50 Percent

I wasn’t supposed to play in my ultimate Frisbee game last night.

I have standing Wednesday night plans with friends, and they couldn’t reschedule this week, so I decided I’d miss this game.  And, honestly, with how I was feeling Wednesday morning, that was probably a good thing.  I’ve been getting little sleep, so I was extra grumpy.  I didn’t want to be the one who brought down the spirit of the game.

Then I got a nap at lunch time.  A good one.  I was feeling better.  And our get together was canceled at the last minute.  Still, the smart thing to do would have been to stay home, take it easy, and go to bed early.

Guess what I did.

Honestly, I was planning to stay home.  In fact, watching my Wednesday night shows was sounding good.  But then I got a text from Travis about car pooling, and I remembered that the team we were playing hadn’t won yet.  Yep, I went.

Oh, another reason for me not to go?  I’d run Tuesday night and my knee was bugging me a little.  I strapped on my brace and headed out.

When I got to the field all hesitation about whether I did the right thing or not was gone.  JV was on the other team.  We love to play opposite each other since the two of us are fairly evenly matched.  Plus, how can you have a hard time playing against JV?  Despite our trash talk, he’s just such a nice guy.

The game started off fairly close with us at 2-2.  Then we started to pull away and made it to 6-4 when they called a time out.  We went ahead and punched it in for two more scores to take it to half 8-4.

But the other team wasn’t willing to go down without a fight.  We had several long points.  The final score was 15-5, but that really doesn’t reflect how close it was.

I got more playing time than I had in previous weeks because numbers were down and we finally got our rotations on paper and therefore figured out.  Frankly, with JV there, if we hadn’t had these rotations, I would have played more, but I was glad I got to play as much as I did.

On a personal note, I was able to get a D at one point, thanks as usual to a wild throw.  Then, later in the same point, after a time out (it was one of our epic points), I caught the disc to score.  That was a wild throw that I had to case down, but I did it.

I like to say I’m good for one score, throwing one score, and one D per season.  Unfortunately, if that is true, that means I’m done for the season.  I really, really hope that isn’t true for winter league or it will be a long second half.

Of course, it wasn’t all highlights.  I threw a few discs away as well this week.

Still, I’m really glad I went.  Can you tell?

Which brings me to my title.  Our record is now 2-2.  We’re doing better than I thought we’d do.  It will be interesting to see if we keep this up for the rest of league or start dropping because we’re playing better teams.  5 more games and the tournament to find out.

Word Association for Jan 28th

Here's the word association for the week.

1. Vex :: Anger
2. Ghost :: Haunted
3. Detail :: Important
4. Further :: More
5. Foxy :: Cagy
6. Hybrid :: Car
7. Maximum :: Effort
8. Wonderful :: Person
9. Munch :: Chips
10. Organize :: Closet

And Other Loss

Yes, I led with the results of our last winter league game.  But it was a closer loss since we hit 8 before they got to 15.  And considering they got 4 or 5 before we even scored one, I was happy we pulled it together for that score.

Obviously, it was never a close game.  They had the lead early and kept it that way.  But once we got our heads in the game, the points were better than they could have been.

The big issue I’m having right now is that we have so many guys.  We only play 5 at a time, and we had 16 or so this last week.  The stars of the team are getting plenty of playing time while the rest of us are suffering without it.  I only played 3 points in this game, for example.

However, one of the points I was in I made a huge difference.  The disc was thrown to one of our guys from half way down the field, and he wasn’t quite in the end zone.  I was closest and ran into the end zone, but I wasn’t in a position to score.  As other people ran down, I was able to get opened for a dump/swing.

Then I saw Lincoln running across the field wide open, so I threw it to him.  However, I didn’t take that extra second to calm down, which means I make a wild throw.  Fortunately, one of our women, Erin, had also been cutting and was in the perfect position to catch the disc in the end zone for the score.  Yes, I threw a score!  It wasn’t to the person I meant to hit, but it still counts.

Our record for the season so far is 1-2.  I'm missing our game this next week, but it's against a team that hasn't won yet, so hopefully it will be another win.

Word Association for January 23rd

It's time for this week's word association.

1. Voice :: Sing
2. Counter :: Medicine
3. Marked :: Down
4. Loving :: Kind
5. Coat :: Cold
6. Pounce :: Tiger
7. Dehydrate :: Water
8. Desire :: Want
9. Concern :: Care
10. Broth :: Soup

Word Association for January 16th

Time for the word association for the week.

1. Funk :: Bad
2. Marketing :: Class
3. Standards :: High
4. Best friend :: Close
5. Search :: and Destroy
6. Pizza :: Domino's
7. Singapore :: Location
8. Executive :: Office
9. Find :: Missing

Second Winter League Game

Now here’s something I didn’t think I’d be saying, especially this early in the season.  We won!

The second winter league ultimate Frisbee game for my team was last night, and we actually pulled it off.  In fact, we were ahead the entire time.  We started out 2-0 and were ahead by 3 or so most of the game.  We did let them tie it up at 10’s, but we then pulled ahead to win 15-12.

I didn’t play as many points as I would have liked.  They decided to try rotations of twos or threes.  Well, everyone seemed to get into rotations but me, and there I was, waiting to play.  I forced my way in for a few points, but I would have liked to play more.

On the plus side, I was key to one point where we score.  My guy was poaching off me, and I took advantage of that, getting open for short gains most of the way down the field until we got close so we could score.  And yet, my team thinks that is smart defense to play.  Seriously?  It doesn’t work, but they won’t trust me on that.

But that’s a fight for next week.  This week, I’ll bask in the joy of winning a game – especially this early in the season.

First Winter League Game

I’m playing winter league this year!!!

We’ve got a team together from the pick up game I play here in town.  And it’s going to be an interesting season.

See, while I few of us have played leagues and tournaments before, many of the teams hasn’t.  And as I learned in 1999, there is a steep learning curve between laid back pick up on a small field and league play.  For example, we can’t have someone playing “safety” on D.  They’re just going to exploit that the entire time.  Tight D.  Or play a real zone.  But not like we do at pick up.

Actually, I was impressed with how well we did last night, all things considered.  We started off trading points until it was 2-2.  That’s when they started pulling away with it, or should I say running away with it.  Half ended at 3-8 and the game ended at 4-15.  Yeah, we got slaughtered on D.  Our O looked okay, but we had several drops.

On the personal front, I couldn’t get much going.  We had tons of guys, and so I didn’t play very many points.  I didn’t touch the disc, but I also didn’t get scored on, although my guy seemed to get open when wanted.

Part of that was that I’m still getting over my cold/illness/whatever.  I was really struggling when I was out running, and I got tired easily.

But here’s the crazy part.  Despite going and running around in the cold (at least for here) and getting to bed at 1AM this morning, I’m actually feeling better than I have in a couple of weeks.  I’ve coughed a little today, but it’s not nearly as bad as it has been.  I’m hopeful I can beat this thing in the next couple of days.

Word Association for January 9th

Time for this week's word association.

1. Gravity :: Down
2. Universe :: Big
3. Jewels :: Expensive
4. Velour :: Valor
5. Bribes :: Politicians
6. Pen :: Ink
7. Presents :: Christmas
8. Impressions :: First
9. Heat :: Warmth
10. Pining :: Love

Sick for Christmas and New Years

Yep, I’ve been sick.  It started on Christmas Eve, of all the good days of the year.  I woke up with a runny nose and a cough and just not feeling great.  Finally, after I’d been up for a couple of hours, I took my temperature.  Yep, I was running a fever.

My fever climbed the rest of the day, but it went down when I took some pills.  It never climbed as high again, although my fever didn’t truly break until Friday evening some time.

But I still had the cough.  I was getting better, and I thought I was on the tail end of it, until I woke up on New Years Day.  The cough was worse than ever.

Not that I let that stop me from playing ultimate Frisbee for three and a half hours yesterday.  It was 75 degrees – how could I resist?

But I paid for it last night.  I woke up at 3:30 coughing and had a really hard time going back to sleep.  So I went to the doctor today before work.  The doctor couldn’t hear anything, but she did give me an inhaler.  Hopefully that will open up my airways so I can knock out this cough and get back to normal.

Word Association for New Year's Day!

Let's start off the New Year with word association.

1. Once upon a :: Time (one of my favorite TV shows)
2. Winston :: Churchill
3. Frost :: Cold
4. Flute :: Music
5. Antlers :: Reindeer
6. Jolly :: Holiday
7. Mound :: Dirt
8. Gallery :: Museum
9. Trades :: Sports
10. Flake :: Unreliable