We had originally talked about going to a Renaissance faire today, but decided
it would be easier if we went tomorrow. I had intended to pick up a newspaper
to get discount tickets, but never went into town to get them.  Fortunately, I
found a way to get them online.

At one point in the morning Mindy seemed frustrated and took me aside.  E said
something like, "Lorien's all pebbly so she won't tell you.  Don't you get
Lorien likes you?"  I said something like, "I know that, I like her too.  I
like--I love--both of you."  Then I suddenly got it.

If you aren't aware, "pebbly" means trying to act strong as a rock but falling
apart (I checked--Lorien and Mindy coined the term about six years ago.)

At first I felt rather stupid, especially as I finally learned this when their
vacation was almost over.  I realized Lorien had been dropping hints for a long
time.  But on the other hand, I didn't really know how or how much e liked me.  
I first met Lorien online 10 years ago, although we knew each other over the
Internet years before we met in person.

I decided in this case discretion would only partially be the better part of
valour, so talked to Lorien in the front yard (there were people both in the
house and in back).  I rather bluntly said, "Mindy said you like me, but I'm
not sure exactly what e means."  I didn't get a clear answer from Lorien
either, which left me confused.

I also got a little confused on the relationship between Lorien and Berkeley.  
I had been under the impression that they had been sothers (significant others
or boyfriend/girlfriend) for a few months but were taking a hiatus to date
other people.  But according to Lorien they'd actually been sothers for only a
few days in late spring, and were considering getting back together.  But from
how Lorien described their relationship, it sounded as if they virtually were
sothers.

I said that I once dated someone for well over a year in a supposedly
"non-exclusive" relationship even though neither one of us dated anyone else.  
Finally, I figured out that Lorien wanted to be "close" to me on the vacation,
but then we'd go back to how we were.  I told her that was what I wanted too,
she agreed to it, and we sealed it with a kiss.  So we decided to be "vacation
sothers."

Lorien and I started walking arm in arm and being openly affectionate with each
other.  Soon after that Crissy switched from being "mother" to Randi to being
Lorien's "younger sister," wanting to be with us everywhere.  I've seen that
type of behavior in preteens and teens before, but I still found it somewhat
annoying.  Crissy started asking Lorien about everything from going on a first
date to how do you keep your room neat to Lady Gaga to rainbow parties, of
which I hadn't heard.  (After looking it up, it looks like rainbow parties are
an urban myth inspired by a book named Rainbow Party and by an "expert" on The
Oprah Winfrey Show.  In these supposedly rampant but apparently non-existent
parties, teen and preteen girls each wear different colored lip gloss and then
fellate all the boys, leaving a "rainbow.")  Fortunately, Dave told Crissy to
go do something else and stop bugging us.

I was quite amused at Fiona who said something to the effect of "and you just
told me you weren't a couple."

Fiona, Dave, Mindy, Lorien, and I went to a large New Age bookstore that
features a great deal of different items.  Lorien got in a conversation with a
male proprietor who knows Fiona and Dave and told em about the book e and
others are working on.  E said e would have to see it to know if they would
carry it.  Frankly, I doubt they would as it's very tongue-in-cheek and their
store seems to be rather serious, although it did have some humour.

When we got back, we had a mini-pool party.  I participated with Dave, Fiona,
Lisa, Lorien, Mindy, Buddy, Crissy, and Tyler (who's a good friend of Dave's
and a current member of Satyrian's group).  We all swam in the usual style of
swimwear for that home.  I learned my previous caution was unfounded, as a few
of them did the "piggyback game" where one person stands on the pool floor with
another person riding piggyback.  Players form two person teams and try to
knock another team's rider off.  As much as I wanted to, I didn't participate
because of my injury.  Lorien wanted to stay with me, but I could tell e wanted
to participate, so I said go play, which e did.  Crissy and Tyler seemed to be
the unbeatable team, although more than once Crissy tried talking me into
playing horse for em.

I was surprised to learn from Tyler that Satyrian asked about me.  I hadn't
seen em in three years, and had only seen em a couple times then.  But after a
while I figured out that Tyler was likely sent over specifically to get
information on our group which has several former members of Satyrian's group.  
Tyler said their group is actually growing which Dave questioned.  Fiona said
we should talk about something else.

At some point I got handed a cloved lemon by Fiona so we kissed.  I was about
to hand it to Lorien who grabbed it from me.  I was worried for a second that e
might be upset, but e wasn't, and we kissed for quite a while which got us
taunts about slowing up the game.  Actually, the lemon rather wandered from
person to person and I imagine was still wandering when Lorien and I left.

Lorien and I decided to go on a date.  We've known each other online for over
10 years now, and this is our fifth in-person visit, so I suppose it's about
time we had our first date.  At first we had a hard time deciding on a movie
that 1) Lorien wanted to see; 2) I wanted to see; 3) Lorien hadn't already
seen; 4) Lorien and Mindy didn't both want to see.  Finally with Mindy's
suggestion we saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World which Lorien had already seen but
wanted to see again.  Without going into the entire plot, Scott is something of
a nerd with something of a band who gets attracted to a girl.  Before they
really begin fully dating, Scott (Michael Cera) comes under attack by the seven
evil exes of Ramona (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).  The movie is something of a
cross between a romantic comedy, an action adventure flick, a comic book (which
it's based on), with a little of the 1960s TV series Batman (words like "POW"
appearing during battles).  I really enjoyed the movie, and definitely enjoyed
being with Lorien.

After the movie we walked and talked for a little while, and were affectionate.

When we got back Mindy wanted to know all about the date, so I said e'd be able
to read about it online.  E also asked me if I thought Mary Elizabeth looked
like Lorien, and I said yes if Lorien had purple hair.  So then I got shown a
number of pictures of the actress online who does, in real life, have hair very
much like Lorien's.  We talked about the movie for a while, then watched TV.

I admit I felt a little awkward as it got closer to bedtime.  A group of us had
slept together platonically the night before, which reminded me of what friends
and I used to do on a regular basis at parties years ago.  Frankly, that's been
the norm through virtually all of human history, and is actually promoted in
the Bible.  But with Lorien and my "vacation relation," I wondered what would
happen.  Then Fiona said, "You and Lorien can use this room if you want to."  
It felt a little strange to me, but then all of us there are members of or have
been members of groups that are pretty open about relationships.

Lorien asked me if I wanted to, and I asked Lorien if e wanted to.  Lorien
said, "I'm still a virgin and I want to stay one.  For now."  I said that was
fine with me.

Lorien was still a virgin come morning.

19 September (Sunday)

It was something of fix your own breakfast in the morning.  I watched political
talk shows with Dave for a little while and some others did too.

It also became something of a fix your own shower, or perhaps more accurately a
rotating shower.  Supposedly to conserve on water and time, but I think more in
the spirit of harmony and sharing that all our groups espouse, they have a
practice there I'd never heard of before.  When a number of people need to get
ready at the same time and theres not really a hurry, one or more people start
in the shower.  Their largest bathtub has two shower heads, which makes it  
convenient.  When one is finished, that one gets out and someone else gets in.  
They have more than one bathroom, and usually use them, but this seemed like
fun.  The main rules are don't stay in there forever, and keep it
platonic--it's a family oriented shower.  The idea is to bathe together freely
without the macroculture's stigmas or associations.  I wondered if the water
would stay hot that long but they said it would. I don't know if they have more
than one water heater or one that's high capacity, but the water stayed hot.

When Fiona got out e told me quietly that Lorien and I were the last two left,
so the platonic rule no longer applied.  I couldn't help thinking that us being
the last two left wasn't coincidence.  Lorien and I took turns washing each
other and I was very glad the platonic rule wasn't in force.  But yes, Lorien's
V-card is still intact.

Then we headed for the Renaissance faire in two vehicles, Lorien driving one
while I sat in the front passenger seat.  I felt a little sad about going for a
few reasons.  For one, with my injury, I knew I couldn't drum.  Second was
something that had bothered me the entire time they were there: I'm not very
good at holding a camera steady right now.  I tried taking some photos but
don't know how they came out.  While I love using film, I really need to get a
new digital camera.  Third, I knew this would be the last day I would see
Lorien and Mindy for a while, possibly for a long while.  And fourth, my very
short time as Lorien's "vacation sother" was about to end.

I had hoped to have a monk's robe to wear, but don't have one made yet.  So I
wore my light blue with yellow T tunic with accessories.  I need to get some
new tights, but wore some loose corduroy pants that look more-or-less period.  
I won't go into what everyone wore, especially as Lorien will likely do that in
es version of our vacation.

Dave, Fiona, Lisa, Lorien, Mindy, Buddy, Crissy, and I all went to the faire,
and while there we met Greg, Ima, Bobbie and Raidon.  I really enjoyed going,
but wished I could have done more.  There was an assortment of food and
entertainment, with pirates firing real period cannons in a not-so-real battle
(Mindy did not care for the very loud cannon), belly dancers and drummers,
singers and comedians, sing-a-longs, and several people selling various items.  
It's not a large faire, but in some ways that's part of its charm; it's easy to
stop and talk to people you don't know.  After taking a bite of my sausage,
Lorien got teased by not only our group, but other people, which was part of
the fun.

Some of our group were disappointed because they didn't get to bellydance.  I
believe they had some open dancing on Saturday, but I didn't see any when I was
there.  I got to see some people I'd seen before and met several new people.

I almost dreaded the visit ending.  As I live between the faire and where Bangs
and Lil Bang are staying, and as they're heading back Monday or Tuesday, the
only practical solution was to take me home and say goodbye.  I got and gave
lots of hugs, and Mindy held onto me for quite a while and gave me a little
kiss.  Lorien took me back with just the two of us while the others were still
at the faire.  We parked for a little bit and talked.  I said this was probably
the shortest relationship I'd ever had, then poor Lorien started crying.  We
held each other for a while, kissed, then Lorien took me home and left me with
another kiss.

I didn't cry over them leaving, but I did that evening over something or other
I saw on the Internet.
PREVIOUS
Copyright 2010 by The Loveshade Family
Loveshade Home
Harmony
HaRmOnYs
DiArY!
The best part of my
vacation started here.
:)
Read Lorien's
version of
Sept 18 + 19 2010
Harmony shouldn't
feel stupid. I'm the
one who was stupid
cuz I took forever to
tell him!
He was really
interested Harmony!
:D
Lorien's Crib    Diary Dates     Harmony     Special Events
SePtEmBeR 18 + 19 2010
PREVIOUS
Read Lorien's
version of
Sept 18 + 19 2010
You can read my
version but Hamrony
said I could make
comment on his
version. ;)  *Lorien*
"usual style of
swimwear for that
home" Where does
he get those
phrases? :D
Harmony didnt even
tell me that! I liked
Tyler and he was a
spy?
Of course I wasn't
upset, silly!
I liked being with you
too, Harmony!
Being so subtle
again! I say what he
did in my diary it was
really sweet.
That's all he said
about the whole
night? Hes protecting
my modesty which I
don't have. :D
He didn't pressure
me at all. :)
It wasn't coincidence.
Fiona and Mindy
planned it. But he's
being modest again
so read what I wrote
and you'll know what
happened. ;)
He looked good in it.
And sorry I ddn't write
what everybody wore
just me. Maybe I'll
add that.
Really we weren't
very disappointed we
had fun!
Like I really think you
were crying about the
Internet. That's
sweet. :)