Day 8: CMFK in a Box

Cliff’s Notes: Tryouts went great. I made the team (Team Box). More below.

Last night I went to the Crown casino. It was pretty much like any casino in Vegas: garish, over the top. I played $5/10 limit Texas hold ‘em for 3 hours or so. I was up about $100 at one point, but left down about $20, which is not too bad a price to pay for a night of entertainment. I played like I always do, which is to say to pay to see every flop just in case and also to keep calling bets in the hope of making my hand on the river. This never works and I always lose. I’m consistent. I’m true to my motto: Never Fold.

Today I worked from home in the morning and called my sister. She is doing well.

In the afternoon I headed out to the park to try out for team box. I got there early as is my custom. It was literally hurricane force winds. There were large limbs falling from trees. It was scary. There would be a loud cracking noise and then a branch like 6 or 8 inches in diameter would crack off and fall to the ground. I was frightened and stayed in the middle of the field away from the trees. Just the roar of the wind was deafening. Needless to say, it was NOT an ideal day for Frisbee.

Tryouts started EXACTLY like an Ambush practice. Maybe all ultimate teams are the same. We jogged, stretched and then did plyos. We even did the plyos in the exact same order we usually do (high knees, butt kicks, shuffles, etc.) Then we started 10 throw. This was a total disaster. It was soooo windy. I was barely completing my flat backhands and flicks. When we got to IOs it was ridiculous. I don’t think I completed a single backhand IO. For IO flicks I basically just threw flat ones, and they were still bouncing off trees and coming down 30 meters away. It was terrible. At this point I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make the team, but I obviously needed some practice so I decided to stick it out.

Thankfully the wind died down a little. We did drills and played a scrimmage. I played well in the scrimmage and got called in a number of strings. I played good D and even got a hand block on one of the captains, which got me some oooohs from the team. It was fun. After the tryouts I was invited to play on the team.

The team is great. 4 of the women were on the Ayer’s Frock team that won Paganello last year. (Christ, Tucker: remember that incredible Asian girl from the finals? That’s Joy, my team captain. She is awesome.) Some of the women were at Copenhagen with Icini and remembered Ambush. A couple others have played for Bliss, so it’s a pretty strong roster.

I’ll be going to practice on Thursdays and Sundays and also working in a track practice (Barrel of snakes!) until Nationals in April. Next up is Regionals in Tasmania in March. I’m planning to take an extra day and see Tasmania a little (and get a Taz Devil tattoo because they are so original. Just kidding Mom.).

The girls from Team Box were all friendly and nice and I’m psyched to be on the team. They run a really spontaneous, fluid offense, which will be a bit of a change for me so I’m sure I’ll learn a lot.

We are ordering team jerseys. Rather than a name on the back, everyone will be some sort of Box, since we are Team Box. So, the backs of the uniforms will read: Cardboard, Jack-in-a, Shoe, Pizza, etc. This is where you come in. I need some help naming my box, as it were. I was thinking of “Box in a…” but I’m not sure they’ll get that joke here. Or jewelry box? Check box? Let me know what you think.

After try outs, (and shower) I went out to celebrate. I wanted a steak dinner. Sunday night is apparently ‘stay at home’ time in Melboure. All of the Restaurants were closed. It was 9 PM. This made me homesick a little. I wanted to walk around the corner to Prune and get the great buttery steaks they serve at the bar 7 days a week until 1 AM. Instead, I went to the Westin which did have a restaurant still open. I had some steak and now I am going to sleep.