October 21st, 2009
last night i was playing soccer with my indoor team from work, mclaughin. the name is a pun on the building we’re in – mclaughlin, but the second l is missing on one entrance. it’s great.
anyhow, i was playing left back, my normal position, and i had some good steals, a could of nice headers, and i was feeling good. then i had a bad header. actually, my header was fine. i got the ball. the other guy had a bad header and got my head instead. this was within 5 minutes of starting. we stopped, made sure we were both ok. he seemed fine, but i guess i wasn’t. there was blood, and lots of it. it pooled in my goggles which made everybody think i had an eye injury. i had to get a towel, call dr j, and pack up, all whilst holding the towel to my head to slow the bleeding. it was apparently freaky to all involved but me. seriously, it didn’t really hurt and i was just annoyed i had to leave the game early.
we went to the kaiser emergency room in oakland- my first trip ever to an emergency room. i wanted to take a picture of my bleeding head, but i figured that would be wrong. so here it is the morning after. it’s tender, but ok. no stitches or anything, just a little scab. it hurts but it’s all superficial.
the wait in the emergency room was very interesting given the health care debate. lots of people there with flu-like symptoms. is it h1n1 in oakland? or do people just not have regular care so they just have to go to the emergency room when every they get sick? here’s hoping we don’t get sick.
October 18th, 2009
on the field
took this picture of of playing soccer at one of my games a few weeks back when he was
in town. i am the rightmost orange speck in the picture. (team captain patrick is the second orange speck from right.) we won that game. actually, this team, fabulous orange, has been on a winning streak. yesterday we won 4-0, which in
EBOTS is a blow out. clean sheets are very rare. of course, as a left back, i take pride in that score because it means i did an OK job. it’s weird when people compliment me on my playing, because i still feel like i’m the worst player on the field. i guess even if that’s true (which it probably is), then it’s not such a bad thing since many of the other players are really good.
i don’t want to jinx our 5 week winning streak, though i won’t be there next week (internet librarian, yo!) so i won’t have any thing to contribute. i really like playing on this team and i have to say, winning feels all right. last night at gilman, we were telling people of our awesome game that afternoon, it was clear people lose interest pretty soon. if you ever want me to tell you all about my love of the beautiful game and to tell you about my exploits in the back field, just ask. i’m not quite as good at telling people about what others should have done, but i’m getting there.
my indoor team is in the play-offs. we play tomorrow night. maybe i’ll talk about that a bit? i’m terrible at indoor though, so let’s just talk about outdoor.
May 27th, 2009
remember when i used to post all the time about football? the season may be over, but i can still post about some things.
today i’m working from home so that i could watch barcelona beat man utd for the champions league title. over the weekend my friend, with whom i’d watched many of the semifinal matches, asked if he could come over to my place to watch the game. (we have a nice tv.) i then invited myself over to see his dog. (it’s a great dog.)
the match itself was unexpected. people were talking about how it was supposed to be one of the best matches in the history of sport. really? that’s not what i watched. iniesta was brilliant. basically, the whole barcelona side was great and they played fantastic for the whole 90 minutes. what happened to manchester united? they were crap. they looked so out of it and boring, it was just not fun to watch. i was surprised ronaldo didn’t explode in some massive strop. he was frustrated that man utd were squandering so many chances. it was nice to see scholes get a yellow card a few minutes on the pitch. i dont know why, but i love seeing that ginger runt foul people.
so the champions league is over. man utd didn’t repeat, thankfully. i was happy for barca to win, especially since i was watching it with a barca supporter. now i’m just hunkering down for the fa cup final this weekend. come on everton!
May 12th, 2009
i was looking at world soccer shop for white football shirts to wear for my league games. i was thinking an everton away kit, but probably will continue to wear my old janky punk rock shirts. anyhow, i saw this wigan t-shirt which made me laugh. “wigan: greater manchester.” now wigan is part of the borough of greater manchester, but that implies it’s mancunian like bolton. after reading stuart maconie’s pies and prejudice, i really wouldn’t consider wigan to be greater manchester. western lancashier.
this of course begs the question, why do i have such a strange fondness for lancashire. i’m still trying to figure that one out.
July 16th, 2008
with that.. i also will join wednesdayite so i can vote on the take over. huzzah!
May 22nd, 2008
this week is was brought to my attention that not everybody knows some basic facts about stanford university. namely- the are the stanford cardinal, as in the deep colour red, not crimson. that’s harvard. also, they don’t really have a mascot, which is why they have a silly tree. i’m not saying this as a cal alum who cares about the sports rivalry between the two. cal’s mascot, oski the bear, is a real mascot, unlike the tree. he also drinks beer through his eye. it’s just facts.
sort of like stomper’s the name of the oakland a’s elephant mascot, whilst everton’s elephant mascot is named chang. sheffield wednesday’s owl mascot is named ozzie, ollie and baz.
April 2nd, 2008
the game itself was ho-hum. neither team was amazing but it was nice to watch all the same. i forgot how much i hate red sox fans. the ones in the bay area tend to be wealthy, white, and totally clueless. every so often, one can take a joke, but for the most part they seem shocked that fans in oakland of all places would be loud and obnoxious. i guess i could see this if we were all sitting in nice, field level seat, but these were the bleachers! they’re cheap and known for being a little rowdy. it’s why i sit there. you’d think if they can afford to drive their bmw suv from santa clara or orinda, they can afford not ot sit by me. one asked us why we had to be like that, and i asked him and his lady friend if they’d ever been to a baseball game before. she hadn’t, he’d been to a few.
one of my friends said she won’t sit with me in the bleachers any more because she said the bleacher people were too distracting. she also said it’s nothing she’d bring her mom to. it’s funny because i wouldn’t want to sit in the bleachers with anybody else’s parents, but i wouldn’t mind being there with my own. yeah, i’d tone it down a little, but i’d still let the opposing right field know he sucks.
