We also walked past alot of history on our way back to Aunt Peggy’s beautiful house. She lives near 3rd and Spruce…so their is TONS of history close by. We saw the church where Thomas Moore (1st Naval Commander) was buried. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the church, but it was beautiful! We also saw those little signs that point out historical moments in Philidelphia. My favorite is in the photo to the left.
After a few hours of walking around downtown we decided we should head back to Aunt Peggy’s and start claiming our spots as 15 more of our teammates were about to show up.
The girls started arriving and we decided to watch a movie…actually Rocky, Shalay and I decided to watch Mean Girls. Sadly all of us could quote any part of the movie at anytime…actually its not sad…its my favorite movie! ‘There’s a thirty percent chance it’s already raining!’ And from all the laughter coming from downstairs we got most of the team down there to watch the film.
At that point everyone started getting tired and we started heading off to bed. I had heard that the last car to come in was having some problems. Later on I found out that Steph and Tracy had lost their bags. This included their kits…damn the luck! So the next morning after a few hours of shut-eye (I was nervous and didn’t sleep much…) everyone started going through their bags trying to find stuff to help the two lost ruggers with shorts, socks, boots and shorts.
Our first game was against Beantown at 10am. Since we had our NEW jerseys…very very nice, and many returning and new players, we had a bit of an impromptu jersey ceremony. It was nice. We warmed up to the smell of duck poop and muck that didn’t stick to your boots, but definitely slowed ya down. The game was slow and messy, the rucks were very messy and the ball was destined to pop out anywhere it wanted to. It was very frustrating for those of us wallowing around in the muck. When we did get it out to the green grass the speed of the game changed dramatically, but then it was hard to get there in support. It was a good game and we held them to two tries…but it was a battle.
Oh yeah, before we left for the fields in the morning Ros told us about our bonding moment for
the weekend. Donnie a doll with a rat tail…was to be hidden in different bags all throughout the weekend. If the call of Donnie check was made, you had to stop what you were doing and search through your bag. If he was found in your bag, Tiffany got to choose what your funny task was! If you found Donnie before the call was made you were free to choose another bag to hide him in. Lets see, JJ had to do the haka in front of the Philly team, Ros has to take her top off and get another rookie to sing songs, Anna had to shadow box, Angela is doing an interpretive dance on Thursday, Meg did some breakdancing…there are more, but they are missing from my memory!
The second game was against Maryland…and was much more fun! We beat them easily by at least 3 tries. The field conditions were much better, much drier…with only patches of the muck that flew up into your mouth when you ran through it. This game was much much more dynamic with scoots, wides, PC…and actual back plays! However the game was much more physical than the beantown game, I watched my mates get raked, pulled, punched and I watched my mates dish it out when it was necessary. I myself was slapped in the middle of a ruck, as Tracy surmised ‘that bitch was such a bitch!!’
After our second game was over we had most of the afternoon to kill, so we decided to watch a few matches and chill out. We were watching a clinch match, wish I could remember the teams! Basically Ros and a few others figured out that if Boston(?) could hold the other team scoreless we could possibly clinch the wildcard spot and have a chance at a top 3 spot. But wouldn’t ya know, that damn team scored at the last minute and broke the charm. Lets not forget to motion that it was a double-motion try, meaning that she posted before the line and then with BOTH knees down picked the ball up and put it in the try zone. The ref was no less than two feet away and upon questioning basically said it was a pity try. Ass.
That night was the team social at a bar in downtown Philly. We had decided that our theme was going to be Rocky! It was SO SO fun dressing up and changing our outfits, applying makeup, getting handwraps on…and the best part was walking down the streets of Philly in that outfit. On the way to the social we had decided that our entrance was going to be the first verse of the Rocky song and the chorus line. The entrance was spectacular!! There was racous applause and picture requests. We definitely won the party!
Our best competition for the party theme had to be the Philly teams, they were the Ninja Turtles! They were cute…and had a weird mascot. Steph, Bags and I noticed that the mascot appeared to be vulnerable, it was propped up against a window. I convinced a girl sitting
below the window to open the window and in a few minutes I would come by and snatch the mascot.
**DISCLAIMER: At this point I had thought that every good rugger knew that stealing of a mascot did not mean I was going to keep it. It means that you were a BAD rookie and that you should have to sing, dance, get naked (not really) or whatever to get it back.**
So in a few minutes I ran over and snatched the mascot from the window. LOL, I sprinted my ass off around the corner and up the street…knowing that I would run into Casey and Angela who had just went to the van a few minutes before. I kept checking behind me expecting some angry ruggers in pursuit…but no. After furthur inspection of the doll I noticed that it was a blow-up doll! How fun! So I returned in a few minutes trying to act like nothing had happened. I was the only one in yellow shorts and handwraps at the party though. HEHE. After talking to my mates I found out that hardly any of the Philly girls noticed the deed. Heidi finally yelled at them to do something and I guess a few of them started to chase after me. They said it was cute to watch their little ‘shells’ swing back and forth as they ran.
The next day we had to be up a little early, but not to bad…we got to the field at 10am. When we arrived we realized that they had moved the consolation matches to noon, so we had some time to kill. We watched a few matches and then started our warmup. The last game was against Boston. The game was a bit rushed throughout, but we had good ball movement and support. I felt completely rushed the whole game and had a bit of trouble. I didn’t have time to look at the ball, look at my flyhalf and make a good pass. I basically had time to put hands on and fling it somewhere…or get killed. Heidi had another good game though, she scored 3 or more tries. The final score was 24-5. I think I made two of the conversion kicks…barely missed one from way out in the corner.
All in all the weekend was alot of fun…Sunday night was full of fun and body shots. Monday morning was filled with more Philly history…and more stories.
Much love to my valks.
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just to clarify, the Philly Women were superheros : ) Brianne (a former Philly woman) was rounding out a group of rookies that came as the ninja turtles!
crap. excuse the double comment. i thought it didn’t save!