The compliment of a lifetime

I decided to skip "Reno: Day 4 (the journey home)" because it was a day I'd really rather forget. Now back to the regualrly scheduled journal entry...

I was hired as a referee this past weekend for the NC Divisional Champs. No big deal, as I've done it several times before. I had originally planned on fencing in it, but with the stupid broken thumb, it makes things kind of difficult. Regardless, I was looking forward to the chance to show that I am now a quite competant 3 weapon ref (as I used to only do Epee and sabre).

Thursday, I started getting some nasty allergy-type symptoms. Oh well, it's that time of year, right? NOT! By Friday evening, I had a full-blown head cold, and was not much looking forward to being on my feet all weekend. However, there was no way I could call in sick, as they were already quite short of competant referees as it were. So, I toughed it out. I drove up and crashed around 10PM in my hotel room.

Woke up early the next morning, and got some breakfast, and drove to the venue.

Original counts: about 12 referees and 12 strips. Goodie. Feeling much worse than the previous evening, I sat through the referee meeting and the early discussions of how lo ng the day would be. Fine. We begin the day, and I reffed epee all morning, which about put me to sleep in my medicine induced stupor. About 2:30 PM, I was told to take my lunch break. Shortly after I had sat down, The "ref in charge" told me that I really didn't look well, so I should go home. I (stubborn as usual) told him that I was there to work, and if I could just have a little break, I would get myself back up and finish out the day. He told me to report back at about 4PM. (That's a much longer break than I had asked for, but it turns out, I needed it.)

I literally laid down on the gym floor with a fencing jacket undermy head and tried to rest. But the point is, I got back up and finished the day (which dragged on to about 10PM).

When I got back to the hotel I threw up for about 2 hours. After that....sleep! When I woke up, I realized I had overslept, and was already late for my 8 AM report time. Ugh....made a few phone calls, checked out of the hotel, and off I went for day #2. Foil.....almost all freakin' day. No worries though. I was super confident with every call I made. :D

"Ref in charge" says: "Remind me to talk to you later." The first thing that goes through my head is, "Oh crap. He's gonna yell at me because somebody complained about a call, or he thinks I screwed his fencer, or something.....just what I need."

Later on, he catches me semi-alone:
Ref in Charge: "Hey....what I wanted to talk to you about earlier..."
Me: "Yes?"
RIC: "Wife (also a ref) and I were discussing things last night, and we wanted to let you know how inpressed we were that you were able to get back up after that break yesterday and finish things out."
Me: "Thanks....I'm stubborn, and I came here to work."
RIC: "But not only that, we wanted to make sure you knew that you are unquestionably one of the best refs in the room."
Me: "Really? Wow. Thanks a bunch...."(blah, blah, blah rambling in shock that this guy would say something to me me like that.
RIC: "Obviously, I won't be deciding who refs next year," (as we had elected new officers the evening before) "but I think they would be making a mistake if they didn't invite you again."

The converstaion continued for a few minutes, but that was the idea. Wow. I don't think anyone can understand just how much that meant to me.

On another note, I pushed myself so much that I spent Monday and Tuesday in bed in a semi-conscious pneumonia-like state. :( I ran out of leave, so I had to come into work today, but I am getting a bit better.

Reno: Day Three

Day Three:
March 12th

Since I was supposed to fence Div. III Women's Epee (the event I really came for) today, I got up early and had breakfast before heading over to the venue to see what the trainer had to say about the thumb. It was not good news. He made me medical withdrawl from the event, and go to the ER for an X ray. :( The result? Hairline fracture of the right thumb. Big old dorky looking cast. :(

Anyway, I spent the day coaching and cheering my best girl Kaylah. Yet again, she makes the top 8. I think she put a lot of pressure on herself to win it since she did so well in the Div. II, but I kept telling her that it was a whole new ballgame. Regardless, she finished 5th, and I was equally as proud of her as I had been on Friday, even though she was disappointed with the result.

I had a bunch of time at the venue, and met a bunch of really cool people. As I was talking to a referee outside, he asked me how I'd hurt my thumb. I replied "sabre." At this point, a man jumped into the conversation:

Man: "Did you get that yesterday?"
Me: "Yes."
Man: "From my daughter?" (points to the girl who had done this to me)Me: "Yes"Man: "Too bad for you, isn't it?"

I could not believe the lack of sportsmanship this guy was teaching his daughter. If I had done that to someone, I would feel so bad about it. She didn't even care. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Reno: Day Two

Day 2:
Saturday, March 11th

Saturday was one of my competition days. I was scheduled to fence Div. II Women's Sabre. I woke up way too early in the morning, since my body still hadn't adjusted to PST yet. We got some breakfast and headed to the venue, so that I could have plenty of time to visit the vendors and warm-up slowly. This was the event I didn't really care about, as I really wanted to fence epee, and didn't really have high expectations for the sabre. Fine.

I met Holly a couple hours before the event, and we made plans to warm up together a bit later. Great to see her again!

So into the pools we go later on...My pool had a very strange referee, who really flipped coins when there were two lights on. All the girls in my pool were scratching their heads and looking at each other for most of the calls. Oh well....not really worth arguing since I didn't much care how I did in the event anyway. I did pretty poorly in the pool, and came out as the #45 seed. Oh well.

I get to fence this Donald girl for my first DE. She's seeded #13 or something. Fine. I go to the strip, and start the bout. Immediately, I realize this girl has a massive preparation, so I go into epee mode. I got the majority of my points on counter attack lockouts.

Score is 7-7, when it happens. I could tell she was really trying to aim for my hands to give me enough pain to break my concentration. She proceeds to bellguards me in the thumb. (blame is part her poor distance, part my inability to parry) My first thought is, "OMG. She just broke my thumb." The referee was asking if I could continue, blah, blah, blah. Did she ask if I was ok? Nope. She just flipped her blonde hair and walked away. I finished the bout, but wasn't able to hold my weapon very well. Lost 15-11. At that point, I got to take a trip to the trainer. He pretty much told me that I needed an X-ray, and I couldn't fence epee on Sunday. I begged him to tape it and let me fence, and he agreed that he would look at it again in the morning before he made a final decision.

That was my cue to start drinking. Unfortunately, it didn't make it stop hurting.

Reno: Day one

I thought I'd break this trip recap down into each day, so that I'mless likely to forget anything.

Day 1:
Friday, March 10th
I woke up at 3:30 AM EST to catch a 6:30 flight. Fine. All things go off without a hitch. I land in Chicago 5 minutes early, and end up running 3 terminals to make my connection. :( Regardless, I barely made it. I landed in Reno at about 10:30 AM PST, and was greeted by Kaylah's mommy at the airport. Yay!

We proceeded to the venue, to catch Kaylah's first event: Div. II Women's Epee.

She started off very well, and went 5-1 in her pool. She came out as the #6 seed, and we were very excited! I coached her all day. She was fencing really well to begin with, but I just felt as if I had come into my "coaching self". I knew exactly what she and her opponets were doing right and wrong, and was able to give her some great advice at certain times.
In the end, she came home with the silver medal and her B06, but I'm pretty confident she could have won the whole thing if she hadn't been so tired in the end. Go Kaylah!

We had some dinner and promptly fell asleep!