Alliance.

Have I ever mentioned that when life presents me with in-your-face ironies that I get all warm inside and usually laugh out loud. Problematic if I'm in public because then I'm suddenly the crazy girl laughing by herself. Well, it wouldn't be the first time I guess. I'm also one of those people whose memories are invoked via song, and so when I hear a particular song on my iPod and I'm walking home from class and it makes me think of a fond memory, I also turn into that girl with a shit-eating grin on her face, by herself, alone, flying solo.

Wow, I would not want to randomly see myself out in public. I would totally make fun of me. Anyway, when I was on my way home from my soccer game [more momentarily], I was stopped at a stoplight and a college boy walked in front of the car drinking one of those Arizona strawberry-kiwi iced teas. Those have 75 grams of sugar in a can, and they're so delicious that you will suck that whole thing down before you know what hit you.

So this kid walks in front of me tipping it pretty far back, which makes me think he was getting closer to the last 1/3 of his Arizona iced tea. Just drowning himself in this sugar. And then, a man who must have been in his mid to late 40's, zooms past him, on foot in the opposite direction. He's on a run. He looks so great. He's in great shape. He's grinning while he runs. Just the irony of this young kid killing his body slowly with artificial flavors and excess sugar while an older gentleman sprints past him, in prime shape. I liked it.

Well anyway, I joined an indoor soccer team today. Not because I wanted to, but more because it just fell into my lap and I wasn't in a position to say no. I love soccer. I love exercise. It was a win-win. And no pun intended there, because we did win our first game. 6-4. And I'm pretty stoked to report I scored a goal. It wasn't spectacular or groundbreaking, but it was nice and low, to the left corner. It felt so good to be on that turf field again, albeit with strangers who recruited me in a bar.

I wasn't out of breath, I was putting more pressure on the ball than any of the other girls and even some of the boys. It just felt nice to feel the conditioning of my body paying off, and it makes me want to work even harder. Most of them were bent over, out of breath, subbing out every 4-5 minutes. I could have played all 48 of those minutes, no problem. I don't know what was more gratifying, scoring that goal and feeling like "part of the team" or just feeling refreshed running around on Sunday afternoon and pining for the next game before the first one is even over.

I can't wait for our next game next Sunday. And what's even cooler about this team is, they don't know me. None of them know that 4 months ago I would have been lying on that turf field panting for breath after being in the game for 5 minutes. Today was just like a premature preview of what I'm going to feel like when I finally accomplish my goals. And if it's anything like the feelings I had today, then shit, I'm not going to stop until I'm there.