Another Awesome Sports-Filled Weekend
Softball Saturday with the Chicago team--we got hammered, sadly, but I got off three solid hits (not actual baseball hits--I didn't get on base, but as in I hit them well, no dinky little grounders). Our cute-but-obnoxious shortstop made SEVERAL errors, real blunders. I wouldn't care except that afterwards we (Ken, SS, and another player) and I went to Jake's Dilemma to hang out and after a few beers he was started pestering me about playing with them versus playing with the Michigan B-school team. (He's done this on Facebook as well.) I (graciously I thought, considering my doubts about Chicago's desire to win!) said I would be playing with them in the tournament (for the tournament in September you HAVE to have two women on the field), and not Michigan B-school. Then SS started musing about playing me at catcher (in slow-pitch softball, you put the worst player at catcher--it's not a real position like it is in baseball) or another position beside 2nd base--I point-blank told him "if you put me at catcher, I won't play." Dude! Why are you demanding that I play for you and then insulting me? Get another freakin' female to play for you then! I'm not the one who made three (or four?) errors today! Most of the rest of the team finds him annoying as well--he's honestly fine most of the time but every now and then he gets like this, calls himself "captain of the infield" and criticizing people after EVERY play (he did a lot of that as well--every. single. play, he had something to say). NO SUCH POSITION. I admire your athletic prowess and your competitive drive but you can be a tone-deaf jerk sometimes.
Saturday night I played full-field soccer with one of my Meetup groups. This is a group consisting almost entirely of men--I'm the exception. The leader has a hard time getting the permits--it's not every week--and this time he got it for a weird time, 10:30 to midnight. But whatever, we all showed up, happy to play. One of the guys who'd signed up was Irish and he brought a bunch of his British friends with him and they all played on the same team. I got to chatting with the guy "opposite" me (which you do sometimes in a friendly game) who was Scottish--he was joking that when the ball started coming toward their goal he knew he would hear me sprinting toward him and he'd have to be right there as well. I said I loved all those dramatic sprints, that there was so much drama in soccer--dramatic sprints, the goalie has dramatic leaps and saves. Right after that one of the players on my team was yelling at another who'd scored something like 2 goals already (he was amazing)--he was yelling "I was screaming at you 'Jordan is in the middle,' you have to pass, you can't score all the goals!" I said to my teammate (the one getting yelled at) "if it helps, I didn't hear him either." Then I said to the Scottish guy "like I said--drama!"
The British team was so sweet and nice--the goalie was the Irish guy who'd brought the rest of them along and he was calling me "darlin'" all evening and telling his teammates "you want to watch out for this one, she's very quick." At one point he called out to his team "you guys are passin' like a bunch o' girrls" and from the other side of the field "HEY!" He winced and said "I'm sorrrry, darlin', you'rrre rright o' course." He called his team "lads" and during the setup for a corner kick I asked him "if I were on your team, would you be saying lads and lass?" He hugged me and said "yer an honorary laddie." So cute! They were all so sweet. And my team! Well, we creamed them 7-1--and I scored one of them :) I really can't take any credit for it though, it was due to chivalry. At one point Mike (the Irish goalie) took a gamble and came way out of the box and we kicked it past him and then there was literally nothing between the star forward (the one who'd already scored multiple times) and me. And then we heard a couple of our teammates yelling "give it to Clara! Give it to Clara!" So he dribbled it right up to the goal and let me kick it in. So sweet and chivalrous! But the next time, I'll earn it :)
Sunday evening more soccer, this time with my Dolphman (organized) league. This is the same team with whom I've been playing since January--the team on which I hurt my knee, the team made up of almost all 20-somethings! And I finally, finally, FINALLY scored a goal (for this team). SO, SO HAPPY. YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Especially because for whatever reason the goals the league is using this season are *tiny,* half the size of the ones we used in winter. It means so much to me because it really symbolizes that I've finally gotten back to something approaching my old form, the way I used to play in high school. The learning (reconditioning?) curve was so long, and I kept getting injured, and I was always exhausted after the games. Not any more. After both games this weekend I wasn't tired at all, and could've easily played more.
To top off the great weekend, Mad Men! And Game of Thrones!