Thank You, Thank You Very Much

I just received a spam e-mail inviting me to be a contestant in “The 2006 World Beauty Contest” …

Seriously … dreams do come true on your birthday!

Birthday Weekend Recap

Why don’t we make resolutions on our birthdays instead of New Year’s?

Just a thought that makes far more sense to me than doing them all on January 1. Except for you people born on January 1. Which means you can do it whenever you want because you probably get screwed out of big parties and presents because of the alignment of the major holidays.

Me … September 25 is a pretty good, major holiday-less day to be born.

So here’s the weekend recap …

Friday night after work I ran my errands to collect my stash of goodies that help Blondie on rugby days … power bars, gatorade, etc., etc., etc. I then realized I had a $25 gift certificate burning a hole in my wallet for a good restaurant and then realized if not on a Friday night, when? So I went and found Tim and we used my gift certificate on some yummy food … I had some great baked cod, salad, veggies, etc., but alas, no room for dessert and I needed to get home and get some sleep for my game the next day in Chicago.

Saturday morning, I hit my snooze bar like 9 times and finally got up, collected all of my necessary gear (which usually involves a head to toe checklist of my rugby uniform … cleats, socks, shorts, mouthguard, hair things … ), picked up one of our car-less rookies and met the team for the ride to Chi-town.

We were playing North Shore in some park along Lake Michigan in one of Chicago’s affluent northern suburbs. Getting there involved a long drive through residential neighborhoods and a conversation in my car involving markers of higher tax brackets.

Me: You know how I know we’re in a higher tax bracket besides the large houses? Gargoyles.
Teammates: Gargoyles?
Me: Yup … and lions … and urns.
Kelly: And old ladies with fancy canes … (seeing an old lady with a fancy cane)
Me: Yup, gargoyles, urns and fancy canes.

So we get to the park and the field was in a open spot among some trees and had a big pile of dirt in one end before the try zone. A big pile of dirt that was almost as tall as me. And North Shore was just starting to get the field ready for our game that kicked off in just over 80 minutes. The field looked pretty narrow and short and there was a metal park bench on one sideline that was not moveable.

So needless to say our coach was pissed. And most of us were pissed. Especially since we’re all wondering why this couldn’t have been done the night before at least. And our coach point-blank told us that he considered this to be a sign that we weren’t a team to be take seriously or respected.

Further, North Shore should probably be thankful three of our players got stuck in traffic behind some accident on the interstate because that gave the referee a reason to let both teams agree to a later kickoff time.

But then our players finally showed up and North Shore was still struggling to get their goalposts to stand up without falling over and the referee was actually helping paint lines on the field, while our team was standing their trying to stay warmed up and all ready for kickoff. But the referee must’ve felt some pang of pity or something and opted to just let us play.

It was rather rediculous and despite the many mentionings of North Shore possibly needing to forfeit the match for not having a field ready for us to play on, we all got ready and the whistle finally blew on our delayed kickoff and we had 15 starters and two subs all ready to play (we’re still struggling with numbers).

It was humid as hell when we warmed up and then our game started and a slow drizzle began to fall as we played. I don’t know the official final score, but by the end of the game, we had scored three tries to more than three tries by North Shore. We challenged a few more times more and didn’t just rollover and take it, but it wasn’t a very pretty game.

[In fairness to North Shore, I am sure they didn’t intend for set up to take that long and I did finally get to meet fellow blogger Liz, who was very nice and gave me a hug. So, Liz, we’ll party some day when I’m in much better spirits.]

The slow drizzle also turned into an outright monsoon and that damn dirt pile that had been smoothed out only 45 minutes before our game started turned into a mud-wrestling pit that practically sucked off your boots everything you attempted to run over it.

More frustrating, at the halftime, we opted to keep all 15 starters in because we were working well together, and one of our subs decided that she didn’t agree with this decision and drove home before the A-side game had even ended which I won’t go into. So later in the second half, when we lost two starters to injury, we had one sub to come in and ended the game playing short.

Being our team and basically being the punishment-loving players we are, the b-side was even more wet, more muddy and more messy than the A-side and all of us waded through 40 more minutes.

All in all, a great Saturday playing rugby. Thankfully, there was a large, warm indoor bathroom near the field and our whole team mucked our way over there to attempt to get clean and dry before the third half. And someone was watching over me, because not only had I packed a full set of extra clothes (which I never normally do) but my gear bag had kept all of them dry for the most part. Although I did ring a gallon of muddy water out of my sports bra. Not kidding. And my hair was severely dreadlocked from the mud and sand.

On days like this, it’s just tiring to deal. So I finally got somewhat dry and “cleaned up” and found the third half at a shelter in the park and scored one of the last hamburgers and some dip/veggies and a coke to eat. I wasn’t in much of talking mood and just wanted to go home. Although Tonya and I did agree that we both didn’t need to see a certain fashion choice presenting itself. Since I hadn’t planned on staying down in Chicago to party, I was read to go home as soon as the next car was going so five of us took off after we ate and hugged all of our teammates for surving the day with us.

The ride home was funny since five of us were packed in Sta-Nay-Nay’s Ford Focus and we had to drive through some seriously flooded streets before getting back to the Interstate. Interestingly enough, as soon as we took that exit back to Wisconsin, the sun came out and the rain let up. I won’t go into the deeper symbolism of that moment. 🙂

Near the state border, we stopped at an oasis and the five of us hit up nearly every food/drink vendor in the mall … for me, Panda Express for some much-needed nourishment and Starbucks for some yummy caffeine before finally making it back home to my apartment at 8 p.m. to a lonesome cat and a ringing cell phone from my sister, our rookie Kim inquiring about our game and my boyfriend telling me he would be over later since he was still working on packing up his stuff for moving to a new home soon.

Being exhausted, I cracked open a beer, took a hot bath and settled on to my couch so totally wiped out, a fire alarm could not have moved me. My boyfriend then took this opportunity to call me again and we almost got in an argument because he told me he now wouldn’t be coming over but was all chatty about really unimportant stuff at that exact moment. So I said can’t we talk about this tomorrow, especially since you’re not coming over and I have been waiting up for you before passing out to sleep and now I’m getting really pissed off … and then I just hung up on him. And the whole rediculous day caught up to me at that point and I just started crying and crying. And I thought, what a perfect way to end my 28th year. Bawling my eyes out.

But then the buzzer rang that someone was at my door and it turned out to be my boyfriend Tim and he couldn’t believe I had hung up on him, since he was just stalling me on the phone until he could surprise me at the door and he was there to take care of me. And that was a pretty nice way to end my 28th year.

Sunday, we bummed around, walked around in the gorgeous fall sunshine of a Wisconsin September, went grocery shopping and made dinner for my family for my birthday. My sister and mom brought me a huge cake covered in what can only be described as a “Gay Pride Bonanza” of flowers and they bought me presents even though I told them not to.

So, hopefully, my 29th year will save the best for the last of my 20s.