Here comes the zone
Several weeks ago, Aisha told me that I should write about my frisbee tournament. Although I am rarely punctual, I am (sometimes) responsive. So three tournaments later, here is my conclusion: I am in love with ultimate (among other things). I missed the first day of the tournament because our team desperately needed people today and because I was invited to a screw your roommate a long time ago. The person I set up for our own screw your roommate, who is one of my favorite people at Stanford, is now dating the person I set her up with. A person that I found via facebook (which is total validation of all the time I spend on that website). Apparently I am really good at making people I like spend lots less time with me.
Except that's a lie, I just like to make fun of the time she spends with her boyfriend because they like each other so much and every time I see them I smile because part of me likes to think that I contributed to that cuteness and happiness. And it allows me to see how easy and simple attraction can be. Anyway, she had a dance last night too so we spent the afternoon scoping out dresses in the dorm and talking about how much cooler it is to go cosmic bowling in formal attire than to a traditional dance. While working on programming. We're that good.
On to the promised part of the entry. Today it rained (just to prove to me that California weather isn't always perfect), mixed with tiny pieces of hail. I woke up at 5:30 to drive down to Davis and sat in the front seat sullenly, fighting off sleep (unsuccessfully) and feeling sorry for myself because we were listening to strident country music. It was miserable and cold and we lost the first two points mostly because I was confused about the force and kept getting broken. Dea took me out and explained things about marking that I already knew.
When she put me back in, the game turned. I started knee-sliding for catches. We won the first game 10-3. The second game was against a combined Berkeley A & B team, and ended up being very heated. After calling fouls we would catch the other team muttering things like "fucking lame." Here's the great thing, though: after we beat them 6-4 on game point to go on to finals, they sang an improvised frisbee version of "Gray skies are gonna clear up" and smiled as they offered us congratulations sincerely.
Before finals we were arguing about what cheer to do when we were ambushed by our opponents. They pushed us into a tight clump of people and hugged us. We ended up doing a combined cheer with them. Wait for it...the cheer was a dance type cheer where everyone yells "Do the hustle," then breaks into their own little dance while humming and gathers back in the middle to cheer "Do the hustle" again. Seriously.
It kind of doesn't matter if we won, but we did. During the last game, it started really pouring, and while the rest of the people on the sideline stood huddled under an umbrella shivering, I ran up and down the line twirling because rain is sometimes beautiful. And I played well. It was a pleasant surprise.
The rain reminded me of when I got a facial a while ago (reflecting the slight shift in the kind of people I'm friends with here). The facialist seemed horrified and looked at my pores as if they might have landmines buried deep within them. "Do you spend a lot of time outside?" she asked, and until then, I hadn't realized that it was possible to make a question sound so disparaging. Playing the final point today in pelting rain, pushing myself to block discs after playing one point for maybe 15 minutes, I laughed inwardly at the facialist and her ridiculous idea of what's important. I reveled in the streaks of mud all over my face. After all, mud masks are supposed to be good for your skin... ;)
There are more things to tell you. To understand my life now, you would need to know about my crazy philosophy professor and eating worms in dirt at house meeting and parties and my secret slight aversion to them and at least twelve other things. I'll be home in two weeks. Hopefully I'll fill you in then, although I know most of you have different spring breaks. Boo quarter system.
Except that's a lie, I just like to make fun of the time she spends with her boyfriend because they like each other so much and every time I see them I smile because part of me likes to think that I contributed to that cuteness and happiness. And it allows me to see how easy and simple attraction can be. Anyway, she had a dance last night too so we spent the afternoon scoping out dresses in the dorm and talking about how much cooler it is to go cosmic bowling in formal attire than to a traditional dance. While working on programming. We're that good.
On to the promised part of the entry. Today it rained (just to prove to me that California weather isn't always perfect), mixed with tiny pieces of hail. I woke up at 5:30 to drive down to Davis and sat in the front seat sullenly, fighting off sleep (unsuccessfully) and feeling sorry for myself because we were listening to strident country music. It was miserable and cold and we lost the first two points mostly because I was confused about the force and kept getting broken. Dea took me out and explained things about marking that I already knew.
When she put me back in, the game turned. I started knee-sliding for catches. We won the first game 10-3. The second game was against a combined Berkeley A & B team, and ended up being very heated. After calling fouls we would catch the other team muttering things like "fucking lame." Here's the great thing, though: after we beat them 6-4 on game point to go on to finals, they sang an improvised frisbee version of "Gray skies are gonna clear up" and smiled as they offered us congratulations sincerely.
Before finals we were arguing about what cheer to do when we were ambushed by our opponents. They pushed us into a tight clump of people and hugged us. We ended up doing a combined cheer with them. Wait for it...the cheer was a dance type cheer where everyone yells "Do the hustle," then breaks into their own little dance while humming and gathers back in the middle to cheer "Do the hustle" again. Seriously.
It kind of doesn't matter if we won, but we did. During the last game, it started really pouring, and while the rest of the people on the sideline stood huddled under an umbrella shivering, I ran up and down the line twirling because rain is sometimes beautiful. And I played well. It was a pleasant surprise.
The rain reminded me of when I got a facial a while ago (reflecting the slight shift in the kind of people I'm friends with here). The facialist seemed horrified and looked at my pores as if they might have landmines buried deep within them. "Do you spend a lot of time outside?" she asked, and until then, I hadn't realized that it was possible to make a question sound so disparaging. Playing the final point today in pelting rain, pushing myself to block discs after playing one point for maybe 15 minutes, I laughed inwardly at the facialist and her ridiculous idea of what's important. I reveled in the streaks of mud all over my face. After all, mud masks are supposed to be good for your skin... ;)
There are more things to tell you. To understand my life now, you would need to know about my crazy philosophy professor and eating worms in dirt at house meeting and parties and my secret slight aversion to them and at least twelve other things. I'll be home in two weeks. Hopefully I'll fill you in then, although I know most of you have different spring breaks. Boo quarter system.