Stories from Sarasota (continued)...

The first day back at work is always a battle, especially when you're trying to get used to being on the left-side of the country again.

Our team rented three condos, a cottage and a house in Siesta Key, all within minutes of eachother and a quick stumble from the beach. The beach was beautiful, but between the raw sewage smell from Hurricane Wilma and the red tide, it was more advantageous to look and not smell or swim.

The great thing about having nationals in Florida every year is the use of the Sarasota Polo Fields, with room for 9 polo fields, which is the equivalent of 10 football fields. The grass is superfast and very even, so it's a nice change from the ankle-rolling, weed-ridden fields that we sometimes practice on. The best perk is the free beer garden that everyone converges on in the afternoon after most of the games. It's a great chance to catch up with friends from the Canadian and US ulti communities, be silly, and drink some yummy Red Hook (or Budweiser, if you're unlucky). In the evenings, our team had fantastic opportunities to enjoy eachother's company.

One thing of note with our team, that is a bit of a contrast with other teams that I've played on, is the level of "geekiness" (as I fondly like to refer to it) that is present. Some folks like to play speed chess, others like poker or strategy games, and more recently, some discovered math puzzles. Math puzzles!?!? Yes, and we even like drinking b-pops (c'mon, this is a G-rated blog!). Personally, I like our pool-side sing-a-longs with Henrik on guitar and Steve Finn on the kinder-glockenspiel. Our team should cut an album, we sound that good.

Anyway, I'm not going to go into detail about the various games and plays, but here are some links to a few pics taken during the finals game from a talented photog named Bil Elsinger...

- Jen Mader with a sick lay-out D
- Will getting a D in our finals game
- Steve Finn with a hot lay-out grab
- Pat Hard looking fierce after a great catch
- Wendy barely missing a D in the cup

And, because it was such a hot play and because he's so damn handsome, here's a video clip of one of Will's lay-out D's in the finals game.

I think I'm still letting the events of the weekend sink in, it's kind of surreal. And, I guess that dealing with a massive hangover yesterday while travelling home hasn't given me much of a chance to reflect as well.

And wouldn't you just know it, our first night of San Francisco Ultimate Club (SFUC) winter league for ultimate frisbee starts tonight...oh, the humanity. I have the pleasure of captaining a team called "Amazing Elastic Plastic" with Dave Brokaw this season. The theme for this year's league is "informercials", which is quite entertaining. Well, at least I can abuse my captain title and make everyone else play, while I sip on a hot chocolate on the sidelines...