"The Past Is Another Land" (AIDA)

I'll admit that I love the game of volleyball, and I'm definitely a better cheerleader/supporter than actual player. I got a loud voice that works better than my passing skills. So this season I've been attending friends' games to show my support. Right now I've caught 7 teams' matches in the first couple of weeks of play. They've been working out schedule wise but I haven't look at this week to see how the schedule will work, it worked out so great last week.

So where did I leave off? Oh, yeah, so by the summer of 2004, I was starting to feel the comfortness of playing with the group, but I also knew that what we once had on Sundays at Brandeis may not be reached again. Since Brandeis Sundays closed for the summer, we would try to get together for some outdoor play but somehow the less structured option did not bring out the same numbers. Pretty soon, we were only hearing from people through email and at occasional parties for birthdays and the such. I continued going to open play on Fridays at Brandeis, and it was a different atmosphere and crowd. The same comfortness was not there, and I had fallen back into a rut. I showed up at 7pm, played around on the backcourt, not much social interaction, and then left. I had only shown up to play and that was it.

But when I would walk out at the end of the evening on those Friday nights, I would see all these cliques go in their own directions. I swear you could have written this scene in a movie where the camera would pull upward as the cliques left and standing under a lone streetlamp would be my large figure in the center. I couldn't help feel a little sad that I didn't have a "clique," but I accepted that that was how things were, content with life's played-out destiny, so far. These "cliques" may have been teams or just friends hanging out after the open play. Yes, they do exist even today. And I may be viewed as being part of one today, but I hope that people think that I don't fit into that categorization. I remember how a few cliques made me feel when I played on those backcourts. They were not the most friendly cliques, and I would get stuck playing with their team. It was a little uncomfortable, and cold is the best way to describe their reception. I remember one night leaving that gym feeling a bit down because of the treatment I received. How could I let people affect me that way, we were grown-ups, not in middle school. But life is still made up of those kinds of people. I hope to never make people feel like that. It didn't stop me from going and I just struggled on. I still see one particular clique sometimes as they still play as a team in one of the leagues, but they don't come to Brandeis anymore. I actually encountered them a few times (about a year later) as we were opponents in our league play, and I remember the first time we played them. Most of that team didn't even remember me, not that I would expect them to, but they're only redeeming quality was their captain who turned out to be a nice person NOW. My team completely dominated, a little sweet revenge. I have to tell you that those days seem so long ago, and hopefully I have grown and learned from that.

Fast forward to present: I have to say that my friends from open play (Sunday and Friday completely mesh together nowadays) completely get my crazy self. I have been just enthusiastically supporting the movie, DREAMGIRLS, my 7th time. Going with friends to make sure they see it and I'm enjoying it every single time. After open play, I took a couple of friends to see it, and a couple of other friends who I had already taken to see it came along to see it again. We saw it at the Ziegfeld Theatre which is the only place in the city to see a movie musical. Of course, I cried at totally different times but the show still gets to me. Afterwards, I named my friends based on the number I saw the movie with them, Lisa and Ray--No. 7s, Dee--No. 5, and Mary Z.--No. 4. And in return, they were calling me--it was a toss-up--Broadway or Effie White. It is something random that I appreciate even more because of where I've been.

SCOREBOARD
Stefan & Claire's Team (One Hit Wonders):