Everything At Once

It amazes me sometimes how everything seems to come up at once. So many things seem to want my attention at the same time.

For example, let's look at last week. Tuesday and Wednesday I was at Showcase Ontario, an IT conference/show for the Ontario government. So right there are two days of walking and standing around, and they were long days as well. Showcase took place in Toronto and I live in St. Catharines, and it was determined that we were within "commute" distance, so no hotels paid for by the government; we had to drive in each day. This meant leaving at six in the morning and not getting home till after six at night, with at least 4 hours spent driving each way. At least I didn't have to drive and was able to catch a ride, but still, being stuck in a car for the equivalent of half a normal workday is far from pleasant. So Wednesday night I was exhausted.

And did I get a chance to veg out and rest? Of course not!

Saturday was a kendo tournament in London, Ont., and Wednesday night was the final class before the tournament so I had to head to class as soon as I got home from Showcase and get all my equipment squared away so that there was no delay on Saturday, and Wednesday was the only chance I'd have. So, exhausted beyond belief I dragged myself to class and got that dealt with.

So fast forward to Saturday, and I'm up at 5AM to get ready to leave at 6 and drive over 2 hours to London. Thankfully I'd had a chance to rest a bit the previous two days, but I was so tempted to roll over and go back to sleep instead of going to work. But, I made it in to work and wasn't completely wasted for Saturday.

It was my first kendo tournament. I just started kendo about 4 months ago, so I wasn't about to get all dressed up in armor and start swinging. I was there to compete in the basic skills over 16 years old competition. It went well. I thought I could have been better, but I did end up in third place and took a metal home. The other guys did well, with our senior sensei taking second place in the masters over 50 section. But in the end, I got home exhausted from a long week.

So what about Sunday? Couldn't I just spend the day lounging around and recovering? Sadly no.

Sunday was Word on The Street in Toronto. Now, I could have skipped it this year, but I really wanted to go to the writing workshop tent and browse the vendors to see if I could find any really great deals. Well, I did end up sleeping in and didn't get there till nearly 2PM. Still, that gave me enough time to browse and catch a couple workshops. Really didn't find any deals that struck my fancy, which is the exact opposite of last year where I could have dropped a few hundred easily.

So the next few weeks are going to be nice and quiet, right? Nope. Next weekend I'm off to Montreal for Con*Cept. This should be interesting. I had a blast at AdAstra this year, and I'm hoping the experience in Montreal is the same.