It's a rough life. I woke up early this morning for a yoga class at Mid-Town (what my gym will be called from now on). After my "vigorous" stretching/yoga class I went for a massage. This is all a far stretch from my days as a scheduler on the Westly for Govenor campaign, where I spent each day camped in front of a computer-stressed and angry. I loved my job but scheduling someone else's life isn't as easy as it seems, especially when so many people are pulling in different directions.
Gayle, the masseus, is a friend of mine and I've known her for years. Her daughter was a young fencer at the Rochester Fencing Center when I was still on the top of the international charts. Gayle told me today that her daughter, Ilana, used to psych herself up to fence older or intimidating fencers by telling herself that she was "a little Iris". I wasn't sure what to do with that information especially since I've come so far from being the Iris that she once knew. I think that I sometimes look to that same young phenom Iris Zimmermann for inspiration-she was fearless.
Gayle worked on my aches and pains for over two hours. The time flew by while we talked about "the old days" at the fencing club (I left the club six years ago). The club went from an Olympic powerhouse to a youth based organization in under five years. Much of that was facilitated by my old coach, Buckie Leach, leaving (abandoning) the club for more money in NYC. I am sure I'll write volumes about my relationship with him in later blogs but needless to say he has left an indeleble scar on everyone who was closely linked to the RFC.
At the end of the massage she handed me a glass of juice and only asked for twenty dollars. For all my complaining about Rochester being a small podunk kinda town I realized that it had something that most cities lacked, a pulse, a heart, and an undeniable conscience.
When I trained in NYC for the 2004 games, I used to go to a masseuse that charged me a hundred dollars per session. She used to tell me about her "useless boyfriend" and all the troubles she was having raising her daughter and at the end of the massage she told me I was "too nice to be a good competitive fencer". I think I should have given her the hundred dollars and told her to skip the massage and enter therapy.
The simple fact is Rochester may not be a rich city like New York or San Francisco, but what people lack in money they make up for with heart and loyalty.
In all honesty I understand that my current schedule doesn't seem like training but I have spent the past week trying to get my body ready for the start of the real training on Monday. My knees aren't doing that well but with this extra stretching and care I will be able to make it through the week without too many aches and pains.
On a side note I have decided to sign up for Russian language tutoring while I am searching for a job. An older couple in Rochester has about two or three students that they teach Russian to. Granted they have lived in the states for about thirty years, they can still teach me grammar and just speak to me in Russian for an hour each week. I'm looking forward to my first lesson on Wednesday after my workout with Dave.
I am hoping to start carrying my (my father's) digital camera around to add some color to this blog. I am also hoping to get the scanner working and hooked up to this computer so I can show you some "vintage Iris fencing photos".
Saw Pirates it was okay. Has anyone seen Superman yet? I think I'm going to try and drag Mama Zimmermann to a show this evening.
