The photos I promised

Can you tell I'm avoiding doing lots of work?


Facial turf burn on my eye and chin. I was not happy - especially since everyone was telling me I'd gotten a black eye, when CLEARLY it is just turf burn.



Me rinsing dye out of my hair... I mostly include this photo because it's kinda hilarious.



Purple hair! (And Law & Order!)



Me and my two teammates who willingly subjected themselves to my dye escapades.




My knees, aka the reason I will be using an entire tube of neosporin in the next week.

VWIT

I have returned from Charlottesville, where I have been all weekend playing rugby for VWIT (the Virginia Women's Invitational Tournament).

I have returned with the knowledge of how it feels to have the U.S. Military beat up on you for two hours: we were seeded with Women's Army Rugby (WAR) and Women's Navy Rugby (WNR). We played two thirty-minute halves against each, and lost by... considerable amounts.

I have returned without skin on my knees and portions of my face: we played on not particularly kind turf, and the turf burn was horrendous. I also am very stiff and sore and will probably have trouble walking for the next few days.

I have returned with purple hair.

But I have also returned... with VICTORY.

Our consolation match was on Sunday, with the University of Maryland (UMD). AU and UMD have some beef - they recently moved up to D1, and beat us in the fall (in a game that no one at AU wants to talk about or generally remember), so they are going to playoffs and we are not.

But today, we played them for two thirty-minute halves and ten minutes of overtime. No tries scored in the first half. We then scored our first try fairly early on the in the second; later, they caught up with us by scoring their first try [illegally, but let's not dwell on that]. Then in overtime, we put our try in and held them far away from our try zone the whole time.

It felt AMAZING - not just winning, not just being matched up against a team that we could REALLY compete with, but playing such a good, tight game. UMD made some mistakes, definitely, but they played really well; we just played better.

We played really and truly fifteen-as-one, everyone on the field paying attention to where their teammates were and where the other team was. We supported each other, reset fast and came up aggressively on defense, made smart decisions on offense, and (a big deal for my team, which usually loses their heads in these circumstances) kept out of our heads and on the pitch in the face of some questionable tactics used by the other team and some interesting calls by the ref.

It was what we'd been working for all weekend - we'd started off slow in the first half with Army, but picked it up, and played pretty decently against Navy, but we still weren't at our best; it's hard to keep your head and your aggression up when the other team is running tries into the tryzone every few minutes. But today, it just all came together and looked beautiful.

As for me personally, I had a pretty fantastic weekend (as a first, I played the same position all weekend: strong-side flanker). I didn't do as well as I could've in the first half against Army, but after the game was over, Deanna came up to me with a very serious expression on her face and said, "Pink. Do you know what you did? Pink," and just as I was getting worried that I'd done something very wrong, she finishes with, "You did exactly what a strong-side flanker is supposed to do. You made their flyhalf look for you every play because she was so nervous you'd hit her! You came up hard and aggressive on defense and wanted the ball every time."

And I don't think I've gotten a better compliment in my life.

And that's how I played all weekend.

And it was SO GOOD.

[PS - photos of the hair and the facial turf burn and the skinless knees whenever I get off my ass and upload them!]

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!!