I LOVE Waterpolo!!
Have you ever experienced that moment when you realize you can't go back. It doesn't matter what it is. Something like college... you go back for a football game and realize that you will never be a young co-ed ever again. That time has passed. Now when you get together with your buddies you rehash the old stories not create new ones. Well, I had just such a moment this past weekend.
The NU women's waterpolo club had it's annual home tournament. One of the things that they always schedule is an alumni vs. club game. It is always on Sat. evening, the last game, and then we go drink. I decided to make the drive down and subject myself to endless teasing about my grey hair and flabby arms. Figured it would be fun times.
This past fall (I was still in the chicagoland area) when the team would practice I would join them. Nice to have some sort of exercise regiment no matter how uninspired it was. So I would go and splash around the pool twice a week. The team went on a pre-season tournament trip and asked me to go along because they needed a goalie (the starter goalie couldn't make it and they had no secondary). Sure. Okay. I'm up for a little weekend polo fun. The point of this whole paragraph is to establish that I did actually spend a little time with the team this year so I am not a complete stranger to the freshman.
Now, fast forward to this past weekend. NU signed up an A team and a B team. Miami of Ohio and Iowa both brought B teams as well. Thursday (the day before the tournament starts), the coach calls and asks if I would be the goalie for the B team. Apparently, the secondary (a freshman who started training shortly after the pre-season tournament) has taken a hiatus from the team for person reasons. So, again, the team finds themselves short a goalie. Sure. Okay. I'm up for a few more games of waterpolo. I know the girls on the team. It should be fun. Weeeee.
Saturday rolls around... now the master's team from the chicagoland area is having problems fielding an entire team. Could I play goalie for them. What am I? All-goalie all the time?? Sure. Okay. A few more games of waterpolo. Oh wait, the games are back to back?? Shit. Well, now I am just an old lady trying not to drown. By the time the alumni game rolled around, I was hurting something terrible. The club team beat the alumni team. I'm blaming it on the fact that we were all tired from playing in the master's games (I wasn't the only one recruited). That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Then, afterwards, off to the bar. I kid you not, I went to go to the ladies room and was walking with a limp. Both legs were lame. So I was limping from one foot to the other. Oh man. It was not pretty. This is when I had my moment... I played six games in one day two years ago when I was on the team. I won't go into that other than to say, I was fine that evening afterwards, I slept in a really uncomfortable bed that night, and felt fine the next day.
Flash forward to now and... I'm calling it a night around 1am because I was afraid that they still arrest you for passing out in a bar in that stupid conservative little town (even if it is from exhaustion and not drunkeness). I don't care what the other girls think of me because I am not drinking excessive quantities nor closing down the bar. And there is no way I am playing any more polo on Sunday. I'll be lucking if I can still walk.
Of course, I would do it again in a heartbeat. So it seems I'm a glutton for punishment even if I can never return to my glory days. I badly miss playing so whenever I have the opportunity... Polo On!!
I guess if the move to the arctic circle happens I will have to take up ice hockey. A team sport that involves a small number of players (including a goalie), two nets, physical contact (bring it beeeach!!), whistling refs, and water, albeit, frozen. I'm not as good with a stick as I am just using what nature gave me but I'm pretty mobile on ice. Should be interesting.
The NU women's waterpolo club had it's annual home tournament. One of the things that they always schedule is an alumni vs. club game. It is always on Sat. evening, the last game, and then we go drink. I decided to make the drive down and subject myself to endless teasing about my grey hair and flabby arms. Figured it would be fun times.
This past fall (I was still in the chicagoland area) when the team would practice I would join them. Nice to have some sort of exercise regiment no matter how uninspired it was. So I would go and splash around the pool twice a week. The team went on a pre-season tournament trip and asked me to go along because they needed a goalie (the starter goalie couldn't make it and they had no secondary). Sure. Okay. I'm up for a little weekend polo fun. The point of this whole paragraph is to establish that I did actually spend a little time with the team this year so I am not a complete stranger to the freshman.
Now, fast forward to this past weekend. NU signed up an A team and a B team. Miami of Ohio and Iowa both brought B teams as well. Thursday (the day before the tournament starts), the coach calls and asks if I would be the goalie for the B team. Apparently, the secondary (a freshman who started training shortly after the pre-season tournament) has taken a hiatus from the team for person reasons. So, again, the team finds themselves short a goalie. Sure. Okay. I'm up for a few more games of waterpolo. I know the girls on the team. It should be fun. Weeeee.
Saturday rolls around... now the master's team from the chicagoland area is having problems fielding an entire team. Could I play goalie for them. What am I? All-goalie all the time?? Sure. Okay. A few more games of waterpolo. Oh wait, the games are back to back?? Shit. Well, now I am just an old lady trying not to drown. By the time the alumni game rolled around, I was hurting something terrible. The club team beat the alumni team. I'm blaming it on the fact that we were all tired from playing in the master's games (I wasn't the only one recruited). That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Then, afterwards, off to the bar. I kid you not, I went to go to the ladies room and was walking with a limp. Both legs were lame. So I was limping from one foot to the other. Oh man. It was not pretty. This is when I had my moment... I played six games in one day two years ago when I was on the team. I won't go into that other than to say, I was fine that evening afterwards, I slept in a really uncomfortable bed that night, and felt fine the next day.
Flash forward to now and... I'm calling it a night around 1am because I was afraid that they still arrest you for passing out in a bar in that stupid conservative little town (even if it is from exhaustion and not drunkeness). I don't care what the other girls think of me because I am not drinking excessive quantities nor closing down the bar. And there is no way I am playing any more polo on Sunday. I'll be lucking if I can still walk.
Of course, I would do it again in a heartbeat. So it seems I'm a glutton for punishment even if I can never return to my glory days. I badly miss playing so whenever I have the opportunity... Polo On!!
I guess if the move to the arctic circle happens I will have to take up ice hockey. A team sport that involves a small number of players (including a goalie), two nets, physical contact (bring it beeeach!!), whistling refs, and water, albeit, frozen. I'm not as good with a stick as I am just using what nature gave me but I'm pretty mobile on ice. Should be interesting.
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