Transitions are dead
I have 25 minutes to tell you the things you came here to find out. Well, let me tell you. I'm contemplating a return to tchoukball. It's not that I feel like tchoukball has really been missing in my life, but it seems like a better choice than golf. It's cheaper and more accessible and easier to give up. It's played by fewer people and so it has novelty going for it. Plus, it's less frustrating. And more active. I suppose I could try to find ways to occupy my time that didn't involve sport, but I could also learn to belly dance. Couldn't I?

I played a game of Ultimate the other night. I don't want to talk about the things that hurt. I want to talk about the dirty look I got from one woman. I realize I shouldn't take it personally, but that's not helping. A hammer went up and I was trying to help out on defense, so I made tracks to get to the disc. My chase was fruitless because gravity was bringing the disc down faster than I could move. I realized this at about the time this woman was dropping the disc and so instead of diving for the disc, I tried to dodge her. As I splayed to her left, parts of my body contacted parts of her. I stood up and apologized, but she glared. She glared the "you have no right to run into a me glare." She'd already dropped the disc by the time we bumped. I didn't mean to do it. These things happen. I'm trying to let it go. I'm trying to figure out if I'd get the same glare from a man.

It's not like the first impression I have of my friend LL. A bunch of the dorm kids were playing Ultimate on the big green Astroturf. It was the usual gun and run, 11 v. 11, college-age kindergarteners chasing the flying plastic wherever it might fly kind of game. I was chasing a disc. LL was chasing a disc. It was coming down. She was out of position. I jumped up. She reared both elbows back, thrust her palms forward, and jammed them right into my chest. She pushed me. I was shocked. I was also knocked down. She got a glare from me, believe it. I didn't think much of her then. I don't like cheaters much, but I guess I forgave her because we're friends now. As horrible and obvious as that push was, I think I had to admire the fight in her. She was going to go down swinging. I can't reconcile that at the moment. I can't reconcile it with Spirit of the game either.

Please don't tell me that belly dancing is a sport.

In 45 minutes of play, I fell to the ground at least 3 times. Once I slipped. Once I "dove," although I was basically out of control and couldn't get where I needed to go without flying forward a bit. We've already discussed the splaying. 45 minutes. I wasn't even playing that well. And I was on cloud 9. I need more things in my life that do that. 3 minutes to go. When this comes out right, it's pretty close. Cloud 7, 7.5 at least. It just doesn't come easy. And it's fraught with so much risk of injury to R.