Challenging Times

Ok, so, I'm going to whine a bit here. Sue me. The past week has been rather challenging. It's funny how life decides to throw multiple issues at us at once. Funny "strange", not funny "ha ha". It's not amusing in the least, believe me. To start with, we are frantically getting things together for Gulf Wars, our big, week-long SCA event that starts in about a week. This includes several frustrating projects that have not been particularly cooperative. We've had to drop a lot more money than I'm comfortable with to accomplish our goals, as well. To top that off, I was on call with work all last week, which is always emotionally exhausting. Then, as if the above stresses weren't enough, the transmission in our van self-destructed in a fit of pique. So much for our recently paid off credit card balance. Sure, it is supposed to be fixed before we need it to go to Gulf Wars, but the price tag is enough to make us wince. Oh, and did I mention that Ysabel has bronchitis? Not fun. She had to miss out on going to the Northern Regional Practice on Saturday and was very unhappy about it. I managed to go by loading all of my (and Dougal's) gear into my piddly little car. It was not happy to have to haul that load all the way up to Crossville, TN. The practice itself demonstrated just how out of shape I am, too. I got to try out my new rapier helm, but the silly thing proved to be too heavy for my back and neck to support for very long. Between that and the complicated new dagger guards I'm trying to learn, I have a lovely knot in my back that feels like someone inserted an ice pick right next to my spine and left it there. I need to work on building up my "core" muscles, apparently.

On the good side, the camp bed is done and we have a memory foam pad on the way to use as a mattress. Our rapier students all got to come to the Regional and spent some time fighting each other. They seemed to have a blast and I got to work with Jack and Rayne some, which is always nice. Dougal got a couple more authorizations out of the way and I helped Piers, a new fighter from the Thor's Mtn. group, to authorize, as well. It was a productive day that was only marred by Ysabel's absence and the problem with my helm. I'm no longer on call at work, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. We seem to be on track to have everything ready for Gulf Wars. And last, but not least, I'm not completely broke.... yet. I guess you take the bad with the good, huh?