Happy holidays!

It would be way too easy to blame my lack-of-updates on the holidays, but between Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping and Christmas planning (and of course, a few ultimate games), well... 

So this is just to say Merry Christmas to all, and to all a great 2009!

(and hopefully, by then, the &^%$#@ buses will be back on the road... sigh...)

Pre-game rituals

(...) To get us going right away this week, we'll meet together as soon as we get the field and run a quick team warm-up, followed by the Seattle drill. We're playing a tough team this week; for the sake of your teammates, figure out what YOU need to do to get ready to play. 

–  email from my IAD captain, prior to last week's game.

Reading it got me thinking  – what exactly do I do to get ready for a game? The following applies to IAD, but it's pretty much the same routine for Friday games.

2 days prior to game time

Start thinking about the game. Look up opponents in LeagueRunner, to get a feel of how we might match up, how the game will/could go. Size up my personal match-ups, think of how to best cover/defend or play offense against those particular players.

1 day prior to game time

Take it easy. Good solid dinner, rest, review team plays and specific instructions from captain regarding the upcoming game.

Game day

Somehow, i'll start getting those telltale pre-game butterflies at some point in the morning!

At home between work and game (when possible)

Eat a proven pre-game meal, chill, review team plays one more time. Pack field bag (cleats, knee brace, Nalgene, shorts, socks, black jersey, white jersey, wristband, athletic tape, gloves, cap – not necessarily in that order. This might be surprising, but no, i don't usually take a disc to games. 55 brings the cones on Fridays.) 

Walk to Dome

Ah, now the game's truly near (unless i'm leaving early to go watch 25 play). Ideally, i leave 40 minutes before game time (this allows for the 15 min walk to the Dome, a few minutes of social time, getting cleated up), with tunes on! iPod tuned to preselected upbeat "pump up" tracks. Current favorites: Lil' Wayne's "Let it rock" and Pink's "It's all your fault". Yes, i am guilty of sometimes breaking into dance while waiting for the light to change at an intersection!

At the Dome

Cleat up, warm up. Run a lap or two to more music. Last year's best track for that was Dizzy DJs smashing remix of "Amazed", as the beat matched my running stride really well. I haven't found a '08-09' track yet. 

And the game starts... time for full focus. Nothing else matters at this point in time than that little piece of white plastic we all want :) On a side note, last week, i had Hillsong's "Let creation sing" stuck in my head all game - and repeating the chorus in my mind while getting on the field helped empty my mind and fully focus on the game (as i find that song quite uplifting). Weird?

Post game

Stretch. Slag. Review the good and bad. Home. Shower. Bed. Zzzzzzz.... and can't wait to do it all over again.

Callahan baby!

In ultimate, a Callahan is an intercepted pass in the endzone your team is attacking. When we get one, it makes your team cheer and jump for joy, and the opponents throw their hats to the ground in frustration.

Let me start with the best part of the game... the title point, the Callahan. It was my first point on of the game, i'm marking the dump. The other team's main handler (incidentally, one of the best guys in the league) is on the endzone line, near the sideline. I position between the dump and the handler, in the usual way that allows me to keep an eye on both. Stall 4. The handler looks for the dump, who's not moving. Stall 5. One last look upfield. Stall 6. Back to the dump. At this point, my full focus is on the handler, but i can still see the white of my opponent out of the corner of my eye. Stall 7. Disc goes up – and yoink, straight into my raised left hand. I hold it there for a split second as the sideline (well, my team anyway!) erupts in cheer, then i spike it, do a little dance. Damn, that felt good. 

On my next point on, i stumbled what should have been a layout D and ended up with severe turf burn. Hmmm. Need to push more and not hesitate.  

So, my third IAD game was different from the first two on a few levels - first, i covered the same girl from the entire game. Weird... but true.  I didn't do too shabby, she didn't get the disc much, and when it did get to her she first looked for dumps (which is good for me). Second, i didn't handle as much; i was usually setting up as the offside handler, and the play would go the other way. But every time i did get the disc, I caught it and every pass i made was completed :)

Towards the end of the game, i did finally take my own "push more" advice and laid out for a D that would have been a point. We then scored right off that turnover! That was the first of 4 points in a row to complete our crazy comeback and tie, with one point left in the game. I wasn't on for that one, but i cheered like crazy when we first got the D, then scored and WON!! It was so amazing, everyone worked so hard and it was the cherry on the sundae to win after trading points/being behind for most of the game. Yeah ShamWow!

***

The rest of the week

I didn't play on Friday night as 25 and I took it easy and went to a show instead. Of course, we rejoined the Friday crowd at the A&L afterwards! It was a truly crazy night, marked by Petunia's quotable quotes, the best of which shall not be repeated this time - it was a bit rude! On Saturday, 25, 55, GoGo Diva and myself attended two separate parties thrown by some ultimate peers. Lots of fun :D And Sunday... well, i caught up on sleep. Mmmm, sleep. Reminds me, i could really go for a nap, i just need a couch now........

The usual suspects

As i've decided to use only fictitious names to represent actual people, here's a quick reference guide in case of confusion (listed in order of first appearance. I'll keep adding to these as time goes):

55 – a good ultimate friend who showed me the blogging way!

25 – my rockin' boyfriend 

Dr. Evil – my physiotherapist

GoGo Diva – an ultimate friend, so named because of her Halloween costume!

19 – a good ultimate friend who played for Stella last summer

Petunia – a male member of my fearless Friday night squad who favours the kilt

Italics are random thoughts that come while typing. Yes, i suffer from the "oooh, shiny thing" syndrome of a short attention span :)

Week 2 of ultimate - done.

Time truly flies these days, and i don't have anywhere as much time as originally hoped to devote to my blog. Apologies to my devoted readers – well, i think i've only given out the URL to three people :)

So it's now one week and two ultimate games later – 4 if you count the 2 games from pick up last weekend. Oh, now, those were fun :) Forget that i'd gone to bed at 2am the night before (darn you, Friday late night games) only to get up at 7 to go play more ultimate! Don't get me wrong, i am truly enjoying all this :) In short, two games of pickup where 25 and I got to matchup against 55, i got my butt whooped by a very good comp player, laid out a few times... to be fair, there were a few points where i slacked off, and towards the end, all i could think about was the pancakes waiting for us at home... Mmmmm.... pancakes...

ShamWOW's game on Wednesday was relatively okay – if you forget that we lost 25-13 . I had to layout for my very first catch of the game :) and got another huge layout grab a bit later on, but my personal highlight was getting a handblock on one of the best female ultimate players of the city. I am happy to report that I'm settling in my handler role better, and that i felt a lot more confident on the field than I did last week. Also noteworthy is that i was playing against GoGoDiva, while 25 and 55 did the whole "fan club" thing on the sidelines. Fun! :D

***

A note on being a captain – This whole captaining thing's a bit weird at times, i mean, this is my third year of being a team's fearless leader, and yes, every year, every team is different, and thus requires a tailored approach. I'm also hoping that things will go smoothly this year with 55 as my Friday co-captain! At last night's game, started with a clap-line, we had two full lines. My intent was not to divide the team and keep those lines for the entire game, but sadly this is how it ended up being. 25 subbed for us again last night, and we discussed the line issue on the drive home, how my line was stronger handler-wise than his, how really at this early stage of the season everyone should be playing with everyone else, get to know each other's playing style, gel as a team. The team i have this year has potential for great things on and off the field (really, i'm sure we'd beat anyone in a boat race, ha ha!), and yes, last night i screwed up by keeping things as they were throughout the whole game. Since i'm away next week, i fully trust 55 to not repeat that mistake and lead the team to our first victory!

Now, a few notes about the actual game play – after tying our last game, we were playing a much stronger team this week, and I'm happy to say we really held our own. Even though we lost 18-13, everyone played really well, there was some really good flow, and perhaps most importantly, 55 totally redeemed himself from his self-proclaimed Wednesday crappy play. What i learned - other than how much 19's improved over her summer with Stella – is that i can break anyone almost at will. A fine skill, to be sure.

As i have to log off and get ready for my work Christmas shindig, I now leave you on the
Quote of the night:
Petunia: "What's a uniboob?"

ShamWOW!

It's now two days after my first IAD game of the season, and the dust has finally settled enough to allow me to do some kind of write-up about it.

Getting the 7pm time slot on week 1 was both a blessing and a curse. Blessing because i wouldn't have time to get nervous while watching high-calibre ultimate being played during my warm-ups, and curse because, well - to be honest, i never really liked the 7pm slot. But hey, opening slot on opening night can't be all bad, right?

So a few minutes before game time, my captain comes by and introduces himself, i do the same, then he drops the H-bomb on me: "I want you to be our main female handler tonight". The horror, the horror! Gut reaction: This is what happened to 25 last season, he got put in a handler position, and 4 games later landed in IID. But since i'm trying to make a good first impression here, i accepted somewhat gracefully. 

Sadly, on my first point on – i get scored on. I know i should have bid... but it's not yet automatic on my left side. Something to work on. 

Shake off the nerves.

The rest of the first half is a bit of a blur, i did quite well in my handler role, good dump and swings. The highlight of the first half is a caught dump pass which was a bit overthrown and that i had to layout for (first turfburn of the season!) – i was later told by a respected comp player that it was "an amazing catch". Yay!!!! 

The second half was almost as good - if you forget my perfect pass to someone on the other team (well, for one, he was poaching, and two, my intended target was wide open in the endzone. Afterwards, i was told it was the right decision and not to worry about it). And of course, my lowlight of the night, the break force backhand to... nowhere. Ooops. I redeemed that one a few minutes later by catching a almost-down disc for a point :)

All in all, a good first game, and a good first win, 17-10. Love how we scored 7 in a row after a time-out to shut out the other team! With IAD being the highest indoor level this winter, I'm rubbing elbows with some crazy talent and some really, really good players. Must not let that get into my head! Goal of the season: keep cool and collected. Be confident. Work on little goals, just like with Fish. As well, i'm really happy with my team, my teammates are pretty darn cool and talented, and so i'm looking forward to a rocking season! 

Hmmm, it's nice to play at a high level again. I hadn't noticed how much i'd missed it until i played.

After a trip to the Arrow & Loon, I came back to the dome for 25's game. It was a great game to watch, very spirited, high-action and of course, watching "young lanky wiry kids who accelerate like Ferraris and have complete disregard for their bodies" pulling some crazy acrobatic stuff was pretty cool too. 25 had a great game, 6 or 7 layouts. I love watching him play :)

Today, sore and stiff, mostly from last night's workout. Tonight, more ultimate - this time with my and 55's team. 25's subbing for us, so it should be a fun game. Tomorrow morning, pickup. Tomorrow night, well, if i can still move - dress up dinner! But that's a story for another post. 

Let's get ready to rumble!

Ottawa, 13 degrees. Cloudy. 

IAD countdown: T-minus-5 days. Or better yet, in exactly five days – I'll be playing in two hours. EEEEEK!!!! 

Ever since my acceptance into IAD, the only thing i've been looking forward more than playing was finding out who my teammates were going to be. Finally, after many, many days wasted checking Leaguerunner ten times a day... there it was. Of course, 24 and 55 found out their team rosters hours earlier this morning and have been raving ever since – I hate it when some coordinators are more on the ball than others!

But back to the subject – and you could have peeled me off the ceiling, i was that excited – IAD team 4 rocks! I was very happy to see certain names pop up, and to see others being very much absent.  So a big sigh of relief... and a big dose of adrenaline at the same time. Am quite eager and raring to go,  I feel like the little kid counting sleeps before Santa comes :) Gimmeadiscthrowtomecomeongiveithelloi'mcuttinghereooooohthereitis*catch*

breatheinbreatheout*throw*clearandcutagainandfeelthoselittlerubberpelletsinmyshoesand–

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh. *contented sigh*

*smile*

On the menu tonight - 25's sister's baby shower. And tomorrow, we're baking cookies!!! I normally wouldn't be this excited at the prospect of burning someone else's kitchen down, but it's for star-shaped cookies (eeeeeee, stars!!!!), i even picked up cute little cookie cutters on my lunch break today :) Girls' night tomorrow night. And as for Sunday, I rest.

Iawah

Is it possible to find yourself at camp? I think i did. I can't go into too much detail right now, as a lot of wheels still need to be set in motion, but once everything is set - further explanations will be provided.

In the meantime, just picture this... on a small dock, on a quiet lake, just like in this photograph. It was taken on a late November afternoon, the sun is setting, i'm a bit dopey from fighting a cold, there's a quiet breeze rustling the trees behind us. Sitting with me was one of the best people in the world.

It's one of those moments I wish could have lasted forever.

*smile*

Now, for a real first post...

Ottawa, 3 degrees, cloudy (although it's hard to see the clouds for the darkness outside. I'll trust the weather widget on this one)

IAD countdown - T minus 16 days, or T minus 23 days, depending on who you believe.

Ah, so this is to be the official start of my blog, the official first entry! Have no fear, faithful reader(s)! Er, 25, are you reading me yet? I did show you the URL last night... I will entertain you! Or at least try... :)

Since i'm quite new to this, let's start with some quick random thoughts off the top of my head. Hmmm. It's Monday night, 5:49 pm, i'm a bit hungry, tired and mostly just want to curl up in a warm fuzzy blanket and pass out... but can't let that happen, as Prison Break is on tv tonight! mmmmm, Michael Scoffield... *drools* Tomorrow, another visit to Dr. Evil, who promised me more Graston Technique. I can almost feel the tears welling up simply at the thought - if you're not familiar with this form of physiotherapic torture, feel free to visit www.grastontechnique.com. The site even features a cute lil' video of muscles being ironed out. Ugh. Redeeming points for tomorrow: the prospect of my weekly workout with my favorite fishies (25, 55 and GoGo Diva), but best of all, 25 and I are going to see Monty Python's Spamalot! Tee hee, i fart in your general direction! 

More on those lovely activities in a further post. Unlike 55, i don't believe i have a tendency to ramble. ;)

Entry #1

There. Done. I now have a blog – and this is mostly due to reading 55's blog week after week. Kinda made me want to have my own, really...