Looking at snow, thinking about disc.

I'm sitting in the office at my parents house in Idaho, looking out the window at the beautiful snowfall and admiring the children across the street who are hard at work making... well... I can't tell what they're making but they're doing it quite vigorously and with much squealing.

It's time to continue my thoughts on the last season, though that time seems so far removed from this amazing winter scene I'm observing now.

Mucho Gusto is a really interesting combination of people. Let me take a moment and talk a little bit about the teammates themselves, because when you meet us on the field, I don't think you realize how diverse we are, or how interesting everyone is. Of the 18 on the roster, 9 are students at the University of Arizona, and 8 of those play with the college team, Scorch. We have been working hard with these women during the past few college seasons, and we really encouraged them to come out for the Club season, because we knew it would expand their experience tenfold. One of interesting parts of this "youth movement" on our team is that the age range of our players is enormous. We have one player who was 18 during the season, and another who was 41.

More interesting factoids: of the 9 of us who aren't students, 7 work in some sort of service-oriented or non-profit realm. I think that says a lot about how community-oriented Tucsonans really are. One of the students, and (I think) 5 of the non-students, have advanced degrees. Our students are super-smart: a doctoral student in neurobiology, undergrads majoring in biochemistry, veterinary science, physiology, and screenwriting, among other things. They smart, I'm tryin' to say.

Me? I sell polyester pants to little old ladies over the internet. I guess you could call that a service. But really, I am one of the very few money grubbers in the group.

One of my favorite things about Mucho Gusto is that we don't really look like the "typical" women's ultimate team. I mean, look over there at that pic on the side - do we look like the usual ultimate clones? Nah. Even when we're wearing matching uniforms we still look a little rag-tag. And I wouldn't trade that attitude for ten Riots or Rare Airs. We're goofy. And when we're able, we're pleased to beat you!

Oh I keep digressing. I guess I'm not much good at tournament recaps - all I want to talk about is "feelings." I'm thinking that's too touchy-feely, even for me.

Holiday!

Merry Christmas everybody - Happy holidays all round.

Thoughts on a summer devoted solely to ultimate.

I suppose it's about time I write something about the season (and Regionals), considering that it's been over for three months or so. I guess it takes me a long time to recover from emotional experiences and to digest my thoughts.

When we started this season, I was "nominated" to be a captain of the team. There weren't exactly a ton of volunteers. Despite that, I still believed it to be an honor to have been chosen - it reflects a trust that your teammates have that you'll steer the ship as true as you can. What I didn't know was how much anxiety would come along with the honor. I'm a perfectionist - pitfalls discussed here - and a control freak; these are qualities that probably help me be a better ultimate player but may not be especially supportive of my mental health. So as the summer wore on I found myself to be more emotionally exhausted than physically, which is really saying something when you realize that I am 37 years old and no spring chicken.

I found myself doing a lot of reading over the summer of various blogs and sites trying to get insight into how to be a better motivator, and how to cope when not everyone on your team shares the same sense of commitment that you do. But for all the mental strain that this put on me, it turned me into a much better player. Why? Because you can't expect your team to do workouts you won't do, to execute and understand offenses if you don't, or to attend tournaments that you won't. So I freakin' did everything. And doing everything made me better. This is no shock to people who accustomed to that level of commitment in ultimate, but I'VE never done it before. In 13 years of playing.

I'll write a review of regionals in the next couple of weeks. I just wanted to first set the context for the write-up because my perspective on it can't be taken out of context of the rest of Mucho Gusto's season.

And BTW, thanks to Peter Jamieson for the blog link on Cultimate Opinion... I suppose this means someone may actually be reading this once in awhile, so I better get writing!