Friday, August 28, 2009

Face...Meet Frisbee.

Remember when I was posting so enthusiastically about playing ultimate frisbee? I still had a blast, it was great fun and good exercise...but for some reason I can't go out there and play a sport with the college students without getting injured!

This past Sunday the afternoon volleyball started up again, and it is really hard to pass up volleyball. There is always a lot of laughter and yes, some trash-talking. It's all in good fun. I noticed near the end of one of the games that I had a lump forming on my left wrist. I wasn't too worried about it, and of course kept hitting the ball on that same spot over and over. By the time we got home, I couldn't move it very well without wincing. Turns out it was just a tendon thing, and by the next day it barely hurt anymore. But almost a week later, I have the most hideous green and purple bruise covering my wrist, and those who have spotted it look very concerned. I'm mostly just marveling at the different colors that show up each day!

Now -- ultimate frisbee. First I have to say that I wish so much that more girls got out there to play (volleyball too!). It can be a bit intimidating to be one of two or three girls on a field full of guys, trying to play this game without getting injured. That's where my story comes in. I still don't know exactly how it happened...you'll have to ask the other people who saw it and altogether exclaimed "ooh!" as I hit the ground. I was in the end zone trying to catch the frisbee. The next thing I remember is my feet flying out from under me, my knees hitting the ground, and my face...this is the part I wish I had on video. Seriously. I was so close to catching the frisbee that my face landed on it. Not only that, but I remember my head flying back after bouncing off the frisbee. Ouch.

Luckily it was the side of my face that hit, not straight on, otherwise I might have smashed my nose. Somehow I came out of that with no bigger injuries, so I kept playing. Not long after, though, Miles and I left for home and I could feel the right side of my face throbbing with pain. It continued on that way for the rest of the night. I only wished that the face-plant incident had happened before my fumbling catch in the end zone near the beginning of the game.

Last night was supposed to be a game of 'capture the flag,' but what I heard was that there weren't enough people who stayed after dinner to play. Everyone began gathering chairs to sit in a circle, and it turns out that one of the freshman girls, Stephanie, was going to teach us a game. Now, I'm not going to attempt to explain it all here, but it involved each of us coming up with a sign for ourselves that everyone else had to learn. When most of us felt like we knew how to play, and once we really got into it, I'm telling you that was some of the best Welcome Week fun we've had. There was so much laughter and great fellowship, and afterward I took photos of each person doing their 'sign.' I'm hoping to get them all in Sunday's slide show.

Tonight is guys' night/girls' night: the guys will play basketball on campus while the girls play games at Laura's place. Then tomorrow morning we'll meet for breakfast at Honest Abe's Doughnuts (sounds like that was Casey's idea, it's one of his favorites).

Thankfully I don't think I can get injured playing board games or eating doughnuts.

2 comments:

meghant said...

Tracey - Sorry you got injured, but from reading your posts it really sounds like you and your husband do a lot of great things for the "kids" there (I feel old enough to call them kids at this point) - not just through words, but through actions too. We have a great church community here and I know how important it is to me as a parent to see people care and show interest in my little kids - so thank you, for caring and showing an interest in someone's big kids! --Meghan (Dever) Trout

tracey said...

Meghan ~ Thanks so much for reading and for your comments! There are some tough things for my husband, at least, about this job. But for the most part I really love spending time with the students. And now that I'm a mom I know that I would like my kids being cared for, so we try. Thanks again, very encouraging!

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