Sandblast

after an adventure getting to chicago (which included spending the night at LaGuardia -- fuck you American Airlines!), i finally experienced the magnificence that is Sandblast.

first, the bad. (1) the beaches are less than pristine. the sand is soft enough, but laden with shards of glass. thankfully, the shards are for the most part dull and/or buried enough in the sand so as to be harmless, but i was aware of at least a couple of injuries due to glass this year and apparently jasper cut his toe 2 years ago. (2) the mexican locals will walk clear across your field, in the middle of your game. or attempt to clothes-line you with their kite string. bring scissors and extra cones or a big sideline. (3) lake michigan was experiencing an E. coli outbreak on saturday, and so we were unable to swim despite 90-degree temperatures. (4) the tourney didn't give us any water on saturday.

now, the good, starting with the good for all in general: breakfast at the fields (for which we were never early enough to enjoy), burritos from Chipotle and cheese-filled sausages for lunch, a lunch break to enjoy said food, a neat-o player pack with sun screen and other goodies, FREE BEER AT THE PARTY, the free beer is good beer, they didn't run out of the beer until midnight (when the party was over anyways), the beer was good, the beer was free, the party was good -- decent DJ & dancing, and did i mention they had free beer at the party? also, the bar the party was at had an 80's cover band playing in the main room which was AWESOME. further, clubs in chicago are open to 4am. none of this 2am which becomes 1:30am shit.

the good that was for me in particular. (1) stayed at allison's house which rocked. the house itself, her parents, the chincilla, the margarita ball, the pool table, the gorgeous lawn, the backyard, the lasagna dinner, the coffee in the morning -- all rockin'. i would move in there if they would have me. (2) got to see fred, albeit briefly, and i think he thinks we're all alcoholics longing for college. whatev. (3) picked up with Hurt Locker (mostly Madison alums, some current players, plus Skip from Sockeye) on Sunday. (4) we won the tourney = glory, beer, and free schwag.

more about Hurt Locker. it was really really fun playing with experienced players, especially Skip. we were on the same page on D -- e.g., when my girl was starting from the middle of a ho stack, he would help deep for the first cut so i could take away the under -- and this was communicated the first time by a look and words, thereafter by merely a look. we had simple plays for starting off a stopped disc. the team also had a cohesive defensive strategy, flattening out the mark to take away the huck and forcing the cutters out. and there was helpful talk from the sidelines: "it's all inside", "you're live", "no big!". they were having fun, yet were serious about playing: stayed in the shade, gave enough time to digest lunch before the next game, warmed up, etc. but also kept it light-hearted, laughing at each other's mistakes, etc. it probably helped we were never losing.

in short, i would highly recommend this tournament, glass in sand & E. coli be damned!