I get a little excited by rugby, okay?

OH MAN RUGBY IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER EVER EVER IN LIFE.

First game(s) today. We played Georgetown and Catholic on the most ghetto-ass pitch ever - that is, it was to one side of a REAL pitch (because that wasn't open until NEXT weekend), and instead of like, touch lines and all that OFFICIAL stuff we had... cones. And flags.

And okay, so both the team and I did decently but need to work on continuity - Georgetown (which is D2 to our D1) beat us in the 3x20minutes we played, but we beat Catholic HARDXCORE in the 3x20 minutes WE played.

BUT OF COURSE - the most awesome part was fo' sho the social. Since we played Georgetown first, they left, but we did social with Catholic, which is absolutely my most favorite thing in my life. It was everything a social should be.

And, of course, I reconnected with the 5 or 6 Catholic girls I already know (from PRUs or from the last time I socialed with them) and they were all "YES! AU and Catholic should see each other more often! Catholic should see YOU more often what is your phone number." I mean, basically I adore these girls and would most definitely hang with them again HURRAH.

And SERIOUSLY - does life get any better than this? Does it?!

NO. No way :D

Quotes from a snow practice

"You know, I really wish we had some good grass."

To a toddler:
"Aw, are you a hooker? Yes you are!"

"No, I'm not sure if it's okay or not... I'll let you know when I can feel it."

And life is good

Today, I had one of those days where, after leaving the house, I had literally 30 minutes to myself - 10 minutes for "lunch" (a quesadilla and a green tea protein shake - tasty, but slightly odd) and 20 minutes for dinner.

One of those days where, though nothing actually bad happened, you just get frustrated and feel this need to HIT something.

Well... lucky for me I'm a rugger!

Second real practice of the season; my first full practice (had to leave early for class on Thursday).

Oh man oh man oh man. Did it feel good.

Never mind the cold, the fact that I couldn't feel my hands or that I was shivering in underarmour and a nice thick jersey. Never mind the wind that made it hard to throw a ball or hear the coach.

It was RUGBY.

We ended practice with Real Rugby (a little scrimmage), and wow, it felt so good. Rucking and passing and even a little scrumming (I got to hook a little, and you know how I feel about being a hooker - whee!). Honestly, I feel so good about our team - even at the second practice of the season, we're looking good. Yes, our defensive line looks a little straggly; yes, there were a LOT of missed tackles; but we had a lot of good continuity, communication, support, etc. Definitely a good base to work off of.

And we'll get a good glimpse of HOW good a base this weekend - round robin with Catholic, Georgetown, and VCU (I don't think we're all playing everyone, but I'm not 100% sure on all the details).

Three tournaments to go for trophies in... this could be a VERY good season for my last one with the AUWRFC :D

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today was definitely one of the best Valentine's Days so far.

First off, I actually Had A Valentine. As in, I asked her with a home-made red-and-white paper card covered in glitter, and she said she'd be my Valentine. Yayyyyy :D

But second, I had my first real date with the real love of my life, the abusive lover that I've been in an emotionally and physically intense relationship for going on three years now.

That's right - RUGBY PRACTICE.

Practice was moved inside/made into a chalk talk Tuesday and Wednesday because of the weather, but today it was FINALLY nice enough to have it outside.

And it was SO FANTASTIC. It wasn't that cold, and the ground was nice and soft and muddy thanks to the rain, and I got to HIT PEOPLE OMG. Seriously, tackle grids feel soooo good.

Plus, to warm up for tackling we did this picking-people-up drill where you run at people as if you are going to tackle them, with good tackling form, but instead of tackling them you pick them up. And I'm usually not very good at the "picking people up" thing, but I got Adi off the ground EVERY TIME. Guess all those squats are paying off!

So I'm checking out the high school girls rugby photos at DropKickPhotos (because I think it's just awesome to see young girls playing rugby! COME TO AU!) and I think this is ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

So much for standing water on the field!!

PRU U23 All-Stars 2007

Guys. Guys. Did I ever tell you how rugby is my favorite thing ever? And ruggers are my favorite people ever?

This weekend I went down to UVA in Charlottesville to play for the PRU U23 All-Star team in the MARFU tournament. For those of you to whom that means very little, basically I got to play select-side rugby with some totally awesome girls.

AU had eight girls selected (six plus one alumni plus one alternate), so we set off together in Garthie and Petrides' cars early in the morning Saturday. Once to the pitch, we engaged in (true to AU form) spooning and karaoke, before doing a walk-through with the whole team. Then we kit up and watched EPRU beat VRU2.

Once that game was over, we warmed up and prepared for our game vs. VRU1. I started at flanker, and played for a half. I was... well, not really happy with how I played. I cleaned it up somewhat before I was taken out at the 40, but still wasn't very happy with myself. The whole team was a little off, I think largely due to the fact that we didn't get any practice time together (last tryout was last Sunday, and it's logistically difficult to get girls from all over the area together for a weekday practice). The more we played, the better we look, but we basically got rolled over.

Not too disheartened, however, we all showered up at the hotel and then met at the Mellow Mushroom to fuel up for Round 2 vs. VRU2. In the evening, a bunch of us hung out and watched Free Willy 2 (that movie is surprisingly dirty, if you watch it with the right people). Afterwards, we tried to go hot-tubbing, but it being closed, a group of us ended up sitting in the "exercise room" just chatting for an hour or two before bed.

Sunday dawned bright and a little warmer than Saturday, and we rolled out of the hotel at 9am for our game playing VRU2. I didn't start (I was not surprised, considering how I'd performed the day before), but all the AU kids that hadn't started yet were in the starting lineup (even our alternate!). The game was much closer and much better played than the day before, but we still lost by two tries. I got in for the last 20 minutes and (go figure) played about ten times better than I did on Saturday.

And as Tosan said after the end of that, "Losing ain't a loss unless you don't learn from it." There's a lot I have to work on before the beginning of next season and before I go to MARFU tryouts in the spring, and a lot for the team to work on together. Definitely not a loss.

Then it was kitting down, a flurry of pictures, and back in the Garthmobile for the trip home. And my season is officially, completely over - I won't get to play rugby again until February. Depressing.

But I'll still get to play with ruggers! This weekend was an amazing experience not just for the gameplay, but for all the awesome girls I got to hang out with on and off the pitch. I'm totally looking forward to seeing them at games and tourneys and socials in the spring, and hopefully hanging with some of them before then!

I just took 2 ibuprofen.

Then, ten minutes later, totally forgetting I'd taken the ibuprofen, I took 2 dayquil.

My body is kind of spazzy and dizzy feeling, and I'm running a baby temperature.

More importantly, PRU HASN'T SENT OUT SELECTIONS YET!!!!

6:30 my ass.


ETA: THEY SENT THEM! I AM ON THE TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAHHHH PRU U23 2007!!!!!


ETA2: Okay, now that I have calmed down - I should point out my pride in AU's representin'. Out of the 22, we have SIX players (two of them ROOKIES) and ONE alumni, and one of the four alternates. That's like a quarter of the team! MAN AM I EXCITED!!!!