long time

damn.
i went for a while there, about 4 or 5 days that i didn't even get the chance to check my email.
that hasn't happened since my ass was in guatemala.

and again, i'm all tuckered out.
but yesterday was kinda cool.
this old woman from the pool who reminds me of a librarian with her bunned hair-do and chained glasses always talks to me about books and what i'm reading.
yesterday this woman, majella, who's probably near 90 gave me a few books.
she says she's going to be moving soon and needs to unload some stuff.
so she gave me three books.
very kind of her. two of them look rather interesting.

also on monday, apparently it was the day for old people to voice their age.
i had one guy show me his driver's license. May, 1912.
gunna be 93.
he kept bitching about how unions used to mean something and now they're crap. too true.

after that was an old couple. the lady said i took good care of the old couple.
she was 95, her husband was 94.
neither of them needed any aid in walking.
they looked good. 80ish.

i think i fucked up my clavicle. it doesn't feel like muscle pain, its more bone.
there's a sharp pain at either end if i move certain ways.
it doesn't seem to be dislocated. hopefully it's not broke.
i bench-pressed 205 lbs on monday.
that probably didn't help.
but it was hurting before that.

oh. i also wanted to mention my sunday.
before i had to work, i went and saw a girl's rugby game at marymoor.
a co-worker from the pool invited me.
i'd never seen the game played before.
i started to get the hang of the rules.
but then i got further help when a male rugby player on the sidelines helped me out a bit with the rules.

i was trying to figure out why when the girls got tackled and were fighting for the ball, sometimes the ref would stop the play, and other times he'd let them continue.

i guess its all about getting the ball out.
if you don't get it out, he stops the play and the other team gets the ball.
you also can't touch the ball until the player who was tackled with it gets it past her feet on the side of the field away from their goal.
so i guess if it's grabbed before that, the ref also stops the play.

like in football, when the player is running with the ball, you can only pass it back behind you. so i guess when you get tackled, it's prefered that you turn when you fall so the ball cap be tossed or popped out to the backfield.

when the ball goes out of bounds, it gets thrown back in like soccer.
but the thing is, that each team lines up infront of the person throwing it in.
and two members of each team takes a third member of their team, grabs their shorts and wedgies them up into the air to catch or deflect the pass inbounds.
looks like it would be kinda painful.

the scrum's the craziest part though. (normally you're clothed)
you get a row of three players shoulder to shoulder facing off against the other team's three players. they'll eventually grapple like in football.
but then two players line up behind the row of three and are basically pushing the asses of the row of three with their shoulders.
then behind the row of two, is one more player who pushes on both their asses with their shoulders.

the ball is put into play by one of the players between the first row of three players.
the ball can't be touched by hands until it passes behind the player's feet and comes out of the scrum.
so these scrums can twist and turn all over the field while the ball is being passed around by feet.

very crazy to watch.
i kinda liked the game because its definitely more fast-paced than football with all its pauses for each down.
when a player gets tackled in this game, like i mentioned before, the ball gets back into play when it gets past their feet.

scoring is almost like football.
a "try" (touchdown) is worth five points.
you get a free kick after the try which is worth 1 point, but you can also try for a conversion for 2 points.
i believe there's also a chance for something similar to a field goal.
but i'd have to check on that again.

i got this knowledge from a nice guy named Will who plays for Quake Rugby.
he invited me to come to some of their practices.
tuesdays and thursdays at volunteer park.

watching kinda made me want to play.
but i gotta watch out for my clavicle right now.
also, after the girls were done playing, they all came off the field and started partially disrobing and getting into dry, unsoiled clothing.
(don't worry, the majority of them are dykes.)
anyway. all of them had gruesome bruises all over their legs,
and arms and a lot of them were taped up in one place or another.
a very brutal sport.

so the guys that i made friends with were large men.
but the other group of men that they sometimes play against on the "Beaches" team were all ripped samoan-looking motherfuckers.
something like the rock or tuiasosopo.

i might die.
maybe i'll just try a few practices.
anyone else wanna die?

i'm so sad i forgot my camera, i could have explained this all better.
also in the field next to the rugby game were people playing cricket.
again. no idea what's going on there.

there was also a memorial set out for the arlington cemetery.
row after row of white crosses resembling the DC cemetery.
there was a native american-looking guy meandering through the crosses beating solemnly on a large drum.
a cool image.

there was also a climbing area with a few pinnacles.
i think i finally have the upper-body strength to attempt something like that.
but if the wall's too vertical, i think the whole fear-of-heights thing might kick in.
its mostly the getting down part that i fear.
but when you're doing shit like that, you're always going to be belaying with ropes. so nothing to fear.
but when climbing out on my own, i don't fear up, just down.

it's my half bday today.
getting closer to being old.