My callus is a mighty callus

This is harp-related and bears posting about.

Yesterday, like a dumbass, I was making tea (making tea isn't a dumbass thing to do, I was just being a dumbass while making tea, as you'll see).  I turn the back burner on - the one with the kettle sitting on it.  Then (and mind you, it's like 7am), I think to myself, "Hey, the front burner's all sticking up and out of it's little burner-socket.*  I'll just nudge that back down."  So I put my thumb on the front burner.  And push.  And, of course, it turns out it was not the back burner that I'd turned on.  *sigh*

So I had this nice, painful burn-stripe on my thumb right where the harp string goes.  I was devestated.  This would mean no playing the harp at all while it healed.  Ugh.

Like 2 hours later, I realize there's no blister, and there's not going to be a blister.  The pain was gone, the white stripe was fading, and the skin that was burned felt no different than the skin around it.  That's right - I'd burned myself squarely on my callus!  And my callus did exactly what it was supposed to - it scoffed at pain and injury.  My thumb is fine, my callus is mighty, and my stove is thwarted.

My callus > mooshing my thumb down on a hot stove.  HA!  There will be harping after all.

*That's not a typo, I think in misspellings at 7am.

How to be a Harpy - an introduction to folk harp in the SCA

This past weekend, at Atlantia's Summer University, I taught a new class on beginning harp.  It included information on harps through history, the differences between period and modern harps and basic beginning technique.  You can see the handout for the course by downloading this here PDF.  Check out the resource section in the back for more information, and if anything's unclear feel free to email me!

Where did Isolde go?

Where is Isolde going is perhaps a more apt question.  With a bright forward-looking face and sad backward glances, I left Northshield.  My husband and I have moved to Atlantia for training for new jobs - Foreign Service Officers, to seal our nomadic fate.  We thought we might be here as long as a year, and I was looking forward to getting to know the bards and fighters around here.  Turns out we'll be leaving in August.

So where are they sending us?  We thought somewhere in Drachenwald was likely, and would be nice.  Someplace on the outskirts of Drachenwald even more likely, and we wondered if we'd have the stamina to keep up any SCA involvement.  Someplace marked "here there be dragons" was even more likely - someone has to go to Chad, after all.  So where are they sending us?

They're sending us to freaking Ealdormere!  So for the next couple of years, at least, very few bets are off.  :-D

In the meantime, Aeron and I will try really hard to hit up at least a couple of fighter practices and maybe an event or two.  We'll both be teaching at The University of Atlantia this weekend.  I honestly don't know if we'll be here long enough to make friends, but I hope we do.  I'll be back here for a while when it's time for me to start training, and we'll be back at some point for DC tours someday too.

So if you'll be at the university this weekend, or know someone who will, say hi to the new girl with the harp.  That'll be me.  :-)