Limping into the end of 2017
(Hello! Everything is fine. I'm fine, Cook's fine. The girls are fine.)
This fall I tried something different. I've been watching Duchess enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, reminding me of what a fun game it is, and I've also been reflecting on the fact that the kids have lots of activities (well, not Skipper anymore) and I have none. So I signed up for exercise classes (I found a company that allows you to visit lots of different exercisey places, meeting my need for variety) and have been doing all sorts of novel barre and yoga and pilates and strength training things that are fun and hard. That's been great, though expensive.
I also signed up to play "goalty," a spin-off of ultimate. It turns out that it's a more compact, much quicker game than ultimate, and there are only 4 players per team on the field at a time (2 men and 2 women in this league). This means that even if you don't really understand the game, aren't very good at throwing and catching, and aren't particularly fit,* you can't dawdle confusedly in the background while other people make things happen - you have to actually participate. This would be okay if not for the fact that everybody in the league is much better than me AND have all been playing together for years (I was afraid they would all be young and obnoxious, but they're mostly my age-ish) AND are pretty intense and competitive. They were all nice to me, but I was very clearly deadweight. And that felt terrible. The first time I took the field, I literally fell down three times in a row (I think that was about playing on turf - I never fell down again after that) and I could almost feel all my teammates' horror radiating at me from the sidelines.
This experience made me think about Skipper a lot. I didn't want to go back after the first day. I knew I should, but I was dreading it. I went, but only to three out of the five sessions (three games to a session; ugh) and hated most of it. But I did it. I even caught a few scores and made some good catches and throws. I also dropped a lot of catches, threw away a lot of throws, and failed terribly and repeatedly at defense. I even knocked over the goal once. But I did it, which is something. I think the next new thing I try will be easier, though.
This experience also made me think about my dad, who played in a baseball league when he was in his forties - he complained a lot about how his "eyeballs jiggled" when he was running for the ball in the outfield. I thought that was hilarious, and I gave him a lot of shit. Jiggling eyeballs! Ridiculous! But when I was running around, trying to track changes in play direction and locate a flying frisbee, I really felt like my eyeballs were ... jiggling. A lot. Definitely more than they used to. Dad, sorry about that.
*Barre and yoga and pilates and strength training don't do much for one's cardiovascular fitness. And I wasn't ever very quick or dynamic even when I was in better shape.
This fall I tried something different. I've been watching Duchess enjoy playing ultimate frisbee, reminding me of what a fun game it is, and I've also been reflecting on the fact that the kids have lots of activities (well, not Skipper anymore) and I have none. So I signed up for exercise classes (I found a company that allows you to visit lots of different exercisey places, meeting my need for variety) and have been doing all sorts of novel barre and yoga and pilates and strength training things that are fun and hard. That's been great, though expensive.
I also signed up to play "goalty," a spin-off of ultimate. It turns out that it's a more compact, much quicker game than ultimate, and there are only 4 players per team on the field at a time (2 men and 2 women in this league). This means that even if you don't really understand the game, aren't very good at throwing and catching, and aren't particularly fit,* you can't dawdle confusedly in the background while other people make things happen - you have to actually participate. This would be okay if not for the fact that everybody in the league is much better than me AND have all been playing together for years (I was afraid they would all be young and obnoxious, but they're mostly my age-ish) AND are pretty intense and competitive. They were all nice to me, but I was very clearly deadweight. And that felt terrible. The first time I took the field, I literally fell down three times in a row (I think that was about playing on turf - I never fell down again after that) and I could almost feel all my teammates' horror radiating at me from the sidelines.
This experience made me think about Skipper a lot. I didn't want to go back after the first day. I knew I should, but I was dreading it. I went, but only to three out of the five sessions (three games to a session; ugh) and hated most of it. But I did it. I even caught a few scores and made some good catches and throws. I also dropped a lot of catches, threw away a lot of throws, and failed terribly and repeatedly at defense. I even knocked over the goal once. But I did it, which is something. I think the next new thing I try will be easier, though.
This experience also made me think about my dad, who played in a baseball league when he was in his forties - he complained a lot about how his "eyeballs jiggled" when he was running for the ball in the outfield. I thought that was hilarious, and I gave him a lot of shit. Jiggling eyeballs! Ridiculous! But when I was running around, trying to track changes in play direction and locate a flying frisbee, I really felt like my eyeballs were ... jiggling. A lot. Definitely more than they used to. Dad, sorry about that.
*Barre and yoga and pilates and strength training don't do much for one's cardiovascular fitness. And I wasn't ever very quick or dynamic even when I was in better shape.
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