I am just too tired and stressed to drive down to the veteran tournament in Virginia, and my husband won't go with me, so I cancelled. Then I saw there's a veteran event at MFC in NYC on the 14th, which would not require driving and has a bunch of friends in it, so I signed up for that and withdrew from the Charm City, which had tops about 6 people registered for the mixed open sabre.
A typical second night back! The first time back after a hiatus, I always fence well, and the second time I'm always terrible.
It was very busy -- Dave, Bob, Bridget, Nick L., a couple of the sabre boys whose names I don't know, Michelle, Donna, Charlotte, Dick, Ahren, and Meng. I fenced Dave, one of the sabre boys twice, Michelle, Donna, Dick, and Ahren, and lost at least three bouts (losing to Dave and Ahren is pretty much normal, but I lost another one) because my distance is gone. ...More
Except for a few I got on Meng, I didn't do straight attacks. No profit. But I did do footwork and some target drill, and that was useful. The only sabre fencers there were Meng, Kiersten, and Bob, and I fenced all of them (Meng and Bob twice). Mark asked me if I wanted a lesson, and when I said I didn't know if someone else had moved into that slot during the five weeks I was out, he said the 8:30 slot was permanently mine. That was nice. Of course, that's Mark's version of time--when he
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I looked again at the Sunday tournament, and realized I had misread the close of check-in. There's no way I can make it. I cancelled.
Donna and Dave both commented on my Facebook page, asking me to come back to practice. But Monday night is an evening meeting and Wednesday night I have another meeting. I guess I'll just have to stick to my month off.
The middle school admissions director says it's okay if I slip out fifteen minutes early . . . which means, I'm afraid, that I can make the tournament if I high-tail it out of there. Oh, well.
The Temple women's sabre this weekend actually looks like fun, and I may do it. I signed up, though as I also have to be at school for an admissions open house just before, I might have to skip it.
I haven't been fencing at all for nearly two weeks! And I haven't even been engaging in f.net discussions, even though some very important talk has been going on about the proposed change in qualifying paths. I'm just too tired and stressed (catching up at work after Moscow has been a marathon conducted at sprint pace) and I find it rather discouraging to think about all this stuff right now.
I've been hopeful that veteran women's sabre in the US would get more populous, not just strong
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Ahren called me yesterday to say that he has viewed and re-viewed the video of the gold medal bout, and he came to two conclusions:
1. He should have gotten himself black-carded when the referee annulled my touch due to the audience distraction. After the break, and during that touch, I was clearly focused again and moving correctly, even though beforehand I was sleepwalking. After the referee annulled my touch, I was done. I've won bouts in which I started that far behind.
If anyone was there, I apologize for my general grouchiness--I bring my coach with me so I'll have someone I can insult and argue with at tournaments, so I won't annoy my friends. I am SUCH a bear at these things. I get in a bad mood and stay there, and I can't understand why I do this. But as Jane Eyre said beforehand, it's a great opportunity to test ourselves and every year we work on something different.
All I know is I had opponents from Russia, Great Britain, France, Italy and Jap
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11-06-2009 11:38 PM 