Girls Rule!

What a fantastically spiffy weekend I had!


I took the ladies in my club (and Warren, but he doesn't count), to the NC Circuit II in Raleigh on Saturday. We had so much fun! The recap:
14 fencers for the chick epee. I went 5-1 in my pool, dropping one bout 5-4. (Grrrrr!) Got the #2 seed, and a bye into the round of 8. Yay! I had to fence one of my teammates to make the 4. I beat her (sorry Zoe!) 15-7, I think. Then I had to fence Mead. She's a B05, and on the cadet points list, so, no pressure or anything. :rolleyes: My personal best against her before was 10 point. Going into the third period, I was up 11-7. She is way more experienced than I am, and was able to adapt much quicker than me. She came back and won the bout 15-13. But, it was a personal best, and I fenced some really good epee. I'll get her next time! Next time might be this weekend, as we're all headed out to Wilmington for the "Iron Maiden".

Anyway, I wasn't feeling very well, so I ended up not fencing the sabre, but reffing it.

The final medal count? Six. Two bronze in women's epee (including me!). Two bronze and a silver in women's sabre. 1 Gold in women's foil for our Russian secret weapon (go Cadria!).

The boys went up on Sunday. They took all four medals in the sabre, and nada in foil and epee. Nanny, nanny, boo, boo!
GIRLS RULE!!!!!!

The Easy Button of Doom

Have you ever just wanted to reach a goal so badly that it knawed at your insides constantly?

I've only been fencing epee for a year (although I fenced saber for 5 before that), but I kept choking when it really mattered. I would fence well, and get to the point of earning my E or my D, and lose by 2 points. I was starting to feel like I was stalling in my progress like I did in saber. Unfortunately, from experience, I knew what was going to follow. I would get that "stalling" feeling, and then.......frustration! Once frustration sets in pretty well, I'm done. There is no more progress to be made.

So, this is how my weekend went: I was a little stressed out on Saturday morning, since we had a massive tournament, and our team manager (who we basically can't live without) is very sick, and unable to help run the darn thing. So, I get up early and check people in for foil. Things are going fine. Unfortunately for me, they didn't stay fine for too long. Before long, I was attempting to ref foil, check people in for epee, greet out of town guests, and warm myself up for epee all at the same time. I'm a mom. I can multi-task, right?

So, I manage to get everyone checked in, and hand the foil DE's off to someone else, get dressed and stretched, and stuff some food in my face. I go to my open epee pool. I'm not fencing terribly well, but I'm not at my worst either. I pretty much get my butt kicked, and go 3 and 4 in my pool. So as soon as I get done with that, people are rushing me off to go fence the women's epee event. I'm a little flustered, but fence my first 2 bouts in a row (to play catch up a bit since they had started while I was still in my open pool), and manage to pull off 2 victories. Yay!. Good start. I proceed to fence like a woman possessed, and go 7-0 in the pool. I get the #1 seed, and come out of it with a bye into the 8. I have to fence a teammate to get into the 4, but manage to beat her 13-7 with time running out.

At that point, I collapsed upon the floor and cried.I didn't know what else to do. Being that the women's portion of the tournament was D rated, making it into the top 4 guaranteed me my E rating. I just yelled "Finally! Finally, I didn't choke when it mattered!" I think everyone thought I was a complete freak, but oh well.

What's the secret weapon? The Staples Easy Button. If you've ever seen the Staples commercials, you know what I'm talking about. I bought one. It talks. I go through my little ritual with it before every bout, and in some strange rift of the universe, it gives me some amazing mojo. Wow. Whodathunkit?