"the zone" and getting there

One of the (many) things I love about fencing is the place of perfect concentration that I find while on the strip. It's hard to describe but I imagine familiar to anyone who participates in a sport (or any activity) with intensity: all of my focus is on the moment at hand.

I do my best fencing when I'm in that moment - if I let other things sneak in (like pain, anger, hunger, etc.) I notice instantly that my game suffers, so I do my best to just set it aside and Be There.

It's not a talent, it's the result of hours on the strip and after ~6 years the physical "cues" of taking a quick exhale and going on guard is starting to hammer into my mind that when I'm posed like that it's time to get down to business. I've been reading a borrowed copy of One Touch At A Time and a lot of what the author describes (even if he's using far more words/italics than necessary) is familiar to me - I've just been reinventing a very old wheel, it seems.

I just wish I could translate that "in the moment"-ness to other activities at work and home. Maybe it's just because I multitask too much or ineffectively but I find it hard to even read a book without stray thoughts about what I need to do next or what I need to remember for tomorrow etc. intruding. In that sense, fencing is also a mental break from the relentless "go go go" in my head, simultaneously highly keyed yet excluding absolutely everything else.

It's good, real good - I just wish I could repeat it!

3 days is not enough

I should be trying to get in bed, but as happens entirely too often I have One More Thing.....

I've been sewing like a maniac this weekend - a slow, quiet mania, because it's all been by hand. I've almost finished the shift and smock I started... oh.... a month (or more?) ago. My eyes, nails and nose are stuffed with linen lint :P All that lacks are the hem on the smock and the buttons and loops for both.

The need for buttons sent me out to a Columbus Day sale at a local chain fabric store. I did find what I was looking for, plus 1 yard each of herringbone patterned velvet and denim for hats - I love herringbone and after making an iffy newsboy cap last year I think I know where I went wrong (don't worry, still finishing what I've got in the pipeline first).

I've been handsewing while watching BBC's Bleak House. I tried to listen to the audio book awhile back and immediately dropped it due to the "cast of thousands" and the multiple intricate plotlines - seeing it performed makes it all much easier to follow. The acting is as good as most BBC dramas are, with and I've had a lot of "oh, is that-?" moments with the casting - actors from the X-Files, Torchwood, and Stardust but most surprisingly, OMG Wedge Antilles is an old man!

Some of my books for "bag of books weekend" have arrived as well - in addition to looting the library there are some things I can only get through purchase. Of these I've already started Naked on the Internet. Despite the titillating cover and chapter titles like "Girls Gone Wired" it's actually a solidly-researched examination of the ways women use the internet for sexual exploration/enlightenment. I'm only on chapter 2 but if you're interested in social uses of computers/computer cultures I'm offering a cautious recommendation.

I'm tiredish. I should sleep if I can get my eyes to close.

addendum

Tangentially, it may FINALLY be fall by the weekend!