Calcio.
On Saturday afternoon, we took a quick trip to Six Flags for company day to check out the park. We didn't go on any rides mostly because we weren't in the mood. Noteworthy events include the following:1. Free ice cream
2. The Blast-from-the-Past annoying 80s lady
3. Me confessing that I like to invent personalities for people I don't know, so I can preemtively dislike them.
4. Winning a GT bumble bee by whacking moles (which just so you know, my made-in-China "Bizz" is actually a wasp in real life, and a variety of bee)
5. Leaving the lights on by accident, and pushing Craig's car because I can't drive stick. A big thank-you to the guy who helped us on the second to last try.
6. Words of wisdom overheard near the locker room (Dad to child in patronizing tone): "Make sure you go potty before your soccer game."
Um, yep. Duly noted.
Later that evening, we got back and I procrastinated as long as I could before leaving to go to an unknown field, to play with an unknown team. I had Craig stay home because I was already pretty anxious to begin with. Everyone I spoke to said that I was being kind of mean doing that, and maybe that's true, so I think at some point I'm going to have to buckle and tell him what league and where we're at and such. But honestly, does he REALLY have to come watch me falling into holes, tripping, getting hit with the ball, and finally, hiding behind the goalie??
Actually, only one of those things happened, so I'll leave it to your imagination to guess.
I left with maybe a half hour to spare, and managed to whittle it down to 5 minutes because I got totally lost. The team was very nice and excited to have new players (probably because they don't know yet what they've acquired, haha) and Anne introduced herself informing me that we'd be subbing for each other playing defense. Cool. Hiding in the back sounds good to me. You'd think I never played before, but I swear I have. Somehow.
What's funny is when Craig informs me of a rule once in a while, and I'm like, "Really???" I don't know how I survived up until this point, but I've just been operating with the following rules:
1. Don't pick up the ball. (No touching or blocking with hands/arms)
2. Don't do anything that might hurt somebody else.
3. Goal side is THAT WAY (pointing to opposite side).
4. When the ball goes out of bounds, let somebody else deal with that. I'm OK with throw ins but anything else, I don't know.
5. When the whistle blows, see what everybody else is doing.
6. No strategic hanging out. (Offsides to you soccer folks.)
Anyway, to make a long story short, it was really fun and the time flew by. It was also a new experience because I've never played on a real grass field before complete with hard spots (and harder spots) and irregularities. I think the field was full sized, and I've never played on one of those before. (The indoor ones and IM ones were short.) In fact, I don't really remember a whole lot except for sprinting occasionally, being kinda in the way, and tapping the ball away from blue, or back upfield.
Later that evening, I went back to Craig's and probably told a very incoherent story with my tail wagging the whole time. The next day we went out to the nearby high school because they have a bunch of very nice fields adjacent to tennis courts. Perfect! We played lazy tennis for a while, where you don't leave the service boxes, talked about getting a ping pong table for the garage, and then after, Craig showed me some soccer stuff. He's very patient, which is great, AND even better, he doesn't look. We have a no looking rule that was invented during embarrassing tennis play. I think I forgot everything already because I'm partially hopeless and was definitely in tired-goldfish mode last night.
It's been over two years since I last played (though under very different circumstances). Finally, I am starting to remember why I even got involved in the first place.
posted by v @ 10:41 AM
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