A 2017 Revival

I went to bed around midnight last night, after someone finally posted the name of the road I wanted to find the parking lot on facebook around 11pm. I guess that would have been useful around 7pm as I drove up and down a different road looking for it. But it posted at 11pm, and I saw it before going to sleep. I tossed and turned for about 3 hours before finally getting to sleep. Garmin says I slept 5 hours. The alarm went off at 8:15, and I got up and got dressed and cleaned up and packed and got on the road by 8:30. I found the place easily with the new directions.

I got there, and got dressed and Samirra asked me for pick ups. I fought her once, and my arms were just dropping, and I couldn't concentrate and life sucked. I was like "I'm sorry. I think I need to investigate coffee options before I do this." I walked over to the breakfast tent, where they were out of coffee, but had hot chocolate. I poured two packets into half a cup of hot water making it pretty intense. I drank that, and decided to take a caffeine pill which is equivalent to about half a cup of coffee. By the time I was finished, the tournament was about to start.

It was not quite raining but not quite not raining? Our first tournament had to be outside because we couldn't access the ballroom until 10. There was a roof over the open air space, and we were able to squeeze in 3 fights at the same time. I fought several fights, and lost them all. About halfway through, I had to sit down. As I was sitting there, Brendan saw me, and came to make sure I was okay and getting some fights in. After a short break, I rejoined the line. Someone I fought lost their next fight and wound up behind me in line. He told me I was leaving too big of a pathway between my sword and dagger, which seems to be the way of it when I try to stand in profile. I do it less if I stand squared up, but then I provide a bigger target. So. I don't know. I'll ask someone to help me with my stance on Tuesday.

The tournament ended at 10, and we went inside for a melee tournament. This is 3 on 3 bouts where each of the winners gets a mark on the back of their dance card, and the teams keep switching up. My second team was Patrick and someone I don't know, but the person I don't know was really good, and told us "just stay alive. I'll kill everyone." So Patrick and I teamed up and stayed alive, and this unknown person killed everyone and we won. Then we lost the next round. My next round I was against Patrick, and he and I double killed, so I actually killed someone today. We lost anyway.

There were an additional 5 tournaments, and I lost every fight, but I did get a lot of fighting in. Master Ximon took me aside for some pick ups, and I won a couple of those, but I suspect Ximon let me win those as they didn't count so they were more like practice and a good teacher will make sure you win about 30% of your fights against them at a practice. I also did a couple pick ups with his highness who was going by the name "Incognito." I lost all of them, but they were probably my best fights. Cam, whom I haven't seen since I started fighting, but used to live near in Statesboro when I went to grad school, said he was proud of me that I was out there and having fun, against so many people who were so much better than me. That made me feel a little better.

I talked to Pietro for the first time since becoming his deputy web minister, and he assured me I was doing a good job, and asked if I was sure I wanted to continue. He'll announce the position at the March business meeting, but he wanted to make sure I really wanted it before doing so.

I left before court, because the weather was gross and spitty at that level where you kind of need windshield wipers, but also the wipers just make the situation worse? Maybe that's just my wipers. I probably need new wipers. Anyway, I wanted to do it before it was gross and dark. It took me about an hour to get home. When I was about 3/4ths of the way home Kevin called me and said he noticed I was on my way home and he hadn't expected to see me tonight, but since I was on my way home could I pick up chick-fil-a. So I did that. I came home and ate dinner, and then Kevin was yelling at me for turning the bathroom light off after I took a shower. Apparently he is using that light even when he's not in the room, and I'm supposed to pay to keep the light on 24/7.

Kevin is watching some kind of vampire thing, and it's making me very anxious. I thought it was ending but apparently there was another chapter, and it's not ending. I am very uncomfortable.

It's now supposed to rain on Thursday, so I won't get to fight most likely. I feel like it has been forever since I fought heavy. It's supposed to rain all night tonight, too, so the fields will be soggy and we probably won't fight tomorrow. Wulfstan mentioned something to me about doing drill practices at his house on Wednesdays. I never heard more about this, but I just PMed him to ask if it had ever happened, and if so if I could get an invitation to come out sometimes. It means not going to the business meetings, but it also means getting better at heavy fighting, and Wulfstan is a good person to learn from.

I keep forgetting how short February is, and now March is on the calendar. It's a little shocking - that's the month of Gulf Wars! There's less than 2 weeks left before I am leaving for Gulf Wars. Giata posted that she was looking for volunteers for Ca'd'oro, and I asked what kind of volunteers she needed. I plan to help them set up on Saturday once I get my own stuff set up. But if there's anything else I can do, I guess I just need to be asked. Also, it's almost spring! I know that officially it doesn't start until the 21st, but here in Atlanta, the beginning of March is really spring. Just ask the trees.

This is going to be a rough week. I have to wake up early (for certain values of early that seem to apply only to myself), and take 3 of the pets to the vet. I'm taking them in a set of two, and then one alone instead of all at the same time. This was probably a mistake, but trying to wrangle 3 at once seemed more difficult. I also have to wake up early to read to Jafar, and a week from tomorrow for Chai Mitzvah. Tomorrow is book club, so I have to get up around 2, which isn't too early if I manage to sleep tonight, but I had caffeine earlier this morning, so I may not? I'm not tired, and it's 10pm.

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