Reluctant Rugger

This last weekend I went up to Portland, Oregon to tryout for the U23 Northwest Pacific Grizzlies rugby team. I went to a camp earlier this year with my team and a bunch of other teams all over utah from which the girls were selected to go to the tryouts. Myself and four other girls from USU made up five of the seven girls from utah to go. Utah State hey Aggies all the way!

We left Thursday night (I considered not going at all because I really just wasn't feeling rugby right then. After Shannon threatened to come and tie me up and just throw me in the van I agreed.) after the girl from Weber (Wytnee) and UVU (Lisa) got up to Logan and it took us ten hours to drive up there more or less. We got about twenty minutes out of Portland and had to stop and sleep at a truck stop because we were all too tired to drive.




When we finally got to Portland we checked into our hotel and fell asleep for a few more hours. When we all woke up we decided to drive into portland and do some sight seeing.



It took Richie a few tries to parallel park but she got it down! I was so proud of her! Once that was taken care of, we headed to Powell's City of Books. Once I had gotten over that fact that no, I hadn't died and gone to heaven, I had to make a true effort to not drool so much as to ruin any of the books. I ended up buying five. That was me being frugal too! Luckily, I talked Shannon into buying a few books that I wanted. Such as a book dedicated to listing weapons that can be used during a zombie apocolypse once all the ammo is gone. Yeah.

After the city of books we went and wandered around Portland (the people there are freaking crazy by the way). We found this amazing Presbyterian church and went and walked around inside. After that we went to Voodoo Doughnuts. The bakers there are geniuses! We ordered the Voodoo Dozen and after five minutes with us this is what the box looked like.



After Voodoo Doughnuts we went back to the hotel and read/watched tv.

On Saturday we had the tryouts and I woke up still not really feeling rugby at all, but got dressed and went. Once we got there and started moving around I got more excited and was really warming up to it! Well we started running this drill where the offense was running some plays with a little defense. The defense was not tackling, only wrapping. Well I was on defense and went to wrap the girl with the ball, but my momentum was a little too much for just a wrap, so I went flying and the girl's foot came up and caught me right below my eyebrow. Needless to say, I saw stars and so I knelt there on the ground for a second.

"Are you ok?" Someone asked.
"I'll be fine, just give me a second." I replied.

At that point, one of the coaches came over. I don't know which one because I had my eyes shut.

"Whoa...that's going to need stitches."

With a little help, I hobbled off the field was put into a truck and driven to the ER by Gerard. He took this picture for me when we got there.



Four and a half hours, three ice packs, four episodes of Spongebob, and a glob of superglue later I was no longer oozing blood from my eyebrow and was on my way back to the pitch.

The next day i couldn't even open my eye so I couldn't try out. I ended up just reading one of the books that I'd bought on Friday. I watched them scrimmage at the end of the day and then we left.

When we were driving home I told Shannon that I blamed her. She just laughed.



My favorite reactions to my eye:

Tony: You realize you aren't supposed to put your face where the ball is right?
Me: Ah! You see, I always get really confused by that.
Tony: Were they really concerned or did they just laugh at you?
Me: They were mostly concerned I think...
Tony:...I would've laughed.
Me: I know.


Seargant Roberts: Are you ok!?
Me: Yeah, I'm fine! It doesn't even hurt so...
SGT Roberts: I'll kill him.
Me: Ummm...it was a girl actually....
SGT Roberts: Well I'll kill her too.

There Were No Survivors

My face mask was making it a little hard to breathe, but as everyone knows, a ninja isn't anything without her mask. Common knowledge. I was plastered against the wall of the Elementary School, slowly sliding along it and convinced that somebody was going to see four people dressed all in black being suspicious and call the cops on us. It was almost midnight after all, a time of night when most respectable people are in bed. We weren't seen.

Scanning the park for any movement, we could see a couple of people on the swings but we couldn't tell if they're friend, foe, or ignorant civilian. As we creeped closer, my communication device went off. It was one of the pseudoninjas calling to see if we were prepared for battle yet. Fool! I'm always ready for battle! But I just told her that we weren't there yet and we would meet them at the park, giving them plenty of time to set up if they were smart enough to take advantage of it. They weren't. The couple was still on the playgroud, swinging away.

My team set up, Kylee disappears up into a tree, JB and Richie fade into the darkness and even I don't know where they went. I went and set up in the nearest attack point that I can get to without being seen. When I was ready I let the enemy know "We're here".

They came slowly, but not carefully. Only one of them was armed so I released my sword from my back sheath and zeroed in on Shannon. The one in front, the one with the weapon, the only one I was truly concerned about. I would've be concerned about Maggars, she does have fists of fury, but it takes her awhile to get angry enough to use them.

Shannon is about fifteen feet in front of her group now and she passes my hiding spot, all alone. Since she didn't see me I sat there for a moment, waiting until she was to the point where she couldn't see me when i ran at her. Her team saw me, but they were too startled to say anything. I think it was at this point that the ignorant couple left. Probably to call the cops and tell them there was some sort of ninja gang battle going on.

Once I engaged I started to lure Shannon back to the tree I knew Kylee was in, it took a while but I got her there. Only Kylee wasn't in the tree anymore, she was on the ground. Shannon saw her and Kylee had no choice but to tackle her and try to take the sword away. It was Kylee's sword after all. Shannon's team stood back and did nothing.

At that point, JB came rushing out of the darkness wielding her staff of destruction. A weapon forged with the blood of nations and the tears of the fallen. Her fury was too much and after a few minutes of beating Shannon's inutile teammates, the staff was shredded. JB continued on though, her fury impressive and their devastation sure.

Shannon put up quite the fight. It took both Kylee and me to get to sword from her. At one point even JB was helping. Good thing her team didn't come to save her because then I don't think we would've ever taken it back. Once we did, Shannon lay there. Broken.

Once Shannon was gone, there was no hope for Maggars, Mexican, Noelle and Chad. There was a fruitless attempt to fend us off with pinecones but it was of no avail.

There were no survivors.

Random Stupid

So this last week we've been even more random than usual. Sunday night we went and grabbed a bunch of braches that were set out on the side of the road, filled Rowbs' trunk with them actually, and went up the canyon to start a fire to roast marshmallows and starbursts. When we got up there, we discovered that the wood was too green to really catch. Luckily, there was a group of guys also up there with a fire and they let us take theirs and they left.

Yesterday, because it was such a nice day, JB, Rowbs, Richie, Ky and I ended up skipping some of our classes and just went and ate lunch in the park. We were outside pretty much all day, either just laying out, playing basketball, watching Rowbs play softball (Richie and I were quoting Brian Regan like the whole time we watched) among other things. We also decided last night that we wanted a fire pit in our backyard. So JB and Rowbs dug a lovely pit and lined it with rocks. We then went and got branches on the side of the road again (Hey! It was a few days later, we figured that it had to have dried out by now...) and it was still too green to burn. Good thing that Rowbs had a box full of wood that we had so we could burn that instead. We sat around our awesome fire, roasting peanut butter and marshmallows, starbursts and peeps, playing the guitar and talking.

We made the fire pit because we wanted to sleep outside. Originally, it was going to be Rowbs, Richie, JB, Shannon, Maggers, and I but it ended up just being Rowbs Richie and me. It was freezing. At like two in the morning I woke up shivering, again, and said to Rowbs:

Me: "Rowbs, it's freezing! We should go inside!"
Rowbs: "No! Just trade me spots, it's warmer in the middle. You go over I'll go under."

So I went into the middle of our three man sleeping bag and it was still pretty cold, although warmer than the edge.

We stayed out there all night. We stuck it out. And I got not near as much sleep as I would like. Rowbs said that if we'd admitted defeat and come inside it would've been lame. I say that coming in would've been the smart thing to do because then we would've been warm AND comfortable. But we stuck it out and I can now say that I've had my first campout of the year. I think I'm going to wait at least a month before I try another, but knowing me and my friends? We'll be out there again next week.

Direct Tap to Happiness

You know the song "Soul Sister" be Train? Well without fail, every time that song comes on I whip out my air guitar and I just get this feeling of elation. I know it sounds kind of ridiculous, but it's gotten to the point where I'm having a truly poopy day and I listen to the song or watch the music video I'll have a complete 180 and be happy.

I've found that music has that affect on me. Another great song is by Josh Radin "I'd rather be with you". The guitar in that song is fantastic! I'm working on learning it.

My point to all this is that music is a direct tap to happiness for me. I've been known to cry after hearing a truly beautiful song and I love it when Shannon, Mex and I have our jam sessions. When I lived in the Rugby House this last summer I could sometimes talk Shannon into serenading me to sleep. Best. Thing. Ever. If you can find someone willing to sing you to sleep I highly recommend it.

Homework? What Homework?

I'm not the most studious person ever. Actually I'm rarely studious at all. Ok! Ok! I'm the head of the "Let's Blow Off School/Schoolwork to Play" club. Lot's of people are in it, they just aren't as good at it as me.

I have a theory as to why I hate being in school. I don't have a plan! I'll elaborate later, I'm going to go rock climbing and then go jump into first dam. It's such a nice day!

Ok, anyways. I don't have a plan. Sometimes I love my major and get really excited when I start thinking about what I can do with my degree, other days I don't know what the crap I was thinking when I chose it. And the result is, I'm rarely driven to do well in class anymore. So this semester I changed my plan.

No, I didn't change my major. The new plan (tentative plan that is) is to go on a mission! I'll take fall semester off to help me save up and then hopefully leave on time in December. Man, just writing about it is making me so excited! But I'll be the first to admit that I'm kind of a fickle person. Before finally deciding I wanted to go into Exercise Science I must have changed what I wanted to be when I grew up at least once a week. And then I just decided I would never grow up and be a young athletic trainer my whole life, which IS possible thanks to my mother's side of the family.

So yeah, that's the plan for now. Hopefully it works out, but whatever the Lord wants for me in the end I guess I'll accept. Maybe instead of a mission he'll want me to become a wandering minstrel in Ireland. Who knows? That would be kind of awesome.

Damnsels in Distress

I hate it when in movies the female lead is completely useless in a fight. Seriously, i just want to shake the writers while yelling, "Give the woman a little self respect!" I understand that in certain things, guys are just better. I understand that. I do. But why portray a female as a ninja at the beginning of a movie and then later in the movie when the real fighting starts all she can do is try and run away (she fails at that by the way) and make pathetic whimpering noises. And THEN when she gets grabbed she doesn't do a damn thing! She doesn't even attempt to tuck her chin at all when she's grabbed around the neck, which any self-respecting ninja would know. Duh.

I guess this bothers me so much because I'm afraid of being a victim. I don't want to have to rely on somebody else in order to protect myself from...anything.

I read an article today about how there are a lot of rapes happening in Haiti since the earthquake. Because these women lost their husbands, brothers, fathers in the earthquake. The tent cities that they're living in have pretty much no security and the men in charge of the food stamps will only trade them for sexual favors. I think it said that females as young as two years old were being molested. That's terrifying to me. I hate that these monsters are able to get away with demanding this from women, simply because they are incapable of protecting themselves and their families because their men died.

Ugh. I'm thoroughly depressed and pissed off now.

Unfortunate Knock On

One of the funnier things that happened this weekend was when we were playing our game in the rain and someone, I forget who, gets hit in the face with the ball, knocking it forward. Now, those of you who aren't familiar with the rules of rugby (AKA 90% of America although that number is getting smaller, I read somewhere that rugby is that fastest growing sport right now) let me explain to you a few basic ones.

Rule #1: You cannot pass the ball forward. You may kick the ball forward or you may pass backwards/laterally and run it forward. If the ball is hit forward with anything but your foot it is called a "forward pass" or a "knock on"

Rule #2: No crying in rugby. Unless you are concussed or a bone is protruding from your skin, otherwise you shall forever bear the label of "pussy".

Anyways, back to the hilarious moment. The teammate gets hit in the face and the ball goes forward. The ref blows his whistle and says, "Knock on!...off the face." He was laughing at my teammates misfortune while he said this and to tell the truth, I don't blame him at all. In fact, those of us on the sidelines were giggling a bit and I know for a fact some of the field were laughing as well.

I bring it up because karma came and got me today. Curses.

Rule #3: When catching a kick, turn your body sideways so that if you miss it, it still goes backwards. By doing this, you will avoid knocking the ball on and looking like a fool.

The backs were practicing kicking/catching today. It was balls cold and we had the subzero wind from the canyon gracing us with her frigid presence. Kylee was my partner and had just kicked the ball to me. Now sometimes my brain freezes up and makes it hard for me to decide which way to turn. For example, I was once playing tennis with my little sister and she hit the ball right at me. I swung the racket both ways and then just ended up swinging it up and down right in front of me because my feet refused to move to the backhand or the forehand. I had another moment like that today. My feet couldn't decide which way to turn, so I just continued backing up until the ball just smacked me right in the face. Knock on of the face.

Needless to say, Coach Tony thought this was hilarious, as did Kylee. Once I was able to get past the stinging from my frozen, abused face I was able to laugh as well. Let's face it, when is it NOT funny when someone gets nailed with a ball in the face?