One Last Baby Shower

I've got to say a word or two about the baby shower our ultimate frisbee friends from Nashville hosted for us, last Sunday. It was the final baby shower on our dance card and we were really looking forward to sharing this experience with them.

It's hard, even for me, to put into words how special this group of people is to Jude and me. Jude began playing ultimate frisbee ("ultimate") in 1996, just as she graduated from law school. When Jude and I started dating in 1998, she was well entrenched in the "ultimate community," practicing and playing with Flo (the Nashville women's team) and traveling to out-of-town tournaments (Birmingham, AL, Savannah, GA, Chattanooga, TN, Lexington, KY, Versailles, OH, etc.). She invited me to play ultimate on her team in the co-ed summer league in 1998, which I did.

I've played a lot of sports in my life and consider myself to be a decent athlete, but I had absolutely no idea how to play ultimate when I started playing that summer. I mean, I was lost. However, I was determined to learn to play the game, because I could tell what an important part of Jude's life it was. I hoped it would bring us closer together, and it did.

The ultimate community, in Nashville as in most places, is a close knit group of people. At that time (1998-99) a large part of Jude's social life involved people who played ultimate in Nashville. What amazed me then and still amazes me now is how open and accepting this group of people was (and is). I will be eternally grateful for the way they took me in, no questions asked, and incorporated me into the fabric of the community. The people with whom I played ultimate, many of whom have moved out of town, retired from playing or just drifted away will always have a special place in my heart.

Some of the fondest memories I have of the early days of my relationship with Jude involve Halloween and Christmas parties with our ultimate friends, traveling to tournaments and camping in tents and, yes, even the trip to Cincinnati for the tournament where Jude broke her leg. As I learned to play the game, I came to love the competition, the camaraderie and, most importantly, the chance to share those things with Jude. Together, we played for several years, until I "retired" in 2005. Jude hasn't played competitively for a year or so, although she did play in the co-ed summer league last year.

Here's a link, if you're interested or want to learn more about ultimate frisbee, to the Ultimate Players Associate website - http://www.upa.org/.

That brings us to last Sunday. Nancy Schelin, Nancy's boyfriend, Paul Sexton (yes, Nancy, BOYFRIEND), Carrie Plummer and Kelli McAbee hosted a baby shower at Paul's house. We played a couple of fun games, one of which involved trying to avoid saying the word "baby." Upon arriving at the baby shower, each attendee was given a necklace with a tiny, plastic baby bottle on it. If, in conversation with someone else, you said the word "baby," you had to give the necklace to the person with whom you were talking. The person with the most necklaces at the end of the afternoon won a prize. It was hilarious, as the more devious partygoers (like me) tried to trick others into saying the word "baby."

The decorations were great, as Paul's house was festooned with copies of a baby's face he and Nancy had created, somehow, on his computer. There were disembodied baby faces stuck all over the inside of the house, not to mention on his mailbox. Strange and unsettling, maybe, but very, very funny and creative. Kelli baked an amazing cake, which was almost too pretty to eat. In one room, there was a large sheet of paper on the wall, with instructions to write on it possible names for our baby. Jude's favorite was "Phude," while I preferred "Halward."

It was a wonderful afternoon and we had a great time.