Rugby-times Update

I realized we're here in the thick of rugby season and I've not updated you once about how we're doing -- something I ought to do since rugby basically rules my life in-season. So far, we're 5-0. We've beat UC Santa Barbara twice (convincingly), UC San Diego twice (tough games!), and ASU once (pretty convincingly). This past weekend, in fact, we had a double-header. Sunday was a blow-out against UCSB, but Saturday was the bone-burner against UCSD, the deciding match as to whether we would go to nationals...

The Good News: We won the game, and are going to nationals!
The Not-So-Good News: I tore my Achilles tendon, and have to get surgery. This also means 6 weeks on crutches and around 6 months till I'm back at 100%/sports.

But... we won... yay?

I was doing a little research on Achilles tendon, and found this helpful information from Runnersweb.com:

The Achilles tendon is the strongest tendon of the body, and able to withstand a 1000 pound force without tearing. Despite this, the Achilles ruptures more frequently than any other tendon because of the tremendous pressures placed on it during competitive sports.

Good to know. So I'm thinkin'... if there's 16 people in a scrum, each averaging, let's say, 180 pounds... that comes out to...

... 2,880 lbs. Ok, See the picture? I usually play #5 (a.k.a. Lock, Second Row). But really, the scrum is a battle between the Tight Fives, a total of 10 people. That still comes out to rough weight of 1,800 lbs. As Radiohead says, no surprises. I've been getting a lot of (I think) well-deserved sympathy. In all my years of sports and rugby, I've never had an injury that's left me lying on the floor screaming.

So, for now (and the next 6 weeks or so it looks like) I'm on crutches. Most tiring form of transportation ever -- I wish I'd spent more time in the gym doing tricep dips. What were once short, easy walks have turned into 'waaaayyyy too far to get to'. I get a lot of kind looks and sympathy from complete strangers, with everything from door-holding to offering of rides. ("But mom always said never get in the car with a stranger...") Anyway, this has made me get super-pissed off at the people who aren't so... gracious. I wanted to kick this girl at my lecture today; I walked in and asked her if I could sit at the table where she was sitting (the seating for handicapped students in the lecture theater). She looked over at the other table (which was also full,) and said, "Um... is there space over there?" I was about to yell at her, "Bitch! I'm on crutches! MOVE!" When one of the guys at the other table, who's in my discussion, jumped up and immediately gave me his seat. "Ohhhh, thank you so much," I growled at her, as I crutched away. I hope all her flashcards spontaneously combust. They just need to get me a t-shirt that says "I'm on crutches. Get out of my way, dumbass!" It would save me a lot of snarking.

In other news, I'm digging this mini-quote right now, both in and out of context:
"Hypocrisy, thou art snortable."

It's from Mark Morford's most recent column, about the failure that is the war on drugs. It concludes quite nicely:

It is, you can say with a heavy sigh and a heavy heart and a madly tangled mind, just one of those things. One of those enormously uncomfortable and disheartening situations in American society that keeps churning on and eating at our national soul, simply because no one, particularly not the politicians we hire to speak up and put a stop to such idiotic hypocrisy, has the nerve to speak up and put a stop to such idiotic hypocrisy.

It is like farm subsidies. Like oil monopolies. Like waterboarding. Like Homeland Security and big tobacco and Dick Cheney. Everyone with the slightest intelligence knows it's a massive failure. Everyone knows it's a scam, a brutal lie, that it destroys far more than it allegedly helps. And yet, on it goes. It's all so insidious and unfair and depressing it can make you want to tear out your hair and wail at the moon. Or, you know, start doing drugs.

Well said, good sir. Well said.