My 'No Backtracking' rule for life applies here too.

It is weird that getting a couple big links should be an event for a weekend, since it isn’t like anything happens*. But of course I followed it all and read what people said. When you write a personal blog, one of the risks is that when some people read, instead of evaluating the topic I introduce, they evaluate me. People tell stories to explain things, and since they don’t know me they fill in the blanks and motivations with their experiences and biases. It is odd, to read people condemning you based on their attributions. It is also amazingly hard not to defend yourself. The strong temptation is to read closely, discover the discrepancies between their assumptions and what you know of yourself, respond to them and add a little zing. I still want to.

But I’m not. First, it would require that I spend more time in their headspace and perception of me. There are a million better things I could think about. They would respond, so I would get a second dose of whatever they think and I’d be very surprised if we found middle ground quickly. And then, I think the root of a lot of that worldview is the same need for agency to explain outcomes, which is really a need to blame the person to whom bad things happen, so that the world is a fair place. But we had that conversation and I can’t inflict a repeat of that on the patient readers who were here the first time. Finally, I don’t have to accommodate or explain anything, because I don’t need anything out of this blog that I don’t already have. (Well, I need you guys to introduce me to your hot single friends.) I have a crew that keeps up and jokes with me, so I know that is possible without any adjustment on my part. In the end, I decided that you can either be funny or worry about what humorless people think. That's not a hard choice for me.











*Which isn’t to say that nothing happened in my weekend. I played catch all three days; in fact I played in my first tournament of the year on Saturday. Man, I need a burst of speed. I was open deep a lot, which I can only attribute to the fact that this early in the season, those other women aren’t conditioned either. My super awesome teammate sent it for me every time, but most of those times I just could not close on the disc. How do you sprint the length of the field, get there and speed up for the catch? Is it just brute force being in shape? Wind sprints and plyos, yeah yeah. But getting faster at the end of your run, how do you make yourself do that? (I’d love suggestions for specific drills, if you know them.)

Also, my sister and I went to see that burnt out freeway in Oakland. Pretty incredible destruction.