Summer

Too busy living this summer to blog. But the Mockingbirds had a great time Playing Hard, Drinking Beer, and Breaking Hearts.

I kicked the 300 workout's ass in the final. Went to Baton Rouge, Chattanooga, and Dallas (multiple times). Attempted to waterski for the first time (unsuccessfully). Dealt with or avoided the heat. Drank plenty of Sweet Tea Vodkas. Still teaching myself my way around the kitchen, but my baking is coming along well. My favorite this I made this summer were Car Bomb Cupcakes. Those turned out beautifully. Tasty, too.

Above Average

Normal people sleep in on the weekends. Get up late, go to breakfast or bum around the house in their pajamas drinking coffee. While I'm not sure exactly how it happened, I am no longer one of those people. I am now one of these people. The ones who are up early in sneakers and gym shorts, torturing themselves with an AMRAP on a perfectly good lazy, very hot Saturday morning.




Fifteen minutes of pain in the form of 12 American swings, 6 sprawl/high pulls, 12 lunge passes and a 50 meter run. I almost didn't show up, but I went. Then during the workout I wanted to die, but I finished. Not too bad, all told.

And afterwords when I had gotten some energy back I hopped up to the bar and busted out four kipping pullups, chin over bar, in a row! Just four days after my first pullup ever. I'm terribly proud of this accomplishment. And just think, if I had given into temptation and stayed in bed I wouldn't have passed that milestone.

Sweet Tea Vodka

My discovery of the summer thus far. Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, which I had last night at The Lustre Pearl (another fantastic discovery). Half firefly, half water on the rocks with a lemon twist. Summer.

It's made in South Carolina by infusing the vodka with tea leaves and sweetened with cane sugar and it tastes exactly like sweet tea. Exactly like watching a summer sunset from the front porch of my childhood, exactly like a long dusk spent on said porch watching the fireflies come out while the smell of freshly mowed grass lingers in the air.

And according to the internets Spec's carries several varieties, including peach and mint tea.

Mockingbirds

The Mockingbirds went undefeated at Bloodfest, winning our three matches of the day and completely annihilating the opposition in the 3rd v 4th place establishing boat race. Major props to the Baton Rouge ladies who traveled down for the weekend and were a blast to play and party with. What a fantastic weekend of CrossFit (finishing the Spartan before a full day at the tourney), rugby, friends and fun.

Debutante Ball

In recent years the Dallas 7s tournament has hosted one of the most entertaining events of the summer rugby season. The Debutante Ball. A group of us rugby girls come up with the worst dresses we can find, dress up, and play goofy-rules rugby.

Aubri's dress looked like something Mrs. Brady might have worn for date night. Mine was straight out of disco, with gold boobs and everything. There was a mermaid, several dresses that might have been worn by an extra during the prom scene in Pretty in Pink, and Lauren looked like she could have been waiting on Prince Charming to show up at the Ball...

This year's Ball involved skipping. And dress tearing and a fun little cat fight that I think involved some hair pulling (for fun, of course).

And lots and lots of giggling.


(Thanks to Carrey for providing photos and Traci for being a great ref!)

goals

Yesterday a teammate and I were chatting and the conversation came around to being a baby rugby player, brand new to the game and simply terrible. The conversation also came around to how bad of a rugby player I was at first. I really was terrible. That first season involved lots of enthusiasm, but not much else. And I stayed terrible for a good long while with the original enthusiasm fluctuating in a reverse correlation with my frustration. It wasn't until the rest of my life was on solid ground that I started to really improve. Unsuprisingly (in retrospect) a huge part of what allowed for the improvement was fitness.

The difference between me now and me five years ago, or even two years ago still sneaks up and shocks me regularly. If I talk about my workouts or my performance in a match enough to annoy people it's not because I'm completely self-centered. (Really.) It's because in my head I still think of myself as completely nonathletic and am still absolutely amazed to discover these capabilities within myself.

For example, Monday night was our first 7s sprint workout. Bags ran up through a short warm up and got the fifteen of us started on sprints pretty quickly. She announced the first set and without even thinking about it I placed myself in the first group on the line. Next to three of my fittest teammates. Something completely out of character for the baby rugby player I was. Two years ago I might not have shown up for fitness training, choosing to wait for "real practices" to begin. Five years ago I'd have asked if you were crazy for suggesting that I even run sprints at all.

I can't pinpoint what changed. What exactly caused me to go from "I only run if something is chasing me" to "I can't have a pint even though one my favorite beers is tonight's fire sale because I'm doing the Spartan Challenge at CrossFit." Maybe it's simply that I fell in love with a sport. Maybe it's been there all along and was just waiting to come out. In any case, I know that if I of all people can do it anyone can. You get your feet wet, then before you know it you like the water so much you're up to your knees. Turn around again and you're swimming with the goal of keeping up with the big kids.

And swearing off some of your favorite guilty pleasures. I've told a few people, including a couple CrossFit coaches at last night's 'nutrition workshop.' Still, I want to put it in writing. On the internet where everyone knows and can make fun of me if I fail. Over the past four and a half months I've had pretty good results with a mostly-Zone, lots of cheating eating pattern. I want to see what I can do eating like an athlete in training.

Primarily:
1. NO sweets (including no sugar in my coffee) and
2. NO alcohol

Work in progress:
3. Eat at least as many servings of vegetables as fruit a day.
4. Decrease cheese to two servings a day.

Between unlimited kettlebells and 7s sprints the workouts will take care of themselves. However, six weeks without a cookie or a margarita will be a challenge. During the first part of 7s season. This will test my self-control and how far I've really come in the past few years...

Summer Summary

It's been a good summer. A few adventures, plenty of time with my friends, a job that doesn't make me want to smack a cocktail waitress... Like I said, a good summer.

Started out with a weekend in central Illinois for a friend's wedding, and then some time in the big city before heading home.

Chicago was fun. I spent hours in the Shedd Aquarium. A good part of that watching the dolphins, who laughed at me and my opposable thumbs. I think really think they're probably smarter than humans. At least most of them truly enjoy life. And best of all was the weather - absolutely beautiful, with temps falling into the 60's at night. I might have appreciated it more during the triple digit days of July.

Then summer 7s started in earnest. The Satiated Beavers had quite the summer, with our A-side cleaning up tournaments from Texas to New England and our B-side tearing up the social life, out to play some rugby, drink beer, and break hearts. The Debutante Ball was quite the experience.

That's the UT ladies, playing as The Freemartins for the summer, along with the Beavers brave enough to don prom dresses and get scrappy. Scrum downs involved the hokey pokey and no run away tries were allowed.

I've already mentioned the Beavers winning Bloodfest and our next tournament was supposed to be Corpus Christi. The only tournament left for those of us not going to Cape Cod, which wound up being the same weekend. However, a few of us decided one tournament was not enough, resulting in a road trip to Baton Rouge for five of the Beavers. We went with an important goal in mind: It was a weekend to play rugby, drank beer, and break heats.


We made picked up some whores, played some really fun rugby on the lush bayou pitches, and made some new friends. There were also a lot of jell-o shots involved.

Corpus Christi was...Corpus. It seems that this tournament always starts with such high expectations that some angst and/or drama is inevitable. When I remember it, I remember awesomeness, but I spent a fair amount of Saturday in a pretty bad mood due to sucking it up while attempting to ref for the first time. Thinking that reffing is going to have to wait until much later in my career, though touch judging some official matches would be okay. Despite that, we were at the beach, playing rugby, which makes up for pretty much everything. Saturday started early - up before the sun for some of us. Others, particularly the Huns, not so much.




Though we got it together. And remembered the exuse for spending the weekend camping out on the beach. I have zero photos of the matches, mostly because I spent so much of the day on the pitch, either playing, reffing, or trying to watch the more experience refs and figure things out for myself. Carrey has those, along with some from the party, though.




There was also plenty of trivia played at The Flying Saucer, an outdoor showing of Labrynth, and Zilker's summer musical, Beauty and the Beast. Numerous birthday parties involving everything from Casino El Camino hamburgers to slip 'n slides. Tubing trips. A couple of weddings, which are beginning to seem more strange the older I get. All in all...a really good summer.

Labyrinth in the Park

Much like last summer, aside from having considerably better employment, I have been much too busy actually living my summer adventures to write about them. Or anything else, really.

Last night, though, was a new thing for me. As our Wednesday night Merge event the group went to see Labyrinth, hosted by a local radio station and Central Market. Outdoor movies are one of the greatest summer activities yet invented. The night was perfect for it - warm and humid with a slight breeze, a nearly full moon hanging in the sky just over the enormous blow up screen. The crowd was HUGE. Apparently most people my age grew up with this movie and have remember it with exceptional fondness. I'd never seen it, not suprising given my media-sheltered upbringing. At the age of 25, Labyrinth is kinda twisted and just bad, in a fabulous sort of way. Mrs. Juicebox, who loved it as a child looked at me and whispered, "I don't remember it being this bad! I haven't seen it since I was little, but we loved it then!" about the time the pink-orange limb-shedding creatures started dancing and singing. Like I said: twisted, but kind of fabulous. And totally entertaining for a warm July night.