Thursday, November 11, 2010

LARPing and being out of shape

I went down to GA to LARP last weekend. I love LARPing, though this LARP is a boffer weapon LARP so it's a lot of running, attacking and since I play an NPC,a lot of falling down and dying.

On Friday night, I was in a module where I and two other NPC's were playing shark monsters. I lunged forward to attack, when I slipped. When I slipped, I did the splits further than I have ever done before. Needless to say, I was really sore for the rest of the weekend.

Even if I hadn't hurt myself, the running around really got to me after awhile, and I was just sore and wiped out by the time I got home on Sunday. Because of this, I've vowed I'm going to make time to work on getting in shape before the next LARP, which isn't until April.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Are Happy Meals Evil?

San Francisco has banned toys in unhealthy kids meals (you can read the article here), and many people I know think this is super great and whatnot.

So I'm feeling like I'm not the best parent because my child has ingested a few Happy Meals. But, I don't think a happy meal once in a while is bad, and I don't think McDonald's food is as awful as people think it is.

I worked at McDonald's for two years when I was in college, and while it isn't the best food, it's not that horrible either.

Of course, it could also be because I don't really believe that organic is the way to go. I'm not a very crunchy person, and even if I was, with me being out of work, it's just not affordable for us to buy all organic. And both Todd and I are not convinced that organic is worth the huge market as compared to regular food.

But I could just be a bad mom for giving my kid processed food every once in a while, but I don't really think I am.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Halloween 2010

The Saturday before Halloween, I took Emily to a local Halloween Carnival. There were games to play where she got treats, and a bouncy house that she loved.

When we first got there, I got approached by a reported and I was interviewed for an article about the carnival. I was mentioned in the article as well as my shout-out to my local mommies group!

On the actual day of Halloween, we took Emily to the mall for trick or treating. We met up with our local mommies group and we trick and treated together for a while, but we ended up getting separated.

We had a good time, though by the end, Emmy wanted her candy and melted down a bit when we said she couldn't have anymore. But she's 2, so I think that is pretty normal.

All in all, it was a good Halloween!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Browncoat Ball - Sunday

Sunday dawned bright and early, and I got packed up pretty quickly. I loaded my car up, and went to the hospitality room to help out. I sold the table centerpieces from the night before and last minute raffle tickets.

The raffle happened, and it went really fast! It was done in the similar way as the CSTS raffle is done every year, but we made it through a ton of prizes in about 40 minutes, which I think is a record!

I didn't win anything but I was allowed to take the giant dinosaur balloon home for Emily. I didn't stick around for the Shepard Book Words of Wisdom that took place after the raffle because I was tired and wanted to get home.

The weekend was really fun! I hope to get to another Ball someday, and I'm sure that will be a different experience because I won't be on the planning committee for any future Balls (though I would love to build up Asheville Browncoats and put in a Ball proposal someday).

Browncoat Ball - Saturday (Part 2)

After resting for a while, I got ready for the Ball. I wore my Kaylee Layer Cake dress, which got a lot of compliments. I didn't take my camera down to the Ball, so I didn't get a picture that I could attach to this blog post.

There was a cocktail hour where we mingled and where Pher, who is a Greenville 'Coat and a professional photographer, took Prom-style pictures of everyone in their finery.

Once the Ball started, people who wanted to be announced were - I was announced as "Chaos Mandy, Lady of the Layer Cake" which got me big cheers.

After everyone was in, a group of cloggers entertained us until the buffet was open. The food was amazing, lots of options and a huge dessert table as well.

The band, Gael Warning, started their first set while we were eating dinner. They started out with their version of the Firefly theme song which everyone sang along to.

At the band's first break, the cloggers came back, and this time they asked for people to come up. I was one of the people, and I had a great time learning how to do some of the called dancing (it was kind of like square dancing).

The rest of the night had more of the band, who played 3 or 4 more sets. One of those sets was all of waltzes which I didn't dance to. I did dance a lot for the other sets.

There was a costume contest, and I would have probably been one of the winners, but since I was on the committee I wasn't allowed to. There was some really great costumes, including one girl who's mom had made her Inara's dress from the Shindig episode!

After the costume contest winners were announced, all the committee members were called up so we could be acknowledged. And right after that, was a marriage proposal between two of the committee members, Dawson and Katie. It was so sweet!

I stayed almost the entire time, but at the end, my head was starting to ache from the loud music and from all the dancing so I headed upstairs. I changed into my pj's, though I did want to go to the after party. I ended up just falling asleep!

Browncoat Ball - Saturday (Part 1)

I got up around 7:30 on Saturday and got ready for the afternoon's activities. After I was ready, I went to the hospitality room for some breakfast.

At 10:00, most of the Ball-goers met in the lobby of the hotel. We got our train tickets and we headed off to walk to the train station. We went to a tavern for lunch, which was bbq, coleslaw, bread and chicken fingers . It was really, really yummy.

While we ate, we were entertained by Big Mammas House of Burlesque  which was awesome - 3 girls performed and all of the performances were Firefly themed including costumes!

After lunch, we went on our different tracks. I was on the 'Tour the Core' track. We went back to the train, and from there we walked to the Trolley museum. The Trolley museum was pretty small and the guy working there didn't know what to think of us.

There was a trolley in the middle of the museum that we all got on - the photographers with our group got several shots, and then someone said that we should sing "Hero of Canton", which we all did bursting out into song right on the trolley. It was one of the shiny-er moments from the weekend.

After the Trolley Museum, we went to Levine Museum of the New South, which was really interesting. It was all about the history of Charlotte from after the Civil War until now. After I had gone through the exhibits, I hitched a ride back with a few Browncoats who were driving back to the hotel.

Once I got back to the hotel, I went back to the room to rest up for the main event, The Ball!