This past weekend was my big softball tournament at the University of Virginia. We left at 7 in the morning from the tower for a 12 hour bus ride down to Charlottesville, VA to hang out with 30+ law schools worth of softball playing law students. After a rather calm, but fun ride down, we check in and get ourselves settled in the hotel. I was rooming with Christine, Joey and Nolan, which is great because I never get to spend enough time with my friends these days. We ran off through a light rain to Chili's for dinner and spent most of the time laughing about silly stuff. By the end of the meal we were full and exhausted (because like duh, we got to school at 6:45 in the morning. Who DOES that on a friday???)

That night Joey and I had what sounded like a coughing battle. The 2 of us spent the better part of hte wee hours of the morning coughing, then sleeping, then coughing some more. Thankfully, I know christine slept through most of it. I think Nolan did as well (I hope so, at least.)

At 6:30 in the morning, we got moving to get ready for our games. Joey, Nolan and Christine all had games before mine, so they had to get moving. Of course, there was no way I was gonna sleep through 3 people running around the room, so I was up as well. It was raining out, so I started packing extra clothes so I wouldn't be stuck in soggy ones all day. Sadly, around 8 or so UVA cancelled all the games for the day. Which left a lot of us staring at each other, trying to figure out what to do. I mean, we are in the middle of Virginia, and Charlottesville reminds me a lot of Ithaca (aka. really nice school, but kinda stuck in the middle of nowhere.) A bunch of people decided to play poker, but I realllllllly didn't want to sit around playing poker (and I am not all that good at poker...) Thankfully, some folks decided to go to Montecello (Jefferson's house, for those who don't know.) It was totally cool. First, since there was only like 12 of us, I got to know everyone much better, which is good, since I didn't know most of the folks in that group well (or at all) and some were my teammates. The house was totally awesome. Jefferson designed the whole thing himself, and it is just so fascinating. 18 foot high ceilings, skylights, octagonal rooms, and all of this being done in the 1700s! It was not all that practical in many ways, but it was just awesome to see.

After the house tour, we dropped some folks back in Charlottesville, and then decided to go on a wine tasting at a local winery (see, just like Ithaca.) We went back towards Montecello, and went to the Jefferson Winery. The wine was acutally pretty good (who knew Virginia actually made wine?) and it was gorgeous at the winery. It wasn't raining out there, so we bought a couple of bottles of wine and sat out on the porch, drinking wine, chatting and enjoying the view.

When we finally got back to Charlottesville, I got yelled at. Apparently they had the home run derby while we were gone, and we were supposed to have someone from our school pitch to the batters. And I was in trouble because our other pitchers apparently did not do so well, and I "should have been there to pitch." Additionally, both Becca (one of my kick ass teammates) and I "should have been batting in the women's competition." Only one woman hit the ball over the fence, and everyone is right, I think Becca and/or I could have done better. But geez, tell us when stuff is and we will come!

That night we went to the big party for all the softball teams. Was a really good time. Didn't meet all that many people from other teams, mostly because we didn't play all day (last year we chatted with the teams we played against, and the web of people grew from there.) So I hung out with my teammates, especially the girls I got to bond with over some wine (namely Becca and Courtney) Over the course of the evening I was in 3 chugging contests (2 I lost, one I won...) got told by a beligerent drunk man from Vinderbilt that "BU Law got SERVED on the dance floor" (however, there was no dance floor) and had the joy of meeting the bathroom Nazi ("You have 60 seconds in there! GO GO GO!") At like 12:30, Sid comes over to Becca and I and tells us we have to be in the lobby at 7:30 in the morning, since we'll be playing. We looked at each other and said, "we're done" and poured our remaining beers out. Hell, I was drunk, she looked at least buzzed, and the clocks were going forward an hour ta boot. We, along with about 5 other of my wasted teammates, went back to the hotel, decimated a platter of apetizers, and crashed around 3:30-4 (after changing the clocks.)

At 6 am (yes, 2 hours later) the alarms started going off. I sat up, swore I was gonna die, and got moving to get dressed. Happily, our first game, against Emory, was a forfeit. We ran and got coffee and bagels, and went to watch the rest of the BU teams play. Sadly, the other 3 BU teams lost (it was close for at least one though.) Happily, the day finally started warming up, and we scrimmaged against one of the UVA men's teams. We lost 9-5, but it was a nice way to get moving. My team finally played a game, against UVA orange (there are like 6 UVA teams, fyi.) We won, 15-2, and I got 2 strike outs along the way (I pitched allllllll day.) Best of all, we had the other 3 BU teams to cheer us on. It was wicked fun, and it put us in the semifinals, one game away from the championship (the final 4, if you will...) For the semis, we played UVA Gold. And lost. I have no idea what the score was, but it seemed like I was pitching forEVER. They were just plain better then us. But yah know something? I didn't care that we lost. I had SUCH a good time. I pitched well, my batting improved, my shoulder was sore, my body was stiff. It was GREAT. I am gonna miss this when I graduate, because it is such a great way to get out and have fun.

The bus ride home was loooooooong. We got back to Boston at around 5 am on Monday morning. After driving some folks home, I got in around 6:30 or so. I slept for 45 minutes, went to the gym to loosen up and started on another day of school.

Despite the rain, the lack of sleep, and my sore arm, I have to say, I don't think I could ask for a better weekend. I got to bond with some folks from my school I wouldn't have otherwise met. I got to spend time with some of my friends that I wouldn't have been able to if I was in Boston. And I got to have the thrill of playing softball once again. I wouldn't trade that feeling for anything in the world.