Adventures in NPS 2011 (Part 2)

So.

Today was the first official day of Nats...and I'm sincerely hoping that it is not an indication of how the rest of the week is going to go. We missed the haiku death match prelims,  missed the workshop with Patricia Smith, the bout we really wanted to see was at capacity and not letting people in, the second choice bout was at capacity, walked in the rain to the third choice....you guessed it - at capacity, and so we just left. Hopped the train back to Emmanuel, and of course by "hopped" I mean, got completely turned around and had an unpleasant run in with one of the attendants before successfully locating the correct path home. Sigh.

But this post is not about that. This post is about being...concerned.

So of course I'm pretty much completely broke [side note: medicine is hella expensive] and checked my bank account several times to try to work out a way to you know...eat here in Bean Town and still survive when I make it back to the Dash. I made a pretty strict budget for myself, and made a note of what the consequence of not following that budget would be. But today I literally could not stop myself from buying extras. Like...the impulse to get things immediately and keep spending until there is nothing left is starting to overpower my rationale - to the point that I was getting visibly anxious and couldn't breathe in this one spot where I wanted to buy a shirt and was trying to talk myself out of it. Even now the back of my mind is racing with all of things I want to buy tomorrow so much so that I want to get dressed and see what shops are open. My teammate is going back out tonight to see our coach compete in the Slam Master's Slam, but I'm going to stay in. I even put on my PJ's.

Good news - No smoking thus far.
Bad news - Sam Adams is sponsoring an open bar for the after party on Saturday. That's going to be challenging.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I'm hoping that much of the stress and pressure to buy things was brought on by the curve balls that the day threw at us. Because of them however, we have better learned to navigate the city and know how early to show up to the tiny venues if we want seats...so there wont' be quite as much of it tomorrow. Plus - I finally get to hit the stage...which I've been itching to do since we landed. I plan to go...all the way in.

Peace Be