I wore my 'Steelers' socks to a tournament in Baltimore. And before anyone goes there, I don't care that they lost today. Why? Well...Penn State won...and I had my best finish ever at a tournament today. I tied for 3rd with a friend. I haven't seen her in over a year since I had so many health issues. The funny part about that is that we giggled through our bout and the ref looked like he wasn't real sure what to make of us. Anyways...

We had 8 people and thankfully they did one giant pool of 8 - double stripped. Pools were great! I went 5 and 2. The 5 wins were the best I've ever had - the most touches anyone had on me was 2 for those. I lost 1-5 and 3-5 (the 3-5 was the one I giggled through). Everything felt great and I didn't really have any problems with 'thinking' like I have in the past. At one point I realized that I was actually moving well and doing the footwork like I worked on over the summer - even better is that I was doing it with the bladework and had no problems. Unfortunately at that moment I was distracted and walked smack into a blade. Ooops! Oh well. $h!t happens! I came out of pools in 3rd. Won my first DE but had some focus issues, distance, and one or two other minor problems, but I got through. Lost my 2nd DE. Once again, some distance issues, my hand was too high and a little slow, I was a little slow on the uptake, and some stupid movement crap. I was also tired. Definitely a 'Win' kind of day! Tied for 3rd!

I had a little bit of a leg issue at the tail end of that bout. I tightened up - a 'stressed' type of tense, not muscle cramps or anything. Well, when I did that, I'm not sure what I did, but something didn't feel right in the knee. What I figured out is that I 'crunched' down on the scar tissue again. That's basically what happened last year around Thanksgiving. Not a huge deal. Dinner, a beer, super hot shower, some Advil & Vicodin, and an ice pack - the 'magic' cure. I'll be sore tomorrow, but hey, that's what Advil's for, right? If I can keep myself from tensing up like that, I'll be great. Otherwise, I was moving really well. Have my 18 month follow up for the knee in December...I think Doc's gonna be pleased.

Heh heh...tied for 3rd! Yea...I'm still grinning!