The newest Mia Hamm

My friend Ashley invited me to play soccer today at Green Lake. After hemming & hawing about the decision (did I want to look like a fool or not?), I decided to go (look like a fool). Having never played soccer and not played any sport in a few years, I had zero gear. Ashley, who is 5'1" on a good day, loaned me her shin guards and Jason loaned me a red shirt so I could play on their team. And off we went.

Every Saturday at Green Lake, random people show up and spend about an hour learning/practicing soccer drills and then another hour scrimmaging each other. We arrived just as the drills were wrapping up, and solidified places with the "red people." They were lucky to have me.

As you might have guessed, it's rained quite a bit lately in Seattle and the field was not grass, but dirt...or as you probably put together already, mud. With nice, large puddles of water scattered about...one of which was strategically located in front of the goal I was supposed to be defending.

Everyone chipped in to help the new girl, constantly yelling little words of advice as we played. A few of them had accents so thick that I decided to just nod along and move whereever their fingers indicated they were saying they wanted me to go.

A tally of the scrimmage:
1 turned ankle
1 kick in the head
1 slide in the mud resulting in me "eating it" (several others did this as well)
3 defensive plays that earned me kudos from Jason
1 goal scored on me
Lots of romps in the aforementioned puddle
1 sore spot on my right lower back (Ash & I deduced this is what we use while kicking)
1 off-sides play called because the ref didn't see me and thought the other guy was off-sides
2 soaked feet (since I do not currently own cleats)

The ref came up to me after the game and tried to explain the off-sides thing to me. He said it was clear I was new. Awesome.