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I blame you

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 23:54 on 13 May 2007

"Hmmmm, look at that. I accidently ordered our Harry Potter books twice."

"Yeah, Andy thinks ordering two copies of Harry Potter is a bit excessive."

"Why? One for each of us."

"Well, he thinks that's a bit much."

"So, who is going to let the other person read first? Not me."

"Yeah, I told him you wouldn't share. I sorta blamed you."

"Hey!"

Decisions of youth

Blog Instead of being asleep at 23:01 on 7 May 2007, kitt created this:

Kris, Bella, Annie and I went to Andy's for dinner tonight. Andy grilled, which fit in nicely to Kris' and my agreement that this summer is going to be a summer of enjoying the outdoors in the evening. We went to the park near Andy's house for the dogs to meet "on neutral ground" before Bella and Annie toured Blue and Shadow's home as Blue and Shadow had done our house two weeks ago. The other thought of heading to the park was to tire them out before a bit so that the dogs would be managable during dinner. Unfortunately, Annie both runs away when she's offleash and doesn't tire very easily. So, instead of allowing her to run run run offleash, and run away, I ended up running next to her, with Annie on her leash. I tired out instead.

That, and the running made me sweat. I'm sure I was ripe before heading over for dinner. Poor Kris. Poor Andy.

Dinner was tilapia (for Andy and me) and salmon (for Kris), rice and mojitos. Andy's growing mint in his back yard, in a hydroponic pod he and his father built, which makes it really cool, and less likely to overtake his garden bed. Before he started the fish, he made us mojitos. I couldn't convince Kris to mash the mint in a rotating manner, so that I could wiggle my hips like the rum commercial. Instead, he just plunged the handle up and down, making my movements more like squats. Not very sexy.

The dogs were very much a highlight of the evening. Shadow likes to circle the yard, barking at birds and rats on wires. Blue and Annie wandered the house, Annie looking for food, Blue making sure she didn't find any. Annie is totally part of the Crews pack. She fit right in. Bella, not so much. She just checked out the house, then hovered around us.

I'm starting to believe Andy knew me in college as much as I knew him in college: which is to say, he knew of me peripherally, knew which house I was in, but didn't much pay any attention to me, as I was outside his world. Which suits me fine, as there are many, many, many parts of college I'd like to forget. The one part, however, that he did know about was my senior picture. "Want to see Kitt's senior picture?" Not that it's particularly forgetable. For some reason, that's what I wanted at the time.

At Tech, each senior receives a half page in the yearbook. A senior can submit one or several photos, and they'll be arranged with other seniors on the various pages, with a quote if desired. When I submitted my pictures, I liked them a lot. When the yearbook the following year had a senior picture in it that mocked my photo, I started to doubt the wisdom of my picture choice. That, and my mother was scandalized when she saw my pictures for the first time. Scandalizing one's mother? Not always a good thing.

So, in the spirit of embracing that which embarrasses me, making it my own, overcoming the embarrassment, I'll post my college senior photo. Imagine what it looks like, if this is the mockery in the following year's yearbook:

I blame Andy

Blog Posted by kitt at 21:18 on 22 April 2007

Today at practice I worked on my low release backhand throws: I'm determined to make that throw on Beth well before the end of the season. Tyler also worked with me on catching before practice. He doesn't like the claw catch, but it works for me, so I won't be changing that one any time soon. He did, however, recommend than I attack the disc on any catch, pull it closer to me on impact, always have my hands moving aggressively towards the disc. Lessons to practice.

After practice, it was clear Andy wasn't doing much to minimize his disc charm. After most everyone had packed up and headed off, Kris, Andy and I wandered to the cars. Instead of just heading straight over, each step was practically a moment in a playful game of "What can I do with this disc now?"

As we approached the batting cage, I asked Andy if Kris had told him about his 30th birthday party, where we recorded various disc throwing speeds. Andy said yes, and, after sliding under the netting into the cage, threw a disc fairly hard at the far end of the cage.

The netting, of course, caught the disc, and gently dropped it to the ground. Andy went, picked it up, and threw it straight at us. I flinched. Kris laughed, and tried to catch it. And tried, and tried again. The net kept deflecting the discs Andy threw. After about ten tries, Kris finally caught one and Andy crawled back out of the cage.

We made it all of maybe 10 yards closer to the cars when Andy threw his disc into the open shelf of a file cabinet on the side of the shot put field. He missed, but Kris immediately followed by trying to throw his disc onto the shelf. A few seconds later, another disc came flying in from Tyler, as he tried his hand. The three of them spent a few minutes playing with discs and the file cabinet, seeing who could both hit the target opening and have his disc stay put.

Normally, the walk from the fields to the cars is uneventful. Today, it was entertaining and fun.

I blame Andy.

Pulgas Ridge hike

Blog Instead of being asleep at 14:21 on 22 April 2007, kitt created this:

Andy showed us his Pulgas Ridge hike, with an off-leash dog park in the middle.

Andy told us about a hill in the park that he and the dogs run up. It's an insane hill. They run up, rest, walk down and run up again. Last week was a slow week, they managed only two sprints up the hill. Their record is five.

I'd be happy with one.


Shadow and Kris


Bella and Blue


Blue and his indestructo disc

Totally crushing on Andy

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 23:33 on 8 April 2007

We won DUI today. I didn't play very much, opting to watch instead of fighting for line space with nine other women. I'm frustrated that I was one of five players to play with Mischief the whole weekend, while the women who went to tryout with a women's team show up for the semis and finals after they were knocked out of the women's tournament, and expect full playing time with Mischief. They didn't ask if we needed women, they just assumed they could play. I'm frustrated, because I had psyched myself up to play, I had mentally prepared to play well, and then felt beat down when they showed up and rushed the lines.

On the other hand, I'm totally crushing on Andy.

Now, this would normally be a problem, but for two reasons: 1. Kris knows about it, and 2. the entire team has a crush on him, too. The women are all swooning and the men, well, the men all have man crushes on Andy.

I'm clearly one of two dozen people in this crush.

It's one thing to know of someone, to watch a video of someone playing, to see the highlight reels of some spectacular plays. It's another thing to see him in person, talk with him on the sidelines, realize that, even if for only this tournament, this legend is on my team, playing on the same line as I am, calling out to me from the sidelines, encouraging me. I played few enough points that I remember most of them, which is probably bad, but I lost count of the number of spectacular plays he had.

During the weekend, as during most ultimate weekends, each of us told stories about various highlight moments of our careers. The stories from Kris and me weren't older than about five years, which is about when we started playing for higher level teams, with our eyes looking at playing at Nationals. Andy's stories all started over ten years ago, and nearly always ended in victory. He's used to being on top, having been part of the King of the Mountain for a while, but also knows the effort involved to be there. Kris and I just arrived, and we will have very little time there. We learned only recently the effort involved in being there, and the sacrifices and commitment that comes with that effort. A very different perspective.

Admittedly, I googled for more info on Andy after I found a wireless connection. Well, I googled for information on his ultimate career, figuring the number of different Andys in google would make any non-ultimate information both difficult to find and suspect at the same time. I'm not crushing that much. It's his ultimate prowess I find so compelling.

I am, however, sorta torn. Andy has known of me longer than any of my ultimate friends, has known of me since college. I can't say I'm particularly proud of those years. I often wonder what he thinks of me, how much of that past affects his current opinion. I'm not that person, but it's often hard to know how much someone has changed when you've seen them only really twice in the intervening decade.

Ultimately (heh), I do hope he decides to play with us, in some capacity. I know he's worried about some things, but it's always exciting to see an accomplished athlete perform. And if it's with my team, even better.

Especially if I'm crushing on him.

You know, I'm really glad Kris can laugh at me about this, because it is funny.

As funny as his man crush.

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