look at you

when i was in high school, the three activities that largely shaped my life were debate, soccer, and my band. i did lots of other stuff like choir, student council, concert and marching band, track, and others. but most of my time was spent pursuing one of those three activities - hanging around with people i knew from the activities, practicing, that sort of thing. it was a good life. i'll recount three short stories over the next couple posts, surrounding each of those activities.

first, i am thinking about a crazy experience i had in the fall of my junior year. my team always had to play games down in sioux falls, an hour south of brookings. it's notable that i made a trip to sioux falls 1-3 times each week from when i was in sixth grade until when i was a senior in high school, all for playing soccer. on this particular afternoon, my team had just finished playing a soccer game, and for some reason, we didn't stop for our usual post-game meal at wendy's. i had hurt my ankle during the game, and that actually was pretty normal. i tended to dribble the ball a lot (i guess because i could), but by late in high school, most opposing players knew enough to just hurt me if they wanted to get the ball. it was around this time that i should have figured out that i wasn't playing against players of great skill or fully developed senses of sporting play. if they couldn't get the ball, they'd just hurt me. and so after this game, as after so many others like it, i was hurt.

i was riding in the backseat of our coach's car, the colbeck cruiser as we called - a huge grey monte carlo. colbeck was a really great coach, having played with my oldest brother for a very good coach six years prior to this, after which he played college soccer and came back to work afterwards. but he wasn't exactly the biggest or strongest guy i'd ever met. sitting next to him in the passenger seat was my friend bob, another skinny but cool guy, pretty low key and bordering on being a committed pacifist (something he'd become a little later in life). i was sitting behind colbeck trying not to think about how much my body hurt, and sitting next to me in back was my friend jesse, though all of us called him shu back then.

this didn't turn out to be an ordinary ride back to brookings, however normal the soccer game was, and i suppose i could blame it on us not stopping at wendy's, but that seems a little bit much given the circumstances. things got strange when shu saw four guys pull up in the car next to us at a light, and he thought they were the team we had just played. thinking they were playfully "cocking him off" (commonly used phrase of the day), he held up his hands, and made a "wtf" face at them. when the light turned green, their car proceeded to swerve into ours, getting dangerously close to hitting us. it was about this time that colbeck and bob started wondering what's going on. shu quickly explained that he had mistakenly taken the fellows in the car next to us for friendly competitors. and the chase was on.

while driving through sioux falls (on louise i think), we got more and more confused at these would-be-gansters (from small town south dakota). after they had swerved at us, colbeck took off, gunning the engine of his poor old cruiser, and our pursuants pulled in behind us, tailgating us as close as they could at times. we ran a red light, passing through the intersection just after it was red, and they ran it three seconds behind us - it was starting to feel like a movie chase scene, but i wasn't really feeling like this was the kind of movie scene i wanted to be in right then. every so often, one of us would look behind, back at the car, and we'd see them still there, looking somewhat deranged, and for a while, one of them appeared to be beating a dangerous cudgel in his hand, menacingly, until we realized that it looked more like that butt end of a windshield scraper.

life certainly wasn't all humorous, and i certainly was a little worried, not only that the other car would do something even more rash if given the opportunity, but also that the police would pull us over. i mentioned my worries, and colbeck wisely noted that if a cop did pull us over, that'd actually be better - we could explain our strange situation and go from there, paying the ticket if need be (though i had looked at the other car's license plate).

once we pulled on the interstate, we figured it was over, but were surprised, confused, scared, amazed that the car was still tailing us. they started to try to pass us, staring at us, telling us to pull over (which didn't make a lot of sense given that i was probably the closest thing to a fighter of any of us, and i was hurt), swerving a few times, leaving colbeck to swerve to stay out of their way. they passed us (with our blessing), but then slammed on their breaks, i can only assume to get us to rear end them or stop or something. colbeck knew the road though, he knew there was a single lane of traffic ahead for fifteen miles of construction. so he gunned it and passed them, put a few cars in between us, and we never saw them again.

we did spend the rest of the trip back looking back over our shoulders and in the mirrors, making sure they weren't behind us (given that they followed us for close to 20 miles). and we had that experience to ponder over and wonder about. colbeck had a backup plan if they had tried following us the whole way home. that afternoon, south dakota state university had played mankato in football, and colbeck said he'd just pull up to a bar, walk in and tell everyone inside that our friendly pursuants were from mankato and had been badmouthing the hometown team. not a bad idea really. who says that the life of a south dakota high schooler isn't interesting, even though i still don't think that the four fellows trailing us in the car would have held up to any real gang activities, or even to me and my older brothers (i had been thinking we could drive back to the house where my older brothers were living with their friends, but i think in the end colbeck's idea was the better one).

that's the first of a few promised stories of my high school life, this one centering around soccer, although there wasn't much description of soccer at all. as a slight change of topic (i promise i'll tell more stories soon), i'd like to think that i've adjusted to the start of this new semester - i went through my worn out phase (almost falling asleep in class for the first time since junior year of high school), and i'm fighting a cold. but that hasn't stopped me from getting back into the groove i need (exercise, productive thesis revision, making good food, talking to good friends). i hope that the end of winter and the coming spring turns out to be fun and interesting, lively and relaxed, all in good measure. and i wish the same for all of you.

i've known for a while that this was song i'd be including in this upcoming post, so even though it's been a few days in coming, it'll be worth it. the song's music is simple, i'd even say just right (every time i hear the song, i just want to direct the piano part), and the lyrics are striking.

Heart by Stars

Time can take its toll on the best of us,
Look at you you're growing old so young,
Traffic lights blink at you in the evening,
Tilt your head and turn into the sun,

Sometimes the T.V. is like a lover,
Singing softly as you fall asleep,
You wake up in the morning and it's still there,
Adding up the things you'll never be,

Alright, I can say what you want me to,
Alright, I can do all the things you do,
Alright, I'll make it all up for you,
I'm still in love with you,
I'm still in love with you,

Time can take its toll on the best of us,
Look at you you're growing old so young,
Traffic lights blink at you in the evening,
Tilt your head and turn into the sun,

You disembark the latest flight from paradise,
You almost turn your ankle in the snow,
You fall back into where you started,
Make up songs you used to know,
So...

Alright, I can say what you want me to,
Alright, I can do all the things you do,
Alright, I'll make it all up for you,
I'm still in love with you,
I'm still in love with you,

The hard luck god,
You never had a chance you know,
Incurable romantics never do
He held a flame I wasn't born to carry,
I'll leave the dying you stuff up to you,

You get back on the latest flight to paradise,
I found out, from a note taped to the door;
I think I saw your airplane in the sky tonight,
Through my window, lying on the kitchen floor.

Alright, I can say what you want me to,
[I want more]
Alright, I can do all the things you do,
[Give me more]
Alright, I'll make it all up for you,
I'm still in love with you,
I'm still in love with you,
[I want more]

Alright, I'll say you want me to,
Alright, I'll do all the things you do,
Alright, I'll make it all up for you,
I'm still in love with you,
I'm still in love with you..