one more miracle

As posted by crediniaeth, a meme!

- Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper on their LiveJournal.
- Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
- Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on.

( You get three guesses as to what my wallpaper is of. First two don't count. )

I really have been able to think of nothing but football (soccer...) recently. I honestly thought that after the World Cup I would sigh sadly and go back to my normal, football-less life, BUT NO. Bastian Schweinsteiger put his beautiful, strong hands around my heart and refused to let go. Honestly, I'm not complaining! *____*

Yesterday, Bayern München had its first game of the season with anything resembling its A-team! And it was the SUPERCUP! I watched it using a variety of crappy, pixellated feeds with German, Spanish, fuzzy English or no commentaries, AND IT WAS SO FUN! I figured I should document my first experience with a Bayern match, so come on behind the cut if you care at ALL! ( Bayern lifts its first hardware of the season! )

So in conclusion, YAY BAYERN!!!!!! It was certainly an excellent way to begin my time as a Bayern fan! \o/ I'm already very fond of the entire team, and I can tell this is going to be so much fun. I'm really really excited about the Bayern-Real Madrid (!!!) game next Friday - hoping for my boys to get some revenge against the Spain dudes. (Yes - I'm still bitter. Especially since it was BOTH the Euro and the WC, grr.) It would do my heart so much good to see Bastian triumph over Sergio Ramos and co. (Sorry, Spain girls. We know where my loyalties lie!)

So an awesome side benefit of this whole new footie obsession is that I've reconnected with an old, dear friend of mine, novafairy! She was one of my FIRST LJ friends, way back in 2005 in the Queer as Folk fandom! It's not that we've ever fully gotten out of touch, but we've both been very busy girls and didn't really have a fandom in common. But she's German and a huge Bayern fan, so this is a really great thing that we now share! I love you Steffi! <333 We're already discussing plans for me to go over and visit, tentatively for September 2011 during which there will be Bundesliga, international, and all other kinds of fun games! She lives near Munich so we could even go watch Bayern train, and I could possibly tell Bastian how much his American fan loves him. *g* Of course it would also just be marvelous to finally meet her, but we could have SO much fun with the football. Whee!

Oh man I can't believe I just wasted an hour making this post. I spent all of today in my lab, doing one experiment but also trying to put together my presentation of my research for tomorrow morning. I was woefully unsuccessful in the latter goal, and still have quite a bit to do, including going back into lab to do the last step of my experiment. Yes, it's 11 PM. *facepalm* Sometimes my procrastination astounds me.

OH ONE MORE THING! Last night, I went out drinking with friends for the first time in a MONTH - much needed, let me tell you. This included a neat whiskey from a local distillery, nnngh it was so good, but also made me very drunk very fast. :P Anyway, while we were out and having a blast, I saw a guy in a - wait for it - BASTIAN SCHWEINSTEIGER NATIONAL TEAM AWAY 2010 JERSEY. Oh my GOD. If you asked me what my favorite jersey in the entire world is, THAT WOULD BE EXACTLY IT. What are the odds?? Especially since they're not selling the away jerseys in America yet! He had to order it from Europe or a replica from Asia (like I did!). Now THAT'S dedication. I totally would have stalked him down and told him how awesome he was, but when I found him he was on a date with a girl and I didn't want to interrupt. It was still super awesome though. As was the rest of the night, including when we went to a German bar and drank a boot and sat at a table decorated with a panel on the wall that said München! Hee!

OKAY I'm going to go be productive now! I am such a failboat. I really did want to document this though. While I love Twitter and the immediacy of it, I hate that it is not recorded in any permanent way, so while I have to force myself to make LJ posts, I really want to do it to have an ongoing record of my life still. I am sorry that I've been so MIA - I'm unbelievably behind on my flist. :( Tell me if something astounding happened in your lives? ♥

I joined a local indoor soccer league! And we had our first game last night! \o/

As SOME of you may have noticed, I caught a bit of the soccer bug during this here World Cup. :) It has always been far and away my favorite sport, both to play and watch, but this World Cup was a really exciting kick in the pants and revived my interest in a very real way. I played soccer in high school - varsity for four years - and it's one of my favorite parts of my childhood. I haven't played since then though (five years) and I miss it a lot. So I got the idea to join a league, and I'm so glad I did!

I was really nervous because it's co-ed and my team is mostly dudes. I also had no idea what skill level the league would be at, even though it's called "recreational". Well, as it turned out, I was on a team at a similar level as me - had played in high school but not much since then. But we were up against people who obviously play competitively on a regular basis - they were so good, holy crap. (One guy reminded me strongly of Connor from Angel - with the lanky and the haircut and the MOVING FREAKILY FAST.) So it was a pretty intense and fast-paced game, which I don't think any of us expected. We lost 8-0, haha. I still had a lot of fun though, and WOW was it good to get my foot on a soccer ball again! I even loved putting on shinguards and soccer socks and indoor soccer shoes - so many memories just came rushing back, and it was amazing feeling.

The main problem was that I am so out of shape. I'm terrible at exercising for the hell of it and have only been in shape when I participated in organized team sports. As a result, I was huffing and puffing within 10 minutes, dripping sweat and actually a little dizzy. It was not so awesome. :((( One problem was that our team had only 3 girls and the rule is that 2 girls need to be on the field at all times for fairness' sake, so we actually ended up working harder! I did get to play defense though, which is my faaaaavorite position (one of the many many reasons Philipp Lahm is my VERY FAVORITE). I didn't play as well as I would have liked, mostly because I was so out of gas and just could not go everywhere I wanted to, but I was pleased to find that I still had a pretty good instinct for the game, and a decent touch on the ball. By the end of the game I had gotten more of a sense for things and was even making good passes. My roommate Emily came to cheer me on (♥) and one guy on my team got injured so he was next to her on the bleachers; she said he was grumbling about how our team was playing, but that about me he said "She just needs to loosen up." That made me smile, because he saw potential in me! In my first game in 5 years! Yay!

One awesome thing about playing co-ed is that you get to play with hot dudes. :D Case in point: our goalie looked like IKER CASILLAS (Spain's goalie). Not as devastatingly attractive, of course, but still very cute. He even played amazingly even though he'd never played in goal before - he's the only reason the score wasn't 15-0! AND we had a midfielder who looked like ARNE FRIEDRICH, my daaaarling, so I was very charmed by that as well. They were for the most part nice dudes, if a little dismissive of the gals, but a couple of them were really sweet and I think it'll be a fun team to play on. A bunch of them already know each other so it's a little hard to break into that, but I think I might be able to. We'll see! We have one game a week for 8 weeks. Should be a good time.

OH AND WE PLAYED WITH A JABULANI! Hee! I don't think we got it up to 40 mph, so I didn't see the beach ball effect, but I was so pleased to be playing with one. :D

Another funny thing about all this is that when I went shopping for soccer gear, all I could buy was Adidas! I mean, I've always been an Adidas fan - in high school my socks, shinguards, and cleats were almost always Adidas just because I think the three stripes is such an elegant design, and they're good quality - but this time I was like "My Germany bbs looked so good in it, must have!" *facepalm foreverrr* I can't believe branding worked on me, oh my god. /o\

SPEAKING OF GERMANY CLOTHING, I bought myself a Lahm away (black) World Cup jersey!! *happy dances* Number 16 baby! I hilariously bought it as a replica from some random person in Thailand on eBay, so it was only $6 plus $21 shipping, which is kiiind of awesome. They had a lot of good reviews on similar jerseys so I'm hopeful that it'll look fantastic! I CAN'T WAIT to represent my bb captain! \o/

The worst consequence of launching back into things is that my back hurts like a MOTHERFUCKER. I permanently damaged my back in high school when I tried to dead lift a stupid amount of weight (the chiropractor x-rayed me and one of my vertebrae isn't properly in line anymore /o\) so I've had chronic lower back issues for years. Even just sitting still for an extended period of time is uncomfortable - at the movies I have to continually shift my angle because my back starts to hurt. :( So you can imagine that doing a twisty, physical activity for the first time in a long time might have done a number on my back. Aaand it did. I have felt like an old lady today. D: You know how you have to lift boxes with your knees, not your back? Well I have to lift my OWN weight with my knees now, hahahasob. It's not cool at all. The rest of me is a more pleasant ache, a lot less than I expected actually. But I might have to look into a chiropractor if I want to continue playing soccer.

There was one really nice guy named Andre that I liked a lot. He said he plays with another group and that it's NEVER this intense! I actually ran into him today at lunch because he has a class near my work, and he invited me to come to practices with his league, because they're just fun and lowkey. I think that sounds fantastic and will probably take him up on it! Good times, good times.

All in all, I'm really really glad I did it! Something about playing soccer just feels right. I hope now that I've taken the plunge, this will be something I genuinely take up as a hobby. This could very well motivate me to get in shape again, and perhaps eventually I could really play on a team again. Fingers crossed!

♥

I AM SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW MY HEART IS ACTUALLY RACING AND I AM FLUSHED AND JOYOUS AND HAPPY.

I watched the game with my roommate in my favorite coffee bar in Ann Arbor where the owner is GERMAN. And CUTE. That was so super fun. I got very loud and people laughed at me but I DON'T CARE because they were soooooooooo amazing. What a gorgeous, GORGEOUS game of football they played! Every single goal was gorgeous and composed and well-deserved, and involved different people almost every time! I might have these mixed up, but as far as I remember: 1. Poldi assist, Mueller goal. 2. Poldi assist, Klose goal. <3333 3. Schweini assist, FRIEDRICH goal OMG!!! 4. Oezil assist, Klose goal. (!!!!!) Just - so much beautiful football from EVERY SIDE. The Schweini assist was my FAVORITE piece of artwork - he just kept his composure so, so gorgeously, tapped a perfect pass back and Friedrich buried it. I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THEM OMG. FRIEDRICH, AKA THE HUG MONSTER, GOT A GOAL. I love when my lovely defenders get goals! (It's your turn Lahmi!) And there was a Poldi/Klose magic goal!!! Just like 2006!! AHHHH THEY KILL ME SO MUCHHHH.

Even more poetic, this was Klose's ONE HUNDREDTH international cap, and he scored TWO GOALS. He is now only ONE GOAL behind the ALL TIME WORLD CUP SCORER. What!!! And there's (probably!) two games LEFT in this World Cup! I predict that by July 11th, he will be the top World Cup scorer of ALL TIME EVER. How incredibly deserved. We love our Miro!!!!!

HE EVEN DID THE FLIP OF HAPPY JOY! YAAAAAY.

Who thought that Germany would ANNIHILATE Argentina? NOBODY, THAT'S WHO. (Except for Paul the octopus, lololol) I was so, so nervous, thinking about Ger-Serbia and Ger-Ghana, but it seems that once again, Germany has gelled at the crucial time and has pulled out all the stops. Argentina looked a bit threatening for a while when it was 1-0, but they never looked SCARY, and after it was 2-0 Germany just dominated. Beautiful passing, composed and thoughtful plays in the box. I am SO PROUD.

I'm sad that Mueller won't play in the next game, but hey, we have three OTHER fantastic strikers! AHHH I LOVE MY TEAMMMMM.

COME SQUEAL WITH ME BBS. I AM SO HAPPYYYYYYY!!!!! *twirls forever and everrrr*

WHAT.

So, the first shocker of the World Cup aside, I want to talk a little bit about how uneasy this whole deal is making me feel. At first I thought that things were just getting off to a slow start, but more and more I'm thinking that the lethargy of this World Cup is symptomatic of something larger and much more ominous and disturbing.

This is the first World Cup in Africa. You'd think that in this day and age, we might be able to handle that, to pull it off with decency and a true bonding of people from around the world.

Apparently we can't. The constant whining about the vuvuzelas is one indicator of that. Vuvuzelas are a fundamental part of how South African people enjoy their sporting events, but all these foreigners have come in and instantly starting bitching and blaming the sound for their own poor performances. I honestly didn't notice, or consider it bothersome, until someone else pointed it out to me. Now I understand that the sound through my internet feed is much diminished compared to what players and refs are experiencing on the pitch (and I think it is a problem when players can't communicate or hear the ref's whistle) but that doesn't change the fact that these instruments are a part of the local culture, and to complain about them is like to complain about Premiere League fans singing songs all the time. It's offensive and it's intolerant, and has taken up far too much of the talking time around this tournament.

Everyone's also bitching about the ball. It's entirely possible that the Jabulani ball really is that strange, that it's throwing off the best football players in the entire world. But honestly - teams like New Zealand, Switzerland, North Korea - all of these underdogs have gotten goals from this ball, so why can't Spain or Argentina or Italy? At least certainly not with the frequency expected of them. It seems like a convenient excuse for what is just some poor football, and that makes me unhappy. Take some responsibility, guys! Now I don't think there's nothing to their complaints - Germany was obviously the team who actually managed to blast several goals home, and "coincidentally" (or not), their Bundesliga (national club league) adopted the Jabulani back in December. So I think that probably is a factor, but the teams should just practice with the ball and stop whining.

But the thing that's unsettling me the most is how badly the actual people of South Africa are being treated. The first warning flag was on Sunday when local hired security personnel protested because they received 1/10th of the wages they were promised, and they were shut down by riot police. The protests have not stopped and the security of half of the stadiums have been taken over by South African police. Furthermore, poor South Africans have actually been moved out of their houses by their own government and into literal shantytowns just to "clean up" the area around the stadiums and present a "good face" to the world.

This turns my stomach. Certainly the South African government is culpable here, but also culpable is FIFA for allowing local people, hired to help out with the tournament, to be treated in such an abominable way.

I'm getting more and more uneasy with how things are unfolding. I think all of these factors are contributing to why we just have not seen quality football. Every team has played now, and the only one who really wowed was Germany, and even they had their flaws. Selfishly, that's awesome, because I would love nothing more than for Germany to win this thing, but in terms of the tournament I just really hope some of these issues get resolved in a peaceable, humane way, and that the quality of the football also improves. Or else my World Cup fever may be doused far too soon.

OH CUDLITZ ILU. I Tweeted him this morning:



And the immediate response via direct message:



OH CUDLITZ. <33333

In other news, IT'S TIME FOR GERMANY V AUSTRALIA! Sorry futureperfect, but I am rooting so hard for my Germany boys. Go Lahm! Poldi! Schweini! Friedrich! All of their faces, honestly. *___* I'm all jittery and nervous, omg. COME ON BOYS!!!