A Kick To The Head

This is the first post that goes out to team MKBC ..

For those of you that don't know, adult kickball is making a "huge comeback". Actually it's just another 'phenomenon' that I've given in to. It's the childhood game that we all loved to play except the players are adults and there's, well ... booze. Check out the website http://www.kickball.com/. I'm not lying it's a pretty big deal and some 'players' take it way too seriously for my taste. I mean serious enough that at a pool party I went to this past summer the boys that were hosting (all of course play on a team together) were talking "strategy". Excuse me, what? It's a Saturday. Let's get over it.

Anyways, at this point in my life I have a love/hate relationship with kickball (as time goes on and I enlighten you more with my life experiences, you'll learn why). I'll be going in to my 3rd season at the end of January when at first I never thought I'd be a part of this hoop-la they call kickball.

My ex and I used to sit at a relatively popular spot for "Dallas locals" and one night a swarm of men and women wearing matching t-shirts came in to the bar. Eventually it got around that they were a kickball team and played in a league through this particular bar. How absolutely lame. What was even more lame (according to my ex) was that they played a game called flip cup. Now, unlike my ex, I was familiar with the drinking game and enjoyed it. It was something we played back home (California, wha wha!) and it made me think that the kickball kids maybe had something going for them. But oh no, we both agreed that these people were totally lame. We sat there laughing and making fun of them, "oooo I'm on a kickball team, I'm soooo cool."

Not more than two months later my ex gave me the news ... "Baby, Brad* signed me up for a kickball team." And not more than another month ... "Baby, can I call you back? I'm playing flip cup." At first he played it off that it "wasn't that cool" and "didn't think he'd do another season", but as time went on he got sucked into the adult world of kickball. I, on the other hand, stood strong and weathered the storm that my significant other had gone against his word and joined ... a cult.

Then I met Brooke. We were placed in the same group for our Advertising Campaigns class - the culmination of our advertising careers (in college). After we had spent hours laboring over "Likewise", I learned that she too was on a kickball team. Groan. Did it ever stop? Did God want to torture me with this lame organization? (Note: I address a lot of my questions to the man upstairs) But if you know Brooke, it sounded like she had a lot of fun and there was something different about her ... she had a life and friends outside of the kickball cult. Goodness, whaaaaaaaaat a concept.

I swear she badgered me in to it. I tried to resist, but she was very very persuasive ... threatening. I took a deep breath and hit submit on my registration form. The phone call to my then-boyfriend wasn't as easy (I'll leave out that conversation for his sake). Fortunately, we were in different leagues, playing on two completely different teams, so it didn't appear to his friends that he was letting his girlfriend 'invade his "me/guys/kickball" time' and we didn't have to play each other. And I would have been embarassed if I did. I sucked. I prayed that our pitcher would strike someone out so there wouldn't be a play in the field, relied on the boys around me catch all of the balls, cussed when we only had 1 out when I thought we had 2 and closed my eyes when I kicked the rubber jelly ball rolling towards me. I was even scared to play flip cup with my team. Instead, I would sit at the bar and eat cheese fries hoping that no one would pressure me into flipping a cup that I would soon realize was my friend.

As the season went on, I eased up a little. My ex was slightly encouraging - giving me tips here and there when we had conversations about how our teams were doing and I made an effort to get to know my team better. I made a point to keep my eyes open when it was my turn to kick and even started to participate in flip cup games. I suprisingly wasn't that bad (thanks to my California training, wha wha!). It felt great to be a part of a team! But game after game I convinced myself that I wasn't going to do another season; that I wasn't good enough to really be an asset to the team or our flip cup winning streak and it was more my ex's thing than it would ever be mine.

And then it wasn't Brooke pushing me to sign up, it was Piper - sending out e-mails and gchatting me up. And theeeeen my mom called ... "Lauren, I just read an article in the newspaper about how kickball among adults is making a come back and a great way to socialize and meet new people - network!" No, really mom? I didn't know that. It was a lot easier to badger me this time. I had a taste in my mouth of a new found world; a world where it didn't matter whether you sucked or were MVP because everyone was too drunk from playing flip cup to remember (at least that's how my team operated). I realized that the point for us was to have fun, not strategize in a pool on Saturday about how we were going to get around having "unathletic girls" on our team and let it consume our lives. That made it a lot more appealing.

So, there I was a few weeks later... staring at the submit button on my computer screen with a credit card in hand debating whether or not I wanted to subject myself to the idea of being a part of the cult for another season. But despite not knowing what would doom upon me in the upcoming season (that's worth several posts that I'm not sure I'll ever write), I gave in to my inner desire to be a part of a team and hit the submit buttom once again. That's how I became a Moose Knuckled Beaver Cleaver. Please, don't ask.

'*' Change of name (although most of you can probably figure it out)