persistent little critter. Me, I just took one at the waistline. (Turns out I’m not allergic. Who knew?)

The rain and the fact that it was dark calmed the nasty flying things down after a short while and we found a better place to set up camp. Falling asleep to the sound of rain on your tent is an experience I’ve almost missed, from back in the days of going to school in Concrete, WA from a campground while we waited for the house we’d bought to finally be available. But I digress.

Thursday night (minus the bees) and Friday morning (minus the bees) was much fun.

Friday evening, the event really kicked off. You see, most people didn’t specifically take time off from work, so the vast bulk of attendees started streaming in around nightfall Friday. I was sort of looking forward to some rest, so I headed off to the tent at what I guess to be around nine or ten o’clock.

I didn’t get any sleep. You see, apparently there are these drums. And the drums are loud, damned loud. And they’re in use all damned night. Every night. What the hell? And since the clouds had gone away, the temperature dropped way down to around 40 degrees… so by the time the drums stopped at about 4am, it was bitterly damned cold, and I was curled up shivering.

In other words, I didn’t pack nearly enough Warm Stuff To Cover Up With. Thank heavens for my Columbia Sportswear coat liner and that lovely wool cloak I was borrowing.

Since I don’t want to be at this all morning (I have to get to work eventually, sad to say) I’ll try to sum up the rest of the event:

• I never went hungry, and the food was dee-lish.
  
• I’ll probably never play tablero.
  
• I met and shot the breeze with an amazing assortment of clever, fun, naughty-minded folk who I wouldn’t mind hanging out and shooting the breeze with again, any time. Not one of them, I tell you, rubbed me the wrong way… nor was I ever under the impression I was somehow unwelcome. That’s just damned cool.
  
• Massive thank-yous are due to Lyse, Dalemar and Vlad, and some others whose names I don’t remember. They took care of me when I was feeling a bit lost or out of sorts, and they took the time every so often to check in on me to make sure I was doing alright. Thank you!
  
• I figured out what my problem is with hanging out around people who are doing an “accomplished” amount of drinking. No, I’m not going to go into it here, but suffice to say it’s an old childhood trauma that I’m probably not going to be able to shake easily. And honestly, I’m not going to try all that hard. I don’t drink, and if you don’t drink there’s not much to do when you’re hanging out with a group that’s composed entirely of drinkers.
  
• I’ve taken great strides in learning to control one of my other longstanding issues; I no longer run to the other end of the field when something buzzes in my ear. Four solid days surrounded by yellowjackets will do amazing things for your ability to relax and tolerate.

I’m not entirely sure I’ll do another SCA event. The answer to that question is going to depend on conversations yet to be had about things I’m not going to go into in this particular venue. But… for all that the nights were bitterly cold, I only accumulated four hours’ sleep between Friday morning and Sunday evening, the bees, and the other issues… I still managed to have a good time now and then. It wasn’t all good, but it wasn’t all bad.