kickball 101

i blame this month's "to do" on kate.

my roommate, kate, makes the list of the top 10 on the social scene in birmingham. if there's a party going on, either she knows about it and is going or she is one of the ones throwing it.

she pretty much knows everyone in this town. this has proved to be very helpful when we wanted to get the scoop on a guy someone.

so the "social coordinator" of the house (kate) decided that it would be fun to start a kickball team to play in a popular league in birmingham.

and voila! she somehow convinced me and leah to join the team.

let's go back in time...say 20 years...

i begged my parents to join a t-ball team. they finally gave in and i joined.

according to them, i spent the whole season in the outfield...picking flowers.

yes, picking flowers.

texas has beautiful bluebonnets...but, i digress....

so this is the history i'm going into kickball with.

kickball and baseball were never really the sports that i enjoyed playing. now give me a tennis racquet or a pair of snow skis and we're in a whole other ball game (no pun intended).

our team, called "kickaholics anonymous" had a social at our house in early september to meet and greet all 20 or so guys and girls on the team.

it is the most random group of people. but, everyone seemed laid back and nice, so i wasn't concerned about it at all.

that is until i went to our first practice.

not only do we have some amazing athletes (2 college football players) on our team, they are also very competitive...and want to win.

lucky for me, only 4 girls play each game, so for the first 3 games, i got to sit back and watch.

in fact, in game #2 i was responsible for writing down errors that our team made...i also took the liberty to write down if any of their clothes were mismatched. our roommate, leah, got a citation from me for wearing bright green shorts with an olive top...ha!

game #4, i was up.

it's funny, when i play a team sport, i have this incredible pressure on me to do well because other people are counting on me. that's why i like single's tennis...just me...no pressure.

i didn't harm the team, but i don't think i did much good either. i was positioned on the field with one guy behind me and one guy in front of me, so if something came my way, i'd be covered.

as for kicking, i didn't and still haven't gotten on 1st base.

trust me, i've tried different kicking methods and they always seem to get that ball to the base faster than my legs can get me there.

game #5 was definitely an interesting one.

it was pretty cold that night and i was wearing a fleece. when we went into the outfield, i put my hands in my pockets. probably not the smartest move because when the ball came my way i didn't have enough time to get my hands out of my pockets.

so i got reprimanded encouraged not to do that again.

lesson learned.

i did end up redeeming myself in that game. i caught 2 ground balls and managed to get 2 guys out. not too shabby.

for the last game, it was "theme week" so our team dressed up as the chilean miners. so funny!

and it looks like we're going to the "playoffs" next week. we are currently ranked number #8 out of 60 teams!

while, this has been a great opportunity to meet some new friends; i'm thinking i may take the bench next season and cheer on the sidelines...

or pick flowers.

love,

alison