(It's funny, I'm now able to feel a rabbithole opening up beneath my feet and there is still NOTHING I can do about it.)

Why am I interested in fighting?

(here I try out a bit of grande allegro on the armor…someday I'll get a photog who'll catch the tour jete')

Because I was a dancer.  I trained for classical dance 20+ years.  I did mostly ballet, but also lots of modern, jazz, tap, and the occasional oddness like Scottish and African.  (I was better at the non-ballet, but ballet, particularly pointework, makes you tough.)  I have also done swimming as athletics, and in school occasionally displayed skill at volleyball, badminton, and field hockey.  I do yoga now, and like the "hard stuff" especially – arm balances, flexibility, being upside down.  I like plyometrics – jumping workouts.

In other words, I like body mechanics, I am quite used to being sore, sweaty, and breathing hard.  I like endorphins.  I am competitive.

I also want help against the crap in my head.  The stuff that says I'm not supposed to like working hard.  That says it's not desirable for a woman to say grr.  To be someone who flings herself through the air, who smacks the ball, who defends herself and obtains advantage.

Like many parts of the SCA, I want to practice something that will help me in real life.

And I want to see what all the fuss is about, because honestly, Arts & Sciences in the majority of SCAdian's mindsets comes somewhere after:

Fighting.  Eating and drinking.  Camping.  Looking Good.

I've been told many times in the past three years "you should fight."  When I ask for explanation on something I've seen, or that people are discussing.  When I bounce around and demonstrate something I've read about or learned in a class.  When I do yoga and people see how tough I am about it.  But up until recently, I managed to sidestep the rabbithole with excuses…"my reflexes are slow."  "I don't have enough lifetimes for everything I'd like to try."

One of the readers here, when seeing my non-armoring work with the armorer Mike Moulton, suggested that I play around with Mike's forge, even if I wasn't interested in fighting, because "you should take advantage of the opportunity while you have it."  Little did he know that "opportunity" is a magic button for me, and that Mike had been offering me "some female armor that will fit you perfectly, you should try it on."

So now I have the World's Most Glorious Loaner Armor, and I am fighting.  If only in my head so far.

I also have two books loaned to me, "The Armored Rose" and "The Knights Next Door."

I have wonderful offers of teaching, both local to me and not too far away, and lots of advice right off the bat, which I will list here so I don't lose it all.

A side note – staying up nearly all night contributes strongly to the IQ-lowering effects of putting on a helm.  I am not going to be as clever with this field as I might seem in others, I fear.  But I learn by taking notes and repetition, and part of the deal here is to be fierce about playing My Game.

Sir Lex:  A very lightly padded gambeson.

Earl Sir Robert:  Strike zones.  Legalities.  Names of armor pieces.

Sir Baras:  Lightness of weapon and shield.

THL Brielle (Brianne?):  Wear your water.  Movement – learn to be faster, practice at pell.  4 blocks: knuckle in, elbow down, rap, and tent.  Practice two-shot combos, then more.  Make armor as light as possible, and spend as much time in it as possible – make it your second skin.

THL Ianka:  Consider butt protection.  Be aware that unsolicited advice is rampant, even mine.  A third thing that I've forgotten already, darn it.  Turn your front foot out for increased movement options…(need to talk to her more about this, since I was exhausted…I am wary about turnout, since the knee reconstruction on the other leg.)