casual ultimate » My life.

I haven’t posted in awhile, and this blog is starting to become stagnant, so I’m gonna inject some of brown bear’s life into it. I apologize in advance.

1. School

I’m currently freaking out. I will be applying for residency positions soon and I’m starting to wonder if living/breathing ultimate for most of my adult life is gonna catch up once I start applying against other applicants who have done their dutiful research/volunteering/learning. Will my “I went to Ultimate natties for the past 2 years!” stand up against medical student alpha male’s “I am a lead author on 4 different articles in the New England Journal of Medicine dealing with the molecular genetics of B-cell lymphomas”? Probably not. Crap.
Then, there comes the possibility of getting out of Chicago? I have, for the most part, settled on Emergency Medicine as my career, and Chicago has 6 (and one combined) programs that are great. However, I have a lingering longing to get to Portland. A good buddy from college lived there for awhile and Finn and I made a trip out there 2 summers ago. One of the best weeks of my life, and honestly, the first time I’ve been to a city out of Chicago and thought the whole time…I could live here! Only one program, but it’s quality. 3 years away from Chicago however? I went for one week when it was sunny…could I stand 5 months of incessant rain? Would I like the guys on Rhino (would I even make Rhino with my schedule?)? Would my parents freak out and move to Portland with me???? Dear lord. And even though I’ve made a niche of being the Indian guy that hangs out mostly with white kids, could I live in a city that would only allow that social situation to happen? (One week in Portland and I didn’t see one black person the whole time. We flew back to Midway and felt a culture shock).
Finally, even with my lamenting of how my dedication to ultimate will probably be a hindrance to my career, I am starting to get scared about the upcoming school/ultimate schedule. Some tough rotations in the summer, and then, if Portland is really a probability, I’m gonna have to an away rotation during the season. Hmmmmm…… (more about ultimate later).

2. Social

Living with 4 other dudes. It’s a recipe for trouble, but it’s worked out unbelievably great so far. Everyone has their own schedules, 2 of the roomies have lady friends, and everyone is laid back. Moy cooks a lot, and I’ve started cooking more. We’re no Bryan Kings yet, but my egg curry is starting to rival my momma’s.
Chicago weather promotes a lot of indoor activities and we have jumped whole heartedly into 2 board games…Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. I know I know, there’s no reason to publicly advertise that we’re complete losers, but these games are awesome. Come over and play. Seriously. Right now.
I saw There Will be Blood on Friday. One of the more intense movies I’ve seen, but a couple days after I still have this gnawing feeling that it was missing some sort of finality. I feel like epic movies should leave you with some sort of construct to much on for awhile. And while there was a lot going on, I got nothing that stays with me. Does this make any sense? What did you guys think? I still have to see Persepolis and Juno, and there will be a lot more time to see movies cuz….

2a. Fermentation Free February

Not drinking this month. Most of it stems from the fact that as a 25 year old I don’t recover as well as when I was 19. (I realize that most of you are hitting the decrepit age of 30 and are rolling your sad, old, tired eyes at this). But, successive shitty Sundays have led Moy, Finn, and I to renounce alcohol for 29 days. Yet, all of us have already made amends to this. We’ve already saved a weekend where we CAN drink (Finn in Vegas, Moy and I possibly at Mudbowl). But Moy and Finn have already decided to drink ANOTHER weekend also. Craziness. Can mid-20 somethings even have fun without alcohol? How sad is it that I even have to ask this question? I don’t even know what to do on a Fri/Sat. night except go to a bar/club/lounge/party, etc.
We went out last night to the Holiday Club, a bar at Irving Park and Sheridan that driving by you would be certain was a strip club. Fun bar, good music in the back, mix of cute/ugly girls, cheap enough beer, etc. I couldn’t wait to leave. I spent most of that time talking to this guy that I’ve only seen socially when both of us were wasted. He wasn’t drunk when we got there and I was stone sober…not as great a dynamic this time around. With all the MJackson and old school hip-hop I normally would be tearing up the dance floor (rubbing myself on every female there) and I didn’t even budge last night. This is gonna be one long month.
On the flip side this has been a great Sunday so far. Got an early brunch at Victory’s Banner (best French toast ever) and lots of work in before Super Bowl shenanigans. Ok, let’s end this section with…

2b. Ladies

2007 was an…interesting…year. Equal parts feeling heartache and equal parts dishing out heartbreak. Ladies of ultimate, ladies of medicine, and ladies in between. Now, I know it seems like I’m blowing it up, but as my friends would attest to..it was nothing like that. To put it gently, the year unfortunately was one of quantity and not so much quality. (Man..that’s offensive, even for me…but it wouldn’t be directed at anyone in the world of reading this blog.) But if white ultimate girls and brown medical student ladies aren’t gonna work….WHAT IS?
Hector does a great job writing about this in his blog…but skirt-chasing in the ultimate world (or any insular communites like ours i guess) is a tricky proposition. Do you plunge into this trap even though you know all about the pitfalls out there or do you enter the outside world, and engage women who will have no idea how to fit in to your obsession in to such a fringe world. (I have no idea but I assume it’s the same if you flip-flop genders in my diatribe). Maybe women in the periphery? Girls who don’t play but still understand what it’s all about. A certain ex of mine and a certain teammate are “talking” and I’m interested to see how this plays out.
Maybe I should just go on a lot of dates in Feb. I love dating. But when’s the last time you went on a date and didn’t drink?!

3. Ultimate

It seems like the club season never ends. As soon as Nationals are done, you recover, and then you try to start working on improving your skill/physical set for the next season. This should once again be an interesting year. Exciting prospects, disappointing losses. Bill Finn has requested not to captain this year, preferring to improve the soldier instead of continuing the soldier-general. Two years later, Billy has instituted a lot of changes that hopefully will last. Joey (agreeing to continue), Akira (reprising his captaincy), and Matt Stupca will come in as the trifecta in charge. It seems like 3 dudes with diff. ultimate backgrounds, different ideas, and different strengths. Will it be chaos or beautiful symmetry? I hope and think the latter.
SubZero will be returning most of its team including a lil’ Korean we all love…Tyson Park. Unfortunate, but if you’ve spent any time with Ty, it’s not at all unexpected. I really am sick of losing to these guys. Is it finally the year where we reassert our dominance in the Midwest? No doubt a challenge with them acquiring Tyson and regaining Q-tip. Can’t fucking wait.

3a. Winter League

Been a lot of fun so far. Our team hasn’t been faring that well, but it’s been fun nonetheless. It’s a nice way to keep running, and the fields are sweeeeeeet. The game is also different, with 3 games to 25 min. I was scared that the quality of play would suck, and while it hasn’t been stellar by any means, it’s been good enough.

3b. Spring League

Is this the year that every club player in Chi joins?!!! Why the F not? Spring league is by far the most fun of the leagues, and if enough players joined, there would be less weekends where you can’t pull a full team. (I think Ferrari’s team worked through that a lot last year). Ladies of Nemesis/Briefcase…why NOT join in full force this spring?? Ladies are the limiting factor and the better the quality/quantity, the more fun it would be.
I know there are a lot of arguments as to whether strong ultimate communites lead to stronger club teams, etc. etc. and I’m sure there are arguments ad nauseam either way on RSD. I’m not well versed in any of these..but it’s always bothered me that the Chicago ultimate community SUCKS. There’s such a disconnect b/t league, club, college, etc. Why do people come from Madison or Minneapolis or Atlanta and lament on our poor state of affairs here? I don’t know and I def. don’t have the answers. I’m sure the causes are multifactorial, but we can start to make changes as individuals and members of our respective club teams. Why not join Winter, Spring, Summer Leagues? Why don’t we start coaching more of our area college/high school teams? Coaching/organizing ultimate is a time-sink and I realize club activities take so much time as it is, that it might not be beneficial to one’s life to put that much time into ultimate. But PLAYING ulty, even at league level? Gary LeDonne hasn’t missed a league in the last 45 years of playing (he’s seriously like 60 now); and he is/was better than you were/are/ever will be.
Now that I got some steam….I’ve had multiple conversations with Jacob Dee as to whether strengthening league play/interaction would lead to better recruits for clubs. For the most part, he is not convinced that it does. I have no theoretical/statistical proof, but I do have Ed Uram. Eddie was a rookie on Machine this past year, and has played ulty only for 3 years. As far as I am concerned, he is the most exciting player in Chicago. The kid is like 21 or 22, and is SIIICK. He’s an athletic phenom, and he only has room to improve. The only reason he had the skills (which are soooo raw….his flick still makes me cringe), is cuz Gary and his old-dude crew took him under their wing in LEAGUE PLAY. That is the only reason that kid is as good as he is now. One year of league play under those cronies and he dramaticaly improved. And now he plays on Machine, and he gets pretty good playing time for a rook. One of the more distinct memories I have from summer league was with Akira. I’m sure he doesn’t even remember this, but he spent a game kicking my ass and then telling me why. It was AWESOME.

I’m getting kicked out of this coffee shop. This has been way too long. Join spring league assholes.