Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes

Speedy Enthusiast’s shoulder must be feeling better. Sunday she was playing waffle ball in the back yard and last night she practice and was throwing the ball without to much trouble so I is good. After practice she said it hurt a little but I think its just some carryover from when she injured it two weeks ago. It must be nice to be young and to heal fast. Overall it was a good practice because I think we will have a few girls who will be able to throw strikes and a solid infield to throw out runners.

Softball Enthusiast had practice for her in-house team as well last night and it went ok. There is a huge difference in the talent level of the players who are playing travel ball and the ones who don’t. I think it will be good for her to get some pitching in but other then that it will be a challenge. Only one other girl has played on her in-house team and the rest of the players are well behind. The other coach and I have a lot of work in front of us to bring this team together.

The sad part of this is that my son had to endure sitting through 2 practices back to back. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so cold but he is a trooper and got through it mostly unscathed. He did have an accident just before then end of practice when he didn’t get to the bathroom in time but we didn’t tell anybody. And wet pants in cold weather id never good so it worked out well that practice was over.

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Since this is story-telling week, I will bring another episode of stupid things in the Poker Enthusiast life.

You remember the first time you got drunk. I’m not talking about a good buzz or getting a little goofy but when you drank so much your head was spinning. (Scooby Doo intro inserted here)

October my junior year was an interesting time. I wanted to be part off the in crowd and was for the most part. It was soccer season and soccer players went out on Friday and Saturday nights. We drank and got stupid because we could and it was expected. This Friday night was no different.


It started with my buddy Bill who’s mom just happened to buy us a couple of 15 packs of Stroh’s Beer. Stroh’s was the first to offer the extra 3 beers when buying a 12-pack and lord knows that 2 high school kids couldn’t get by on only 12 beers.

We take off from my house and start driving around at about 6 PM. By 6:30 we find the road party and start drinking like fish and having a good time. We’re luck enough to have about 2 dozen cars sitting on the old gravel road filled with plenty of friends just having a good time. By 8:30 my 15 pack is done.

I really don’t remember drink all of those beers and I probably didn’t. But one thing for sure is that however many I had was to many. Bill made me get in the car because he had to pour me home. On the trip down the road I asked him to stop so I could take a leak. I started to run back to the party and fell right on my face. This was a clear indication that it was time to go home so I complied to his wish.

When I got home my mother was glad to see me. A normal Friday night was much later then this so being home at 9 was a nice change. I sat in one of the chairs in the living room and talked about the evening. As we were talking I was leaning on my right hand on the arm of the chair. I was felling dizzy and I actually fell left while leaning right. With all the dexterity I had left I managed to catch my self and make a smooth move, saving grace, and just switched the hand and side I was leaning on. It was obvious she hadn’t caught my slip because I’m way to smart to be caught.

She asked if I had been drink and of course I couldn’t lie. I had a couple of beers just to be social. But now it’s time for bed.

Being that I had never been through this before I had no idea what was to come. As I climbed into bed and laid my head on the pillow I knew I was in trouble. The room was moving, the bed was tilting and I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I rolled over on my side and hurled my guts out all over the side of my bed and floor. The I rolled back over and tried to fall asleep.

My mother came up and dragged me into the bathroom. The ice cold floor felt like heaven in my delirium and as I drifted off into an alcohol induced semi coma, I thought the last thing I would ever do again was drink.

When the train that went by our house every morning blew it’s horn at 6:00 am, I peeled open my eyes to a sunburst of pain and agony that must mean death. Crawling across the floor was harder then any 2 a day practice I’d ever gone through and I slowly made my way back to my bedroom. My mattress was laying on the ground, cleaned up by my wonderful mother, so I climbed on top and covered my head with my comforter that I somehow missed the night before. But the lingering smell of alcohol induced vomit was still in the air so I made my way down stairs to the couch to die.

When my mom got up in the morning she didn’t ride me to hard. All she required was for me to take the mattress outside to air out and to get ready for my game.

We were playing the 6th rated team in the state at 2:00 and I felt like crap.

Around 10:00 I made my way back up stairs to get the mattress outside. It took me an hour but I got it done so I prepared for the game with my first hangover in my pocket and headed to the field.

Coach was pissed. Not just at me but the whole team. It seems that all but 2 guys were nursing hangovers of various levels and we were going to pay on Monday. I had the privilege to take the brunt of his wrath and was benched at the start of the game. I played goal keeper so this meant I wouldn’t see any time unless the other keeper got hurt or sucked so bad he had to put me in. I ended up playing one of the best games I’ve ever played.

After the first quarter we were down 4-0. Coach screamed from the other end of the bench and I ran into the game. I don’t remember much other then I dove a lot and stood on my head for most of the game. I even got an assist when I punted the ball to the right winger on one bounce and he put a shot into the left corner. I’ve seen pictures of the game but none of it is really left in my brain.

The next morning I had breakfast with my dad. He kind of empathized with my plight but marked it up as a learning experience. In the end I had to take the class over many times because I would continue to get failing grades from time to time. But none of them were as bad as the first.