It has been three months since I blogged publicly, but not because I've stopped thinking. It's more because my thoughts have been uncertain on a great many things, and I like sorting out my confusion privately. I blog privately, which is the modern techie way of saying I keep a journal, and when my musings come to any certainty, I like to share them publicly. The simple fact that I do that helps remind me that the facebook-twitterverse is full of what people want me to see. That explains all the gym photos I encounter.
I have no gym body to share, nor do I have stories of discovering the joys of steamed vegetables. The latter would probably worry you, I imagine. However, this particular week has reminded me that I've successfully become far more active than I ever had been before. Sunday was softball practice and a run, Monday was beach volleyball and beer, Tuesday was a league softball game and beer, Wednesday was indoor volleyball and beer, Thursday was supposed to be another league softball game but got rained out, and today is tennis. And probably beer. My hope when moving to London was to find a more convenient environment in which to live an active life. Apparently I've been somewhat successful. A colleague said to me yesterday that women so often seem to be able to get together for no reason other than having company, while men "always seem to have to be doing something." Well, she's right about me, that's for sure. For that reason, meetup.com is a godsend.
Volleyball was my first discovery in London. It's indoor and inherently social, so it seemed a perfect fit. I found a group that is fun and likes to go out for a post game drink, and that's exactly what I was hoping for. Volleyball is just about the perfect social game, because everyone rotation gives everyone a chance to do everything, and it's hard for one person to dominate everything. Even if one person does, it's rude and people will start to avoid him/her. It's pretty easy to pick up on the game, as evidenced by the fact that I am getting better quickly. It now occupies my Wednesday nights every week, and used to also occupy my Sunday mornings until I found softball.
Would you believe that they play softball in the UK? I thought it unlikely, too, so I didn't even search for it. Then I got a suggestion from meetup.com to check out a new group. There are slow pitch leagues, fast pitch leagues, and even full baseball leagues. There aren't too many purpose-built fields yet (though some are being built), so they just play in the parks. I decided to stop by and meet the slow pitch folks, and apparently they are quite intensely into the game. I'm not even that good, but they were friendly anyway just because I'm American and already knew the rules. I ended up getting along with them well enough that they invited me to play in a tournament with them. I didn't have a glove, and it's not easy to find a sports shop that sells any here, but luckily I have a kind brother with nearly identical sized hands that found me a good one and shipped it over. I successfully caught one fly ball and hit a double during my 4 games at this tournament, so they asked me to join the team. Two, actually, since there's a London city league and a Windsor League west of town (many of my teammates are British Airways employees that live near Heathrow). This Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I played an actual softball game that counted for something. I've played socially before, but never for a team that had jerseys, umpires, and league standings and everything. I chased down one fly ball, gunned down a guy trying to stretch a single into a double, and got a single myself, so no one is regretting the decision yet to invite me onto the team, which is nice. We won the game, too.
I've always loved playing sports, I'm just not very good at them. As a kid, we'd play whatever was in season or whatever could be played with the number of available friends we had that day. At Cornell High School, however, the teams were rather limited. Football, basketball, baseball, and golf were the only guys choices, none of which are my strengths. We did start a tennis team my senior year, and I joined the golf team because they only had 4 people and needed one more to field a team. It took me about 10 years before I found another team of anything to join, and that was a volleyball team and soccer team that played over an hour's drive away from where I lived. That was difficult to keep in my schedule. Now, all of the sudden, options seem to abound.
I don't know what the health effects will be, since all my teams like to grab a beer after games, but I sure am having fun.
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