Frisbee Fan(atic)

An alumni survey recently showed up in my inbox. Okay, I haven't actually completed it yet, but I predict it will contain some version of the usual question: How well did my college education prepare me for my present life? It's true that no one has asked me to write the chemical formula for kaolinite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) since Mineralogy back in '98. I have no doubt that my classes honed abstract thinking and communication skills that I employ in everything I do, but those are kinda. . . abstract. However, there is a practical skill I learned in college that I use daily. That would be my frisbee throw.

You'd have to work very hard to attend my alma mater and not spend a measurable portion of your four years playing frisbee. Like many a good Carleton student, I whiled away many happy afternoons attempting to perfect - or at least predict - the aim of my forehand and backhand trajectories. For every few hours I spent in class or at the library, I surely spent an hour running around in the raw Minnesota wind in the shadow of the Hill of Three Oaks, getting a good workout whether I caught the disc in the Ultimate endzone or not. And I promise you, those hours have paid off.

Why? Because my dog is a frisbee fanatic. All I have to do is whisper the word "frisbee" and she is at the door, hot-pink Floppy Dog disc in her mouth, ready to get a game on. And she's a natural. Despite the fact that my frisbee career started 14 years ago and hers only took off when we moved to Michigan last summer, she is better than I'll ever be at this sport. I stand in one spot and toss the frisbee. Maisie sprints. She pivots. She leaps. She snags the disc five feet off the ground - in her teeth. She gives it a good fierce shake. Then she comes running back for more, tail wagging like crazy. This is how we spend my lunch break every single day.


I've tried to capture the phenomenon on camera, with limited success. But here's a taste of Maisie doing what she does best.


Note the wagging tail. She LOVES this.


Shaking the frisbee violently to make sure it's good and dead is an important part of the process.


The post-snag snow roll is another source of great satisfaction.