ORANGE

...for Halloween, one of my favourite holidays, which I celebrated last night at the village parade. My coworkers and I went as the Spice Girls--yes, I was voted Sporty Spice. I'll never know if it was rugby, my 100% jeans & t-shirt work wardrobe, or the fact that the last time my hair was down was approximately a month ago...but I got to wear running shoes and track pants, so 10 points for comfort! We couldn't see the parade, so we started our own little concert and began singing and dancing in the street with randos...I love it!

...AND BLUE for beating the pants off Emerald City and Keystone to advance to the Final Four in Florida and defend the national title! 7 days till we go!

The weekend was so much fun, with two really great games by our badass senior side who played their hearts out, and a mixed NRU vs. Texas A&M Developmental game. NYRC only got to play the second half of the developmental game, but our goal was to make a positive impact and we did. Slitty organized a penalty play that led to our only try, Molly led the pack from the front row, R2 and JD switched back and forth between flanking and outside centre-ing (have you ever seen a 6'1" number 13??), and I had a blast playing fullback for the first time in ages--after all, kick & catch is my favourite game :)

Our Secret Agent-themed dinner Saturday night was hilarious, with everyone wearing all-black and wigs. It was my first NYRC team dinner, complete with everything I've been hearing about: Mira's Total Eclipse of the Heart performance, Hedwig's Walking in Memphis, a kangaroo court and rookie entertainment. I was charged for forgetting the jerseys at the field and had to perform a song about it (I'm dreaming of the white jerseys, to the tune of white christmas), and Twiggs did an interpretive dance of the struggle for ball control ("Give it to the backs! Keep it in the pack..."). Our skit was great, if I may say so--we had to keep to the Secret Agent theme, so we had JD being a spy from Beantown telling them secrets about various players as we acted them out. All in all, a great night.

But to completely break chronological order, I have to document the ridiculous beginning where Fontaine, R2 and I got stuck in Newark and then stranded overnight in Dallas (where I forgot my camera, sad!) before finally arriving in Austin. In numbers:

3 number of planes we had to switch between when they were delayed/broken
2 number of times R2 gazed mournfully out a plane window and intoned "man was not meant to fly"
2389793457 number of text messages exchanged between Fontaine, Frank, & Slitty about our travel issues
1 number of crazy drunk men we met


So we're sitting at our gate, having made it through security (where a woman saw the ball in R2's hands and exclaimed, "Hit a home run for me!") to find that our flight to Dallas is delayed. A man walks by, sees R2 holding the ball (she attracts a lot of attention, that one), and asks if she plays rugby. When she replies, he whips out his cell phone and calls his wife. The following is what I managed to scribble down during the call and the ensuing 90 minute conversation...

Man (on phone to wife): Dude, there's this girl in the airport, she plays rugby! She's gonna kick my ass! I'm gonna lose my teeth!...$%*&, and I stripped for security and they didn't even give me a dollar! They wouldn't even put it in my wallet, pants, pocket, nothin...bye I love you.
Man (to R2): You're tall. I can deal with tall people, cause I can still reach their necks. You reach the neck, you can kill em. It would be so frustrating to be dead like that, you know?

Man (to me): I can't talk to you yet, I'm saving you for last, you're too intimidating.
Fontaine: She's foreign.
Man: I love foreigners!!

Man (to Fontaine): You don't take no shots to the head, do ya? Yeah that's right, you're a thinker!
Man (pointing to rando young guy who clearly thought we were all nuts; in a Scottish Accent): YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE SCRUM! (rando young guy moves to a new seat)

(TV shows Chelsea Clinton, wearing this ugly black & white gingham dress)
Man: She looks like a picnic table! I wanna lay her horizontal and eat an egg salad sandwich off her waist! We could put a keg on her and a glass in her mouth like a cupholder!

It was the most entertaining flight delay I have ever experienced :)

Anyways, amazing weekend. I'll have pictures sometime soon...and I can't wait for Florida!