Fear of Subway Systems?

Thursday night I had another game. It was a rec league game with my co-ed rec team called Cool Beans. This is not my other team (Team Gigantic), but I team I got into thanks to a friend that I used to work with at the government job. They're not the most finely-tuned players, but are capable of winning games. Generally speaking, the rate of intensity, the in-game intelligence, and attitudes are much better on this team than on my mens team. Conditioning is equally bad between the two teams, but Cool Beans has a MUCH better reason not to be. Fantastic people on the team.

I was playing centre-mid and striker for the whole game. It was against a really good team with a lot of quick players, and at half the score was still zeroes. They had a few more subs, and eventually caught us tired. I sombrero'd a couple of times and made some good passes and runs, but still, the absence of speed is still hurting me a lot. Hopefully I can work on skills other than just running around people (one of my favourites), and hopefully this injury will help me in the long run.

I can't seem to heal past this last little barrier that keeps me at about 65% sprint speed, There is a niggling paranoia that I am as healed as I will ever get, but I try to block that out. It's an incredibly disturbing thought for me, and all my personal doctor told me to do was to stretch it out daily. I have been, but I've also been stressing it. Surely that doesn't help, but I've only wanted to play. Football is excellent as an escape for me, it's pulled through for me in particular this summer.

Last night was a great time, after work I went with Brenden to Elephant & Castle, which has the greatest chicken fingers I have ever tasted (ask for the beer fingers). The batter is golden and delicious, flakey and tasty, but definitely not overdone, and the chicken is soft and tender, and in spite of the delicious texture created by the expert deep-frying technique, the flavour of the chicken itself remains a standstill. For eleven dollars, it is a steal, and definitely a place I would recommend to anybody in search of a cold beer and a great meal. Don't forget to make them yam fries, and ask for mayo. Their tomato mayo is excellent. Dip everything in that mayo.

Which brings me to a new idea for a segment. Food reviews, anybody? I just need a name for it. I think I'll stick with "Greg's Feedbag" for now. I guess.

After that, I drove over to Dan's for the remainder of the night. At the video rental store we went to, Jay am I decided to test his new martial art of choice - Hapkido. I hit him, he grabbed me, turned me around and choked me, so I hoisted him up and accidentally threw him into a wall of DVDs. Whops. By the way, that new Keanu Reeves LA crime fighting movie isn't bad, but it's not excellent. Enjoyable if you're into the genre.

Dan, Jay, Resa, and I spent the rest of the night doing whatever around Dan's house, Dan and I created a game on GTA where we jump out of a helicopter and try to hit certain things for points.

We spent an hour doing that, and I got home at 3.

In other news, next month will be digusting for me. I'm at my university from 10 Am to 10 Pm most every night, and on Fridays, I have only a couple breaks in between a triple-split shift with my bookstore job and three classes. I start at 7:30, and end the day at 5:30.

Games are starting to slow down, but the winter indoor season will be starting up in a month. By then, I should be fully healed.

"One day you'll realize our relationship rocked." Hahaha.

My ex is being a huge moron. She texted me today, wanting to be friends, and to get another one of her friends back. Fortunately, I like to think I'm a nice guy. Unfortunately for her, I owe her absolutely nothing. If for some reason you are looking at this, stop bothering me already.

I had an outdoor mens game tonight. We lost 2-3, in spite of playing against a 7 man outfield. We even gave them our worst player. They tore us apart. I tried to sort out what I could from centre-mid, but it was fruitless. Our wingers played like strikers and my central midfield partner also played like a striker. I was alone in my midfield for a majority of the game. At one point I had them in formation and we strung together less than ten passes, but it was all in all a learning experience. I did put in a few really good weighted balls, but I'm still coping with my lack of speed.

I did score one of my best goals to date, however. Still running at my maximum 2/3rds speed (literally), I managed to latch onto a searching long ball that somebody had played. Because of my speed, I was caught up to quickly, and had to fight off a man. The goalie also came out, so I kneed it over him from about 15 feet out. It was a high knee, and I'm not sure if it was what I meant to do, but it worked out nicely.

As for hilarious Ray moments, he missed the biggest sitter I had ever seen. He had to sidefoot it into an open net five feet away. Instead, he dribbled, and the goalie jumped on it. Whops! I should've yelled "SHOOT" at him. Might've been funny.

I sprained my left ankle too, while blocking a shot with a slide tackle. I barely got there in time, but I did, and it hurt for a bit. It should be better soon.

Also, huge shout out to my first fan, Fernanda. At least, I'm fairly certain that's her name. She's from Chile and speaks about as much English as a Chilean girl that doesn't speak much English. In other words, not much. She's still cool, though.

Awesome.

In other soccer news, I have too many jerseys:

Euro FC, Team Gigantic (x2), White Eagles Indoor, White Eagles Outdoor, Chelsea jerseys (x2), my old highschool jersey, and a blue practice jersey. Nine is too many.

I'm also looking to buy new cleats and indoor shoes. Predators look nice, and unfortunately for my wallet, have one of those little gimmicky things on them. This little treat is called the power pulse. It is the gold thing you see near the toe of the bottom of the shoe. The "power pulse" reportedly makes your shot harder and better controlled, as far as power goes. I don't see how that is possible, but just in case Adidas has figured out how to imbue magic into things, I'm interested.



There's also the Nike Vapors, and those are apparently incredibly light. We'll have to see, though. Any thoughts?

I forgot about you.

Well, it's been a while. I've been nursing that hamstring injury for a while, but I played two games yesterday. I can't sprint at all, so I had to focus on movement of the ball. Hopefully my skill in that has improved because of that.

We lost both games, but that's alright. The outdoor we lost 4-1, being a man down, and the indoor we lost 5-2, with the other team starting a man down. They were good.

I've also been working insanely hard lately. 40 hour weeks, with school starting next week. And yes, the 40 hour work weeks carry into school.

I'm considering shacking up in a spare office at the university.

Seriously.

Thoughts?

Don't worry, she's a slut... Want some lemonade?

I'm still alive everybody, don't worry.

I played out for the first game in a while with my men's team yesterday. I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting there. I can jog quickly and sprint a little. I played a half as forward, and I was able to run with it, pass it, and all that. If I don't aggravate it, I'll be fully fit in a week, possibly two.

I should rest on it, but the end of the outdoor season is here, and I've got to get my kicks in. Pun intended.

I've been really, really busy lately. I've been taking care of my house as my parents went over a few provinces, and now that's done, so expect a few more posts. I've been trying to keep up in training when not sore, and I've been stretching a lot.

I'll try to make it up by posting after the game tonight. I expect to be slotted back into my centre-back position again.

Carissa and Stephen sent me a lovely post card from London (Ontario), attached with a pin that I'm surprised made it through the torrid waters of the Canadian postal service. London sure has a lot of green space, or so it looks.

You get Baby Toes

I certainly have been due for an update. To anybody waiting patiently for one, I apologize. I have been busy as hell. Monday I did an hour of workout, still trying to rehab my hamstring (which is going well but is taking more time than I originally expected). I can do everything with it except the two most important things in soccer: run and kick.

I missed my mens league game Monday, but I still get to play goalie for my co-ed team. We had one o' thems games tonight, and we won 6-4. Sure I let in a few, but I stop a hatfull of breakaways and a penalty shot against one of my friendly rivals, also named Greg. I coached him a couple years and and played with me a year before that, and we chat it up whenever we can. I had my greatest game in net yet (and probably for my entire life), and it was nice to have it come against that team.

(The other) Greg is cool, but one of his teammates is one of those cocky complainers. We always seem to come up against them as well, so it's nice to keep winning. The games against the Sabres, as they are called, invariably are one-goal games at half, and usually end up with us sealing it away with a few more goals. Today was no expection. We should be much higher in the ladder when the standings are updated, but I don't think they have for a couple games.

In other news, I got promoted today. It seemed to make the summer somewhat better, in spite of all the unpleasantries that have happened. I should lighten up in spite of it all, though, as I am now earning 15$ an hour, compared to my usual ten. Maybe now I can finally save some money. Regardless, I do get more of it.

Oh, and the title is thanks to Dan for having a third PS3 controller that his dog chewed on. The joysticks were bitten off by his dog Molly, and I'm not sure who originally coined the term, but the controller is now known as baby toes, due to its feeling.

Death by Icicle

Yesterday night I played in net for a co-ed outdoor game. Not much to really say, other than I kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win.

Eat that Derek.

In other news, I'm going to the cabin tomorrow with my great pals Keeley and Alaina.

Also, I mentioned a while ago that I'd tell you guys about the story where I almost got killed or seriously maimed by an icicle.

I was walking into my university one warm spring day, and as I entered the door, behind me about 5 feet, a large 4-foot icicle fell behind me from about four stories. I heard a yelp and looked behind me to see this huge icicle in its last few seconds airborne. It hit the ground and the girl who yelped looked at me in shock.

I'm not really sure why, but I thought nothing of it and continued into the building. Five minutes later, I realized that if I had been two seconds later, I would've probably had to take a huge icicle to the skull.

Later that week, the entrance was cordoned off for the spring.

"Oh no, not Rod Stewart"

I figure I should divulge a little of my personal life here and tell everybody that I had a bad week. I had just emerged out of the final puddles of a monsoon relationship, and as good as that is for me, it still was disheartening. The last week had been a bad one for me, in regards to thoughts of myself. It did, however, give me a fresh view of everything.

My weekend was busy. Last I left you fellows, I was at various going away parties for my friends Carissa and Stephen. I said my final goodbyes to them at a family party Carissa had put on Friday night, then joined my good (but often busy) friends Murray and Brendan to a trip to their cabin.

Everything about the cabin was ridiculous. At one point, there were five guys sitting around a dinner table playing cards dressed up as whatever "the music made us feel like". There was what Murray and Brendan's father described as a motley crew around that table: a swimmer, greek god, grandmother, cowboy, and Rod Stewart.

It was a fun, non-stop weekend, ending with Murray and I paddle/sail-boating a windsurf rig into shore from the middle of the lake. Yes, I was the one who marooned it.

The weekend's events made me look at my situation differently, and I feel better about a lot of it. Of course, I'll never speak to her again, but more and more that feels like her loss as opposed to mine. Everything's back on track now.

It was a shame though, it took me until the time I got home to realize this. That's not to say I was in a pissy mood the entire time, but that there were occasional reminders of my situation.

I went to an indoor game tonight and played in net for the second half. I stopped a few good shots, including one breakaway. I let in three, but we won 5-3. I tried hard in spite of my injury, and again didn't re-injure it. I'm giving it about a week and a half to heal fully if everything goes alright, and I will be playing again tomorrow.

I've found my style involves diving on the ball a lot. Remind me to tape up my elbows, fingers, and knees tomorrow.