A virgin in blogdom!!!!!!

Here I am, sitting in front of the computer at this cyber-cafe wondering what it is I should write in my first blog entry. I've commented numerous times on other friend's blogs, but never thought I'd have anything credible or worthwhile to say on one of my own. Now, in a new city again with a wonderful and beautiful wife, and friends all of this massive country, I feel I have loads to say.

As many of you know, Tucson was not my kind of place. Too damn hot, dusty, dry, brown, and hot. I was talking to my friend, Tommy, while everyone was in town for the wedding and he mentioned one thing I've said to Lisa all along about Tucson, that it feels somewhat depressed. His reasoning for that observation was the same as mine, none of the houses had lawns. I know this is true most everywhere in the country, but neighborhoods back on Long Island where the landscaping lacked lush green lawns were neighborhoods that you avoided due to poverty, drugs, gangs and other sketchy elements. They were just plain crappy areas. So, moving to Tucson, in my mind, was moving to one of those neightborhoods. It was something I could never get over. Perhaps over time I would have, but not in the year and half that I lived there.

However, although it wasn't my kind of place, I find I can still appreciate it's beauty. The mountains, the views, the winters and, oddly enough, the summers. It's an experience you'll find nowhere else on earth. But I didn't completely immerse myself in the culture or the town for one simple reason, I knew that I'd be leaving relatively soon and didn't want to get too attached.

One thing I did get attached to were the friends I made there. Although they were Lisa's friends first, I feel I connected with everyone I hung out with down there. The week before we left for Portland, I was sad to be leaving them. Sad to leave Monday night football at the Red Garter, weekly frisbee games, camping excursions and weekends just hanging out. Yes, I even cried a bit. Same feeling I had when I left my friends in NY. You're all a bunch of outstanding people and I'm fortunate to have you guys in my life, hopefully for years to come.

But moving to new place also means meeting new people here in Portland. Yesterday, I practiced with a local Ultimate club team, Scuber Du. Playing with them reminds me of the commercial a while back with David Robinson and, I think, Phil Mickelson. Mickelson has a wedge shot at half court and alley-oops the golf ball to Robinson who dunks it and then says, referring to Mickelson, "Man, these guys are good!". No shit David. These guys ARE good. Basically we only ran a stack-offense and man-defense, similar to Tucson league, but there were very clear differences. One, they didn't cut from the back of the stack, only middle and front. Two, they are not afraid of throwing, and completing a throw, through a crowd. Three, they all have awesome, long hammers. And four, it's wet here. After two straight hours of savage six-on-six playing, I was exhausted but still had enough in the tank to burn a few longs and lay out in the lush green, wet grass. Rather nice change from the Tucson concrete.

Not too sure how these club teams work. Whether I'll get asked to play with them or not is up in the air. I'm not holding my breath quite yet. Fall league starts this Thursday. We'll see how that turns out.

I think that's enough for today for this blog-virgin. Cherry sufficiently popped. Coming shortly, "Portland, Week 1".

Ken