fall

even though i graduated from high school ten (gulp!) years ago, fall still makes me think about shin guards and cleats and mouth guards and a crazy varsity coach who yelled at me for "eating too many french fries over the summer." 

{this picture, taken in 1999, says, i am a field hockey player but also a cheerleader!}

field hockey was sort of a rough and tumble sport so i'm not really sure why i wanted to play? and we're not just talking fall sessions either...i played for an indoor league in the winter and at camps and the Bay State Games in the summer. 

i was sort of a badass in a very i'm white, middle class, and live in new england sort of way.

i didn't totally love the game, and i often woke up with big black bruises in interesting places. one girl on our team broke her nose our senior year when she took a field hockey stick to the face. another girl lost her two front teeth when a ball popped up and smacked her in the mouth.

 i guess those attractive, custom molded mouth guards we were forced to wear were for show.

anyway, i think i was mostly in it for the candy we ate on the bus on the way home from games while singing along to mix tapes that were always an interesting compilation of The Offspring, Shania Twain, TLC, Barenaked Ladies, Eagle-Eye Cherry and The Backstreet Boys.

also, we did this super cute jump-in-the-air-and-twirl maneuver whenever we scored a goal.

also, for the co-ed naked field hockey: make a pass on the grass t-shirts.

(i had another one that said, don't let the skirt fool you...sassy!)

also? plaid was really in during the 90s.