stream of consciousnessu

played Dela today, with Alan. we started on Hole 7, and right from the get-go i was agitated. it's such a common emotion for me when i've been out of town for a few days, looking forward to playing, and feeling fully deserving of some disc golf. it seems that at such times I also expect to birdie every hole (except those I ace), and that doesn't always happen.

In this case, I noticed right away that for some reason my release was a little off, and it resulted in me scrapin' by to be at par until hole 13, then +3 afterward. It was one of those holes. I ended up -1, and considering the sometimes windy conditions and medium-difficult layout, that's not so bad for 28 holes at DeLa. But the philosophical discoveries on this day prevailed.

First of all, on hole 18 I had to admit (sheepishly) that part of my frustation was due to the fact that Alan was beating me by six strokes. Even though we (as opposed to the years past) make a point of being less competitive, it's still there. we both know it. And that makes the frustration all the more acute. Anyway, I mentioned to him then that I needed t0 take my own advice and enjoy the other aspects of the experience when the scoring part isn't there, and that helped. Even though I didn't get another birdie until 21 I did end up doing better by caring less about the score. Once I focused on the nice (but windy) day, and all the other things I had to be happy about, I played better. Imagine that.