Time may change me....
Wow. I hurt. A lot. A great big mess of whole lot. My only conclusion is that I am not nearly as young as I once was.
Okay, maybe I should back up a little bit.
It was yet another long weekend. This, in and of itself, is not big revelation. It is football season, so every home game weekend for the Gators is a long weekend for me. I'll work at the coffee shop, and at the bar, and put in 35-40 hours between running between the two. One would think that this is enough for one person. But noooooooooo. I had to go and add to the schedule.
My boss and squire, Michael, was driving around last week and happened upon a flag football game. He stopped and watched for a while, and found out that it was a local league. He decided that the coffee shop needed a team. He put up a signup sheet in the shop for the employees. Three of the girls signed up, but none of the guys. He pleaded with me to join, so he wouldn't be the only male, and after some whining and needling, I finally gave in and said I'd play. The first game was early this morning. Very early. We were scheduled to play at 9am, so met at the shop at 8. Bear in mind that I got home from the bar after 5am. That's less than three hours between, after having worked a 16 hour day. But a promise is a promise, so I stuck it out, and showed up.
The team we were supposed to play did not show up, so we figured that we'd get a forfeit, and at least one win. The officials decided that they'd reschedule, and set up a game for us with another team. The second play in, Lacey and Michael collided while diving for an opponant's flag, and she hyper-extended her knee. We had to take her to the hospital. We played the rest of the game out with only three players (in a 4 person game). In the process, I happened to blow my knee out as well. Twinged it, actually, but I stuck it out for the rest of the game.
I then came home in time to grab a shower and head out to lunch with the roomies. Then it was home for a nap. A long nap. A nap one might consider to be a full night's sleep. I woke up 9 hours later. Refreshed? Well, if you consider a knee that was throbbing in pain and thighs so sore that I walked like an extra from a bad mummy movie refreshing, then yes, I was refreshed. Otherwise, I feel like an 80 year old man.
I guess some part of me, deep down inside, was trying to hold on to the days of youth, and maybe, just maybe, push myself to the edge, to see what the boundries were. Guess what, gentle readers? I found 'em. I pushed the envelop a little too far this time. Yes, I admit it. I did too much. I'm paying the price for it. But time will heal.
Will I quit the team? No. I can't let Michael down. But I'm going to insist we get more people on the team, so we're not all playing every play. We can have substitutes. We can get some rest. And some of us can afford to take a game or two off....
In the meantime, I'm going to take a small handful of Advil, and go back to bed.
Okay, maybe I should back up a little bit.
It was yet another long weekend. This, in and of itself, is not big revelation. It is football season, so every home game weekend for the Gators is a long weekend for me. I'll work at the coffee shop, and at the bar, and put in 35-40 hours between running between the two. One would think that this is enough for one person. But noooooooooo. I had to go and add to the schedule.
My boss and squire, Michael, was driving around last week and happened upon a flag football game. He stopped and watched for a while, and found out that it was a local league. He decided that the coffee shop needed a team. He put up a signup sheet in the shop for the employees. Three of the girls signed up, but none of the guys. He pleaded with me to join, so he wouldn't be the only male, and after some whining and needling, I finally gave in and said I'd play. The first game was early this morning. Very early. We were scheduled to play at 9am, so met at the shop at 8. Bear in mind that I got home from the bar after 5am. That's less than three hours between, after having worked a 16 hour day. But a promise is a promise, so I stuck it out, and showed up.
The team we were supposed to play did not show up, so we figured that we'd get a forfeit, and at least one win. The officials decided that they'd reschedule, and set up a game for us with another team. The second play in, Lacey and Michael collided while diving for an opponant's flag, and she hyper-extended her knee. We had to take her to the hospital. We played the rest of the game out with only three players (in a 4 person game). In the process, I happened to blow my knee out as well. Twinged it, actually, but I stuck it out for the rest of the game.
I then came home in time to grab a shower and head out to lunch with the roomies. Then it was home for a nap. A long nap. A nap one might consider to be a full night's sleep. I woke up 9 hours later. Refreshed? Well, if you consider a knee that was throbbing in pain and thighs so sore that I walked like an extra from a bad mummy movie refreshing, then yes, I was refreshed. Otherwise, I feel like an 80 year old man.
I guess some part of me, deep down inside, was trying to hold on to the days of youth, and maybe, just maybe, push myself to the edge, to see what the boundries were. Guess what, gentle readers? I found 'em. I pushed the envelop a little too far this time. Yes, I admit it. I did too much. I'm paying the price for it. But time will heal.
Will I quit the team? No. I can't let Michael down. But I'm going to insist we get more people on the team, so we're not all playing every play. We can have substitutes. We can get some rest. And some of us can afford to take a game or two off....
In the meantime, I'm going to take a small handful of Advil, and go back to bed.
posted by Turtle at 2:00 AM
3 Comments:
That reminds me of the time, a few years back, when one of my students talked me into playing softball. I figured even my fat, old body could handle softball. On my first at bat I hit it way out into right field, and started running for first. I say started because a muscle in my right thigh objected strongly to being put to such use and tore. Or at least that's what it felt like. It was really just a sprain, but it pissed me off nonetheless that all I did was start to run.
See, this is where being known for not being good at sports is a gooooood thing.
Sorry about the knee. Limits bite :)
I'm facing my own old age issues... Mine has to do with actually NEEDING to sleep instead of being able to subsist on a couple hours a night for a couple weeks at a time. I backed myself into a corner and tried to both prepare to run registration for an event last weekend AND get new garb done for the landed nobles to wear at said event, at the same time. Last week I screwed up a lot - little things, medium sized things, a couple big things... all due to not enough attention/concentration from just plain being exhausted. Then I got to the event and had to be up all night.. and made more mistakes and said some things I shouldn't have said or phrased a few things poorly. I did it to myself... =(
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