Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Paganello & Milan -- Finally


Jules and Brendan are going to be soooo disappointed when they see this. Apparently I didn't take many photos at Paganello at all. In fact, I took 0 at the fields. Oops. Anyway, I spent a day in Milan before heading down to Rimini for 5 days of ultimate on the beach and sensible amounts of alcohol (in a cultured, mature setting of a wine tasting, of course). Here's the basic schedule:
Wake up
Complain about how freaking early it is.
Curse loudly at how freaking late we are.
Hastily throw clothes in a bag and run to fields/beach.
Play.
Make one of the following comments AT LEAST every 5 minutes: "Bend over and I'll show you" (JT), "I'm not not licking toads" (Brendan), "Step 1: Cut a whole in a box..." (Jules)
Drink.
Eat a fabulous dinner.
Have a bit of the old courage.
Go out.
Have a nightcap.
Sleep.
Repeat.



Some thoughts. First, Brendan and Jules are the best roommates one can hope for. Well, except for 2 beautiful masseuses. But NJ and Angry Benny're a close second.


Our coach, Simon, is awesome. If you haven't played for him, you should stop slacking and get to it. I learned a lot from him, but I was able to hide it under a constant stream of smartass comments and Simpsons quotes.


Our captain, Martin (partly hidden behind the blonde, Joyce), rules. He will catch anything. Seriously, he's like a hypochondriac in Central Africa. Unbelievable. Also, he puts up with my crap better than I have a right to hope for. I would play for him again in an instant, if he hadn't learned the line "I like your hustle. That's why it was so hard to cut you." from Brendan.

Not to overdo it, but I had my Joe Montana in the '82 NFC Championship Game moment -- it's all on the line, and this is your time. You've worked all season for it, waiting for your chance. The scenario: After saying "bend over and I'll show you" (my second favorite Chevy Chase line*) at the slightest hint of applicability ALL weekend, I had my opening. Steve unwisely said, "Do you have a canned comment ready for everything?" and I replied, not missing a beat, "bend over and I'll show you!" I almost cried, it was so perfect.

As for ultimate, we beat our seed, won a game on ultimate point with TWO game-saving ho blocks in the endzone (I threw the disc away after the first to show we weren't intimidated), but Julie was clearly the MVP. She was solid. Wow. Rock steady rock star.


As for Milan, it kind of sucks. Great cathedral, crap city. Like Cologne, actually. But the cathedral? Best nap spot in Europe. You get up to the roof after a meal of risotto, boar and gelato, and there's no resisting the lure of the horizontal. The warm sun, light breeze and faraway murmur of traffic is like a tryptophan injection. mmmmm.
*after:
Chase, to his boss: "We're in a gray area."
Boss: "Ok, well, how gray?"
Chase:"Um, charcoal?"

No comments: