Keep trying, trying

So I've been to a couple of events in the last few weeks--Coronation/QC two weeks ago and Gyldenholt Anniversary this past Saturday. They were lots of fun, and a few notable non-fencing awesomes took place...

• At Coronation, my friend Nathanial Longbow and I were called up as Her Majesty Mora's Rapier Lieutenants, which completely floored both of us. In conversation this last week, we figured that between the two of us, we could muster up one reputable rapier fighter, but it'll be a near thing; 
• At Gyldenholt Anniversary, a young man from Gyldenholt proposed to his girlfriend during opening court, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house; 
• Again at Gyldenholt Anniversary, Their Excellencies Ursul and Collette announced their choice of Reeves for the next Baronial pair as Masters Giles and Giuseppe, which resulted in an equally loud cheer and much laughter and happy crying.

So all of that? Awesome. There were other awesomes, too, I'm probably just forgetting them right now. :)

Fencing-wise, however, neither event went terribly well for me. I've been having trouble getting into the headspace, both at practice and at events, and I'm not sure where that comes from--mostly because I'm not sure what gets me into the headspace to begin with. :) I don't consider myself a very competitive or aggressive person, so just being out on the field isn't enough to get me excited and focused enough to perform well.

Laertes and I have talked a couple of times about my working out a routine that gets me in the headspace quickly, and while I'm all for Pavlovian responses, you have to train the dogs to salivate before you can poke holes in their stomachs. That metaphor worked a lot better in my head. I guess what I mean to say is, figuring out a routine is going to be easier once I'm more used to getting in the headspace. Chicken/egg. All of this is a snarky way to say that I have a feeling practicing more is going to fix this problem just as fast as thinking about it is. Possibly even faster. ;)

I've been doing lots of little maintenance things to keep the fencing stuff level, but I think I need to focus up a bit more. I've read my way through a lot of the texts Aliskye gave me at Altavia Anny, which were great, okay, and amusing in turns (especially the one book about adapting period-oid techniques to stage combat for the early 1900s--that one was hi-larious). I've been doing my little squeezy ball at work (until yesterday, when it sprung a leak and sprayed sand all over my desk... oops) and my fencing weights and resistance band and making new garb and stuff, but none of that improves my actual skillset, it just provides a good balance of stuff to do when I'm not at practice.

And wedding crap seems to have overwritten the fencing crap part of my brain. Now my free brain time is occupied by feminist critique of wedding traditions and integrating my Pagan/Wiccan and his Reform Jewish beliefs into a ceremony and most importantly OMG WEDDING SHOES.

So obviously I need new stuff to think about. I keep meaning to buy copies of The Book of Five Rings and The Art of War, both of which have nothing to do with fencing but will hopefully be good at getting me in the competitive/winning headspace. I have a couple other fencing friends who have gotten good stuff out of the texts, so I'm hoping they'll have similar effect on me, too. And, you know, I hate buying new books, so it's good to have a reason. ;)

Maybe I need to mix up my practice routine a little bit. Hmm. The trip down to Altavia kind of sucks without a carpool buddy, and Dylan's not going to make the trip with me (given that he does 8 hours of manual labor a day and gets up at 4:30 AM, I have no idea why he wouldn't want to go to a practice and get home at 11:30 or midnight on the first day of his work week. I mean, really.) I could probably do Isles once every couple of weeks, though... Hmmmmm...