Women in Football

The Northern Utah Avalanche-what a find that was!!! All women, helmets, and full pads...I remember the shock I had over the power I felt when I first tried them on; curious about how much pain I would feel when I was hit, I ran into what I thought was a sturdy tower of boxes...and knocked them over...in the store. Better yet was hitting drills at practice (after learning the right and wrong things...remember, most of women starting out need to be coached like a peewee team), running full speed at a bull of a woman twice my size who is also running full speed and stopping her in her tracks-WOOOO! I'll tell ya, I was incredibly nervous when I first walked in to check it out, but now I'm in for the long haul.

One of the hardest things about playing football is trying to help other people see why I love it so much. The GM where I work says to me, "I don't know why you would want to do that to yourself (regarding pain and bruises). I didn't even want to play football as a kid, I only played because my dad made me." How do I answer that? Why do I love it so much? Why will I put in practice every week to play 8 or more games a year? Why am I willing to potentionally get hurt? Recently, I think I've narrowed it down a bit...

1. It's new to me and I love learning new things.
2. It's good exercise and I HATE exercising by myself.
3. It's the one place where I know I've done something right or wrong...building personal responsibility within a team environment. (At work, it's hit or miss on knowing if I've done right or not...with other people in life, if you've screwed up they may never tell you...it's nice to have someone tell you right then when you've done something wrong and even better when you do something right and everyone cheers)
4. I just love it...it's like I was made to play football (ok, not a real reason, but it's true)
5. It's safer then playing soccer (well at least in my experience. I tore my achilles playing indoor soccer while trying to stay in shape for football...this won't be everyone's experience but I love throwing that in as a reason that I play)
6. Growing up, if I hit someone I would get in trouble...now I hit someone and people cheer...it's AWESOME
   

About the background

This is just a bit about me:

Guitars-While I like/love music...I've never really been big on knowing who the artist was, I just liked appreciating what they said or how their music sounded. I've been playing the guitar now since 2002 and my muse has just come...I look forward to sharing some of that with you on this blog.

Football-yes, yes...I play full contact football on a womens arena team. Pads, helmet, the whole bit. I was so scared the first day that I went to check it out, but now I love it!!! Want to know why...stay tuned.

Volleyball-I'm from Hawaii, of course I love volleyball! My coordination didn't really come until college though...then I quit the team so I could study harder...regrets regrets

Shiney gears-Just a symbol of my love for seeing how things work. I would get in trouble as a kid for tearing my toys apart so I could see how it worked on the inside...my intial exposure to a computer board was a disappointment because at that stage I didn't know how to analyze what it did.

A person studying-NERD ALERT...study is one of my favorite things...time in contemplation...learning...challenging myself to consider a bigger picture or a different point of view. I remember showing a college friend my research materials or bibliography page for a 2 page paper that we both did...she shook her head...I had 3 times the resources that she did...and we got the same grade...

Bar stats-More of the analytical...after observing and studying, I find it a personal challenge to share the information I know in a way that others will understand...an interpretation from nerd to normal speech...

An open Bible-This is the most impacting picture representing the most impacting part of my life. I'd like to explain that right now, but it would take WAY too long...more to come

Fractles-This is a symbol of what "Bottom Up" means to me. The little things in life help to form the bigger things in life and sometimes they follow the same structure. There will be MUCH more of this to come, but for the now, here's an example...in a company you have departments, in those departments you have different areas-each area has a leader (be it official or not) and or a communicator as does the department as does the company as a whole...the grossly over simplified point is the purpose of this blog: taking the things that we understand to help us understand the more elusive points of life and seeing how they work on different levels to make the whole thing work [I know I lost you there, but I'm ok with that]

WELCOME TO "From the Bottom Up"

God's Guiding Hand or the adversary's roadblock?

Today, I woke up sick...the kind of sick that has you bored...can't sleep, can't think, can't read, can't move, body aches, sneezing, etc. My honest first purposeful thought was "God, did you make me sick so I could hang out with You?" I did have some time talking with my Creator/Messiah and some time of reflection between groaning in dull pain...it was good, but a question arose that may be more plausible in other adverse situations that cross our paths.

Sicknesses, roadblocks, accidents, and other similar nuisances of varying degrees: events of God's guiding hand or evidence of an adversary throwing roadblocks at you in an attempt to keep you from God's best?

I don't intend to wax eloquent on this issue; I have an opinion, and I would love to hear your opinion first. I'm sure we'll come to the conclusion that there is no clear cut line towards one or the other. Perhaps it's a bit of both, perhaps it's all God's plan even though it's painful, perhaps it's sin...I know I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but I'm sick...I may not have made much sense anyhow...