florida, chapter 1: Nationals

arrived wednesday.  was on shopping duty, as i had the BJ's card.  made the most of the trip, but it still sucked and i was tired & cranky when i got back to the condo's.  we stayed at House of the Sun (HOTS) this year, as opposed to Sea Shell Condos, where we stayed last year and all of Boston stayed this year.  HOTS had washer & dryer in each unit, which in my mind was worth the switch alone.  besides, we were only 2 conods down.

thursday.  first game was vs. flycoons.  we come out strong, they come out flat, we take half 8-5.  then they wake up, we start dropping things and throwing them away; they win 15-12.  our first lost on thursday of nationals ever.  we go on to beat AMP 15-14, and exact revenge on Quiet Coyote 15-9.  Flycooons, however, lose to AMP, so there is a 3-way tie for 1st in our pool.  we go down to the lower pools on point-difference.  blargh.

friday.  first game vs. Peppermint Bon Bon, who we'd been expecting to play 2nd, but they lost to Guillermo y Compania the day before.  oh well.  game was close at first.  i played well -- had one of the better D's of my career.  my girl cut deep.  i let her get a step or 2 on my, knowing the throw would be up-wind and would hang.  the throw went up.  i found the disc, and then put my head down and ran.  i closed to a half a step or so, and then bid! and got the D on a pretty sick waist-high lay-out.  we lost this game, however, on a freaking Callahan.  suck.

then GyC.  Salsa and Yucei play for this team, because Salsa once lived in Nashville.  i don't like them; they are nice enough people, but they just want to play for good teams, or teams they can take over.  they have this holier-than-thou attitude about it all.  so i really wanted to beat them.  and we did, but not by as much as i would have like (1 point).  team was atheltic, and Salsa and Yucei did provide good leadership.  Miller had me guard Yucei for a point (my only D point the whole tournament).

so then we're 2-1; so is GyC (beat PBB & QC, lost to us).  we need QC to beat PBB in order for PBB to be 1-2. then GyC and we are tied for 1st in the pool; we win by head-to-head.  if PBB beats QC, they are also 2-1, and they win based on point diff.  QC is down 12-9 or something, and come back to win!  thanks, QC!

so we play D'Oh! in the pre-quarters.  nice enough team from Seattle.  Gabe, Hall's roommate, is their main handler, and he's good.  this game is tight at first, then we pull ahead to win 15-9.  two things of note:  

(1) at 11-8 us, adam gets called for an offensive foul on a reception (which is complete).  observers rule foul, turnover.  this makes sense to no one, so we all agree to send it back.  we score.  there is a trained observe on D'Oh who makes a fuss: the correct ruling was turnover.  the other observer in this game rules that we have to do the point over.  we complain; get the head observer; he agrees.  do-over: D'Oh! scores, so i'ts now 11-9 instead of 12-8.  someone wrote "bullshit" on our score sheet, and i agree.  whatever.  the O-line walks on the field, and i say, "Let's make that mean nothing, by scoring now."  we do.  

(2) game point.  it's a long point, i think.  we get the turn.  someone on their team takes an injury sub.  farina suggests i go in for someone -- kris.  she acquiesces.  i go in.  evan has the disc on the break side.  i am open for a quick back-hand.  he calls for me to cut.  i get the disc and turn up-field to see snitch cutting deep.  i huck a BEAUTIFUL back-hand to her for the score and to end the game.  perhaps my most glorious, short & sweet, sub-in-the-middle-of-a-point ever.  

so, yay, we're in the quarters, to face Flycoons again.  but first, we represent at the beer garden friday night by first snorting lines of "coke" (gatorade powder?  i actually don't know what we're snorting) with frank's $100-bill.  sweet.  marshall got pictures of this all, too.  then we win the beer garden -- about 10 of us left at the end, chanting "Slow...White!" and "In the...A!"

saturday, playing, sucked.  suck suck suck.  we lost 15-5 to Flycoons, who have acquired Tim Murray since Thursday, and are in the groove.  i had a fine game -- no turns, was cutting well, 1 goal -- but just so frustrated with how poorly we were playing as a team.  they put a zone on us, that forced a lot of turns.  finally, sean goes in and throws a cross-field zinger to me.  i am running towards the disc to catch; a guy on Flycoons is running away from the disc, facing it, back turned to me, to D it.  he gets the D just barely before running smack into me and taking me out.  he hit my R hip/leg, and i am fine, but it was quite a take-down.  i fly back into the ground.  and, as usual in these situations, i am PISSED, but can't express anger, so start to cry.  add to that, i am SUPER frustrated, and there are more tears.  i storm off, but am able to come back later.  i have a nice bid at a deep throw from sean, but really can't do much to turn the tide.

placement game vs. Barrio.  i'm still somewhat frustrated, even after walking away to watch some open (Johnny Bravo up on Sockeye!).  as usual, getting the team to do a structured warm-up is like herding cats.  i notice that about half the guys have their shirts off, so after 15 seconds of attempted prompting to form two go-to drills, i say, "fuck it", take my shirt off, and declare a "Bromance Scrimmage", to which everyone takes immediately.  it utility in preparation for game-like situations is questionable, but it got everyone on the field, running around, loosened up, and laughing.  just what we needed.

game was good at first.  up 4-0, take half 8-4.  then they start to creep back into it, and before i know it, it's 11-10, game to 12.  fuck.  cut cut cut, huck goes up to me deep.  i sky Liz Perry, their go-to woman.  i look down, i'm straddling the goal-line.  i have a vague sense that i landed on my R foot first, but whatever.  no cuts are open up-field.  i turn back and see Tim sprinting up the side-line (from which i am only ~5 yards).  he continues past me into the end-zone.  i watch in horror, as if from out-of-body, as i throw him a flick, that gets D'd.  on the next play, Liz cuts deep, skies me, because i was distracted yelling at Tim as she started her cut.  they score, it's double-game point.  i am irate.  kicking & screaming, and spiking my water battle.  someone takes a time out.  farina says, if you can calm down, we need you in.  bethany says, why don't you just go in.  so i put that horror behind me, put my head down, and decide to win this game with my legs.  i get open under for a throw from?? peter? steve?.  no one open up-field.  tim is again having trouble getting open on the dump, so he does up-line.  this time i hit him in stride, and he throws to greytak for the game-winning goal.  whew.

in the other consolation game, puppet is beating up on AMP, and wins.  which means we don't have to play the 5th place game, and we tie with puppet, which i'm happy to do.   yay.

saturday night i still have regrets about.  i wish i'd made it to the daiquiri deck instead of wandering off to see what chicken was up to.  the beach near our condo was fun, however. got to know some of the QC guys better; good times with farina, noel, bluto, siona, max, and TJ.  highlights include: learning how to open beers for shot-gunning from bluto & his brother; the chew-up-food-and-spit-it-out-at-people game farina invented; getting meat in miles' eye doing this (even more hilarious b/c he's vegetarian); getting a green-bean wad to stick to farina's and peter's faces doing this; wrestling with max on the beach; hanging with TJ on the beach.

all in all, i'm proud of how we did.  my stretch-but-attainable goal for Slow White was to make quarters, and we did that.  we pulled out three close wins -- something we hadn't been able to do all season.  i had some nice flicks (and some not-so-nice flicks) including an up-wind break and several dumps, one nice backhand huck, a couple of nice D's, and two or three "skies".  i'm a bit ashamed of losing my cool in the second flycoons game and the barrio game, but i'd done well all weekend up to that point, and was able to recover from both.  wish i'd gotten out to socialize with people from other teams more, but at the same time, i had a lot of fun with my team and people near-by.  

onwards to the dark, long, and gloomy off-season...