Clayton and Claire
Where We Met
Lord Thomas and Lady Eleanor
Careers
Clayton's Interests
Our Friends
Wedding Pictures courtesy of Mark Becker. Thanks, Mark!
(When we get our act together, there will be more...)
Where We Met
Claire Basney and Clayton Ramsey first met at a SCAdian (Society of Creative Anachronism, for you laypeople) dance practice for the large kingdom event, Twelfth Night (from the twelve days of Christmas.) The cool part: in the SCA, participants take medieval names for themselves, so at the end of the evening, Clayton and I only knew each other as Eleanor and Thomas (more on this below.) That is, he may have known my real name, but I forgot his (blush blush!) So here I had this great new friend whom I could not contact or whose name I could not remember. Wonder of wonders, a couple days later, I received an email from him : ). I had the best feeling about it, for it was my opinion (and hasn't changed much) that a man who will bestir himself to track down a girl has a lot going for him. Well, it's true!
Now the weird part: Clayton almost didn't make it to that dance practice, for he was riding with his friend Peggy (SCA Margaret) and they had car trouble. They had actually set off back for Blacksburg (where Clayton was living at the time) when they turned around at the last minute and came to the practice. God (however you think of him/her) was definitely at work here...
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Lord Thomas and Lady Eleanor: our SCA personae
Lord Thomas Fitzthomas is a Norman noble with interests in alchemy, from the time he spent in the Middle East. Lady Eleanor Percy is an English noble (from the noble Percy family, earls from Northumberland, if I remember correctly). She has been well educated in all the ladylike arts--music, religion, dancing, sewing and embroidery, etc.--and has taken it upon herself to learn to read. She enjoys reading, particularly from her prayer book and the Bible, as there are few other books available to her.
Her father, Henry Percy, AKA Hotspur, is a real historical figure (unlike her) and one of those at that time (1400s) whose family had a claim on the English crown. This will probably land Lady Eleanor an illustrious noble husband, who is interested in her bloodlines, not her, and a job running a castle (if it doesn't get her and her lord killed in the first place.)
How Lord Thomas and Lady Eleanor could have possibly met, I cannot explain.
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Our Careers
Who knows? Clayton's a math teacher now, and I'm a children's librarian right now. I also work sometimes as a professional storyteller with aspirations to writer-hood. Clayton has aspirations out of math teaching, but where we do not know. One thing we do know: we do not want him getting stuck doing something he does not love just to raise his family and put his kids through college. We know something about that...
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Clayton's Interests
Clayton, in sincere determination to be a modern 'Renaissance Man' (nothing to do with the SCA, mind), logically has a wide range of interests. As mentioned above, he teaches math at Southern Vance High School and there is a good place to start. In his room, casually sitting, is a book entitled something like Mathematics for the Intellectually Curious. Intellectually curious is a great way to describe Clayton. He writes music, electronically, he is great with computers, he studied engineering in college before switching to a liberal arts degree, and he is game enough to try storytelling and theater on occasion. If there is a book lying around that looks even remotely interesting, he'll read it.
Oh yes, and he loves renting 'B' movies just to laugh.
Clayton's Web Page
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Our Friends
Right now, this is mostly about Clayton's friends, since mine are all neatly listed on my Friends Page. Clayton's roommates through college cycled, but cycled pretty much through the same group of people, and they are those, short of his family, that he visits most regulary. To wit, Chris Gregory, Ben Cauley, Kevin Cooper, Amy Smith, and Peggy Brodie.
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