before i come home for thanksgiving

Before I head back home early tomorrow morning for a long Thanksgiving break, let me share about the last two weeks. Two weekends ago I woke up early and Eric picked me up in his Jetta and we drove about an hour and forty five minutes north to Prescott, Arizona, for an Ultimate Frisbee hat tournament. We got split up into teams and played three games in the mile-high altitude, a nice breeze, and a deceptively blistering sun. I had to tape up and pad my right middle finger because it was still wide open from the jack-o-lantern incident. This effected my game a little bit but overall it was a good day with my team losing all three games. From the fields at Riddle-Embry College we went with Eric's friend Jee to the Hotel St. Michael which is located right on the square in downtown Prescott on Whiskey Row. There we showered and readied for a night out on the town.

At the Raven Cafe we got all-you-can-eat pasta and garlic bread and two free beers (all part of the $20 tournament cost). There we hung out with the other Ultimate kids, and had an especially good time with the Northern Arizona University women's team (as seen here with Kerry, Paula, myself and some drinks).

From the Raven, where we got happy-hour prices all night, we headed to some place down Whiskey Row and had more good times (as seen here with Jee and Eric).

And from there, to bed. We woke up in the morning late and didn't attend the next day of the tournament (many others had already left). Instead, we walked around the square on a beautiful cloudy day in Prescott.


All I have to say is that northern Arizona is where it is at.

Last week, was filled with more interviews, a back and forth from my apartment to work on my bike, and training for my half marathon in January. But I also got to see some of Phoenix. Katie, Eric, Joel and I drove into the city and ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory before heading over to see the Suns fight, I mean play, the Rockets. It was great finally getting to do what people are supposed to do in big metropolitan areas. This past weekend included more of that as I went to Spinato's Pizza (where you bring your own beer) with Eric and Joel on Friday, but then on Saturday, after helping Bike Saviours move and organize into a new spot, I went with Eric and his friend Richard to an Arizona Fall League game where they inducted Derek Lee into the AFL Hall of Fame. After the game we went and saw Bond. Then the next morning, on Sunday, I woke up early and went hiking for three hours with Ryan Guzy, or the Bike CoOp, and his wife at South Mountain. This is the largest municipal park in the U.S. and is a huge "green" (but really brown) area in the south of Phoenix. The hike was beautiful and gave a view of the entire valley from the metropolitan centers to the mountainous outskirts of which Ryan knew most of the peak names and ranges.


Other than that we had an event last night for the Foundation where the Scholars got to "speed network" with all of their potential Mentors and I just watched. Tonight, after one more interview, I'm going to hang out and then...

I'm on my way home.

frisbee, bicycles, and a bloody toe

This past weekend was another relaxing and fun one. Since I am staying so far away for the moment, I have yet to actually hang out on the town in Tempe, Scottsdale, or Phoenix and thus the latest I have stayed up has been around 11:30 p.m. and that was to watch Saturday Night Live. But that doesn't mean I haven't been getting to know the area. I've been out meeting a lot of new people and taking part in some new and old activities.

After sleeping in from a great meal at Lo-Lo's, I woke up to some college football before heading to ASU to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with Eric, Katie's boyfriend. I was ready with my white and dark jerseys, some sunscreen, a Nalgene of KoolAid, some coffee, and a CamelBack full of water. Eric and I joined a team of some of his Fall League friends and got right to work beating the first ASU team we played significantly. What I didn't anticipate was the effect of the heat on my energy and my old cleats on my feet. After playing the first game I had already developed a blood blister on my right big toe and my asthma was in full gear (even though I have been consistently running "long" distances since my return from Cameroon) and I was lucky that we had a bye for the next slot. We won our second game and my level of play increased as well. The good news is that my shoulder is feeling good and I was able to throw with it throughout the tournament. However, I only used my left hand for long distance pulls. As I got back into the groove and the tournament moved on I just ignored the pain in my toe. Our third game was a classic which we lost 14-15 and after this a lot of our team left because the sun was setting and so we faced the Northern Arizona University team almost savage and lost in a game to 7. All in all it was a great day but my legs were definitely feeling the soreness of an entire 7 hours of running. After, Eric and I left to his house to clean up and when I took off my right cleat this is what appeared:


I had been playing with a bloody sock which was caused by a bloody toe.

Sunday consisted of watching some NFL before heading in the afternoon to Bike Saviours bicycle Co-Op where I left my bike to begin refurbishing it. I arrived at 3 p.m. and spent 2 hours checking and cleaning my stem and fork and the crank and pedals. I set it aside to work on the front and back rims and axles next Sunday and left to meet Katie and Eric and Katie's sister Leslie, her baby daughter Louisa, Louisa's dad Steve, and Katie's friend Erin at Cafe Boa for Sangria Sunday. Though not a good experience because they only had two servers, we drank some sangria and I called it a night watching the end of the Tampa Bay/Red Sox game.

I spent the day at home on Monday and today working on my project and on some course work. As I continue to set up interviews with the former Tillman Scholars, everything else with my project is running smoothly. And I have taken a few photos and plan to take more as the time comes.

Camelback Mountain, at an angle

back from the future