long night...

A boring recap of my last two evenings, which have really felt like one long one...

Had coed reverse 4s on Thursday night with "What Has Eight Legs And Wins?" Our last night of ball together before Lady Hilary gets all matrimonialized. It was a fun night. We got off to a bit of a rough start, but got into a pretty decent groove for the second half of the night. We had the ideal schedule—4 matches in a row, and no working, whee! So, we actually got done and out at a sort of reasonable hour of 10pm.

Alas, what did I get to do with that bonus time? Work. Yeah, we had something of a rush job sent our way earlier in the day, with assets delivered to us midafternoon. The client wanted a first pass/prototype of the work in the morning for review, and then a near-final version, based on their feedback, complete by the end of day.

Good times, no?

Except for two hours of early morning unconsciousnes, I spent all of overnight Thursday working. I ended up working from home all day Friday to execute client requests as they came in. Partner Joe stepped up most graciously to take over the later day modifications while I napped for an hour before leaving for an evening volleyball tournament.

Coming off of so little sleep, I was worried about playing tonight. Earlier this week, I'd thought that I wasn't going to be playing in this one at all. When Bruno asked about availability for these Friday night tournaments, I said I wasn't sure about this date, because I knew the IFFB would be happening, and I was hoping to have the evening free for hitting some indie goodness and supporting this kickass festival.

Then, on Tuesday, I think, I see an email from Bruno asking Jill, Keri, and myself if we can confirm that we're in for Friday night. I was dawdling a bit on the response when I saw an email from Jill not so much asking as telling me I should be playing because who's sets is she going to hit if I'm not, right? So... I let that tip the scales. Part of me might have been relieved to have an event that could be an obstacle to going too nuts with the festival going this year. I was a bit of a nut about it last year... but got to see some excellent frickin films. =)

Anyhow, come Wednesday, it turns out Jill has to bail on playing Friday night. I gave her some roundabout $hit for it, but whatev. It's volleyball. I love me some volleyball. Besides, I'd already gone and bought a ticket for the midnight BLACK SHEEP at the Brattle, and no tickets for other Friday night shows. Friday night vball and a midnight IFFB "After Dark" flick. What could be better?

Not a lot, really.

So, tonight, aka Friday. Bruno put together a roster with Keri, Crystal, Sheela, Bruno, Zak, and myself. I'd never played w Sheela before. She was great in the back row on defense/passing.

Man, Crystal really plays vball for fun. She's so fast, and so up for anything. That, I love. I want to say that she reminds me of me when I was younger, but that's probably giving me way too much credit. If volleyball was a tribe with certain traditional ways and modern changes, in society or in the environment, was threatening the volleyball way of life, Crystal would be the new blood that the tribe would look to as its last great hope of restoring it to its once great glory.

Or something.

It turned out to be a pretty fun night, but I have to say the highlight for me was when Keri, Crystal, Glen, and I took an empty court to play some CR doubles for 15 minutes or so. Ahh... doubles. *sigh*

Unfortunately the night ended rather unpleasantly. In the second game of our finals match, a ball came over to our side really short. This was on the women's net. Crystal and Zak both went for it. Crystal was closer, or maybe just faster, and she dove, hit the floor, and got the ball up. Zak was already in motion, tho, and inertia carried him directly to Crystal's position. Zak ended up sprawling to fall over her, but in the process, knocked her down, striking the back of her head and causing her to hit the floor with her forehead. An ugly conk of a sound. When it happened, I felt the lateness of the hour and the looseness and tiredness of all the players in the gym. It was just the sort of thing I was afraid of when I thought about playing after so little sleep earlier in the evening.

Bleah.

Crystal was hurt, but put on the brave face and forced herself back onto her feet sooner than I might've. Someone on the opposing team suggested calling it a night and a draw. A gracious suggestion that we took them up on. Crystal started to ask everyone if we wanted to keep playing, but we all agreed that we didn't really have it in us. Someone had mentioned that she might have a concussion. I wonder if there was someone around to drive her home, or if she went to the e/r to check things out.

Most of the damage I incur on the volleyball court is my own fault. Two weeks ago I did some foolish thing that resulted in me hitting the floor hard enough that I thought I felt my teeth had shifted, messing with my bite. Crazy. The worst collision-y incident I can recall happened in college. I would play pick-up with the women's team coach and some of his friends, all of them older, like real adults, y'know? I think that was the first setting that I received vball advice along the lines of "choose your battles, be discriminating about which longshot balls you go for, your body will thank you for it later."

I have yet to put that advice into practice. My body hates me.

Anyhow, someone on my team shanked a pass and I dove and slid across the floor to get the ball up as a decent set. Unfortunately, the set was nearly perfectly vertical, and I, and my head, were on the floor in just the spot that a hitter would want to take off to hit it. You can guess what happened. This guy, Ray, approached and jumped to hit the ball, and in his take off, basically kicked me in the jaw.

Good times... good times...

In the wake of Crystal's injury, I have to admit I was guiltily pleased when I checked the clock and figured out that I'd have just enough time to take a whore's bath in the men's room, change out of my vball togs, and motor over to the Brattle to catch BLACK SHEEP. That's just how it worked out, too. Ray and his cousin Noel had beat me to the theater and kindly saved me a seat upstairs in the balcony.

The crowd was rowdy at the start, expected from a midnight horror flick crowd mixed in with IFFB regulars. But once the feature, BLACK SHEEP, got going, all the noises from the audience were appropriate and germane to the "violence of the lambs" on screen. Damn good crack. It reminded me at different times of TREMORS, THE SWARM, and SEVERANCE in its creativity. Hilarious and well-executed horror from an incredibly unlikely, almost throw-away, idea—maneating sheep. =)

Allright. It's about time I forced myself to have a lie-down and hopefully soon after, sleep. I hope I don't sleep the whole morning away, tho. I really do want to pick out a couple more IFFB options... Front runners include SUPER AMIGOS (5 Mexican wrestlers take to the streets and fight crime), THE TEN (quirky stories illustrating the Ten Commandments), COMRADES IN DREAMS (indie movie theaters and moviegoers from around the world), YEAR OF THE FISH (Cinderella in Chinatown), KING OF KONG (a documentary about Donkey Kong high score busting), KING CORN, and AUDIENCE OF ONE. I've already got a ticket for the midnight BEACH PARTY ON THE THRESHOLD OF HELL.

Keep on keepin on~