Sunday, May 31, 2009

I Just Have A Lot of Feelings




So maybe I do have a lot of feelings, and maybe I have a limited view of how Ultimate should be played, but I left the field and our third game very disappointed, and more than a little upset.
The weekend had been a good one. We took it easy Friday night, and I woke up early on Saturday to teach a make up class. It rained all day so I came home and hug out around the house until we headed to dinner at Erin's house where she make kick ass meat balls with fresh pasta. Her friend Yaz and Yaz's boyfriend were there too and I welcomed the refreshing opportunity to hang out with some different people (I had dinner at their place not to many weeks ago) who happen to be Argentine and very good at English. They are both translators and very intelligent and I enjoyed the conversation immensely. We drank wine, listed to Kabul (el ultimate estation en el radio and the best I might add) and Yaz brought only water based ice cream so I was able to eat all the flavors! (its the little things in life). At midnight Yaz and her boyfriend headed home and we headed to Bomba del Tiempo's third cumple. Yes, I forgot my camera at home. I apologize profusely Mom.
As some of you might remember, Bomba del Tiempo is the drumming group that plays every Monday at the Konex Center. For their third birthday they had an all night show on Saturday in the indoors and decorated part of the center. The event began with a great DJ, and really got going when an "amateur" drumming group played for at least an hour. Having arrived somewhat early by Argentine standards we were in the front row and danced until we were pressed together to tightly to move around too much. Next came Bomba, and it was much less enjoyable seeing as I felt like a buoy on a stormy sea only that my feet weren't attached to the ground, and there were also hundreds of other buoys surrounding me. It was unpleasant. Then a mash pit really got going, or a pogo as they call it here, and we decided to give up our front and center spots for some calmer waters.
Uli showed up with Analia and dragged Josh and I into the fray at intervals, and we left at around 4 having enjoyed ourselves and exhausted our energies. We took the 24 home and got a nice nap in before waking up at 9 to head to Frisbee. Cruel, I know.
So, you can understand why I was so pissed at 11 when only Paula had showed up. Eventually Diego and Felipe showed up in a cab and Ken (my new recruit from Brooklyn and an Ulitimate veteran who had unfortunatly pulled a muscle at practice on Thrusday) and Antonio showed up not to long after. We could no longer postpone the inevitable and began the game late with only six players. We were holding our own at 1 to 1 when Sebastian finally showed up and we played with 7 for the whole game. Sebastion was the only one without some bodily complait. We were all in pain before we began.
We played Aqua, the newest team to form in Buenos Aires, a team full of fiery Columbians and lead by a young buck named Andrés and nicknamed Chapi (for his last name) who holds his young team to high standards. I too often found myself marking an 18 year old who ran around the field as if on iceskates and always seemed to be a few steps ahead of me until she sat out crying and left for a while as she got over some team politics. There was a lot of muchismo shouting and I felt like an electric current ran through the field waiting for a drop of water to light the whole place on fire. Added to this all was Antonio, our Venezualian player. He plays Frisbee like a soccer player too often for my liking. Its kind of hard to explain to a non Frisbee player, but the easiest way to explain it is that he had no spirit, and he was killing mine. I had a splitting headache, and his constant mala honda was killing me. In between points I asked him to chill out, but after Felipe made an amazing body sacrificing block he and Chapi bumped shoulders as Antonio gave a zealous glory shout (the kind that belonged in an American football game or a hockey game) in his face. It was too much for me, and I was just to ashamed to be a Cadillac that day to take it anymore. I stormed over to him shouting that I'd rather play with six and loose than share the field with him if he kept up this attitude and got my point across. For the rest of the game he was more tame but I had to remind him to stay out of arguments that were none of his business. By the end of the game I was glad the other team had won so that we could end it all, and as my worst game of Ultimate cane to an end I walked off the field feeling that the Cadillacs spirit had been lost. While I was proud of us for playing hard till the end, I was more disappointed about the whole thing that ever before in my athletic history.
After the game I gave a long explanation of my feelings in Spanish, and while I know most of my grammar was horrible and I had to substitute a few words in English with Josh as a translator I got my point across. I explained that when we joined the Cadillacs Josh and I coming back to Frisbee not for a love of the game itself, but the buena honda we experienced there. When we were both in terrible shape and our skills so lacking that we found little enjoyment in the game there was always the people, the positive spirit and the cheerful, positive playing that nurtured our skills and showed me that not all sports need to make you angry. At my first game with the Cadillacs I was proud to have been asked to join this amazing team. Today, if it had been my first time at Ultimate I would have run for the hills. As you can all tell, the Cadillacs has been a backbone of our time here, and I felt that the rug had been pulled out from under me.
So while everyone agreed with me, and I got my point across, we will have to see what happens. My charge was for us all to think about the direction our team was headed, and that I hoped it was a direction I could be proud to be a part of. Only time can tell.
I'm feeling better now after a three hour nap and some of Josh' amazing curry and I leave tomorrow for a week long trip with CII. The theme is Camilot and its going to be awesome. Friday is a free day and Saturday and Sunday are one day camps (spy camp and another Camelot camp). I have an eight hour ride back in which I plan to rest with the aid of medication and I hope to arrive home to team with a new outlook.
Buenas noches!

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