This past Sunday, I participated in football again for the first time in a couple of weeks. There were a number of notable results of this:
- First and foremost, I forgot that unlike the modern-day wimp vampires, I do not sparkle in sunlight, but rather am like the old-school bad-ass ones, in that I burn to a crisp. I was out in the sun for a couple of hours, and forgot to bring any type of sunscreen; hence, I now have a lovely shade of red to my face. And neck. And arms. And calves. At least this means I’m “warm to the touch” as my radiated skin pumps out it’s own personal heat waves.
- I stuck to playing center and the rusher, which means I didn’t have to do a lot of running around. Even though this was a bit frustrating (I really wanted to try and help the team as a receiver and defensive back), it was the wise choice. There were a couple of times that I had to break off some quick runs and cut-backs, and I could tell that the ankle wasn’t back up to full strength just yet. I had the brace on, but I suspect that if i had pushed it, I would have had a good chance at re-injuring it.
- I ran into an old school classmate at the field, Small. “Small” was a semi-nickname that she had in Parsons, mainly because she hung out a lot with a “Biggie;” Small is about 5′ 2″ while Biggie is about 5′ 10″. So yeah — go figure on the names. Anyway, Small was there with her boyfriend to help out another friend of her’s; we were not playing each other, although that might have been amusing. It was a very nice surprise to see her, and we checked to make sure we had the recent numbers of each other (I actually had lost her number after switching phones). Now the goal will be to catch up over a lunch or sometime after work. Definitely a New York City moment: running into an old friend by random chance.
- Our team finally scored a touchdown, something we haven’t done since week one. The first half was a close contest, with each team at only 7 players. But, then 2 more people showed up from the other team, and they outpaced us in the 2nd half.
- It was fairly brutal weather to play; the heat was up around 90, and the humidity was clobbering us like a lead candlestick holder. In that regard, I was actually glad that I wasn’t playing at full tilt. Next time, I need to remember to bring more water….
Afterward, we hit up the official bar, and then I left a bit early, managing to get home in time to knock out my laundry. Well, the washing and drying; I still need to put the stuff away. But hey, at least it’s clean!
