Grant and Ultimate

My brother visited us last weekend. Only Grant would put up with two 7 hour flights within a 4-day span. I don’t think he was even here long enough to get over the jetlag.

Paris is old news for him, so he didn’t come with a checklist of things to see. In fact, we didn’t plan much of anything, but that’s the way he likes it.

He landed on Friday afternoon and found his way to our apartment and the spare key I left behind. After work we met that night and went to Comptoir Gastronomie (The Duck Place) for dinner. Afterward we walked around Châtelet, past St. Eustache, and wound up in Wally’s favorite Irish Pub, Quigley’s Point. Dave and I hadn’t been in a bar in a long time, and I remember being pretty silly on the way home.

On Saturday, David drove his parents to the airport and I ran some errands. I came home and cleaned the apartment a bit, then finally poked Grant awake around noon.

When most people visit a foreign city they want to see new things and experience the local culture. When Grant visits foreign cities, he looks for pick-up ultimate frisbee games.

And remember he broke his arm just two months ago? The cast came off only a few days before his trip to Paris. While I helped him look for pick-up games in the area, I prayed that a) I wouldn’t have to take him to a French emergency room and b) our mother wouldn’t kill me for being an accessory.

Through Wally’s connections Grant had been communicating with some people who were putting together a game. So that afternoon the three of us arrived in front of Cité Universitaire on the south side of Paris to meet this group of players. It turned out to be a friendly, albeit ragtag group with very limited frisbee experience. I could tell that Grant was a little disappointed. The boys played anyway, and I spectated.

That night we had dinner on Montmartre and went to Guillaume’s for a wine and cheese party. Guillaume’s friends were very nice about switching to English, and we all had fun. Grant learned that the French play Rock, Paper, Scissors with an extra component: Well. Something about the scissors and the rock fall down the well, but the paper covers it. Huh?

On the way home Grant and Dave strategized on how to play this bizarre new version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Well. They decided that it comes down to the intelligence of your opponent. It sounded to me like that scene in The Princess Bride where the Man in Black engages in a battle of wits against the Sicilian.

Sunday morning Grant checked his e-mail and realized that the ultimate frisbee game he’d been planning to join was in fact that day. When we showed up at Cité Universitaire at 4:00 the previous day, it just so happened to be the exact meeting time and place of another frisbee game. What were the chances?

So we decided to go to that game too, but not before Grant tagged along on my trip to the market. Levallois-Perret was having another city-wide rummage sale, so we spent the rest of the early afternoon wandering around the streets looking at stuff. Grant found teacups for his espresso machine and we each bought a copper pot.

Now when I worked family garage sales in my younger days, lunch might have included rushed Subway sandwiches and chips. But not so in France. The guys from whom Grant bought his teacups were perched at a small round table, completely engrossed in a full meal with proper silverware and a bottle of wine between them. “Soooo French” my brother chortled as he discreetly took their photo.

Anyway, after that the three of us headed back out to Cité Universitaire for the right frisbee game. This time Grant met the people he had been e-mailing from the States, and the competition was quite a bit more fierce.
After the frisbee game ended, Dave and Grant joined a mini-soccer game on a neighboring patch of grass. Grant tuckered out, but Dave kept at it until nearly sundown.

And that was it. The next morning I nudged Grant awake long enough to say goodbye, and came home to find our housekey in the mailbox as arranged.

My brother never reads this blog, so it’s safe for me to say that I was really down after he left. It was so fun having him around, having someone else to talk to and do things with. Someone who brought a different perspective on this mess I’m so buried in, I can’t even see how lucky I am or how funny my surroundings can be.

And I think Dave appreciated having someone to play sports with, someone he can have a few drinks with, someone to team up with and tease me.

Needless to say, we both miss him.