Florida. Sunny Florida. Sunny, green Florida. It was wonderful to escape the cold of Ohio and venture down to Pensacola the last weekend of February. There was really not a lot of excitement down there. It was mostly relaxing, fun...and well, warm.
There were three of us knights: Shane, James Acuff (Lords of Chivalry and honorary member of the Knights of Valour), and myself. None of us had jousted since last fall, including the horses, and we were all pretty rusty. The shows were still good, if I may say so, but the jousting was not at its best. Still, I surprised myself with how comfortable I was in front of the crowd. Especially after my nervous fiascos last season all of you read about. Please do not mistake me, I was not completely at home out there, but it was loads better.
Ah, I forgot, there is something to tell. The king was rather....enthusiastic shall we say...about me being down there. The first show on Saturday he gave me a hard time for being a woman knight jousting. It was annoying, but sometimes that kind of thing helps me joust. You know, I have to prove them wrong. That evening the gentleman who played the king came up to me and made sure there were no hard feelings, said he really liked that I was down there and we chatted a bit. I told him not to worry about it and explained to him that kind of taunting helps me....that was a mistake. Great going, Jessica.
The next day during the show he was trying to be "nice" and help me out by taunting me more. Er, rather, he gave me hell. It was already one of those days that felt off which made his heckling (and bad jokes) worse. My armor felt heavy, my allergies were clogging my throat, I apparently did not stretch sufficiently...and when Katie put my helm on and he said, "Sir Robert (Bob), what happens if Dame Jessica breaks a nail?" I was about ready to run Paladin over to the throne and throttle the king (not one of my best moments, I'll admit ;)). So my focus in jousting shifted from focusing on the joust, to just being angry...which is not good for technique lol. Thankfully I eventually got over my stupidity and the last pass felt great, so all ended on a good one.
I wish I could have taken all of you down there with us to enjoy the sun (and your company). From walking around with Scott at the small, but enjoyable Gulf Coast Renaissance Fair, to eating at a great (though very squished) Irish pub, to jousting on the best jousting horses in the world, to spending time with other awesome people, and everything in between, it was a wonderful time.
Sorry about the short blog. It seemed like there should be more so I kept putting it off and thinking about it, hoping I would come up with more to write that would not bore you...but everything I came up with seemed boring, ha. Oh well. Sometimes less is more.
With love to you all
~Off to the lyst!~
