Warm-up

So, I went to a tournament last night. A nearby club hosts monthly, Wednesday night tournaments, not really big affairs, but I think you'll find that it wasn't noticeably a slouch tournament. For the non-fencer, all those Bs and Cs mean pretty decent fencers. Add to that the fact that most of them were men, and they're generally stronger fencers (both literally and figuratively) than a woman of the same ranking. Not always true, but a reasonable guess.
In my pool, I broke even, 2-2. I beat the two other women handily (5-1 in both cases). I lost to the two men 5-3 and 5-4, which I'm perfectly happy with, under the circumstances. Neither of them was completely unbeatable for me.
I actually won my first DE, which I was very happy about, given the guy was quite easily twice my size. And apparently a C himself. Go me! 15-14 makes it look like a crap shoot, but I will say that I fenced well the entire bout, used my head, and was just making less mistakes than he was.
I lost my second DE to the eventual winner, who I'd call a pretty strong B, and I don't think he was unbeatable either. He was doing a lot of showy moves that, had I been focusing on the correct target, I would have made him pay for. I don't think I was what he was expecting at all. I'm really, really happy with 15-10 on a solid (male) B.
So, I finished in 8th. I'm totally happy with that result.

All this is leading up to the fact that I will be in Atlanta this weekend, fencing at the Div I NAC. Again, for non-fencers, a Div I means that you have to be at least a C to compete, and you'll be competing against other Cs as well as Bs and As. It's not mixed, so I'll just be fencing women. Div Is are the big time; the people who will be on the Olympic Team for this year are at these things. I actually warmed up with an Olympic prospect at my last Div I.

What this all means, in very simple terms (if you're actually still reading) is that I will most likely get my ass completely handed to me. But I hope to learn something from that, and I hope to do better than at my first Div I, so we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely on a little bit of a high from last night, so we'll keep that momentum going. I stayed calm, I wasn't terribly sloppy, I did a semi-decent job of evaluating my opponents and altering my game accordingly. So, wish me luck.

Mostly, I'm excited to see old friends, hang out with my brother, and buy new equipment. Gotta pick up the rating this year, otherwise it'll go down, and D08 just doesn't have an attractive ring to it.

That's quite enough fencing talk for a while. Tonight there is nothing more exciting planned than a trip to the gym and Waitress with Nathan Fillion. Mmmm. That He ought to get me through the day.

PS: Just got my re-lo reimbursement check from Vassar, so now it's totally a good day. Squee!