Sunday Nights at Home

I'm spoiled. There, I've said it. My mother is an excellent cook, and now that she and my grandmother are home, I never go hungry. Between the two of them I'm in food heaven, and you know what? I'm done feeling guilty about it!

Sunday, Mi Cariño and I took our sweet time getting up and being productive, which is a nice thing to do once in a while. We followed that with rushing to the West Village for our first Volleyball Class. Thankfully this one didn't hurt the body as much as the try-outs did, but I didn't play as well as I did in the try outs. We'll see how it goes in the forthcoming lessons.

After the almost 3 hours of delicious torture I made my way back to Brooklyn where Mami and Abuela made sure I was hooked up with some locrío de pollo, with banana, and a side veggie and cabbage salad. Feast your eyes on this beautiful example of Dominican cooking:

For a close-up of the locrío:

And yes, banana and rice? beyond awesome.

Spike It!

I love Volleyball. I mean that; playing Volleyball has always given me an amazing feeling: I remember learning while still in Middle School, playing with one of my neighborhood friends in the middle of the street, daydreaming of High School when we'd be allowed to play in an actual team. That led to actually being in my High School Team, and two glorious seasons of Volleyball playing, plus two glorious seasons of training with the boys team.

After High School, I haven't really had many opportunities to play and so I was elated when my friend Marls suggested we join a Volleyball League. I remembered Gotham Volleyball, an LGBT league that plays in the Village and that I tried joining 10 years ago, and so here we are. Marls couldn't make it but we made our way there and played our butts off for over two hours. It was beyond amazing, running around the court behind a ball. I don't know how to explain it, I know it must be a mixture of adrenaline and endorphins and I don't know what, but it feels like more than that. It's almost... spiritual.

After I made my way to Bushwick, already sore but elated, and stopped by the Church for some free food.

Moro de habichuelas negra, corn, ensalada rusa, vegetable lasagna, veggie meat, garlic bread, plus awesome purple cabbage. It was so good, it was tough to only go for one serving, but the hurting body helped me remember one was enough.

The evening ended with an email from Gotham Volleyball letting me know that I made it into their class and so now I'm looking forward to practicing and playing Volleyball at least once a week. Huzzah!