Fark.

Today was decent until about 6pm. Went to bed at 1, woke up at 4 for no reason, went back to sleep. Woke up again at 6:15 by my alarm clock, went back to sleep and woke up (properly) at 6:45. Oops. I had to be at the gym at 7:30 today. That's...half an hour to do everything necessary, plus eat breakfast, with the end result that breakfast consisted of a container of coffee-flavored yogurt and a cup of hot chocolate. Yummy. Not to worry, since I can't eat anything before fencing. I have to snack.

I walked to the gym with one of the foil guys that lives in the building next to mine, and one of the sabre guys who lives at the bottom of the hill. Of course, no one else was there. Just a note: When you say "get there at 7:30," that means YOU need to be there at 7:30. And then we spent more time waiting around for the guy with the key to the equipment room to get there. (I love fencing. It's so disorganized sometimes.) And then more time waiting for the rest of the drivers to get there.
Unlike October's tournament, this one was three schools (us and two others) and local--20 minutes away from campus. We were still there from 9:30 to 3:30. We had some equipment issues (dead body cords, and for some reason all but one of our sabres is two-prong, and some flying masks) at the beginning when we tested our gear (hurrah for crappy club stuff!) but we got it ironed out in the end. We fenced the "easy" school first.Their women's sabre squad had two people on it; ours had three, so we only needed to win two bouts. (For every person missing from a squad, they forfeit the bouts the missing person would have fenced.) The sad thing is, they didn't really seem to know what they were doing, and I was the only reason we beat them, not trying to brag or anything. My teammates...one of them only started this year, and the other started last spring. We can chalk one up to inexperience, and the other...she has some good instincts, but she gets very nervous when fencing and it all goes out the window. So guess who won those two bouts? And unfortunately, they were the only ones I won all day.
The host school is a division II school with a varsity fencing team. We are...division III with a club team. The men had a much harder time than we did (the men's foil event was a bloodbath), but we still lost all our bouts (at least, sabre did). A lot of it was "where the *%&! was my brain in all this?!" Lots of touches that I missed, and lots that I should have known how to deal with. J was unusually sympathetic to me today--he usually isn't. He doesn't try to be nasty or uncaring, but he takes his fencing very seriously and so is usually too wrapped up in his game or what's going on on the strip at the moment (for some reason, only the men's events get his attention...) to be particularly sympathetic. He wasn't fencing today because he sprained his ankle the week before, so I guess he was more into providing coaching, equipment and support today. I was beating myself up about my performance on the strip, and he came over, patted my shoulder and said "Hey, don't worry about it. We're all in the same boat, and yeah, there are some things you've got to work on, but it's getting better. That was the most aggressive I've ever seen you. That's good. Keep it up and come to practice." Last bit is a tiny bit awkward since I've been missing practices due to...me not sleeping and exams. (Not that J can talk on the first front, because he doesn't sleep either.)
Anyhow, we got back to campus at 4:15ish, I had a sort of late lunch/snack thing. Tea-- only without the tea--is the best description of it. Then I hiked up the Stairs of Doom so I could take a nap...which was interrupted by the fire alarm going off. Again. Why are the people in my building idiots? At least this time they called security and told them to tell the fire department not to show up. And then I got dinner. Somewhere between my room and the dining hall, I lost my brand-new, just-bound-off Foliage. It had been in my pocket until I realized this, so I guess it's in the dining hall, from where I either fished my ID card or gloves out of my pocket. But it makes me sad, since I'd only worn it for a little while and I hadn't even gotten to take a picture of it. I'll be checking the dining hall tomorrow, as well as the route down there (for a third or fouth time). If it's not there, it may be in someone's car (I hope that's the case.) And if still nothing...I guess I'll be casting on...again.

Projecty-ness and new books!

So I thought I'd get some knitting done over the break. Of course not. I don't know what I spent it doing.

Project breakdown as of 3 AM, January 8th 2007:
Gryffindor Scarf (SS/CoS-style): 16% done (3 and a bit of 19 stripes).
Irish Hiking Scarf: 75-80% done.
Fetching 2: 66% done.
Stockinette scarf: 45% done.
Toe-up socks: 40% done.

What happened to the hoodie? I think it died. It's not working. Any ideas as to what to do with 4/5 balls of Homespun (in a discontinued color)? :P

Things that need to be cast on:
Fetching 3 (Will be in Lion Brand Wool-Ease (worsted) in Blue Heather)
Fun Fur Fingerless Mitts (Fetching-based) (Patons' Decor in Black, Lion Brand Fun Fur in Copper)
Second toe-up sock (Patons' SWS in Natural Earth)
Socks for Socktopia.

Yes, I joined a knit-along. Unfortunately, I need to decide NOW what I'm doing so I can at least buy the yarn and/or needles. The themes for January are "Celebrate good times", "blue monday", and "snowflakes and starry skies". The "snowflakes" would be a perfect opportunity to learn Fair Isle, I think. Or I could do a plain pair of blue socks, maybe with some cable-y things. I don't have sock yarn in the stash in any color. I have a skein of off-white wool, and a dye-able skein of the same stuff in white, so I'm thinking white socks with snowflakes around the cuff. :)

In other news, I have some new books, both fencing-related. One is The Inner Game of Fencing: Excellence in Form, Technique, Strategy and Spirit by Nick Evangelista. It's an interesting read, if at least for some different perspective. (I was taught by a "trigger the light"-variety coach. The instructors at the salle (I miss them!) and Evangelista are technique-oriented.) (Not that I don't like my high school coach. He was great, just not necessarily as a sabre coach.) The other is By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen, a British(!) sabre fencer(!!). I've flipped through it, but I haven't had a chance to actually read it yet. Looks good, though.
I have a giant list of books I need to read:

• Silent Spring (Rachel Carson)
• Against the Grain (Richard Manning)
• Inkheart (Cornelia Funke)
• and now, these. (and whatever else I have lying around)

I'm not going to get a chance. I'm back in Cleveland in a week. I did get my biology textbook...

what did I expect, anyway?

I went back to my high school fencing club today, and was somewhat disappointed. Crappy footwork, minimal discipline, and people who are generally apathetic about the whole thing. Not to mention last year's sabre newbies...weren't there.

I don't know why I expected anything different, at least on the footwork and discipline. Hoch (the coach) isn't very big on form or footwork. He'll teach enough so that people sort of get the idea, and then moves on to bladework. (He's very much a "whatever gets you the point" type of fencer. And coach.) He left correcting up to the upperclassmen, most of whom had at least a year of fencing under their belt. And that leads to the discipline. Back in the day, we had some authority--5 seniors who knew what they were doing. We could look after ourselves and the rest of the sabre team. I can't speak for the foil squad, but at least we did work for most of the time. And people actually listened. This year, there are 3 seniors. Two of them know enough about fencing to lead at least footwork, but only one of them shows up, according to my sister. And they're all foil fencers. The sabre team would be okay if the people from last year showed up. I know they're busy, but I'm in college, have far more work than they do and I go to practice more often than they seem to! So that leaves a bunch of n00bs trying to teach themselves with minimal instruction from Hoch. (He was an epee fencer in college, so he works mainly with the foils.) It's UGLY.

On the bright side, there is one girl who's pretty good. Now Hoch just needs to get her a jacket and mask.