I was in such a rush this morning that I forgot to put on earrings and my amulet. This happens maybe once a year. It was so hard to get up since I had a fun evening with Kacey and Puck that ran until about 1 am – it was the first time they’d met and they both had nice things to say about each other afterward.
Kacey came over first about 8 pm and we chatted and got caught up with her significant changes since Labor Day, and ideas on promoting her filmmaking project. Then around 9 o’clock Puck arrived on their way through Manhattan back to Stony Brook. We had some food, chatted and watched some videos online for about an hour until they had to leave to catch their train. Then Kacey and I watched a movie as we originally intended.
Friday night I went out to the Stonewall Inn for the second time to meet up with Angel and her friend Terry, a poly woman who was visiting from Wisconsin – we seemed to hit it off pretty well. I stayed for one drink until some more of her friends showed up then went home since I had a early start for the New York Renaissance Faire.
Laura and Adam organized a big group for the RenFaire and everyone was full of mirth and good cheer like our common friends Jon and Christine. I was content to watch other people participate in the camel rides, mazes, games and such while I mostly shopped, tried out hand drums and watched the shows. I did not find a talisman there as I have for the past two years, but I found many other things of interest: a vial of ambergris-scented oil, a long-sought kitchen witch and a medium-sized handcrafted broom with a deep red, knobby pine handle from a broom and walking stick shop, and a beautiful Japanese samurai sword with a glossy black scabbard, or saya.
It’s a fine sword, with a composite steel blade that is much stronger than cheap display swords, and honed to a sharp edge (although not to the sharper-than-razor's edge of some swords I’ve seen at the RenFaire in the past, blades so sharp they could shave the surface of a sheet of paper without fully breaking through). It’s a much better sword than the one I used to have in my house in Houston that I lost in the fire of 2005, and I’m glad to finally have one again.
I suppose it’s my own tradition that I feel that every home should have a sword. My birth family has an old Spanish saber in a jeweled scabbard and the handle made in the shape of a horse’s head that was pretty to look at, but dull as Keanu Reeves’ acting. My new sword is actually made for serious cutting (i.e. tameshigiri, the Japanese sword art of cutting rolled bamboo mats with a single strike) if I were ever inclined to pursue it.
So I was rather heavily laden on the way home, carrying an artisanal broom and a samurai sword (which was safety-tied and in a black sword bag, but I’m sure it still got curious looks on the subway). Fortunately, I did not get stopped and searched by any cops on the eve of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, although there was a cop at the Queensborough Plaza station that looked at me funny. I don’t think anybody is worried about the terrorists who use swords anyway, unless they’re as good as Deadpool or Deathstroke the Terminator (the DC comic character, not the movie cyborg).
In other news, this is the last week of the Borders liquidation, and it makes me very sad. I’m sure my family is taking it very hard over in New Jersey, as we’ve been through store closings together before, but not the whole chain. I went into my Penn Station Borders once after the bankruptcy was announced to buy The Hunger Games, but haven’t been back – it’s too depressing to see the chaos - *sigh*
9/11 itself was very quiet for me. I cleaned the apartment, making room on top of my DVD cabinet for my sword, cleaned the stove and vacuumed the floors. Then I went out for a pedicure, and to shop for new indoor slippers and groceries. The police closed 7th Avenue going through Times Square down to one lane so they could scrutinize each car that went through. I felt bad for the people stuck in the massive traffic backup that caused.
Friday is Nearing’s company picnic, and Saturday is Open Love NY’s Poly Picnic in Prospect Park in Brooklyn that Puck and I are organizing, so I’m thankful that 9/11 was this weekend and not next, when I’ll be driving around. Tonight is Poly Cocktails, but other than that it should be a quiet week until a busy weekend to come. Let’s hope that’s the case.
