casual ultimate » Follow the Stream

I’ve been listening to Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA a lot since Natties. I think I’m slowly letting myself out of the box, and it feels really good. I remember in high school all I listened to was Floyd, Zeppelin, and usually darker stuff. I liked old Black Sabbath. I liked Rush. I hadn’t discovered a lot of the Hip-Hop and electronic music that would take a hold in the college years. Anyway, I think the music that resonates with me has a lot to do with what state I find myself in. If I’m unhappy, I will probably want to listen to The Wall on repeat for weeks while I read 1984 Junior year in HS for example. At Natties, and this season in general, I think I learned very little about how to play Ultimate, but I learned a lot about how to have fun and how to play in general. Sometimes there’s no crisis, and I can let myself just “Go play.”

I was fortunate enough to play on Brown Chicken Brown Cow. I wrote the team about why I think BCBC is an important team in the Ultimate landscape. Here’s what I said:

BCBC is a team that treats each one of its players as an important and integral part of the team. Even more than that, BCBC takes it upon itself to make each one of its players feel loved. That’s totally exceptional and hard to do. I think it was for the most part successful this season. We also play fair Ultimate. Always. We don’t cheat to win ever that I’ve seen. We love each other and the sport, and we show it. Bravo, BCBC.

I also want to say that I really respect and learned a lot from Marie, Bree, Finney, and Emily from the Skirts, Adam, Jake, and Bacon from SLO, and the rest of the crew. I feel like the really young folks on our team somehow were exactly what I needed personally. I needed to reconnect with fun and love of the game and each other. It got complicated for me. Ultimate is beautiful and simple. Keep it simple.

One thing I need to own is that this year I really didn’t want to compete. I had a hard time in all of the big moments with this team, particularly as the season progressed and we got deeper into the series. I’ve never particularly loved competition. I think I have too much anxiety in my body as it is, and competition brings up more. It feels like it will take me down at times. I guess that one day that will be lifted from me, and I’ll be happy, joyous, and free.

About being happy, joyous, and free, I feel pretty lucky to have been able to party with “the cougars”, a group of some of the coolest women on zG (and Allen from Jam). I forget how to let go or why it’s even important until I’m around people like that who just show me. No answers. No analysis. The spirit of Homebrood lives on.

I’ll be an uncle in a couple weeks I think, and it’s gonna be cool. This kid is gonna be a baller. I can’t wait to meet him. The age of Wolf is about to begin. Get ready to be wowed.