There are games afoot!

I have (finally) made contact with the local SCA group. RJ met them almost two months ago since that was one of his first orders of business when he got here. Then Maggie and I arrived, life happened, a 2 year old happened, and the SCA fell by the wayside for a while.  That has now been remedied. Nothing major, just games night at someone's house. I didn't even volunteer for anything...much. Just offered to help. That's not really volunteering. I mean, I didn't offer to run an event or cook a feast or anything. Just offered my services in the kitchen if they're wanted. No big deal. No helium hand...yet. *grin*

One of the nicest things about the SCA, as far as I'm concerned, is that you have a ready-made group of people that you will have at least one thing in common with. There is a better than average chance that at least one person in the local group will end up becoming a friend. And if everything goes according to formula, I'm pretty sure that if we need help with something we can probably call on more than one of the people that were there last night and reasonably expect the help we need. The SCA, in my experience, is one big extended family that you didn't know you had. With all the good and bad that goes along with that. Take last night, for example. Usually when meeting a group of 7 complete strangers in one of their homes it's at least a little awkward or uncomfortable. At the very least there's a level of formality there. Not so much last night. Both Maggie and I were immediately comfortable, despite not knowing anyone and being in a completely foreign environment. Within minutes I was chatting with people as though we'd known each other for years. In less than hour I was involved in a discussion about period weaving techniques. By the end of the night RJ and I were both complicit (he more than I...I was just making suggestions) in shenanigans. Awkward? Not at all. Formality? What's that? These are our peeps. For reals.

The next three years are looking significantly less lonely and much more awesome. I'm not entirely certain we're going to want to leave. That's a very, very good thing!