Indoor Soccer

I'm playing 3v3 women's indoor soccer at a new complex in nearby Hyde Park. Something fell through with intramural outdoor soccer so I figured that I may as well play indoor. It's not a bad deal either as we have 10 games (every Tuesday night for 10 weeks) for only $50 a person. My team currently has 5 players, which means 1 sub as there are 3 field players and 1 goalkeeper that play at a time. So basically we will be getting a lot of playing time even if we get another person and everyone is there. The dry air was killer on my trachea and lungs (got the blood taste pretty bad) but I think that may improve as I get in better shape and my body adjusts more to this climate. There is a problem we discovered with having only one sub. With about 1.5 minutes to go in the first half, I was tripped pretty well and fell rather hard. Normally I fall so as not to hurt myself but I must not have fallen right this time. In addition to the expected turf burn (this is the killer kind), my knee was hurting fairly badly. I sat out after the halftime to stretch and try to get the knee feeling well enough to go back on the field. When it seemed okay, I subbed onto the field and played for a few minutes without any problems. Then my knee started feeling unsteady and after one play I had to step off the field before it buckled. So I iced it, stretched and waited until it felt okay again...then went out and finished the game. My knee is pretty sore and will only bend to about 90°. Jen, my apartment-mate (mitbewohnerin), asked me if I was going to wash the blood off my knee...to which I responded, "yeah, when I take a shower." She was pretty grossed out (when she merely scraped her arm on something and couldn't see if it was bleeding, she asked me if it was and seemed all concerned...total opposite of me who scraped my leg on my desk drawer and took awhile to realize what had caused me to bleed when I noticed blood on my leg later). So I got injured but it was great to play soccer again and I played pretty well. I scored 2 of our 5 goals and we tied our game. Not bad.

Also today I went to a Newman meeting for a trip to the Grand Canyon over October break. A group of students did it last year with a guy who will be guiding. We will be hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim in one day!! We'll start on the North Rim and hike 23.5 miles with about a mile elevation loss and gain to the South Rim. There will be someone who will drive the car (or people driving cars depending on how many we need) and she will meet us on the other side. This is one of those things that you aren't really supposed to do as all of the signs and literature dicourage it...for good reason too as it can be quite dangerous if you are not properly prepared and careful. However, it is on my list of amazing things to do so it'll be sweet to be able to do it :-D. I have about 5 weeks to get in great shape...I can't wait. :o)