Express-Guy Quotes

We've got this interesting character that passes out the Express newspaper every morning at the Brookland-CUA Metro stop... He's got a lot to say so I'll share a few here:

"Welcome to the World!"
"It's Monday all day!"
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Role Model!"
"Free your mind and your body will follow!"

I'm sure there are more that I'm missing, but for now we'll just start with what I can remember. Maybe I'll make Express-Guy quotes part of my sidebar...

Let the Dance Party Begin!

I'm sitting here at 2am working on a 20-pager for my Budgeting and Metrics class.... Well, I'm trying to stay focused, but tomorrow we head to Wildwood, NJ for my 2nd Wildwood Beach Ultimate Tournament. Last year we sported mustaches and variations on the stache. What to expect for this year? Let's just say I hope you like plaid. Look for Donk-a-Phant Dance Party to make some noise this weekend.

O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

Back in OK last weekend for a friend's wedding... It was great! A little hot, but it was a good time overall. Megan and I arrived late Friday night and planned to crash at a friend from college's house all weekend. We took some time to get caught up on things, concerning medical school and Shiner, before hitting the sack Friday night.

Saturday was originally planned to be a relaxing day where we could hang out with the bride-to-be and my girlfriend could meet a few friends from the Bible Belt, but it didn't exactly end up that way... After having a relaxing cookout with a little swimming, a few good burgers, and testing my hand at extermination, the kids arrived. Some of the relatives had come into town and brought triplets with them! As I'm hanging out in the pool, one of these little rascals jumps on my back... We get around to taking turns tossing them across the pool; assuming at some point they'll get tired of us and find something else to do, but that was not the case. About 2 hours of tossing kids, running for my life, and scraping up my feet on the bottom of the pool I have found the secret to birth control. Place any adult who thinks they want to be a parent into a pool, unleash the triplets, and goodbye sweet dreams of toddlers and baby formula. I think I would feel safer in MMA...

Sunday was much more relaxing... Megan and I visited the OU campus and I got a chance to see all the improvements they're making to my alma mater, while Megan got a chance to see how impressive a state university can be. There are big things going on in Oklahoma. We made a quick run by the music studio (where I spent most of my time) and I was surprised to find I still knew someone on campus! After chatting for a while we were running a little late for the wedding and took off back to the car to get out to the lakeside chapel. The wedding was fairly quick and quiet, but it was a beautiful setting and the chapel was super-cool; with huge glass windows running from the floor to the ceiling looking out into a nice nature setting. It was great to see the parents and newly married couple before heading back into Norman for a visit to campus corner. We hit a local favorite, The Library (mainly a favorite so I could tell people I was going to "The Library"), and had a few drinks with new and old friends before deciding we would try and catch a late showing of The Dark Knight. Unlucky there, but the night was still a success.

Monday morning was our chance, so Megan and I headed to Bricktown early to see The Dark Knight (it was pretty impressive) before moving on to Coach's Restaurant in the outfield of the RedHawks ballpark for lunch. The sirloin steak, fried okra, and beer-batter fries were great! We even managed to catch a bit of the game that was going on before high-tailing out of there to catch our plane back to D.C.

All-in-all a great weekend.

TIL #2: Sweet Tea!

From Granzin's BBQ in New Braunfels, TX to the Extra Sweet Tradewinds variety, I can hardly hold myself back when it comes to putting down sweet tea. Now that it's summer time there is nothing I wouldn't do for an ice-cold glass of that sweet southern beverage. I believe Cravin' Melon said it best, "Cause on the 8th day, God made sweet tea."

I was somewhat surprised when I arrived at my first D.C. restaurant 2 years ago. I asked for sweet tea and was given an odd look by the waiter. "Well, there's sugar on the table," he said. I ordered a Coke.

It is absolutely not possible for a cup of "tea" to even remotely come close to the flavor of sweet tea by adding sugar packets afterwards; not even 6-10 packets of sugar can change that flavor enough to make it appealing (Believe me, I've tried.). Anyway, I suppose I should just list some of my favorites...

Granzin's Sweet Tea
Tradewinds Extra Sweet Tea
Arizona Extra Sweet Green Tea
McDonald's $1.00-Menu Sweet Tea

Here are the lyrics to the song in case anyone wondered:

Cravin' Melon
Sweet Tea

If you find me sleepin' in the shade dear
Will you promise to bring me all your sweetness
All my plans are hangin' in the palms dear
All my thoughts are lost in Pawley's interest
Rock me gently the waves are softly rollin'
Salty breezes blowin' through the screen dear
Pour me some of your old fashioned magic
I can hear you whispering in my ear
Chorus:
Don't try to offer me anything
What it comes right down to baby
Don't tempt me; I'm where I wanna be
Cause on the eighth day, God made sweet tea
Certain things in life I like to savor
Watchin' clouds and waitin' on the rain
If you ever question my behavior
Just a taste will make you feel the same now
Chorus:
We've known each other goin' on thirty years
Seen a lot of joy; we've seen a lot of tears
Still I wouldn't change a single thing that I did
Cause we're here, yea.....
Chorus 2X:

Friday, July 11 Workout

Jog
Backwards Run
Relaxed Skipping
High Knees
Butt-Kicks
Shuffle
Carioca
Straight Leg Kicks
Walk and pull knees to chest

Ladder Drills
1 foot in each box
2 feet in each box
"Icky" shuffle
Shuffle (2 down/1 back)
Ali Shuffle (The boxing Ali)
Up-and-backs (2 feet in each box)

Running
2x400 (75-80 secs)
90 secs rest and 200m jog
Repeat 3x

5 Medicine ball Xplodes (Squat down, grab ball and explode into a jump while throwing ball backwards over your head)
20 Med Ball Sit-up w/throws
20 push-ups

Do all three in succession; then repeat.
Fun stuff. Need to make a move towards getting in shape. Gotta start somewhere.

Mission to M-A-R-S: Lunar Orbit

Friday was a monumental day for Cold Cocked. My first MARS resulted in a 1-6 record; 0-4 of which was the part that I showed up for. We found our only win in the first game on Friday, so 2-1 was a huge swing for us.

Our first Saturday opponent turned out to be D.C.-based She's Inflatable.

Fun Fact: I actually contacted Inflatable's captain early on this Summer to see if they had any open spots for MARS. It's not that I didn't want to play Cold Cocked; it's that I didn't think there was a Cold Cocked this year... Needless to say, Megan and I were turned down due to an "excess" of men. When I received the invite from Evie I was pumped to get a shot at redemption with CC, and was actually glad I wasn't able to suit up for Inflatables.

Even more Fun Fact: Inflatable's captains contacted Megan and I about a week before MARS to offer us roster spots. Whoopsies!

Anyway, back to the game... We were pretty well acquainted with most of the players on this team: a mix of BRDM, WireTap, Eastern Motors, and a few random out-of-state pick-ups, and we were (I was) hell-bent on crushing this team. I should mention that "hell-bent" doesn't necessarily mean I'd be getting excited to play defense, but I would do my best should the opportunity present itself. For the most part this game was back and forth, but Inflatables went on a bit of a run before half and were sitting at 7-6 looking to take half after a 4-point run. I actually did play defense this point (after we turned over the disc...), and managed a 'd' on an ill-advised throw to a horizontal cut that led to a 7-7 game. We picked up another 'd' and punched it in to stop the bleeding and take half at 8-7. At some point after half I watched the longest-ever point in Ultimate. For a number of reasons (drops, swill, aggressive offensive puts, defense) neither team could get it done on 'o' and after a long timeout Inflatables was able to put the disc in the endzone. Generally this is a big victory for a team, but we had plenty of fresh legs salivating on the sidelines ready to punish the fresh Inflatable 'd'. It wasn't as hard as we expected... Their defense came down with a double-team on me and left Broaddus (who had already done his fair share of punishing this game) wide open jogging deep. A floaty pass around the tag teaming Rez and Cole put Matt just out of the endzone and he finished to another streaking receiver for an easy score. We ran away with the game a little here. Some other highlights: Megan's sky 'd's on Inflatables monster-woman, Bill looking like he could sky a tree, Sandra and Becky's tight person-to-person defense, Harkins slowing down Los, and Billy calmly working the breaks on offense. (at this point I probably don't need to mention Broaddus anymore... just assume that he did ridiculous things.)

I'm at work, so I'll have to add to this later...

Mission To M-A-R-S: Part 1

For the second year in a row the old and slightly older joined forces to take on all comers at MARS under the moniker of "Cold Cocked". MARS is a huge 3-day co-ed Ultimate tournament complete with camping, 2 parties (karaoke and an a cappella concert), 44 teams, 18 fields, and a portion of your tourney fee is generally sent towards sponsoring a keg (last year there were 40 consumed!) for one of the two parties. We had a balanced team of 8 women and 11 men; all with chips on their shoulders after a 1-6 showing in last years tournament.

Thursday started typically; I know I wasn't alone when I mentally began the weekend about 24 hours too early, but I just couldn't wait to get out of work and get on the road towards Pittsburgh. I finally bolted from my desk around 1pm and worked to get organized so we could head up. Megan and I took our time getting out, not for any good reason (I think it's just my nature to be late/slow/unconcerned), and got hung up in traffic a bit, but we arrived to the fields by 9:30 and worked on setting up our monstrosity of a tent. We thought we had prime camping grounds when we set up near the pavilion and showcase fields, but we were quick to learn otherwise. We did however find a pair of unprepared campers to take up space in the palace with us.

Around 1am Friday morning we began to realize our mistake as the neighbors continued partying and the decibel level rose steadily until 3am before finally dying around 4:30 or so. An early morning was not expected, but after trying unsuccessfully to sleep through golf cart shenanigans we were welcomed with a beautiful view of the fog lifting off the mountains surrounding the fields in Irwin, PA.

Our fellow members of Cold Cocked drifted in around the 10am start time and we prepared to face our first competitor, Axis (of C'Ville). We managed to hold on through half with some solid defense and good disc movement on offense, but this experienced mixed club team proved to be too much and went on a late run that put a comeback out of reach. Axis went on to lose to the eventual champions in the "A" bracket semis on Sunday! There were a few clutch throws by Billy, Evie had a beautiful layout in the back of the endzone that was called back due to indecision about her being inbounds, and I made myself available deep for 2 scores from Billy and Bill in the game. We lost this one 15-9.

Our second game pitted us against a former member of Cold Cocked who was playing for Super Fast Sexy Pants this year. They dressed well; in polos and plaid shorts, but our game seemed more polished. Quick strikes deep from Elliot to myself, beautiful swings by John-O, unrelenting cutting and a stellar layout grab by Broaddus, Ian's "look what I found" hammer grab for a score, and constant defensive pressure we come to expect from Scrap kept our lead safe as we coasted to a 15-11 (?) finish.

We were still missing Nichols at this point, and what better time to show up then during our bye? As we broke into our first rounds of beer we reminisced briefly on the follies of last year's tournament (the highlight of which was John O's huge "old-man" backhand that was promptly foot-blocked by the mark) and were excited again with the promise of a full 3 days of layout D's, Schtick, Canadian's, full-field flicks, shotguns, Patron, and camaraderie that would bring us to smile months removed from this little oasis in Pennsylvania. As our next round approached we eased back on the heckling, Schtick, and alcohol consumption to focus on The Pop 'n' Loch Ness Monster.

As we looked over at the large mass of young collegiate-aged players gathering to take the field against us, we probably all snickered a bit at how easy this game was going to be. Like taking candy from a baby, probably. Little did we know the 3-0 lead we were about to jump out to was not leading towards an end that we expected. Our three point lead turned to 2, then 1, and suddenly we were down 3 points surveying our teammates to find the problem, a solution, someone to pick us up and put us back on top of this game... Billy answered huge during halftime. I can't remember exactly, but I believe we were down 8-4 (or 5) by half. "Settle down, I don't see us losing this game, draw that line in the sand let's move forward and not look back; let's win this half." (That's paraphrased of course...and is missing that Canadian accent that makes it all the more persuasive) We didn't look back, well at least not after Pop 'n' Loch had made it 12-6. We may have considered briefly that we had waited a bit too long to begin our comeback, but we were playing for pride at this point and 15-6 was not the way to end this game. It was our turn to baffle, to surprise, and to amaze ourselves as we slowly pulled back in at 12-12. Clutch defense by Sandra, Harkins and Broaddus broke their men down with their cuts, Bri stuck tight and put the pressure on with her layout bid on d, and Billy found Claudia deep for an easy score as we swapped roles with the Pop 'n' Loch and found our first lead of the half at 14-13. Not a team to let these opportunities slip, we quickly picked up a 'd' and walked the disc in for the score. I have to be honest, the last 2-3 points of this game were a bit of blur, so I can't quite remember who it was that found the disc in their hand for the game winner, but I do remember rushing the field and being pretty excited about starting out 2-1 after last year's edition of MARS.

Next days to come soon... I just finished putting the numbers together for a Budgeting and Metrics project due tomorrow, so I was ready to get back to Ultimate. Every time I write about Ultimate I find myself wanting to mention every little defensive bid, routine swing, break throw, sliding grab, or sky, but sometimes it's just too much to put on paper. Just know I remember all of them, and I'm excited right along with all of Cold Cocked to have been a part of last weekend! I'll try to be sure everyone gets a nod here once I get to the next two days of the tourney....

Quote of the tourney for me (About taking pictures of Ultimate...): "Well there's zero-sum coolness in the world, so if you want to get more you've got to take it from somebody else."
-Elliott Turley