I celebrated my first full day of being in my twenties by making a bowl of brownie batter. I did not realize just how hard it is to eat brownie batter in a sustained fashion. I think I'll be eating the leftovers out of my fridge for at least a week.

I thought you might approve.

Your birthday wishes have arrived on exactly the right day. Thank you!

I didn't fence spectacularly well. 1-4 in pools, which then of course meant I had to fence the second seed and had one of my most spectacular defeats to date. I don't want to talk about people online so I'll text you the who and what and how.

It was lots of fun, though: all the fencers were chatting, three different people offered to drive me and the other Hyde Park fencer back to more convenient public transit than the train, and the last five bouts or so were done on one strip at a time so we could all gather around with the free food (cookies!) and watch. Chris Monti won and went from an E to a hard-earned B :O

As a college student, I am pretty sure that I am actually just an overgrown six-year-old. I live in a building that is painted largely in primary colors, I eat in a cafeteria, and I spend over ten hours a week playing with swords. Surely this is not the life of a grown-up. Maybe some adults, but no grown-ups.

I broke out of my funk (if two days counts as a funk) at practice today. First half we did fleches and second half, fleche defense. I know how to parry in prime now!

Are you going to MCFC on Sunday? You should come and fence! What a treat! Also we can do real frozen dairy treats afterwards! It can even be Dutch treat now that I have money in my bank account again! SO MANY TREATS! FOUR HUNDRED TREATS! And it's my birthday eve. Conclusion, fencing epee on Sunday with me is a good idea, QED.

How has life been in the little town on the prairie? What on earth kind of WWII-era machinery was it that you had to do that report on and why did your employer have it?

I thought you automatically stopped being a teenager when the number rolls over and your age stops ending in "teen." Am I mistaken? I know that it will take an awful lot more than a little thing like a number to make me actually grow up, but does that mean I retain my official Teenager status?

This week has been stressful. Midterms and papers are starting to all happen, practice isn't as relaxing as it sometimes is, and despite the fact that I've gone to bed early and woken up without an alarm clock every night this week, I still feel tired.

I am considering taking the el up to WCFC this Friday for some straight bouting to blow off steam. The alternative is half of the school's normal bouting time and a team trip to Chinatown followed by epee drinking night, but I am feeling antisocial this week and especially don't want to have to deal with first-years and their next adventure into the wide world of alcohol.

I should be there Sunday morning in time to watch all of the men's epee, as my ride is competing in that event. Kicking names is absolutely the plan. Thank you for letting me experience the NAC vicariously through you!

Bakhyt is, in a word, amazing. I am already busy concocting plans to scrounge up enough cash to have two lessons a week, and my lesson only ended fifteen minutes ago. Omg.

P.S. Good luck good luck good luck! Have fun and bring home epic tales of the feats you performed in the heat of battle to tell me!

Wish I could help on the practice front... You will be fine, though, all you need to do is get into a fencing, not teaching, headspace (at least, I think that's what happens when you wallop me). Show no mercy!

May the director always see that it was clearly, obviously, totally your right of way, and may your point always land on valid target area.

(P.S. I'm getting my jacket stenciled. I'm going to look super pro when it gets back.)

Yes, the DEs were very exciting. It did feel slightly unfair when I was mostly ahead or tied for the first period and then they had a minute-long lecture from their coaches on what to do during the break, but I guess that's what happens when you have no coach of your own so I will just have to get better enough that no amount of strip coaching will compensate for my overwhelming dominance. And that shouldn't take too long: for the moment I only need to be two or three touches per bout better to start moving one round higher in DEs, which is extremely doable. Especially when lessons start on Wednesday!

NACs are this weekend! I wish I could go (and get my jacket stenciled there instead of mailing it to Oregon, not to mention compete) but instead I think I will just wish you all the luck there is and expect you to not need any of it. How has practice been out in the country?

I slept about eleven hours last night, but I am still tired and also developing some sort of sore-throat-itis. Yesterday was worth it, though. I only won one pools bout in mixed but it was way up there on my slowly growing list of sweetest victories, and those DEs were really close.

Once I have some coaching I expect to start winning more things whether or not my opponent gets miniature lectures on how to beat me during the rest breaks.