Do I wake or sleep?

Also last weekend we had our last regular season game and, again, the refs and league officials did not enforce the rules on non-team subs which meant our team got screwed again. This being the third game in a row where our opponents used illegal subs, I was pretty vocal in my reaction. Look, either enforce the rules or throw them out. If they had open playoffs (where every team got a berth), I wouldn't mind so much, But the fact is, your record during the regular team is what determines whether or not you make playoffs, and as it turned out we did not, for the first time ever. We just missed the cutoff, and at least two of the teams we played to ties--teams which had three or more non-team members playing on the field at a time--made it into playoffs. So all of those dodgy games where the teams weren't penalized as they should've been worked against US who played by the rules. Just enforce the rules, guys. Or change the playoff structure. Or charge a lot less!

Our captain sent out an email about changing leagues and we're doing some research. It's kind of a shame, as one thing this league does well is the social aspect--the bar time is a lot of fun and I enjoy meeting new people. As it turned out, our team won the bar award (for the first time) and also as it turned out, most of the team was away this week! So just 3 of us, Sam, Nikki and myself, had to drink up that award, a $100 bar tab. Well, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it! We had like 8 rounds of various shots--Irish car bombs, Jaeger bombs, lemon drops, mystery shots. At one point the bartender showed us he had rootbeer vodka so I had an idea for rootbeer float shots. Nikki went next door and got a single-serving container of B&J cookie dough ice cream (I said get vanilla or something vanilla-based). It took a little while for the ice cream to melt enough so we could "shoot" it but eventually it was ready. Down went the vodka, then the ice cream--OH MY LORD. It was YUM. We had a lot of fun and I documented the whole thing for the rest of the team. Oh, we also get special mugs as part of our award.

Also, I had an awesome softball game Saturday. I showed up with Griffin and since our team had so many females, and Fordham had only 1, we were going to give them one of ours. I offered to go, which caught Steve, our (sexist, obnoxious) captain by surprise--he said "well, that messes up my infield now." We've played against Fordham many times and they're all really cool, plus they bring beer to their games :) We had a BLAST--Fordham was coming up with these hilarious things to yell as their batters went to the plate. Like "Clear your browser!" (meaning no pop-ups). And "Let's go to the strip bar!" (meaning let's get some singles). So I came up with "Let's empty the dishwasher!" (meaning put it away) and then "Let's sing some Lez Miz!" (meaning "Bring him home"). Love that last one!

I also made what was referred to as "the play of my career" at 2nd base. Someone was up and hit it to my backhand--that is, to my right (so I had to backhand it with my glove). I scooted to my right but mistimed the grounder so it went past me. Then two batters later, Steve was up and he hit it quite hard--another grounder to my right. Because of the previous hit, I was able to make the corrections, time it properly and scoop it up backhand. He'd hit the ball so hard, it knocked me backward a little--I was a little dazed because I couldn't believe I'd actually gotten it and then I realized--hey, I still have to throw it to 1st! I was just barely able to make the throw but yes, he was out. Everyone on the field had a reaction! It was awesome, when we went out for beer afterward even Steve congratulated me. And yes, it made it so much sweeter that it was our sexist, obnoxious captain :)

So...my Dolphman team played our final game of the spring season, after winning our quarter- and semi-finals in dramatic fashion. Last week, when we were tearing into the birthday cupcakes, Alyssa (injured girl) especially liked the pumpkin spice one, so I promised her I'd make some pumpkin bread. So when I got up yesterday I actually didn't have that much time before I had to leave for softball (game at 4) and I needed eggs. Ran to the 7/11, and then stopped by a fruit stand and picked up some limes and avocados. Mmmm....

Anyway so I threw together a pumpkin bread batter, including nutmeg that I personally ground myself (I buy whole nutmeg and use the coffee grinder). The pumpkin puree, of course, was from the pumpkins I got last fall (frozen). The bread was done *just* in time for me to leave and get to the softball game, which we lost 2-1, and then I had to leave for soccer. Got there in plenty of time--some teammates wanted the bread then, some wanted to wait until after the game.

Again this week we had few players, although at least we had two female subs. Not for long! I let Haruko start because she'd missed last week due to asthma and I said "Nikki or I will have an eye on you if you need to stop." She twisted her ankle after about 10 minutes so she was down for the count. Now we just had 1 sub--but I've played SO much soccer lately, I really didn't need one. Last week was the killer, the marathon--4 games within 24 hours! This? Was nothing. We scored late in the 1st half and then just settled down--I was hoping to score myself and got off a couple of good shots, including one pretty cool one. The goalie kicked the ball but messed up and kicked it right to me. I trapped the ball and kicked it hard right back at the goal--and the goalie sailed out of NOWHERE and grabbed it. So, great save but darn it! That would've been amazing. Some of the guys complimented after the game on that shot. Anyway we ended up winning, and they were a great team. Just kind of lucky, we certainly didn't blow them out of the water. Alyssa afterward was all "aren't you guys excited?!" I said "honestly, last week was bigger for me. Two games in 3 hours? No subs, a player down? That was huge."

There was a consolation game after us--the two teams that had finished 9th & 10th. But one of them didn't show up, so the team that WAS there asked us if we wanted to play. Well, I was up for more soccer, so I said yes, and told my team I'd join them later at the bar. It ended up being 4 on 4, and I scored a goal. nice neat little pass to my left side, I trapped it and then had a nice hard shot with my left foot into the goal. I also did a cool pass!--a backwards pass, when I knew someone was behind me and an opponent in front. I told Sam afterward, he's one of the best ball handlers on the team. After the game, I shared what was left of the pumpkin bread and they devoured it. The referee was raving about it! Well, I take my baked goods seriously.

Yay, champions! Maybe we'll get the threepeat this summer! The field is at Pier 40 this time, a MUCH better field. I expect the games will be higher scoring (this field on the Lower East Side is horrible--very long and narrow and the goals are tiny--and a lot of the games have been scoreless ties).

Mad Men--great as always.  I LOVE how dark this season has been!  ( Spoilers )
Last night's episode took place in late October of 1966 and I'm ticking off the historical markers to come in my head--less than a year until the Summer of Love, less than 2 years until the RFK and King assassinations, less than 3 until Woodstock and the Manson murders.  Just 2 years for the heyday and fall of the counterculture.

I have to say, I'm really getting sick of the constant criticism of every actress who isn't Peggy/Elizabeth Moss or Joan/Christina Hendricks.  Jessica Pare is doing a fine job as Megan and although I'm not terribly interested in her character, I certainly not going to whine and moan about how MW & Co. are "hitting us over the head with how wonderful Megan is" and how she's a "Mary Sue." (God, I'm over that term.  A Mary Sue is a specific *thing,* not just any female character who isn't a bitch.  You can't win.  The vitriol that Megan's character gets is part of what I call the Ginny Weasely syndrome, when the Hero's GF/wife is introduced at a later time, and the fans are jealous.  Ginny REALLY couldn't win--she was trashed for being both a Mary Sue AND a bitch.)  The posters on TWoP are so efffing obnoxious sometimes, and the scrutiny given to *any* female character except the designated Awesome One(s) is so inherently misogynistic.  You saw this on The X Files as well--Scully was the Designated Awesome One and poor Annabeth Gish as Reyes could never ever measure up.  January Jones/Betty got this kind of hatred as well, and Alexis Bledel as Beth last night also got routinely trashed.  All of them are terrific. So-called fans need to hold female characetrs to the same level of scrutiny as the male characters--no more, no less.  If Don and fucking PETE get love, so should the ladies.
 
I spent the weekend (most of it) in Philadelphia, visiting my brother and his family.  He and his wife have 20 month old twins and they are PRECIOUS.  Little fairy-haired, blue-eyed blonde cherubs, just like Freddie and Flossie Bobbsey.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Philly is a fun city, actually--lots of museums and a huge park.  Erik lives in a good neighborhood within walking distance of some great museums--we wandered around and had lunch at a Mexican place nearby.  Yesterday we went to see the Liberty Bell--so cool and iconic!  Amazing to see that crack.  For the train ride down I bought a copy of the book version of Game of Thrones.  So far it seems to be a very close adaptation.  My favorite chapter is the one when
( Spoilers )
and talking to the crow.  Really solid writing there.  I have not been able to watch this week's episode yet, because Lori was in labor (she had her baby!  A boy!) so I'll have to find a way to get it online, although Amazon and iTunes only seem to have last season.

Lots of softball this weekend--FOUR games!  Then I'm hanging out with my soccer team Saturday night--birthday celebration, and we're doing karaoke.

So I've been playing in this winter soccer league.  Our record was good enough to get us into the playoffs--there are eight teams in this league and we were tied for third place.  We played our quarterfinal last week and won!  We were supposed to play the semi-final immediately following that game but they had made a mistake somehow and our semi-final was rescheduled for yesterday. 

We'd had practice on Saturday which went very well--we had a pickup game against a really good team who was coached by this older guy, in his late 50s at least.  The guy was AMAZING.  We want him to coach us!  He was not only an incredible player who embarrassed the hell out of all of us younger players on the field, he also offered great commentary.  I actually played a decent amount in the scrimmage and took a couple of head balls--I landed badly on one (the knee is still a little shaky) and went down and popped up immediately.  He was praising me to the other players, saying "that was textbook perfect."  The knee was a little weird--if I twisted it at all, it would hurt like hell, but eventually the pain would go away.  I had (FINALLY) the MRI later that day, so hopefully that will shed light on the problem.  Anyway the game came down to penalty kicks--I took one and got it in!  The thing with penalty shots on goal is that if executed properly, you have an excellent chance of getting it in.  For the goalie to have any shot of blocking it, s/he has to commit him/herself beforehand (they can't see where the ball is going and then react--there's not enough time).  So they just have to decide to which side they're going to dive beforehand and hope the shooter goes to that side.  So you have a 50/50 chance of getting it in if you shoot for the side (proper technique).  And if you shoot for the top corner they have even less chance of blocking it.  Penalty shots are as close to a sure thing as you can get--they're like foul shots in basketball.

So, back to yesterday morning's game, the semi-final.  The winner of that game would go on to play the finals later in the afternoon.  We played the red team whom we'd played in the regular season.  Now there are some teams we don't like--primarily the red and green teams.  Red has a couple of players who are way too aggressive.  They're pretty rough for what is supposed to be a social team (I mean, really rough--one guy took out several of our players, I'm kind of surprised he didn't get a yellow card), and most irritatingly they try to call the games.  (This is a tactic wherein as soon as something happens--say, the ball is kicked out, a handball, etc.--they will "call" it (i.e., for them) which is, hello, the referee's job!).  They do it to try to influence the ref.  One of my teammates on my select team in HS used to do this.  Since I didn't play that much (the knee is still a little shaky), I saw a LOT of this and I was openly calling them out for it.  "Hey, we already have a ref, why don't you just play and stop trying to call it?"  They also argue with the ref a lot which REALLY should be yellow carded, it's annoying as hell.  Anyway, we beat their aggressive asses 3-1, haha!  So now we're in the finals.  I played a little bit and not only did the knee NOT hurt, but I was actually showing skills I'd never shown before.  In HS I was not this fancy-shmnacy dribbler.  I scored a lot because I was very fast, and had very quick reflexes.  I could get past the defenders, but I didn't do cool things like fakes and misdirects, and passing through their legs.  I just ran!  (And kicked.)  Well, some of the players in this league are pretty incredible, including several on our teams--they can dribble the hell out of the ball.  One way of improving yourself (in almost anything physical, including dance) is to watch those who are better.  I've been doing a lot of this, studying the better players, and something must have rubbed off because honest to God, I was doing some of that yesterday.  I actually got past several players dribbling the ball, and heard the surprised voice of one of my teammates (Pete, a Totally Hot British Dude, oh my God, he is completely hotttt) saying "there you go!"  And this makes me VERY HAPPY because I've been worried, especially after hurting my knee, that I have lost my skills.  I played very good soccer for ten years and I want that back, dammit!  Peter (THBD) complimented me after the games, saying "you had an excellent run there."

Anyway, after our first game (before the final), there was another game, for third place.  Red was now in that game, and the green team were their opponents.  The green team is another disliked team--until two weeks ago they were undefeated, and then they lost their last game.  They were given a bye into the semis--and they lost.  Very surprising.  We never played them in the regular season but we've run into them at the bar--they never socialized with the rest of us (any of the teams).  The team captain was quoted as saying he didn't want them to socialize because he felt it would inhibit their competitive drive.  Guess that didn't work out too well for you!  He also tries to recruit players from other teams and apparently they've been together as a team for awhile.  In general they had this huge "we're the best team" attitude that turned off everyone.  Dudes, it's a social league.  Get the stick out of your ass.  Anyway they played their game--green won (so they were the third place winners) --and then it was time for the finals.  Us vs. the yellow team.  We'd played the yellow in our very first game, in the snow, and they'd beaten us handily, 6-3.

They seemed nice enough before the game, chatting with us, but apparently they were THE hated team, which I didn't know,  I didn't figure this out until I saw both the red AND green teams--and other teams--standing next to us, cheering for us!  WTF?!  They were actually quite nice to us, so uh, okay, thanks for the support!  At halftime we were down by one goal.  We huddled together and everyone said something--I said "we are not out of this yet.  Keep your heads in the game.  Look for opportunities and play smart.  Never let up, keep the pressure on."  As a smaller athlete, one of my guiding principles is that a smart player is the best kind of player.  You can overcome all sorts of disadvantages if you're playing smart--if you are constantly looking and hungry and alert to opportunities.  This is especially important when you're down, because momentum is a HUGE thing in sports.  That's why so many Super Bowls turn into blow outs--the team that starts winning, ends up winning.  Not today!

We scored a goal fairly quickly into the second half, so now we're tied.  Then we scored FOUR MORE.  One was kind of a fluke--the goal had the ball and decided to go WAY out of the goal area, dribbling the ball.  Well, he got caught behind enemy lines and one of our players took a well-aimed shot from the half which went in.  I felt bad for him but dude, you're the goalie.  You can't leave your post.

They never scored again--and so we ended up league champions!  We got medals and everything.  It was awesome!  We also got a $100 bar tab.  (I begged our captain to buy at least one pitcher of Guinness, as opposed to disgusting watery Bud Light, but she said they didn't have Guinness on tap.  A horrified me responded "that's outrageous!  What kind of an Irish bar doesn't serve Guinness?!")  At the bar the green team came over to (somewhat creepily) kiss the hands of our captain and ask for her number so he could set up a "friendly" game between us.  He also drunkenly confessed to all of us "deep down we consider ourselves to be the best team."  (Uh, no.  By definition in a league that has playoffs, the best team is the team that wins when it counts.  The tournament is not a coronation.)  We ALSO found out that he'd bought trophies for his team--these had to have been bought before yesterday so what was the point if he didn't know in which place they would end up?  And seriously--trophies for your third place team?  You got the third place medal, why would you buy trophies when even the champions (US!!! :) didn't get them?  It just seemed pathetic, like one of those participation trophies.  Those are fine for kids, whom you're trying to teach good sportsmanship values, but for a die-hard competitive team such as them, it just seems as though they're trying to insinuate that, as he said, they were the REAL winners.  Dude, you came in third!  Accept it.  I will say, he admitted "no one could stop you guys today."

Anyway, so so so happy!  I draped my medal over the trophy I won last fall for the softball tournament, next to my trophy for Least Embarrassing Player.  And I'm so proud of our team.  We won not because we were the most talented (although we have some fierce players) but because 1) we have incredible team spirit (we also won the Spirit Award) and 2) we WORK.  We practice every week.  Hard work is almost always the deciding factor in who wins.  As a team we have signed up for the spring league, where we'll be playing on Sunday evenings.  This will conflict a bit with softball but I'll find a way to make it work.  And at least the bar will be better!  We'll be at Slainte, which is where we hung out many times after various Planet Connections shows.  THEY have Guinness on tap!

Fantastic softball game yesterday.

My friend Eric has a softball game every year, and this is the third year I've played in it (in 2009, we did it for four weeks in a row--so much fun! Wish we would do it again...) Yesterday was this year's game, rescheduled after Irene. A few weeks ago Eric and I were talking about the game, and I begged him to find a way not to stick me with Annoying Person Who Insists On Playing First. He decided to make me one of the captains, and as it turned out Tamara, another of his friends, was the other one. (And also as it turned out, Annoying Person wasn't even there yesterday. Crisis averted.)

There were actually not too many people there--in the end we had only about 12-13 people. One of the players, a red-headed guy who'd brought a friend and both were very good players, came up with the idea of 3 teams of 4 people each. (This is done sometimes--how it works is that two teams are in the field while the third one bats, and you rotate in and out. When the batting team gets their third out, they take the place of one of the teams in the field.) Red-Headed Dude explains it to the people who'd never played before and then says "so I'll be a captain, Dave can be a captain, and (Some Other Male Name) can be a captain." I was PISSED. Dude. You are new here. This isn't your game, this is Eric's. And he already has captains. FEMALE ONES. Obviously you just didn't even see us which I get from asshole male athletes like you all the time. STFU and sit down.

Eric comes in, it's explained to him what we're doing and Eric keeps me as captain. I guess Tamara didn't particularly want to be captain, so he chose two other ones. I chose Dave, a guy named Hughie who's played with us several times before, and Tamara. Eric asked us what our team name was and I was thinking, Balls to the Wall--no, that's not appropriate, how about Ovaries to the Wall? The guys on my team loved the name and totally embraced it.

Now, the best part--We. SMOKED. Them. Absolutely blew them away, and from the beginning--in our first inning at bat, we scored five runs. The final score was 3-4-13. We didn't even have any heavy hitters, we just got on base and then kept batting each other in. And our fielding was great as well--Hughie asked me where I wanted people to play and initially I put him at short and then said "no, you should be at third, you have a better arm than I do. I'll play short." And in one inning, I made all three outs! Eric accused me of padding the stats ;) I was chatting throughout, telling Tamara when to run ("it's two outs, run on anything"), talking through what's next ("play is to second, let's try for two") and reminding them not to get complacent toward the end, that's how you lose games. A huge factor in athletic success is hustle--being sharp and on top of things, reminding yourself of your goal, and not taking success for granted. Being hungry.

We were all chanting "O-va-RIES! O-va-RIES!" afterward. And Eric awarded the Rossignol Least Embarrassing Player trophy (a tradition with this game) to me, calling me a "spark plug" who reminds everyone why they're there. Aw! The trophy is a decorated empty bottle of malt liquor--I told Eric this is probably the first time a bottle of malt liquor has ever been in my apartment!

Afterward we all went out to Brother Jimmy'z, and we talked a little bit about 9-11. It has hit me much harder than I thought it would, and that's all I'll say about that for right now. When I went home, Anya joined me for karaoke at the Piper's Kilt, and Eric, Tamara and some of the other players joined us later. One of the players was talking to me about how I played, how he "liked my spark" and competitiveness, etc., and how good a singer he thought I was. I think I was kind of oblivious at the time, but now I realize he was probably hitting on me! At any rate, he bought me a beer at the bar after the karaoke had closed down, and another guy sitting at the bar joined our conversation and then things got very weird. The player and I were talking about language--he's a comedian like Eric is--and the guy (who was drunk, BTW) started talking about how "I use [N-word], I'm cool with [N-word], I love [N-word]." I was stunned and really, seriously creeped out. I said "uh, I am not at all comfortable with this conversation" and the guy was all "people use this word all the time" and I said "that's a really complicated matter and I don't feel like discussing that right now, but at the very least, that is a contextual thing, and as 3 white people, we do not have the appropriate context to throw around that word." The guy said "I'm part-Puerto Rican!" (I am not at all sure what that has to do with ANYTHING.) I said "whatever, I can't be part of this conversation." As I walked away, frankly quite shook up, the guy was accusing me of CENSORSHIP!

Friday evening I went down to the Gene Frankel to see the last Planet Connections show I could, Doug's (our Tom in Sweeter Dreams) other show, Hummingbirds. Not bad at all--his performance was great, as were the two women. One of them (the two women) buttonholed me two weeks ago after Sweeter Dreams, raving about my performance and...touching me?! Not inappropriately but flirtatiously. I certainly wasn't offended but was wondering if I'd interpreted that correctly and later Duncan said "oh yeah, she was all over you." Okay, then! Anyway, she and the other woman, whom I'd seen in another PC show, Loose Women... (she was great) were both very strong. I couldn't hang out to compliment anyone afterwards, as I had to book way back uptown to catch the end of Jason's "Take Back the Park" viewing--I guess I'm sort of a mascot now!

I got there and it was a bit of a bust, due to the clouds. There were about 5 other men besides Jason--he introduced me and then he and I talked for a bit. After the interview came out the day before, Jason had emailed me, calling me "very brave" and he followed up on this. I demurred a bit--I'm not traumatized, and nothing lasting happened to me, other than radicalizing me even MORE about rape and violence against women. It's not brave, it's just facts. At any rate, he told me that he thinks the interview was not just on local radio, but on "All Things Considered"--which is national! Wow! He thinks this because some friends of his heard the interview in New jersey, out of range of local NYC radio stations. Pretty cool!

I got home and heard the AMAZING NEWS!!!! YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! So, so happy for all my gay friends and family--we truly are all brothers and sisters in the eyes of God! So happy that the New York legislators did the right thing. It is TIME! I started weeping, reading the explosion of joy of Facebook. Then the historian in me was even more moved reading what the legislators had said to explain their affirmative votes--this especially got to me:

Republican Senator Mark Grisanti then spoke about his struggle before coming to his decision to vote for the bill. "A man can be wiser today than he was yesterday," he said.

This is literally bringing tears to my eyes. This is how progress is made. This is how we make things better, not just for us but for those around us. This is the difficult, incremental process of social evolution. There has seemed to be so much anger and hatred for the past 20 years in politics--so many wedge issues, so much pointless divisiveness, so much cruelty. (Specifically, I'm thinking of shitty, godless Pat Robertson blaming 9-11 on feminism and homosexuality. That's not partisan, that's not ideological or true to your religious beliefs, that's just being a nasty, cruel piece of shit.) I'm not kidding myself that it's all ended--I know it hasn't. But by God, in the past 3 years, we've elected a black man to our highest office, and we've just doubled the number of gay people in this country who can be married. Even the setbacks are being nullified, like when Prop 8 was overturned in the courts. I love reading about the '60s--there was so much incredible heroism in the civil rights and anti-war movements, and so much history was made. It happened so quickly. My friends, these are our sixties. This is our time, our chance to change the world for the better. To grow, to accomplish--to change the world.

By the way, I just called my state senator and thanked him for voting yes on Friday. His assistant was thrilled, thanked me and told me also to email him, which I will.

Saturday was the final performance of Sweeter Dreams--Christine was there, as was my friend Linda, as well as Jason and Caroline. Jason was right up front laughing at everything, it was great. I had a little fun with the interview scene and finally FINALLY got a laugh on my throwaway snark on Joanna Remarque. I made two small adjustments--I emphasized my criticism of her in my first monologue just a little bit more, to set it up, and then in the interview I made the eye roll bigger and FINALLY got a laugh! I also added a new obnoxiously correct pronunciation--Spielberg is now Schpeelberg, the way the Germans would say it. Heather told me they all laughed backstage when they heard that.

After the show Jason and I got Mexican food and just had a nice long convo. I had plans to have dinner with Tim so I raced hom and got ready, then I met him at Houston's by the Lipstick Building (one of my favorite buildings in the city). We talked forevs, had a lovely time. He thinks the cop rape verdict is complete bullshit, BTW. We went to a bar for a nightcap and the Yankees game was on--they showed a guy sliding headfirst in slomo and I commented that I'd done hook slides (and of course regular slides) but I'd never slid head first, I was too nervous about messing up my face.

Sunday I slept quite late--finally got up and cleaned and got ready for my Sunday softball game. We played the Northwestern team and HAMMERED them. The final score was 12-1. Yikes! I hit .500, plus a sacrifice grounder. And I was part of a double-play--there was a runner at 2nd who was caught between the bases when our center fielder caught it. I yelled "Throw it here, he has to tag up!" And when I got the ball, ran his ass down, even though I could've just ran back to 2nd base. But what fun would that have been? :) It's more fun to tag them!

At one point I was on 1st base and someone popped it up to the infield--the 2nd and 1st base players weren't communicating too well, so I gambled, thinking they wouldn't catch it. Well, the 2nd basewoman DID catch it so I was in trouble since I hadn't tagged up! I DOVE back to 1st base just under the tag--so now I can say yes, I HAVE slid head first!

After the game 5 of us hung around for batting practice and then we went over to a bar when the Northwestern team told us they'd be. And--I think one of my teammates was flirting with me? Sometimes it's hard to tell. But he seems to direct a lot of attention my way--he's always teasing me or asking me questions, and then he was comparing our gloves (his is huge and expensive, mine is very old--I've had it since I was 8-9--and NOT-expensive) he said something like "I'll only buy her a good one if she goes on a date with me." Um, what?! I'm just saying, my female radar is pinging. He is cute, though. Anyway, we all had pitchers and maued wings. Nom, nom, nom...

Last weekend I had my regular 1 pm Saturday game of softball, and then another at 6, way uptown (by 102nd Street). These are two different teams, both part of the alumni league, but there is some overlap. I started playing for the second team, affiliated with the Michigan School of Business, at the behest of someone on the first team, Cecil, who also went to the University of Chicago. (I personally went to neither Chicago NOR Michigan!) I started playing with the Chicago team last year, and they know me pretty well by now, but there is someone new on the team (at least he wasn't there last year) who is getting on my nerves. Despite having seen me in action, he treats me as though I don't know how to play, or am completely unathletic--in other words, he's either a male chauvinist or doing a good imitation of one. I will say, he is part of a cultural/ethnic group that has a reputation for being extremely chauvinistic. Two weeks ago he was playing at shortstop--every time there was a runner on first, he would explain to me how, if the ball was hit to him, he was going to throw it to me. After about the third iteration of this, I snapped at him "yes--I know how to play softball. I get it." Last week he did even worse--he was playing shortfield and came running in to field a looper. He got it and was about 20 feet away from me--instead of just throwing it, he gave me this exaggerated "baby" throw, very arched, as though I couldn't handle a real throw. Not only was this insulting, he arched it so high, it nearly went over my head! I leaped up to catch it, was barely able to do so but did, and made the catch (and the out). This being the third out, as we jogged off the field I said to him, my voice kind of shaking--I was caught between anger that he'd done such a stupid, insulting thing, and gladness that I made the out anyway--"Dude, just THROW it. I can handle it. You arched that way too high, I'm not that tall."

So this has definitely been getting on my nerves. After this game, I took a walk through the park on my way to the new Sprinkles which has just opened on the Upper East Side by Bloomingdale's. I had an adorable encounter on my way there--at the southeast corner of the park, I stopped at a hotdog stand that featured all organic meats. I ordered a turkey hotdog and the guy, who from his accent was from another country, asked me what condiments I'd like. He listed all of them and my eyes lit up when he said raw onions--I said raw onions, brown mustard and mayonnaise. He said "are you from New York City?" I said originally I'm from Virginia. He said "it is unusual for Americans to have mayonnaise on their hotdogs, very unusual." I said well, Southerners love their mayonnaise--we put it on everything. Fries, grilled cheese sandwiches, everything. (Side note--my mother puts it on SALAD. And cottage cheese. Mmm. I grew up eating cottage cheese for lunch with a dab of mayo on top.) I asked him where he was from, he said Egypt, and I said I was dying to visit there sometime. (Gotta see the only still-extant Seven Wonders of the World.) Then I mentioned that I'd spent time in Spain, including the place where mayonnaise was invented--the town of Mahon, on the island of Menorca, in the Balearic Islands. He was fascinated, and asked me exactly where so I sketched out a little map of the Iberian archipelago with my hands for him. He said he'd have to remember, so he could tell his customers. It was just such a charming New York City moment.

After THAT I went to Sprinkles (mmm, dark chocolate cupcakes...), then to church. I am pretty much incapable of getting up for the morning service, not to mention I'd have to dress up a lot more. The weekend early evening services are much better for me, and lower key--no one seems to mind that I'm in softball gear! They have a 5:20 mass on Saturdays, and an Evensong service at 5:00 on Sundays--I prefer the Saturday because Evensong is a longer, bigger deal. Also, I sang in my church choir for like thirty years, starting from the age of seven, and to me the term "Evensong" means "another precious weekend day spent all day at church!" (We had Evensong one Sunday every month, and on those days we had an 11 am service and then one later on at 5, so I spent all day in a dress. I hated this.) This week the service was in the St. Joseph Chapel, which I love--it's one of St. Mary's little side chapels, and it's so pretty and small and personal. St. Mary's really has THE most gorgeous physical facility of any non-cathedral I've ever seen.



After church I went back uptown for Game 2. When I got there, as it turned out there weren't too many Michigan players there--we were playing against Fordham, who had plenty of players, so some of them played for us. My Chicago team also plays against Fordham and they remembered me (I typically do pushups when my team is at bat--mainly to keep my blood moving and my energy up, but also to psych 'em out ;) So we get out there, and the shortstop on my team is very good--and I can just *tell* from the way he's playing, he just assumes I'm not that good. (Example--instead of throwing the ball to me, he's running the ball over to make the play himself.) I don't take this too personally--he doesn't know me, hasn't seen me play--but it gets to me nonetheless. I'm brooding over this a bit when an awesome, once-in-a-season play happens.

We're in the field, and there are runners at first and third. The ball is hit to the third baseman, who checks the runner at third, then throws it to me at second. I make the out, see the runner at third going for home, and NAIL the ball to the catcher. Like, that ball was on a CLOTHESLINE. The catcher makes the tag. Not only is this a double-play but we saved a run! Our team goes bananas--EVERYONE, my team and theirs, was congratulating me, "oh my God, did you see that?!" Hullaballoo ad infinitum. It. Was. Awesome. The reaction went on quite a while, and of course I knew part of the reason people were so impressed was because I'm a girl. No guy who made a double-play would've gotten such a reaction--certainly the catcher and the third-baseman, who were part of it, weren't patted on the back liike this. You know what? That's the flip side of the crap I get most of the time, one small reward. Right now, I'll take the adulation, thanks ;)

*Basking*

The only thing that could've improved it if it had happened in front of the obnoxious guy on the Chicago team.

Last night the current President of Sweet Briar appeared at a cocktail party hosted by an alum in her Park Avenue apartment. All NYC-area alums were invited so I showed up to schmooze a bit--Christian told me that the SBC President is really into theater, and I figured it wouldn't hurt to meet her and make a good impression, all for Project Thyme. Nice party--LOTS of smoked salmon and other nibblies, and everyone was very friendly. (Sooooo nice to hear some Southern accents.) Schmoozing accomplished.

Lots of theater coming up--Anya and I are going to see the campus production of The Wedding Singer tomorrow night--I want to meet with some of them if I can and possibly find out how to put in a bid to direct. Can't hurt to build up some on-campus credits. And then Ashley is performing in The HMS Pinafore the next two weeks, so I have to catch that as well. Also Michael Clay (Marley in Xmas Carol '07, Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, Scrooge in Xmas Carol '09) is doing Twelfth Night (LOVE that poster!) in Midtown--haven't seen that in a while, must see! Here's the thing, though--I get a little antsy at having to see Ashley in Pinafore because it's not a cheap ticket--the least expensive is $25--and Ashley's only in the chorus. If she were Josephine of course I'd love to see it--but spending that much money to see her in chorus? Argh. I'm so poor right now. But I want to support Ashley and I know she loves working with this group. Here's hoping this production isn't focused on the music at the expense of the comedy. I just wish I could get a student rate--they nail you bigtime for service fees, $4 no matter what (phone, credit card, mail) if you buy it in advance.

Oh, and I saw Sleep No More Tuesday night. Very interesting--it's kind of a haunted house/theme park version of Mackers (i.e., immersive, environmental, non-linear) if Stanley Kubrick had directed it. I kept thinking of two Kubrick pieces in particular--The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut. It's interesting but it's a LOT of money for kind of an incomplete experience. But I did like it very much.

Softball tomorrow--first game of the season! Can't wait!

My cousin Colin is in town--he's the son of my aunt Suzy, youngest sister of my dad. (He's the older brother of Roslyn who visited in July.) He's just finished a contract playing at Foxwood's--he's a sax and keyboard player. He's been here about a week and has been enjoying his first long stay in NYC thoroughly. He pronounced Lori's and my apartment "sick" and wants to move here immediately. We hung out on my fire escape the first night he was here, talking about tennis (he wants to scrape together money to take his mother to see Wimbledon) and our family.

We had a blast yesterday--we went into Central Park to play a pickup game of softball with some friends of mine. Although I certainly enjoy softball, I find it frustrating compared to the experience I had in Little League (hardball)--the ball in softball is SO BIG and logey--it's difficult for me to hit it out of the infield, I have no power. Whereas in hardball, the ball moves so much faster and is lighter--I used to hit home runs in hardball. *Sigh.* Anyway, so we had a BLAST although our team sucked. The last time (which was the first time) I played with these people, there was a guy on our team who played first base. Generally you stick the tallest person on the team at 1st, since the ball is thrown to first so often. As the game progressed (I played shortstop), I noticed he was flubbing a lot of catches, even easy ones. Um, if you can't catch, maybe you shouldn't be playing that position--since there's something like a 50% chance the ball will be thrown to you! It irritated me because I just know, the assumption was--he's big and he's a guy, he MUST be a good athlete! [sarcasm] Whereas a small female like me has to prove themselves constantly. Believe me, I see this all the time, in any sort of co-ed athletic situation.

So this time around, I told Colin "as soon as they start sorting out positions, call first base." Which he did (Colin is 6'3", with an amazing wingspan. Perfect for first). This guy kind of muttered about that, then explained to the rest of us that he had some sort of back problem and couldn't really throw longer ranges, so he couldn't play third or short--he wanted to play second. Uh, second is a pret-ty high traffic position--maybe you should be in right field? Well, I was pitching and stopping quite a bit of traffic myself (grabbed several line drives as well as some mean grounders--Colin and I got to do several variations on the Cousin Out :) Me fielding it and throwing to Colin, Colin fielding while I covered first, etc. Awesome! Nothing like a little Green cousin teamwork!)

Anyway, so we had a runner on first, so the play was to second. Grounder to me, I turned around and tossed it, a nice easy toss, to second--and the guy dropped it. This happened a couple more times, and you can imagine my annoyance. So I just stopped trying for the force at second, and would throw to first instead. You're supposed to try for the lead runner--but it doesn't help if the second baseman can't catch! (Anyway, more importantly than getting the lead runner, is the need to get the sure out.) After a couple of innings of this, 2nd baseman comes up to me and requests that I throw it to him as carefully as possible--he has a hard time bending over because of this back thing. I just give him a non-committal smile--dude, are you nuts? This is softball, not croquet, I don't have time to carefully set up a throw to your chest! Again, WHY volunteer for 2nd base? That's a very high-traffic position. Seriously, right field would've been so much easier for him. Honestly I have no problem with people who aren't good--I help the non-athletic girls all the time and have great patience with them (in fact one of the girls on my team was VERY new to softball, and absolutely tiny. When she picked up the bat, it was clear she'd never held one before, so I jogged over and gave her a quick batting lesson. Line up your knuckles, don't rest the bat on your shoulder, bend your knees a little bit to stay loose and most importantly--keep your eye on the ball. She got wood several times and actually recorded two hits!) It's someone who thinks he's better than he is (and is seen as such because he's a guy) and pushes himself into a position he can't play. Just play in the outfield, dude.

But I have to say, as little as I enjoyed the actual pitching (I have a hard time with the underhand pitch with the arc--I am used to overhand, and it's just not easy for me), I LOVE being that close to the batter! I *am* a scrappy little infielder, and the first time I stopped one of those line drives, the guys on the other team were ragging their batter FIERCE. "OOOh, she DENIED him. She stopped him COLD. 'The bank is CLOSED, your bus pass is NO GOOD.'" I could not stop laughing. I love it when guys give each other shit.

Of course when we batted, I had much more difficulty with that. I can certainly hit the ball but again, I can barely get it out of the outfield. Thank God I can run--if it weren't for that, I would never get on base. Then I started bunting and got on base several times. I even got to slide a few times! Of course both times, it was a force play so I really didn't NEED to slide--no tag to avoid--but I had to show off ;) And besides, that's why I wore those jeans (which are FILTHY today).

We got trounced, naturally, but it was all in good fun. (Although next time--BLOOD. Oh yeah.) Afterward we went out to grab a beer and eventually Colin and I drifted away to get food, and had a grand old time rehashing the game and discussing tennis.