I'm still very tired from last weekend, which was the Exodus III 'Handel en Wandel' weekend. It started with the preparations and the last-minute printing and packing on Monday - Wednesday and Thursday evening. Then on Friday morning I picked up Matthijs and his load of stuff in Harderwijk. The car was rather full, but I insisted on being able to see through the rear window so we were not stuffed to the brim.

The original plan was to stop by the Action in Harderwijk to pick up some 15 lanterns, candles and lampoil, but since the car was full already we called to the Action in Wolvega (near the Exodus III location) to ask if they had the same lanterns, which was the case. So we drove to Wilhelminaoord in Drenthe. With a few difficulties (had to turn twice because of missing a turn or just missing the location itself) we arrived at the location at 12.30. Way too early. We were allowed on the terrain at 13.00 and at 15.00 the cleaning crew would leave, but it was not a big problem. We stashed half of our luggage into a shed and went to Wolvega to get some lanterns and lunch.

When we got back, JW and Sander had arrived at the location as well and the unpacking began. The 'spelkot' was the biggest I've ever seen, with a mammoth skull on the wall. It was the building that is normally used to educate the classes of children that come there in weekends. It was a large hall with central heating and lots of room. In no time we had turned it into a huge mess of costumes, props, bags and boxes.
That was my domain for the rest of the weekend.

Because of that, I can't tell much about how everything went. Except that I had some difficulty finding stuff in the 'spelkot' (we really need a better system for that) and some stress about player actions ('they are going to do WHAT?!') I think it went ok.

I had made a stencil for painting the Tesh spots, and it worked very well and fast. I'm planning on making a tool to make glueing on elf-ears easier. The problem is all the little hairs around the ears that get stuck in the glue while the latex ears are being obnoxious.

The tiring thing was mostly the not-so-much-sleep-part. On Friday night we had to break up and clear away all evidence of the market, including a huge ass tent which was heavy with frost. It was 05.00 when I finally climbed into bed (bunk bed) and 08.30 when I got out again.
Saturday night I was so wasted that I didn't even spend some nice chilling time with friends in one of the huts by the fire. :-( I went to bed straight after time-out and the brief evaluation talk, at 02.30. The alarm went of at 09.00. Sunday evening was of course spend clearing stuff away, packing, cleaning the location. At 21.30 we were at a MacDonalds 'restaurant' and at 23.30 I crashed into bed in Ermelo (dropped off Matthijs' stuff in Harderwijk first).

Yesterday I was at Musilon again, and after that spent an hour delivering flyers in flats for the upcoming Master Class (10th of November) so it was again 23.30 when I got to my bed. I really can't handle lack of sleep so I need to get into bed tonight at 22.00 if I want to be worth anything tomorrow on Matthijs' birthday.

Last weekend was Symbols 6: Moon, with all kinds of last minute preparations on the Thursday and Friday before (like making bandages, making a bag for the bandages for Matthijs, making a shawl, making a mirror for some plot of ours, making star- and moon-decorations, etc.). Which resulted in some stress.

The weekend itself was fairly relaxed, group dynamics were ok. The rain on Saturday sucked and drowned a lot of fun and play, didn't do much for my mood either. However, the Friday and Saturday night were great. On Friday night we did Varaashi's warrior initiation (the Varaashi in loin-cloth plot) and on Saturday night Odakota arranged a spiritual meeting for us with the representations of Laughing Moon, which looked great. I was so happy that I was second in line and that Taima hadn't failed her test, because seeing that you could actually fail made it a lot more exciting (read: scary).

Also on Saturday evening 'Krijsend Zwaard' and 'Boterbloem', two 'bands' that performed in the tavern during dinner. The first being a Heavy Metal band and the second being a really awful folk singer. Luckily Krijsend Zwaard got rid of Boterbloem rather fast. :-)

With both Aon and Symbols behind me I had hoped that things would quiet a little, but it is only 2 weeks now till Exodus III and there's still a lot of sewing to do. So every evening (except Monday's because I'm at Musilon then) I'm working on npc costumes.

I had hoped that Matthijs would be able to help me by cutting and pinning fabric, but he has been too busy for that. Meetings, writing a paper, theatersport, etc. So I'm working on my own. The urge to finish things before going to bed, and Matthijs coming in late at night do not help much in getting enough sleep. So that's where the 'on the edge' comes from. Stress at work doesn't help much either, so I'm on the verge of tears every now and again.
I even had to prolong my library book 2 times because there's just no time to read. :-( And I didn't practise the tin whistle for some time now.