Well, at least it’s ending. The weekend, that is. All in all it was very mediocre, though not for the sheer quantity of mediocrity, but for the polarity of its events, and their middling effect on the “Big Picture.” But now I’m being vague and belaboring the point. I’ll just get on with my synopsis.
Friday:
I was ready to leave at 1:30pm, as requested by the captains. I could go on, at length, about the time we actually left, and why… but suffice it to say that we didn’t leave until after 4:00pm because, as I already quite aware, caravaning sucks. The rest of the folks on the team are also not particularly good at road trips. Lots of inefficiencies. Lots of irregard for others’ time. Lots of stuff that annoyed me. Nevertheless, we eventually got to… umm… somewhere in southern Louisiana. The place we were to stay. After a quick bite to eat, we decided to go hang out.
After roaming all over the place, looking all over for friends of one of the guys on the team… then finding them and talking to them for all of 10 minutes… we drove around and looked for a (specific) house party. We found it, hung out for a while, and then decided to go to a bar… Madigans (or something like that). That was also… ok. None of it was all that great. I was tired, none to impressed with Louisiana, hungry, and realized we’d have to get up before 7:00 the next morning. Eventually we left, went looking for food, found none, gave up and decided to try and get some sleep before morning. By the time we got back and in bed, it was better than 4:00am. (and when I say “better” I mean “later” which really just means “much, much worse.”)
Saturday:
I’ll be damned if the alarm didn’t go off at 6:45am on Saturday. I’d be a damned liar if I said I didn’t want to throw the dirty motherfucker through the window, too. We got up anyway and headed to Baton Rouge for the tournament. As usual, we BARELY had enough to start the first game. (Everyone else was late, lost, hungover, or any combination of the three) We did, though, and at this point I could tell you all about Saturday, how I played, and how we did. I’ll do that, but I won’t do it in any great detail, as the VAST majority of you won’t have the first clue wtf I’m talking about.
I will say that we played (fairly) well, and very hard… that despite losing three of four games. The loses were close and hard-fought. I played quite well (I think), though didn’t do anything terribly spectacular. It was just a solid day of Ultimate. I was very pleased with the improvement I’ve shown since we went to Fayetteville in October, but I was most proud of the fact that my ability to go hard even when I’m REALLY tired hasn’t diminished from when I was an athlete in High School. For those of you not aware, playing four games of Ultimate is tough… especially when you play the vast majority of the points in all of them. Of course, working my ass off on Saturday had some dire consequences.
That night we got showered at the hotel, then went to some place (which I’ve forgotten the name of) and ate. Boy did we eat! It was probably the best seafood I can recall having. I ate a ginormous plate of it. That made me happy, but it did not change the fact that I was worn out. Some folks went out Saturday night. Pete went to bed. Before midnight.
Sunday:
7:45am came EARLY. I woke up tired, sore as hell, and sunburned. Things got worse from there… but not before they got a little better. I had a huge (complimentary) breakfast at the hotel before heading to the fields for tournament play. I actually felt pretty good. Until the first game started. I didn’t play poorly, but I didn’t play well. That had a lot to do with the fact that the team played like complete ass. I’m not joking. We sucked. Had no business playing that day. Unluckily, the Ultimate Gods saw it that way too — we lost to Notre Dame, which sent us packing. I’m not going to go on at length, but the fact of the matter is that 90% of the team doesn’t play nearly hard enough, or care nearly enough. It’s a damn shame, too, since we’ve got such great athletes.
After a bit of sitting around, I rode home with Lars — that was very good. He’s one of very few guys on the team older than me, and we get along quite well. We’re car pooling to Gainesville in a few weeks for the Frostbreaker Tournament. Should be fun times.
I got back to Tuscaloosa around 7:00ish and got back to find a rejection letter from Case Western on the counter. So there you have it… all is well that ends well. This weekend certainly didn’t do that. Ahh well… should be an extra busy week.
I want to thank the folks who guest posted while I was gone, I wish more folks had, but you’ll have more chances. Thanks, guys.
