Weekend update

It's time for the huge mother of all weekend posts. I had a great time this past weekend....but it was really close to exhausting. To summerize I spent a lot of time with Kate, a lot of time driving, a lot of time fencing, and not enough time sleeping. So here's how it happend, if I can't remember all of it I'll post more later to fill in the blanks.

Friday
Friday I went over to the bridge to train with Ludwig on how to run things over there. I am getting the hang of things and could probably do a good bit of the stuff up there now. But Heckert is still scheduled to be back at some point so I don't know if or when I'll be able to get up there. After that I got some lunch and went over to the office to wait until 5 when Kate got off. She seemed to pick everything up pretty well with her new job and she'll have plenty of time to study while she's here. At five we went to Rugged Warehouse so she could spend her birthday present. She got some cool things and I got a pair of jeans that is really comfortable. After that we went back to her room to change clothes. We were going to go swing dancing and Ludwig wanted to come too. We decided that it would be cool to invite Julie to go with us, so I called her and asked her if she wanted to come dancing and that Ludwig would be her partner. She was nervous at first but then decided to come and let Ludwig pay for her. I had them meet me at Wades because it would have been to hard to describe the place to them. We got there and they started teaching us and at first it was really cool. But then they started making us change partners every ten minutes so I didn't really get to learn with Kate. I was frustrated because when I was starting to get the hang of things I had to switch to someone who didn't know what they were doing either. And when I had almost got the hang of it we switched partners again and I got paired with this girl who was smashed. I mean I could smell the beer on her breath. So naturally she didn't help me get to know the timing. I couldn't get the timing down at all after that. Which was really frustrating because I used to be able to latch on to a rythm like that and just go with it. Oh well I just need practice, and I can practice all I want because Kate wants to practice to and we just have to put on some music :). After that we went back to Julie's to spend the night we watched an old Garfield cartoon that was really kind of weird. Then we watched Tombstone because Ludwig and Kate hadn't ever seen it which is a travesty in my opinion. We went to bed after that, Kate Julie and I were in Julie's big bed. Nothing happend other than sleep....well not much of that because it was 2 before we went to bed and 6:30ish before we got up. Kate had decided to come to Coronation with me instead of going home with Julie. Which made me happy.

Saturday
We left really early Saturday morning hoping not to miss anything. I didn't sleep very well the night before despite having two very warm comfortable pillows(well really only one, Julie kind of rolled off in the corner). After about 3 hours of driving I couldn't keep my eyes open and was starting to see double. So I let Kate drive and Jen navigate. I got in the back seat and just went unconcious for about an hour. It was actually really nice. When we got there nobody was around the fighting field looked deserted. It turns out that we had arrived at the end of the coronation court and everyone was out at the place where court was being held. After a while everyone started to trickle in and it turned out that there were tons of fighters there. Lots of scarves of both the gold and white variety. The tourney was a fun one, it was a silly offhand weapon contest. Every time you had a bout you picked a number out of a hat and that number determined what offhand weapon you get. There was everything from canes to a rolling pin, to a big flag. I made it to the semifinals against a great guy named Bastion. He made a beautiful shot right to my forhead. Through the whole tournament Kate was running around being a waterbearer. She seemed to take great delight in pushing the water bottles into people's hands. She actually struck up a friendship with Vyv which was cool. She likes being called the 'militant water-bearer' and I'm glad that she has found something that she likes to do at events. But she has to be careful not to pester the wrong people. The SCA has lots of laid back fun people, but also some of the most tight assed people I have seen anywhere. Anyway she had a good time and wore herself out. We went with Vyv and Mel to a resturaunt to have dinner after the event. It was cool to sit and talk to those two, they are really great characters. A little later a bunch of other sca'dians walked in for dinner. In the end Allan, Freddy, Alice, Percy and his Lady, CHris, Amy, Geoffery and his Lady, as well as Galen and his wife. It was a big group. I was surprised when a lot of people told me that I did well in the tourney. And after that I had a couple of people actually aproach me about visiting a practice here in Blacksburg. Instead of the other way around. Percy actually grabbed me as I was going out the door and I could havfe talked to him for a good while but we had to go. It was about ten o'clock when we actually left. It didn't take as long to get home as it did to get there but it sure seemed like it. After we got on to 77 and were in Virginia. I couldn't hold my eyes open again so I got Jen to drive back to blacksburg. By the time we dropped her off and got back to Kate's places I was so exhausted that I just crashed. I didn't wake up until about 9:30 the next morning and that was just to roll over on Kate. The alarm went off at 12:30ish but I couldn't move. Kate took the liberty of motivating me to move....ahem.

Sunday
At practice I was really juiced to be teaching newbies. There were four people who hadn't done anything before. And we ran them through footwork and some basic parries. Then Colin showed up and he was a great help. I don't know if he will be coming back out much but I hope so. He fought with David who is an olyimpic fencer and has the potential to be really really good. As they were fighting I talked about some of the things that they were doing. After that we put some of the new people in loaner gear and let them fight. I tried to work with as many people as possible and answer as many questions as possible. And it was a lot of fun. I still have to figure out Jen. She would add stuff on to what I was saying and even inturrupt me to make a corection. But when a new person showed up towards the end and I asked her to run through some footwork with them she clammed up and was almost in tears. I don't know what to do about that. I really need her to at least be able to cover the basics with newbies. I don't want Andrea having to do that to much because I don't trust her on two things. First thing is I don't trust her to go slow. She won't stick to the basics. The other thing is I don't trust her to be flexible. Some people can do different things that other people can't do. She is way to strict and won't let people get comfortable. Anyway that's my rant on her. She's also not a very good fighter, she doesn't vary the people she fights against. She hasn't fought at an event since Ice. If there is someone with decent athletic ability(like David), they could beat her pretty easily and that would be detremental to both of them. Anyway practice was awesome, next week it could be even better. After that we went to dinner at Fazoli's. It was Andrea's idea to go there, I'm not sure it was a good choice. We want to involve students in the socializing after practices and Fazoli's is to far away to do that. After dinner Kate and I watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And every time I watch that movie I am reminded how similar it could be to my family. Not the greek part, or the weird customs, but the guilt trip if I don't let them choose a wife for me. Ahh well not to worry, there's really no reason for me to get married. I'm still of the firm opinion that I can be in love and not get married. Which I am, and I am very content. Now when it comes Ryan's turn it could get interesting again.

Well that's all for now, I'm getting ready to call Troy and talk about a bunch of different things. And on Thursday Kate and I are going to the hottub which will be great!!!!!!!!