Monday
El Milagro: Rosie the Tech hooks me up to the machine and hits a nerve with the arterial needle. I get a jolt in my thumb and index finger that reminds me of those steel bars we used to grab in Juarez as kids for 25¢. You'd hold onto the bars attached to a car battary as long as you could while the Mexican operator grinned and turned up the juice... a slow surge of electricity that grew until your hands were trembling and you threw down the bars in excited pain. Anyway... this flashed thru my brain as I was climbing the back of my chair and Rosie is trying to hold me down and adjust the needle while I'm squirming... but not screaming cause I don't want to seem like a wimp in case Big Daddy Joseph is around. She finally finagles it to where the pain melts away and I only have tingling numbness in my thumb and about 3 fingers... not sure, since I can't feel em.
Kate the PA (actually a Nurse Practitioner, she explains) comes by todo the Dr's Drive By and she is even slower than Venkatesh... updates my Ropinirole script and talks about new breads for my diet now that ___ the dietician has discovered that my rye bread has whole wheat so I must forgo eating it anymore! Damn! I love rye bread. So, they console me and offer that I can eat sour dough bread (yuck) and I add 'botillo' rolls... which Rosie squinches at and can't figure out what I mean for a few minutes... deja vu... and then blurts out "Bollio... he means bollio... French bread!" and we all agree those wonderful hard crusted rolls are white bready enough to make my diet. I reluctantly agree that I'll change my habits and get rid of the rye. I complain that I've been eating my basic sliced turkey on rye with carrots and grapes to many years... and I think of the complaints I used to get from Johnny and Katie over getting the same sandwich every day through elementary school.
So I settle into reading a paper I downloaded on the research on bereavement in prep for my Amarillo workshop on SFGT.
Later I catch the ABC News, and Jim Lehrer's News to get some better understanding on how and why the nation is going down the toilet. It is Monday so I am lost on what's on TV... never watch on Mondays I guess. We are here Monday cause of Turkey Day down the road on Thursday... and El Milagro's switching the days so the staff can have a Thanksgiving of their own. TTS people are MWT this week and MWF are STF (I guess).
I now lay back in my chair and watch whatever is on... without attending to it... begin to read a paper from the class but it is boring (sorry students) so I drift off in my mind to the events of the weekend... when the Kick Kats LOST a game in the tourney!*
It was in the game with the Starlettes, who we had beat Saturday... but because of Austin United's** disheveled tourney planning (which is always the case in the rec league) we ended up having to play them again and this time with a macho-type ref who only sees with blinders. If we wanted to gripe we could say that one of their scores was made by an off-side player and there were other gripes... alas... they did lose and the Starlettes did win, 3-2. In the last 10 minutes of the second half the girls pushed thru a score but the luck wasn't with them to score another one, even though they took about twenty shots during the final minutes of play. When the whistle blew... it was over and there was a silence of shock and dismay for seconds before a cheer rose up from the Starlette parents, who were also in shock about winning against us. I headed across the field to hug Shayna and the girls were all cryey and blubbery... Shayna mumbling that they cheated and the ref didn't see the off-sides, etc. We took the kids back to the bench and as the parents drifted across the girls lined up to high five the winners.
Coach Charlie choked back his emotions as he addressed the kids and parents, standing in shock an
d dismay in a huddle to the side of the field. The girls all had tears streaming down their faces as Charlie pushed out, "I've been memorizing this speech for over a year now... and it doesn't make it easier... it was bound to happen that we would lose a game... it is really a matter of luck and an inevitability that we would lose some time. I never thought it would go for two a
nd a half seasons! That is incredible and you should all be really proud of that... all the other teams have been gunning for us for the whole season... you all have grown as a team and there is no reason to feel bad." As he was finishing up and the girls were dispersing I added that if they were angry they could take that to the next game at 3:30.The girls did get their spirit back and beat the last team 4 to 1 and it was good
to end the season on a win rather than on that loss to the Starlettes. They ended up third in the tourney and are given a invitation to the regionals. Now we have to plan for the district games in Boerne on December 7th!Notes: In at 77.5 kgs and out at 74.7 kgs.
* Kick Kats online at http://kickkats.shutterfly.com/
**Austin United online at http://www.austinsoccer.org/
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