This was one of the longest days of my life.
7:15 AM:
Alarm clock wakes me up after about 2 hours of sleep.
7:45 AM: Start to scrape the ice and snow off my car, which has been outdoors all night during the
snowstorm.
7:55 AM: Start driving to
Brentwood High School. I am
refereeing at an invitational
fencing competition today.
8:20 AM: Arrive at Brentwood High School. I check in with the Head of the
Bout Committee and sign my name to the directors' sign in sheet, then schmooze with some coaches and parents I haven't seen in a long while.
8:40 AM: My friend Mike arrives, who is also refereeing the competition. We talk about
old times for a while.
9 AM: Competition begins. My first refereeing assignment is a women's
foil pool round. Shouldn't be that hard.
9:15 AM: At the beginning of the second bout of the pool, we notice an
irregularity in the electronic equipment and are forced to replace one of the
floor cords. The rest of the pool runs through pretty quickly. I make a few minor
mistakes in my calls, but no one notices.
10:30 AM: I'm given a men's foil pool round to preside over exactly thirty seconds after I finish the girls pool.
I am less than enthused.
12:00 PM: I finish the men's foil pool and turn in my scoresheet. I go take a
lunch break, gorging myself on free
cold cuts and
bottled water, the lone perks of being a referee.
12:30 PM: I start work directing some
direct elimination bouts--a mix of men's foil, women's foil, and men's
epee. I hate directing epee and make some mistakes during those bouts, but I could care less because I specifically requested not to direct epee. One
coach complains about a mistake I made, but I deftly tell him where to
shove it because it's an individual competition and no coaching is allowed.
2:30 PM: I finish directing a
marathon SIX direct elimination bouts in a row. My voice has cracked from all the shouting I have to do and my legs are starting to seriously hurt. I hand in my sixth DE scoresheet and run away before anyone from the
Bout Committee notices me and assigns me another bout to preside over.
3:00 PM: Bruce (head of the Bout Committee) finally notices I'm
persona non grata and pages me to the
command center. I get handed a
semifinal bout of the women's foil tournament to direct, which is a pretty sweet assignment.
3:30 PM: The semi-final match FINALLY finishes, after going to the three period time limit with the score of 13-5. It was actually a great match until the final period, and I was proud of myself for not making any mistakes during the bout.
4:00 PM: I bum around for another half an hour, watching the
Bronze Medal women's foil match and a few others. Then I say my goodbyes and head for home.
4:30 PM: After getting lost on the way out of Brentwood, I get back home and quickly stop by
Gold's Gym to correct a mistake they made in calculating when my membership would
expire (they were off by four months).
4:40 PM: I arrive home and
lie down before my legs fall off.
5:30 PM: Dinner with my parents at
Boulder Creek Steakhouse and Saloon.
7 PM: Quick hop online to check my
email. I call some friends up to decide on the
plan of action for the evening.
8 PM: Sit down to watch a little of
Mr. Holland's Opus, one of my favorite movies.
8:30 PM:
Shower.
9 PM: Get picked up by friends to go see
Cast Away. It was pretty good.
12 AM: Arrive back at home.