nationals.

i think i have a lot to write about this... but i dunno if it's all going to go on here.

i'll say this first. i spent more restless nights this nationals than any ever before thinking about how i was going to help the team out the next day. i think that when you're playing, you have a better sense for what you need to accomplish and what your goals are for the tournament. or maybe this just means i need in the future to be thinking more about my sideline talk etc pre-nationals (even if i am playing).

i can't believe this was my 10th nationals. crazy.

ok, i'm finally getting back to this topic. it's now several weeks after nationals. i had to let it marinate for awhile i suppose.

first let's talk about the saturday party at the house of frankus. firstly, i think for a few people (names will be withheld to protect the "innocent"), cheese and carbombs for dinner followed by extracurriculars was not - i repeat NOT - the best idea ever. secondly, the thriller performance was one of the absolute highlights of the evening. it was a subset of the group that performed it in the castro on halloween (here are the pictures from that - thanks to kate leslie for forwarding). i was not drinking heavily, which makes it possible for me to recall most of the evening's events with relative clarity. there was way too much stuff going on to put down. needless to say, i had a great time. i danced some with namkung. and with dom. and other people. i walked around. i talked to a bunch of people. i helped attempt to get people to move from the back porch inside because the cops came. i helped mak do a 10 second kegstand. some kid got permanent markered because he passed out. the fury girls and the jam guys that i saw were more drunk than anybody else. oh yeah, and then we had to escort eileen out of the house because she was becoming belligerent (and then it was difficult to very difficult to get her in bed). the part somewhere in the middle that i can't remember is who was bringing the bottle of sauza tequila around making people drink out of it. i could've sworn it was woody, but he denies it. i feel like he, eileen, and i, plus 1 other person were in a rosham to see who had to do shots out of the bottle. eileen lost, but then i think we all drank out of it anyway. maybe it was ron's fault. stacey claims she was walking around with a bottle of tequila at some point, but she was sure hers was cuervo. i'm about 99.9% sure the one we drank out of was sauza. given my circumstances, it truly was the worst tasting tequila i've ever had.

now let's work backwards. i think i was more conscious of this than in previous years because AJ had brought up post-tournament depression on his blog. but, after saturday's semis game, i definitely felt like sitting by myself for awhile and decompressing. i didn't so much feel more withdrawn when i returned to work the monday following nationals, but i did find that i didn't really want to talk or think about ultimate. also, it was fun hanging out afterwards (sunday night) with the west coast folks. i kinda wish some more of ozone had been able to stay, though.

anyway. so i wanted to make a list of things that would be fun/good for ozone to do and work to improve for next season (starting pre-season), but i dunno if i can start it now... maybe it'll need to be an offline topic. notebook type material instead. i dunno. i'll give it a shot.

- defensive positioning especially on deep cut teams
- also defensively, dictating where you'll let your offender go
- being more mentally prepared for physicality
- making space
- different spread offenses, so we can learn to play defense on them
- marking - being more aggressive! improving response to sidelines.
- maybe we should play strictly o and d teams....

ok, gotta think about it later.

touchdown, auburn! 21-20, 3rd quarter vs. georgia.