@ "gee whiz." I really like that.
It's thanksgiving break now, and I've been enjoying chilling out at my sister's place. We had lamb for Thanksgiving dinner, I've been drinking lots of nice dark beers (Sam Addams Cream Stout, Smuttynose Robust Porter) and scotch (Talisker), and playing a ton of board games. More than anything though, it's just been nice to have a change of scenery. Wednesday and Thursday were so nice here in central Jersey, that I was able to walk outside in a t-shirt. I haven't been able to do that at school in over a month. I felt like my soul could breathe again; I loved it.
Tomorrow I'll likely hang out in the city with some friends from undergrad. I didn't even pack my footbag gear for this trip... I kinda wanted a break from footbag as well. I'm not injured and I'm not burnt out on the sport, but I definitely sensed that I could use a small break. I'm excited to go back into The City tomorrow. I love the bustle of it all, the variety, the endless possibilities. Just stand at an intersection for 5 minutes and look around. So many different looking people, so many languages, so many possible stories. Being at school you sometimes forget that the world isn't just rich white kids between the ages of 18-22. I miss that bigger world outside. But on the flip of that, I know I should really absorb and relish my last few weeks at Cornell when I go back, because next semester isn't going to be the same feel. I predict that next semester will feel more like I'm back in the working world, and taking night classes. But it won't be that strange microcosm of college that I've been in for the last 3 semesters.
Since this is my footblog, I feel like I should briefly recap my last session, just to be thorough. I last played on Tuesday afternoon. I got out a camera, found it was messed up, got another one, and then ended up having a pretty bad solo session in the gym. I was kinda surprised to have a bad session. A few nights earlier I had a meh session, so it wasn't like I was due. Also, I wasn't stressed during this session because I had just finished up all my school work, and break was about to begin for me. Even so, I ended up playing really badly. I must have played for 80 minutes or so, and throughout the course of it all only had 3 highlights which were remotely video-worthy. I haven't checked the footage yet, so I'm not even sure that I have that much. Between my lack of good footage (I sent all of my really good stuff to Rory) and my lack of time, I'm beginning to have doubts about whether I'll be able to make a video at all for the Calendar this year. I think that at best I'll be able to contribute a video with low-level shred but funny editing, and at worst I'll either drop out or release a very boring tripod video with low-level shred. I'm just not going to worry about that now.
On a positive note, my social life has taken a turn for the better. While this will hopefully make me happier, it also might eat into my footbag time. But again, I'm not going to worry about that just yet.
I think it might be fun and therapeutic for me to make a "thanksgiving list" of things I am grateful for which are related to footbag, but it could be super duper cheesy. F* it, I'll give it a go. I may come back and edit this later.
Ken's 2007 Footbag list of Thanksgiving.
I am thankful...
* that I discovered footbag at all. It's a bit of an obscure sport, there's a little bit of a stigma to it, and if things had gone differently, I might not have ever found it. Considering that it's my favorite thing, I feel really fortunate to have found it. Some people die before ever finding their passion.
* that I discovered footbag when I was 17. That was good timing for several reasons. It helped get me through high school/college/post grad life without getting into drugs or other stupid shit. I remember coming to the realization that drugs and other risky stuff could wait for later, but my shot at actualizing my footbag potential was when I was young, and not to mess with it.
* that I have been able to see so much of the World thanks to footbag. Footbag has allowed me not just to travel to places, but to have connections to cool people in those places to befriend, and show me around. Moving to Japan was much easier because of footbag, and other times footbag saved my ass.
* that I didn't drop out of footbag in the year 2000. I actually did for 6 months. During my time off I came to the realization that footbag is only fun and worthwhile when I play for myself. If I hadn't had this epiphany, I might have stayed out. I would have had a 3 year footbag career. Instead, I can now say that I've been in the sport for 10+ years, and that I've had most of my proudest accomplishments over the last 7.
* for all the really good friends I've made through footbag. I've made some friendships that really transcend this sport. There are people who have dropped out of the sport who I am still tight with, and there are others who I know will continue to be my brothers even if either of us drop out of the sport. It's amazing to me that I would not have met them if not for footbag.
* that there are shoe alternatives to Rod Lavers. Those shoes never fit the shape of my foot, and made footbag painful for the first 8 years of my career. I love my G6s, and I'm happy that people have put in the effort to find other shoes which people can shred in.
* that there are still people out there who put on footbag tournaments. It's often an expensive and thankless job, but its what keeps the sport and the community going. I love that there are so many tournaments every year, on both coasts, and in other countries and continents.
* my health. I've seen many players have their careers derailed or shortened due to injury, and I have to say I've been pretty lucky. 10+ years into the sport, I'm still playing, and playing near the peak of my game. I'm thankful my body has allowed me to do this.
It's getting late now, so I'm off to bed. I may add more later, but for now I think I covered some of the ones that are most important to me. I've been thankful for footbag for a long time now, but I think it's good to actually think about and specifically list why.
I also celebrated by getting a ton of sleep, which is good because I was running a pretty bad deficit these last few nights.
Definitely looking forward to shredding again.
Had double spinning osis off my foot in the seal… there really was no reason I should have missed the DSosis, I was just too excited.
