Week 16 - An Eventful Weekend

I didn’t get dead!

That's what I told my mother, when she asked how Short Point went. She was very proud. Actually, I think it was more just resigned, but I'm putting my own spin on it. Unfortunately, I didn't get my gambeson finished- it killed my sewing machine, so currently it has only one sleeve, which is really comfy but not so good on the protection front- so I didn't end up actually fighting much. I'll have to do the rest by hand, so it'll be even slower. I did get to play a few rounds with the saber, but that's about it. I did get cracked across the knuckles, learned a ton from listening to others and watching some truly awesome fencers, and even took a few classes. Cripes, it was so totally fun!

But here's the thing... when kids see me outside of school, I always get one of two reactions- either I find I suddenly have a spider monkey clinging to my leg as some kid wraps his arms around me for a hug, or he stares like I’m a wildebeest escaped from the zoo, with this look on his face like he's mystified as to why they'd let me out. That's kind of how I felt at the event. For the first part of the day, I was sort of clinging to the folks I knew, hiding amongst the familiar. It's what bunnies do, right? Eventually though, the nerves calmed down enough I could explore a bit and really enjoy just learning. Then later in the day, watching all these amazing fighters doing moves I knew but couldn't for the life of me reconcile with the slow, deliberate strikes I try to make during practice, I kinda wondered why they had let me out of the zoo at all. But hey, at least the shirts came out well!

First up was the familiar. Classes. I like classes. They're familiar and comforting and I really wanted to take notes, but that's hard to do with a sword in your hand. Our first instructor was Bill, whom I'd met when we first came in. It’s always nice to hear your teacher’s words come from someone else, which is a lot of what happened with Bill, who disappointingly did not have purple pants or a green rage face as was suggested on Facebook, but who seemed terribly sweet and was a very patient instructor. Point control was a big focus for his class, along with proper body and hand alignment and controlling your center. He talked about strikes that could come from the various guards, and what to do about them, and went on to talk about hand shots as well, which we haven't addressed much yet with the Professor. He also made a big point of learning whenever you can, in whatever way works for you. Mostly though, a lot of it reinforced what we've been learning with the Professor, so that was cool. And Bill does have a very lovely blue truck, which I must say is the best kind of vehicle to have. No bias or anything intended. The fact that I also have a pretty blue truck is pure coincidence. I may have to see if I can zwerchau! my license plate- you can get eight letters in Carolina :D

The Professor was teaching a class for the second round, so I started heading over to join him- but then gave myself a mental kick in the tail. TRY SOMETHING NEW. So I veered off to the right to where Mr. Montante, who I keep wanting to call John but whose name I'm pretty sure is actually James, was ever-so-impressively wielding that enormous sword like it was a toy. He could totally bring the image of that ginormous whirling blade of death slicing through foes in battle to mind, and yet was so entirely graceful doing it that it seemed almost a dance. He handed me a giant wooden version and I took my spot to listen as he explained a bit of the history behind the two-handed Iberian deathbringer. He showed us a few manouevers with them, and I’m sure he was despairing as I attempted to wield that thing without knocking myself over, but was patient with my ineptness. In my defense, I couldn’t hear worth spit- I have a tough time on the best of days, and in a gym packed with excited fighters and so many other interesting things going on, I was lucky to pick up every third word or so. It was fascinating though, so I looked up more montante stuff when I got home, and found a translation with more info: Figueiredo_Montante_Translation. Of course that means now I've got a mess of Portuguese words flitting around with the German and the odd Italian, but it'll be interesting seeing which stick in my head.

My kids at school know that I rot with names, and I’m still struggling to remember some of them after three years. I do remember a few names from ShortPoint though, and think I could actually put faces with them if I see them again. Bill, of course, and Charles, and Eric and Tyler. James/Mr. Montante, Jess, Chris, otherJake too… those I’ll be able to place again I’m sure. There's even more that I might recognize by what they wore though- I’m thinking the socks make for great identifiers too. There’s a whole wealth of opportunity there! I’m envisioning a line of HEMA socks as unique as the painted masks. (I do want to do that too- watching people fence all day showed me that faces can give a lot away.) I'm also thinking that I’m kinda glad I didn’t have the HEMA pants or wear my sweats, because if I’d had my pants hiked up to my knees, everyone would’ve seen the purple bunny rabbits I was sporting on my socks. Or maybe it was pink panthers. Or owls. Hmm... I may need to invest in normal socks.

It was also fun seeing and playing with other people's stuff. I've decided that now I need a feder, but can't decide which I like best. The Professor has Ensifers, and I do like those but they seem to rip up my hands- something about the shape of the grip is just not comfy. I saw a few folks with Regenyeis, which looked nice but seemed awfully bendy, though they did have nicer-shaped grips. I've been eyeing the one from Darksword Armory too. And a Pavel Moc. And an Albion...

Overall, the whole thing was tons of fun, really well run, and the ShorterPoint practice on Monday was great too. Despite the fact that I thought I was going to pass out and die during the warm-ups, I actually picked up a few exercises that I'm going to try and use on my own. Not those Polish sit-ups though. Those looked evil. Either way though, it's nice to know there's another school nearby. It's way closer to my house, actually. We had more fun there too, watching awesome fighters, getting in another game with sabers, and doing a lot of helping people into and out of gear. I took tons of pictures and videos too. I think we all had a blast visiting otherJake's studio.

My only regret is that I never got brave enough to ask anyone else to dance, at either Short or Shorter Points. On the up side though, I didn’t score too many new bruises either.

One last thing, that I find odd but really kind of sweet. Maybe it has something to do with spending most of their time together trying to kill each other, but HEMA folk are the huggiest bunch of people I’ve ever met… and I work with kids. Craziness.