Those who say you cannot be too rich or too thin would change their mind if they saw me in a bikini.

I'm shocked at my appearance in the mirror. Seriously. I'm a gaunt old crone. I do not own scales and haven't yet been to the gym where I normally weigh in but I did weigh in today at fencing practice and I'm at 114 lbs.

This is too low for me. Seriously too low. 115 was my target weight but I may need to adjust that based upon health and appearance since I'm decidedly unhealthy looking at the moment.

I retract my earlier comment about looking like a gaunt old crone. I look like a gaunt old crone who's been dead for three days. I'm extremely pale and my eyes are rather zombie-like.

Blah!

Yesterday's competition was fun and not fun and surprising. Organizers were fabulous but this was a small, local competition and thus it was self-directed.

There were ten of us, including a C-rated teenager and an E-rated who should have been D-rated teenager. I was, as you might guess, the only woman.

I won against the fencer I'd expected to have the most trouble with and lost to everyone else. Yes... one of those days and no, I don't blame it all on being sick. I blame it on taking nothing to the strip. It was the equivalent of going to a podium to deliver a speech and not having yet selected a topic for the speech, let alone prepared a speech. "Winging it" is not a good way to fence and it's what I've been doing for far too long, which is why I'm so frustrated with myself.

I did win my DE and thus secured my 7th place and then fenced #2, who was the C-rated, left-handed fencer. Yes, I lost... but it was an interesting bout and worth the trip, imho.

I'd ridden down with N and his son, A, who was fencing in the youth event. A won the youth event and was quite happy with that while N placed 3rd, which is good for his first competition. I got my coat and waited for the awards and gifts (A got to pick from possible selections, choosing a chess set while N and the other top 4 received daggers/letter openers). Then the organizer said, "And for our #1 woman saber fencer..."

??? WHAT ???

They gave me a SWORD!!!!!

Explicitly, it's a Robin Hood short sword.


Woot!

The trip back was relatively uneventful until the last three miles to where my car was parked, when we suddenly encountered snow and slick pavement. I had a treacherous drive home that took about 3 times the usual amount of time and reached home about 2am this morning.

Yes, I went to practice today.