shenanigans at its finest

for the past two and a half months, my weekends have been filled with kickball, sun, meandering tourists, and strangers that quickly became good friends. with basement shenanigans’ first-round loss in the kickball tournament yesterday, our 2010 season came to an end.

i joined dc thunder’s spring kickball league on a whim; i have only one dim recollection of playing kickball in third grade, and since the brits aren’t big on the game, i hadn’t played since that recess in elementary school. how hard could it be?

turns out it wasn’t difficult, but i wasn’t exactly basement shenanigans’ mvp either (that was beth). i had my share of misfortunes, both on and off the field. the second week of kickball, after placing my backpack with the rest of my team’s belongings in a corner of the bottom line, it was no where to be found two hours later. even though i enlisted the help of the majority of the remaining kickballers at the bar, the bag never turned up. neither did my favorite wallet, cell phone, or chanel sunglasses. i didn’t take my backpack off for the rest of the season, despite countless protests of “there’s no way your stuff will get stolen twice.”

only a week later, while walking to the metro, my water bottle leaked all over the inside of my replacement bag, soaking my brand new cell phone and rendering it inoperable for the afternoon. luckily, it eventually dried out and i avoided another $50 replacement phone charge.

during our close match-up against truffle shuffle, i bit the dust trying to make a sweet catch. my sunglasses went flying, my headband fell off, and i ended up with a severely bruised ass and a right arm i couldn’t lift higher than my waist for nearly a week. another weekend, i dropped a fly ball kicked directly to me, out in left field, by a friend on the opposing team. we still go back on forth over whether i dropped it on purpose or as a favor. i’m not sure which is more embarrassing.

lost property and bruised egos aside, i’m no worse for the wear and pretty sad the season is over so quickly. it seems like just a few weeks ago i was showing up to the first game on the mall, putting on my doodie-rust colored t-shirt, and meeting my new teammates. what will i do with all those saturday afternoons-turned evenings-turned nights previously devoted to kickball? whatever it is, i hope it's as fun as kickball.