Great Weekend

This was an amazing weekend. First and foremost because our rugby club had its first Met NY Union win. We beat Suffolk RFC (the Bull Moose) 15-6. It was a great game played against strong opponents.

Even if we had lost, however, this would have been the best match of the season anyway. The Bull Moose are probably the coolest, most fun team in the Union. Partying with those guys always rocks. Lots of drinking, lots of singing, a smattering of nudity (never gratuitous, of course) and they generally seem not to give a fuck that we are a primarily gay team. Their girlfriends/wives are friendly (and even we can appreciate that they're hot). Some of their women's side hung out with us, too. If you've never partied with women ruggers, you've never partied.

The thing I like about partying with the Bull Moose is that they genuinely don't seem to want the party to end. Some clubs we play against are polite at the drink ups, but that's about it. They don't seem to mind when we leave (and they certainly don't stick around long when we're hosting, especially if the beer runs out). Suffolk parties long and hard. And again, they are fun motherfuckers. You can't not have a good time with them.

(Okay, in the name of full disclosure, a couple of their guys are dicks . . . but then so are a couple of our guys, so it all evens out)

The bus ride back to the city was a drunken free for all. Nudity? Check. 12 Cases of beer? Check. A couple of young ruggers who couldn't handle their liquor and wore their vomit-speckled t-shirts like a badge of honor? Check. An extremely obnoxious drunk who will remain nameless because he reads my blog, but he knows who he is? Check. (By the way, Stinkfinger, even though you were an obnoxious drunk, it was nice to see you so happy again. You should be that balls to the wall cheerful all the time.) All in all, a fun, though loud, trip back.

There was an after-after-party, but I'm old and curmudgeonly, so I skipped it. Plus, I had a writing date on Sunday and was afraid to sleep through it.

Another great thing about the game was that Jess and Marc showed up. I think they are the first of my blog friends (and only the second of my friends over all) to come to one of our games. They were a great addition to the sidelines.

Jess is a photography buff and took some photos of the team. He has a background in sports photography from college which is pretty obvious from his pictures. There are some really good action shots.

So that was my long and tiring Saturday.

Sunday was another great day. I got my laundry done very early (earlier in fact than I normally wake up on most Sundays). Yes, I know it's pretty pathetic to take such happiness from getting laundry done, but I have to take what I can get.

I hooked up with Frank in the afternoon for our Sunday writing date. I'll tell you, that is beginning to pay off. I'm not sure how much he got done (I think he said a couple of pages), but I completed the first scene of a new play. And the funny thing is, it turned out okay. Rough. Needs some polish, but I could see it in my head with no difficulty. That for me is the sign that I'm on the right track.

After our writing date, I went to visit Stuff. He's going out of town for a week (Alaska), so even though we only got to hang out for an hour or so, it was worth the trip up to his place (which was a bitch since the uptown 6 wasn't running . . . fucking MTA). Sometimes it's important to see your friends, even if you aren't going to be able to spend much time with them. I don't know, e-mail and stuff like that is fine, but it's important to see people in the flesh. It restores a sense of immediacy to the friendship. Does that make any sense?

We haven't been able to spend much time together since he got back from China; we've both been pretty busy. But on the up side, he'll be back this weekend and is going to try to come to Saturday's game.

After hanging out with Stuff, I went to the Red Bull Theater for the next play in it's Revelation Readings series. Last week it was 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle' by Beaumont and Fletcher. This week was 'Women Beware Women' by Thomas Middleton.

These readings are amazing. First, the actors are great. I'd love to know how much rehearsal goes into these productions. I would bet that there is not a lot, which makes their performences that much more impressive. I'd also love to talk to the director. This idea of doing readings of quality, though somewhat forgotten, plays for free is amazing. I wish more small theaters would do that. But maybe that's because I'm cheap.

Now, it's work time. I think I may go to Splash again tonight for the Musical Monday thingy. Then again, I might go to the gym (Painbringer, PT has started racheting up the workouts, so I need to get back in shape so I don't have a stroke one of these sessions). I also feel like working on my play a little more.

So many choices.