Temporary Redneck (Day 2)
I woke up Sunday at the tournament to a pleasingly cool morning. But I knew it couldn't last. I wandered through the campground to answer nature's call (there was a porta-potty at the site), and standing in the morning sun as I waited for the queue to dwindle found me already warming up. I packed up my things and headed over to the fields early. I wanted to give breakfast a chance to settle before running around, and I also wanted to give myself plenty of time to migrate to the other fields if need be.
I found out our seeding order as I got in line for food. My frisbee full of potatoes, eggs and tofu hash, I found a place in the shade to chow down. I chatted with one of my teammates (a kid who went to The Farm!) and a few Cal students. Turns out that most of the fields I used to play IM or pick-up sports on are now gone. Oops. Buildings for students, or places for the ultimate team to practice? Guess it's the former.
Drove the six miles or so to Sky Park (usually devoted to the good kind of football, but ours for the weekend), and tried to claim what little shade there was. The only tree in the area was just a sapling, and not so good for shade. Even the little outbuildings didn't have much in the way of eaves. It was going to be a scorcher.
Oh wait, but what's this? High clouds?! Thank Zeus (or whoever)! Our first match of the morning was against the Chia Pets. Oddly enough, on the initial sign-in sheet, they were called the Chai Pets. Spell check has got to be good for something, right? A couple of players arrived late, so we started out a bit slow, but quickly found our groove. The match was like a seesaw, back and forth until the Pets finally opened a gap as the cap went on. The final score was 13-11 them. They cheered us by playing a shell game of "Where's the Beef?" By choosing the correct disc, we got to keep it (but not the Clif Bar that was underneath)! One of our players had a Sharpie, and we all signed the back of the disc. We eventually decided that it should go to our "Most Inspirational" player, a guy named Taylor. I almost scribbled on the disc a little picture of a pair of hands, with a number by each side to denote the handedness balance. By my count, there were about seven lefties on a team of 12 (or was it 13... I'll update this when I get access to the player list).
Anyway, we decided that we hadn't had enough abuse just yet, so we grabbed a team from the other field who were also disappointed about being out so early. We played a game of light vs. dark, and eventually attracted more players. The white team was composed of Y2K and Rubik's Cube players, calling themselves Y2Cube. The blue team was mostly made up of Beef players (I say "Top", you say "Sirloin!") and a few others from teams I can't remember. The game was fun, with the dark squad beating out the white team despite our obvious solar disadvantage.
Only now feeling worthy of beer, food and the creek, did we begin to disperse. I carpooled a couple of my teammies (one of whom was a lefty, so 2:1 ratio in the car!) to the store and then to the main fields, where semis and finals would be held. We got set up in the shade and set about feeding and rehydrating.
One of the teams (Pong) who hadn't yet delivered cheers to their opponents did so on Heckle Hill, during lulls in the final match. They were accompanied by a ukelele and the songs were bawdy, to say the least. The finals were played between the Sea Monkeys and "He Likes It! Hey Mikey!" Mikey likey the finals, they won 15-10 (or so). Oddly enough, Mikey were fairly low-ranked after Saturday's play, having to face off against the top-ranked, undefeated team, Sputnik. But the satellite came crashing down (something about having a first round bye), and Mikey took it all the way to the finals.
All in all, I had a lot of fun. I only had a brief lapse in sunscreen application, for a not-so-bad burn above the neckline of my t-shirt, and between the straps of my flippies. Thanks to my long distance training on the bike (eat often, drink often), I had plenty of energy throughout the weekend. Sadly, suffering through six hours in the saddle doesn't do a whole lot to tax the CV, so I didn't have a lot of wind. So this, like every, year, I swear that I'll be in badass shape for the tourney NEXT year.
I found out our seeding order as I got in line for food. My frisbee full of potatoes, eggs and tofu hash, I found a place in the shade to chow down. I chatted with one of my teammates (a kid who went to The Farm!) and a few Cal students. Turns out that most of the fields I used to play IM or pick-up sports on are now gone. Oops. Buildings for students, or places for the ultimate team to practice? Guess it's the former.
Drove the six miles or so to Sky Park (usually devoted to the good kind of football, but ours for the weekend), and tried to claim what little shade there was. The only tree in the area was just a sapling, and not so good for shade. Even the little outbuildings didn't have much in the way of eaves. It was going to be a scorcher.
Oh wait, but what's this? High clouds?! Thank Zeus (or whoever)! Our first match of the morning was against the Chia Pets. Oddly enough, on the initial sign-in sheet, they were called the Chai Pets. Spell check has got to be good for something, right? A couple of players arrived late, so we started out a bit slow, but quickly found our groove. The match was like a seesaw, back and forth until the Pets finally opened a gap as the cap went on. The final score was 13-11 them. They cheered us by playing a shell game of "Where's the Beef?" By choosing the correct disc, we got to keep it (but not the Clif Bar that was underneath)! One of our players had a Sharpie, and we all signed the back of the disc. We eventually decided that it should go to our "Most Inspirational" player, a guy named Taylor. I almost scribbled on the disc a little picture of a pair of hands, with a number by each side to denote the handedness balance. By my count, there were about seven lefties on a team of 12 (or was it 13... I'll update this when I get access to the player list).
Anyway, we decided that we hadn't had enough abuse just yet, so we grabbed a team from the other field who were also disappointed about being out so early. We played a game of light vs. dark, and eventually attracted more players. The white team was composed of Y2K and Rubik's Cube players, calling themselves Y2Cube. The blue team was mostly made up of Beef players (I say "Top", you say "Sirloin!") and a few others from teams I can't remember. The game was fun, with the dark squad beating out the white team despite our obvious solar disadvantage.
Only now feeling worthy of beer, food and the creek, did we begin to disperse. I carpooled a couple of my teammies (one of whom was a lefty, so 2:1 ratio in the car!) to the store and then to the main fields, where semis and finals would be held. We got set up in the shade and set about feeding and rehydrating.
One of the teams (Pong) who hadn't yet delivered cheers to their opponents did so on Heckle Hill, during lulls in the final match. They were accompanied by a ukelele and the songs were bawdy, to say the least. The finals were played between the Sea Monkeys and "He Likes It! Hey Mikey!" Mikey likey the finals, they won 15-10 (or so). Oddly enough, Mikey were fairly low-ranked after Saturday's play, having to face off against the top-ranked, undefeated team, Sputnik. But the satellite came crashing down (something about having a first round bye), and Mikey took it all the way to the finals.
All in all, I had a lot of fun. I only had a brief lapse in sunscreen application, for a not-so-bad burn above the neckline of my t-shirt, and between the straps of my flippies. Thanks to my long distance training on the bike (eat often, drink often), I had plenty of energy throughout the weekend. Sadly, suffering through six hours in the saddle doesn't do a whole lot to tax the CV, so I didn't have a lot of wind. So this, like every, year, I swear that I'll be in badass shape for the tourney NEXT year.
posted by Sanford Owings at 10:06 PM
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