On how playing softball can make you look like a crack addict and my love of magnets

Okay, so, softball last night? We got, well, pummelled might be the best word for it. For our first game, only 6 people showed up, so the other team had to lend us players so that we could play. I mean, they won automatically since half our team failed to mention they wouldn't be showing up, but whatever, they were nice and it was cool. For our second game we had to frantically call friends beforehand and beg them to show up so we wouldn't have to forfeit another game. We were still one player short, but we got to play. Don't you hate when you play in a rec league and all of a sudden you come up against this one team who are complete assholes and play all hardcore like it's the World Series of Baseball?

Most of our team would rather sit around and drink beer than play softball. That's not to say we don't like to play, cause we do, but the beer + social time is what makes it really fun. Anyway, this team last night consisted of mostly giant guys, and about three girls, while our team consisted of two guys, and the rest girls (apparently everybody else was on vacation). Actually, I think we did pretty good all things considered. I really hated this team though...they were just so annoying. They were the kind of people that would yell out random noises before someone went to pitch, and at one point one of the girls on our team got hit with a line drive, and there was lots of blood, so much blood, and this guy on the other team called out, ohhhh, she's hurt, call an ambulance!, and it really made me want to hurt him. The poor girl was clearly in extreme pain, and crying and bleeding, and he's mocking her. Blood actually splattered from her poor hand, and this guy is mocking her. That takes a special kind of asshole. Dude, you are wearing your hat sideways and you are mocking people? . My friend K was like, "when I ran into second base, I totally kicked the guy in the leg!". hahahaha. K is a tiny, tiny person and that makes it even more hilarious. I'm also doing something with the bat so it keeps hitting my inner arm, and now my inner arm is all bruised and swollen. I look like a crack addict.

Anyway, the moral of last nights game was: stay in the outfield cause if the ball hits you there it won't hurt nearly as much, and some people are really bad winners. Never be one of those people.

In other news, I'm in the midst of planning my next big vacation. I love travelling, I love it. I mean, I spend a lot of time daydreaming about where I want to go next and what I want to do while I'm there, and I am constantly looking up the price of flights on expedia. The next trip I take is going to be back to Europe because I love it there. I want to go to Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Bosnia, Italy, England, Greece and ummm Iceland. I think the chances of me fitting all this into one trip are slim to nil, but I'm going to do what I can. Oh, and I want to visit a friend in France, and maybe a friend in Prague. I'm hoping to go for about three months, but we'll see how much money I can save.

Anyway, everywhere I go, I always buy a magnet for the fridge. For one thing, I love most things tacky, and tons and tons of magnets on the fridge is super tacky. I think it looks amazing. Also, it is a relatively cheap souvenir to bring back and magnets don't weight much, so I can handle carting a bunch of them around for however long. Unfortunately, I only decided to start doing this a couple of years ago, so I am missing a bunch of places, but the fridge is slowly getting filled up.



People have also started bringing me magnets from the places they go, and this makes me extremely happy. It really doesn't take much. My favourite magnets are the stingray one from the Cayman Islands, because swimming with the stingrays was simultaneously awesome and terrifying. I also enjoy the magnet from the Jello Museum in Leroy, NY, because that was one of the greatest museums I've ever experienced. There was a jello brick road! There were displays about Bill Cosby! Amazing.

Anyway, my goal is to eventually cover the entire fridge. And I do mean entire...like, sides and everything. Lofty goal? Yes. Doable? I think so.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Part Two

I am happy to report that our softball team won our game last night! I hereby take back all comparisons to the Bad News Bears. I mean, we aren't super great by any means, but at least we didn't suck completely. And we won! Yay. I also found myself playing a little better, there was less running from the ball, and more catching of the ball. I'm not quite here yet:



But I"m working on it. All the way May! How great was the movie A League of Their Own? Definitely one of my favourite movies ever.

Remember when the other week I asked the question, who injures themselves playing softball? I now have additional things to add to my things to worry about while playing softball list. At the very top? Pulling a quad muscle. I can now say, this is an extremely painful injury, and why the hell didn't I stretch properly beforehand? I think it's because in my mind it's like, hey, it's softball, barely any effort is required. Except! Except when you are at bat, and have to suddenly sprint like there is no tomorrow for first base. So, once again, lesson learned. The lesson being: stretch properly, because sprinting will be happening. I can now not bend my left leg properly and am gimpy, but there is no game next week, so hopefully in two weeks time I'll be back to normal. Another random injury to add to list: slicing your inner arm open with your glove (or something). I was standing there playing catcher, and I looked at my arm and it was bleeding. Seriously, I have no idea what I did, but it proves to me that if there is a way to injure myself doing something seemingly benign, then I will. OY! I never cease to amaze myself with my complete spaziness.

Last night's game was great. Everybody was much more talkative. AND! There was beer, which really only makes things better. We stayed and watched a bit of the next game, and I think we are finding our groove. That groove may not be greatness, but it is a vast improvement on the obliteration that was last week. I'm not an overly competitive person (except maybe when playing board games...), but it's nice to win every once in a while. Keeps the moral high.