14-0

I'm still pretty new to being a sports fan, so I'm sure there are aspects of the game I still just don't understand, especially when it comes to Olypmic qualifying games and things like goal differentials. And I suspect that I should be excited to have watched (even online) a game that broke records. But honestly, it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The US WNT built up a lot of goodwill with the World Cup, between snatching victory from the teeth of Brazil in the quarterfinal and their ultimate honorable loss to Japan in the final. Total domination of an up-and-coming team like the Dominican Republic by an American team already established as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in the world really takes away some of that goodwill, I feel. The whole game I felt like I was watching the big kids on the playground mopping up the field with the little kids.

Personally, I always tend to lose interest with a soccer game when the score gets to around 5-0. At that point, the teams are so obviously mismatched that it gets boring to me. The only reason this game held my interest is because they were so *appallingly* mismatched. 5-0 is a rarity in soccer, and I like it that way. The fewer goals that are scored, the more exciting it is when someone scores. 14-0 is so rare as to be virtually unheard of. 5-0 could be the result of one team being slightly stronger and having a really good day, and one team being slightly weaker and having a really bad day. 14-0 can only happen when one team is extremely strong and the other is so much weaker as to be essentially helpless in the face of their opponent. You could even see the power disparity in their uniforms: US with their crisp, properly fitted uniforms and the DR with their baggy, ill-fitting uniforms. I guess the US had their reasons for continuing to push for more and more goals even after it was painfully obvious that DR was not a fair match for them, but as an observer rather than a member of the team, it came across as needless bullying.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I would rather watch 80 minutes of keep-away after it was obvious in the first 10 that there was no real contest than what actually ensued. I love Amy Rodriguez, but 5 goals in one half (your team having already scored 7 before you hit the field) just seems uncalled for. What I especially don't understand, more than continuing to score goals after it becomes obvious that it is unnecessary, is that we continued to celebrate. Maybe not as garishly as we would celebrate scoring against a stronger team, but still. It boggles my mind that you could hear fans groaning in dismay when we missed a scoring opportunity even in the second half. My girlfriend and I pretty quickly started cheering DR's saves rather than US's goals. It's not that we wanted the US to lose: we still love this team and desperately want to see them take home Olympic gold when the time comes. But if DR had been able to score a goal or two against our juggernaut, you'd better believe we would have cheered.

Honestly, I would rather watch our team lose in a fair fight (US v Japan) than watch them slaughter and demoralize a team that lacks the training and resources that our team has been so fortunate to have (US v DR). I felt much, much better about that loss than I do about this win. US v Japan was the cleanest, tightest game our team ever played, and although I was sad to see us lose, we lost with skill, heart, and class. It could hardly even be considered a loss. A win of this epic proportion is, in a way, a greater loss. It potentially loses us goodwill and respect by making us look like bullies, and it has the added risk of making our team potentially overconfident going into subsequent matches. When we played Japan, we saw their incredible skill level and stepped up our own to match it. And we came damn close. After totally dominating DR, our team has no real incentive to put on their best game moving forward.

And none of this is even the worst part. The worst part is that, in this totally lopsided game, we still sustained injuries. In the case of Ali Krieger, possibly a quite serious injury. Just to be clear, I IN NO WAY FEEL THAT KRIEGER'S INJURY WAS HER FAULT. I couldn't find a clip to review, but my memory of the incident is that she had possession and a DR player gave a bad tackle that missed the ball completely and hit Krieger's knee instead. If it were any other match, I probably would have screamed for a yellow card, but in this game it would have been pointless. Although the injury is not Krieger's fault, I do suspect that injury would have been less likely had US not continued to play with such intensity against an opponent that didn't require it. Not to mention, it seems tragic to suffer an injury in a game like this, where one really doesn't need to be playing with a high level of intensity because your team already won in the first few minutes and the rest of the game was essentially a formality, and to then have to miss out on however many games Krieger is now going to have to miss, games where she really might have made a huge difference. Again, I do not blame her for her injury; I just think it's a damn shame and a waste.

Which is pretty much how I feel about this game as a whole. I just hope that, moving forward, our team is sufficiently challenged (without being overwhelmed, at least not in a game that could keep them from playing in the Olympics) and gets back to playing with their hearts as well as their boots.

You're doing what now?

As first semester madness prepares to die down (it hasn't actually died down, technically: I've got a final exam on Monday, a final exam Tuesday morning, and a final eval Tuesday afternoon) and clinic madness prepares to commence, I realize that I haven't actually blogged about massage school much. Granted, I haven't written much of anything in general, or drawn anything, or any of that fun stuff, because I've been too busy learning bony landmarks, muscle attachments and actions, and how to give a killer (and ethically safe) Swedish massage. But I figure the end of my first semester is as good a time as any to reflect on what's been going on these past three months that doesn't involve sweaty women in uniforms running amok on a field.

So, massage school. It's both harder and easier than I imagined. Touching people daily is a strange and sometimes wonderful (and sometimes incredibly awkward) thing. I've learned that I can still give a really good massage to people I find irritating, which is good. I've learned a lot about bones and muscles, which is probably my favorite part, oddly enough. I've learned that I don't really like being on the table for too long, which is unfortunate. I'm pretty sure I've done something awful to my knee, which is REALLY unfortunate. I'm pretty sure the something awful has something to do with giving two back to back 90 minute massages, plus driving on the parkway in the dark for the first time the next night. Plus STILL being unable to find satisfactory shoes that fit me properly and don't make me look like a nurse. A nurse with a lazy mohawk, to be sure, but still a nurse. Seriously, why are wide width shoes so hard to find, and so ugly when you do find them??

But I digress. I started clinic on Thursday, which was sadly kind of a big bust. I got myself all nervous and excited, and I set my little massage cubicle up all nice-like and found my client's file (eventually) and worked out what I was going to say when she got there and everything... and then she never showed up. Bleh! Disappointing. Especially since I had to wait out the full hour anyway before I could go back into the room to get my stuff, since that would be disturbing to the clients who did show up. But at least I still get credit for the hour since she didn't cancel. Also, she appears to have re-booked for the same time this coming Thursday, and I'm assigned to her. So I (hopefully) will get the chance to work on her after all. (And no, I'm not going to ask her why she didn't show up last week. that would be rude) So clinic has been a whole lot of nothing so far (nobody booked me for Friday), but the graduating class is leaving really, really soon, so things will soon be totally out of hand. I really want to try to find some time to squeeze in a visit to my family and friends in New York, but I'm starting to doubt if that's possible between clinic, a half marathon I'm interested in working for clinic hours, and Amanda's class schedule. Which sucks, because I really miss my family, and things are only going to get busier from here.

On the plus side, I'm going to be moving closer to campus soon (still need to work out the exact date... why is my two week break seeming so much more stressful than the semester??), which will enable me to work more clinic hours more easily. I'm hoping this move will be a good thing. It's not going to be easy getting used to not living in the same house as my girlfriend again... But I really need to take care of these clinic hours, and taking some of the stress off my driving knee and a whole lot of time off my commute should help.

So, that's life right now, mostly. Too much stuff, not enough time. So what else is new?

Closest Game Ever?

It was like US v. Brazil all over again... if Brazil had won. Still and all, as sad as I am that we didn't win, I am immensely proud of my Cheesesteaks. It was an incredibly close game (seriously: tied in regular time, no goals in overtime, Flash just barely got 5 out of 5 penalty kicks in the shootout and Independence got 4 out of 5), especially considering how many severe thrashings we were dealt from the get-go. I mean, Flash was VIOLENT. And our girls were HARDCORE. The Western New York Flash should be renamed the Western New York Bash... YourNoseInWithOurElbowAndNotGetCarded. Kai should have gotten a medal just for staying in the game. What with the bashed in nose (I really wasn't joking about the nose bashing) and the concussion and all. And everyone should buy Amy Rodriguez a drink for how many shots she took (even if she only made one. hey, she tried really hard). I wouldn't be surprised if it went into the double digits. Our girls may be limping back to the bus without medals, it's true, but they should be limping back with pride.

"It's the Standard Grandpa Drill"

In a way, I was very lucky to grow up without television. When the weather was bad, I could be blissfully oblivious to how much everybody was freaking out and just take it as it came. So right now I'm having a hard time telling if this hurricane's really going to be THAT BAD, or if I'm just so unused to crazyweatherhype that it seems scarier than it really is. I mean, the weather channel made the rain last week look crazy scary, and I only encountered slightly more puddling than usual. Know that they're truly whipped up into a full fever pitch frenzy, I'm having a hard time deciding just how hysterical I should be. Television has me wanting to evacuate the whole damn state and write it off as a loss, but my girlfriend assures me (as she stockpiles giant jugs of water and canned goods and tarp) that the worst her house is going to get is maybe some flooding in the basement and a power outage. Oh, and I should maybe move my electrical stuff away from the windows. Y'know, just in case they shatter. No big deal.

Still and all, it could be worse. My school has already canceled classes for Monday, so I don't have to worry about missing another day (I already missed Wednesday and Thursday due to severe vertigo and then severe exhaustion from the medicine I was put on for the vertigo). My team is playing the Championship game in Rochester instead of on their home turf, so it shouldn't be canceled due to flooding. Plus Amanda and I won't be so tempted to go and end up getting stranded in Philly in a hurricane. And if the storm is really as bad as the hype, I've got valium now! Yes, apparently they can treat vertigo with valium. Who knew?

On a down(er?) note, my mom has informed me that apparently our surviving cat, Gracie, went out early Wednesday morning and has yet to return. She's pulled stunts like that before, though not often and not recently, so I'm trying not to panic yet. But if she doesn't return before the storm, I don't like her odds. She's a scrawny little thing, nineteen years old, arthritic... Very spry still, but I don't like her chances against hurricane force winds. Even if nothing bad's happened to her yet, I doubt she'll make it through the storm without someone taking her in, and I doubt she'll let herself be taken in. So here's hoping she's okay and that she comes home before the storm hits.

Dear Righty

I'm sorry for breaking your claw off. It was very pretty and blue. It was an accident, I promise. Hope we can still be friends.

p.s. I tried to throw you another hot dog, but the seagulls stole it.

I kind of like a sport now.

I will at some point write a post about moving to New Jersey and starting massage school, but right now I'm so tired of thinking about bony landmarks and trying to remember which is a tubercle and which is a tuberosity that I'm just going to focus on the part of my life here that will probably be the hardest for people to believe: I kind of like a sport now.

Don't worry, old friends, it's only women's soccer. Baseball still bores me to tears, basketball doesn't hold my interest, I'll watch hockey only if Amanda really, really wants to, and even men's soccer doesn't do much for me. Although I did enjoy the men's World Cup, so I guess I like it when it's international and/or there's something at stake. We'll see if I still like women's soccer when it's all US teams on college soccer fields. I suspect I still will, and if you've ever seen pictures of Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach, or half the players of the Philadelphia Independence, you'll understand why.

That's actually how Amanda and I picked the team we would follow after the World Cup (from the six teams in the WPS. seriously, there are only six teams to choose from). We were cruising the WPS website and a banner popped up with this amazing looking butch with chunks of bleached hair, and I said "OOOH! What team does SHE play for?" We are now in her fan club and are going to get our picture taken with her after the game next weekend. There are several other fabulous gay-looking players on the Philadelphia Independence, so even if she should leave the team, we should still be good. We were really stoked that Rapinoe was on the Independence, but it turned out that she was only with them briefly before being traded to magicJack (not the magicJack or the Washington magicJack. Just... magicJack.) But she was with them long enough to sign balls and jerseys, apparently!

After much analysis, Amanda and I determined that she's the big M and R thingie with the 11, since her initials are MR and her number was 11 with the Independence, and there is no 11 on the roster currently. Also cool, right above her signature is Amy Rodriguez, who was also on the US team (and I believe is still with the Independence, so bonus points) and is also awesome.

We swore never to be fans of magicJack, because what the hell kind of a team is sponsored and renamed by a sham product like magicJack, anyway? But since they've got Wambach, Rapinoe, and I think a bunch of other awesome US team players, we have had to reevaluate. I'd still rather see the Washington Freedom vs. the Philadelphia Independence (Freedom vs. Independence. It's ON.) than magicJack vs. the Philadelphia Independence, but I'll take what I can get.

At any rate, go team go, and may the better man win as long as he's a woman with a butch haircut.

Shirley

My great-aunt Shirley passed away last night. I have to admit, it hasn't really hit me yet; I think I already did a lot of my mourning last week, when I first realized that she probably didn't have long left. I am sorry I didn't get to see her again, and I'm really sorry my brother didn't get to see her. My dad is pretty upset that we hadn't visited her much in the past few years. For a while there we were spending a fair amount of time with her, and I think we were all getting something good out of it. There was a distance over the past few years for reasons I've never really understood, I think more to do with distance in my dad's family than with Shirley herself. It's a shame, really, because Shirley was great. I'm sorry we didn't get to see her more, but I'm glad we got to see her one more time.