Jessica's Page About Sports

I thought it'd be fun to share some random stories about some of the team and individual-sports I've participated in in the past, to give you a sense of what sort of sports I enjoy and some of the ways I've tried to stay fit and healthy.

Soccer	2008-Present	Played as a forward in a lunchtime soccer group twice a week with coworkers and former employees Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park. I noticed significant improvement in my skill as I continued playing. The group was co-ed, however typically there would be 20 people playing and I'd be the only girl. Not being as fast or big as many of the opponents I frequently relyed more on strategy--such as making myself open and in the right place at the right time. The rules were fairly relaxed--no off-sides or time-outs except to re-balance the team sizes. We assigned teams every game based on shirt-color. Sometimes it would be white shirts against colored shirts. Other times it would be Red and Yellow and Black against all other colors, or so on--whatever would make the teams equal and be easy enough to remember. Of course, then there'd always be the person with a red and blue striped jersey that you'd have to remember was "red" this week even though they were "blue" last week.
Hiking	2009-Present	The bay area has tons of places to go hiking! But, I really hadn't really done more than the occasional one-time hikes until one day when a friend and I were looking for something to do once the bagel shop in Los Altos closed. "Well, its not too cold, there's some nice hiking trails around here, would you want to go for a walk?" Sounded like a great idea, and being such good exercise you start thinking maybe we should do this again next week, and then the following, and so on.
Softball	2008	I played catcher in a monday night church league at the Pleasanton Sports Park. The fields are really nice, except when you have a 6pm game where you're looking straight into the sun trying to catch a fly ball. Many of our games would be late at night after the sun had set, which was quite pleasant during the sweltering summer heat-waves. We had a variety of types of softballs we played with throughout the two seasons, some were super-hard, others mushy and bouncy, I found some of them a lot easier to play with than others. My batting improved through the two seasons I played, especially after I discovered a lighter-weight "kids" bat that I had much better control with, but my throw did not really improve any from looking like I throw like a girl.
Biking with a Dog	2007-2008	When I found myself living at my parents house, I started going out on regular bicycle rides with my parents' dog, Murray. My sister had apparently trained the dog on how to run along side the bike, and being an athletic dog, Murray loved to go running. So he thought it only his duty as a dog to demand I take him out on my lunch-hour for a nice ride/run through the park or around the nearby canals. Sometimes on the weekends I'd take him on a longer ride through the sports park or over to the dog park. You do have to stay pretty aware of the dog and what he's doing and looking at, because even with the generous length of the extender leash, you don't want to get pulled off the bike because he's already at the end of his leash and and decides to lunge and chase a squirrel. Keeping him at closer range you can put the "brake" on his leash repeatedly to slow him down gradually, but knowing how to quickly dismount from the bike can always be a helpful skill just in case.
Indoor Soccer	2006-2007	Played in the YMCA corporate co-ed indoor soccer league in San Diego 1-2 times per week with coworkers from Cubic. We played at the Kearny Mesa YMCA, at their brand new turf open-air indoor soccer field (get it? The sport is called indoor soccer, but the field is actually outdoors). I really enjoyed the strategy aspect of how you could bounce the ball off the wall to kick it around an opponent. A few games into the season we had a rainy day, and I realized how slippery a turf field could be when it was wet, and decided to get some cleats. Unfortunately, it wasn't "soccer season" so my efforts to chase all over town looking for cleats anywhere near my size was not met with success. Ironically a few weeks later, I went back to Walmart, one of the places I'd previously looked without success, and they had restocked soccer cleats in a half-size smaller than I thought I wanted. They say soccer cleats are supposed to be tight-fitting anyway though, and they ended up fitting and working great, so maybe it was a blessing they didn't have my size.
Softball	2004-2006	Played weekly in the City of San Diego corporate co-ed Softball league in University City with coworkers from Cubic. Seasons ran almost year round, with only periodic short breaks between seasons. I stopped playing when the games times started to conflict with the soccer league because I found the soccer to be better exercise.
Dance Dance Revolution	2004-Present	At one point I decided I needed to get more exercise. Working a full time job where you spend all day in front of the computer, I needed to make up for the sendentary lethargy with some exercise. During the summer I frequented our apartment complex pool, which wasn't quite big enough for proper-lap swimming, but the price was right, so kidney-bean shaped quarter-laps it was. Until the weather got gloomy, and it was past the season where they heat the pool. So I was looking for an indoor form of exercise and contemplated whether I should get a gym membership or buy a Playstation 2 for the express purpose of playing Dance Dance Revolution for exercise. One of my friends had a PS2 so I'd already discovered the game was both fun and quite a good workout, if you don't do the "beginner" songs, with all the jumps and steps required. I decided the game console would be a better investment because aside from the economics of a one time equipment purchase versus a recurring membership fee, I decided that I'd be more likely to workout the less out of my way the activity was. If I don't even have to leave the house, I'll be a lot more likely to actually work out than if I first have to get in my car and drive to a gym. Turned out to be one of the best investments I've made!
Beach Volleyball	2003-2005	Played co-ed beach volleyball at Mission Beach with friends from church every saturday morning. Running through the sand is very good exercise! This was a great winter sport, as the weather in San Diego is suitable for playing year round. But during the summer the sand would be a bit hot unless you got up really early, so it was more enjoyable on the cooler sunny winter days.
Basketball	Winter 2003	Played co-ed intramural basketball at RIMAC at UCSD with some Computer Science buddies. Our team was called the Warren Lawn Bunnies, a reference to the numerous bunnies that come out at night at Warren College. I don't think our team won a single game, and most of us had never played before, but we had a lot of fun, and it was great exercise because it involved a lot of running. Often we would come straight fromt he computer lab where we were working on Compilers homework to play our games as a study-break.
Lap Swimming	2001-2003	I'd always enjoyed living in the pool every summer as a kid, but as far as "real" swimming, I got into lap swimming at UCSD one of their two lap-swimming pools, often 2-3 times a week. They had a really large outdoor pool where their water-polo and swim-team played, with a large locker-room, complete with the machine to squeeze the water out of your suit so you don't have to take a dripping suit home with you and it dries quicker. Much nicer than swimming at the city pool back home! And for those dreary rainy winter days that occasionally come even to San Diego when you might feel like giving up on your exercise routine, they had a second indoor swimming pool next to the "old gym". The indoor pool had much more limited hours, however, it was right near many of my classes so I could go swim, take a shower, and then go to class.
Softball	Spring 2001	Played co-ed intramural softball on the computer science department's team at UCSD. Who knew computer science students aren't all allergic to sunlight? Our team was mostly grad-students, probably because they started the team, and then mailed out a department email to get enough players to round out the team. It was kind of neat to be exposed to phd students at that point when you normally otherwise wouldn't because they rarely otherwise surface from their tucked away research labs. There were only a couple undergrads on the team, but I became friends with girls, and eventually became roommates with her.
Tennis	1997-1999	I took beginner tennis lessons at the Pleasanton Sports Park, at my mom's insitance that I should take up a sport for exercise once I was no longer required to take PE in school. Even though I was old enough to participate in the the adult lessons, for a couple of the sessions I took the kids lessons where I was the biggest person in the group, because they fit my schedule better. When I took the adult lessons, it would be the opposite, I'd be the youngest person in the group. I thought tennis was pretty fun, I enjoyed learning how to play and continued playing recreationally with friends from time to time after.

Jessica's Webpage -> About Me -> Sports