Breakthrough in Relations

The snows in northern NY are not completely gone yet, but the temperatures have been quite nice recently. Some of you know that I love to play sports like Football, Ultimate Frisbee, or any sport that speed/hustle can compensate for . . . well for lack of skill. In any case, I organized a game between the officers and enlisted students in my section at the Nuclear power plant I work at.

-- I don't know how much you know about officers & enlisted in the Navy (or the military in general) but I'll try to briefly explain. Officers outrank enlisted people. There are 8 officer and ~35 enlisted students in my section. Since we are being trained right now, as far as military hierarchy, we are the bottom rung. But the officers have some benefits and don't have to do some of the tedious things that the enlisted people have to do. Officers are also graded by tougher criteria and are required to know more. But in spite of all the differences, we have tried to establish good working relationships. --

So I organized a game of ultimate frisbee / football, and proposed that it should be officer vs. enlisted. That peaked every one's interest and we played on Thursday on a field still slightly soggy from melting snow.

We ended up playing three games to 7 of frisbee. We lost horribly the first game 7-3. But the officers regrouped and we won the next two games 7-5 each. I hurt my left thumb in the first game blocking a pass, but still managed to contribute significantly both completing several TD passes and receiving a few as well.

Then we played football. All the officers were pretty tired, so we mixed up the teams. I used some medical tape to tape up my thumb and I played. I was the quarterback for the majority of the time. I was very pleased because did much better than I expected. My team won both games. I was covered in mud, and very happy. I had a lot of fun. . . . I also had a broken thumb.

One of my biggest worries was that Woodine would respond to the injury like:

"I can't believe you played 5 games with a broken thumb and you're still happy about it!?"

This worry ended up being unfounded. To my relief, she said:

"I'm sorry you hurt your thumb, but I'm glad you had a fun time. And you know, sometimes those things happen."

She even told me about when she played high school softball and she broke her finger, taped it up and played the whole game. I love my wife. :)










P.S. I think the whole event was a success. Everybody had a lot of fun, we got some exercise, and there is a tighter bond between students at work. The only downer is the fact that I have a broken thumb and now I can't say I've never broken a bone :(