Monday, March 17, 2008

I have returned...

Okay...so Dag is wondering where I've been, I guess I can give somewhat of an answer.

I was on crusade. A friend of mine and I drove down to Lumberton, Mississippi to attend the 17th annual Gulf Wars. I was down there for a week. The trip down was absolutely awful. We drove through Columbus, Ohio right as they were getting 27" of snow. We planned on doing the drive in two days. It was our hope to drive for about 12 hours the first day and about 5 hours the second day. Well, it took us all 12 hours the first day to make it through the first 7 hours of the trip so the second day wound up being much longer than we had originally anticipated. We arrived safe and sound and setup camp on Sunday evening. By the end of the day we were both ready to just rack out and call it a day.

On the second day (Monday) there was a Ravine battle. Basically, it was a fight in a small wooded depression about 100 ft wide by 300 ft long. This battle was taking place before the formal war had started so there were only about 60 to 70 people there. Turns out that me and my friend were the only ones representing our Kingdom during this fight so we attached ourselves to the Kingdom of Trimaris (Florida area folks) and had a wonderful day of fighting and fun. When we got back to camp, other people from our Kingdom were just arriving. In all there were maybe 12-16 of us down there.

On Tuesday, there was a friendship fort battle. They have a wooden "castle" at the event site that we are able to fight around and through. This day was also a smaller fight with about 100 on a side. Again, I had fun, but I felt a little alone. The people who showed up from our Kingdom were people that I knew, but they were mostly their own little clique' so my friend and I were mostly left to our own devices.

The rest of the week there were several battles (another ravine, a "town" battle, a bridge battle, open field battles and finally another fort battle (but we didn't stay for that). This war is about half the size of Pennsic. In total, somewhere around 6000 people usually show up for this one, and if rumors are to be believed, this year, it was only about 4000. I'd say we never had more than 1000 on the field, but that is a really rough estimate. I fought sword and shield for almost the entire time (although I did fight spear for one battle, and that showed me why I normally fight sword and shield). Due to the heat and the fact that I am totally out of shape, I never fought any pick up fights (which is a shame because that was one of my goals going down there).

The trip was ultimately worth it. I had a good time, and being away from work was a good thing. However, I found that I was more homesick this time than the past two times that I've attended this war (might have something to do with the baby). I'm also questioning how much I enjoy fighting anymore. I have found that recently, I haven't been getting any better. If I made it a priority, and dedicated all of my time to it, than maybe, just maybe, I might get better. However, with my daughter and several other things going on, I need to remember why it's fun and try to figure out how important it is. At this rate, I'm not sure that I'll ever be Knighted. I will have to work A LOT harder if I ever really expect it. In order for that to happen, I need to finish off my academic program and re-dedicate the time to fighting. Also, in order to focus, I may need to think about becoming a squire again formally. I'm not sure when that will be, but if I am to continue down the "knightly" path, I think it's a step I may need to take. This time last year, I was winning tournaments and enjoying the fight. I haven't felt that joy the past several times in armour. Where is that joy? What is it that made me joyful? How do I regain that spark?

While I was away, there was a major fighting event in my home Kingdom. A friend of mine attended it. I emailed him and asked him how it went. He responded and I could feel the joy from just reading his email response. I miss having that enthusiasm in myself. He had a wonderful day fighting. He didn't win every bout, but he had some really good runs and he was very excited that he had back to back victories against two knights (sounds familiar, I'm sure if I read all my back posts I'd find some similar stories from myself. Possibly from the same event last year. Matter of fact, I'm sure of it). I'm going to see him tomorrow night. Hopefully, I'll get all the details from him then.

On a good note (sort of), I have now lost about 40 pounds from where I was. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas I was 320 pounds or so. I weighed myself when I got back from the war last night, and I weighed 278. I'm fairly proud of that. I'm sure that won't be my consistent weight. That was coming off of a week of extensive activity and a fairly consistent diet that had a breakfast and dinner (I usually don't eat breakfast so my system was probably confused). I'd love it if I could continue to lose the weight. If I could consistently get down to 265 I'd be thrilled. I'd be even happier if I could see myself below 250, but I think that may be a dream at this point. I will continue to try to be aware of what I'm eating and I need to continue to strenuously exercise. If I could do that alone, it would probably help my fighting (not to mention my actual health).

Well, I think that's enough of an update for now. I'll try to write more later.

2 Comments:

At 7:30 PM, Blogger Duamuteffe said...

Hooray, an update! As you said once, blogs are the only way some of us get to hear about each other. #hugs#

 
At 10:00 PM, Blogger Dagdamor said...

it is great to see a new post, especially when i may have had an indirect catalytic effect on it :D great to hear that you actually made it down to Missi. i remember you talking about it a while back.

 

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