Sunday, October 31, 2004

   Le Stuff
The maze was only moderately entertaining for myself and my brother Michael. We went in, walked around a bit in the mud and drizzle, and decided that we weren't having a heck of a lot of fun. My mom and my sister were hell-bent on finding every one of the twelve stamping stations throughout the entire maze. So, upon successfully finding our way out of the maze, Mike and I stayed out of the maze. My mom and Emily went back in and found all but one of the twelve areas.

Lately I've been reading a book about goal-keeping in soccer. I was about to shelve it at the library but decided to check it out. I played as goalkeeper all throughout elementary school and in much of middle school. I just had the hand to eye coordination and the pain threshold that it took. Soccer during recess was vicious, and nobody had any gloves for the goalies. Nobody else wanted their hands to sting like mine did. :p

Earlier on, though, my position as goalie was a bit more elementary. I was taller, and could jump higher, than most people. So, when one of the third fourth fifth "My grade +1"-graders would shoot a ball high in the goal, I was the only one would could bring it back down to earth and prevent the score. I was teh stuff-ness.

I eventually moved on to goalie/defender. I liked the greater range of motion that being on defense gave me. I wasn't stuck in the area of the goal, and I had a bit more action. In eighth grade, though, I didn't really restrict myself to any position. The teams were always eighth grade versus all, and we had a sufficient number of skilled soccer players in the eighth grade to make the game interesting.

What the younger grades lacked in skill, they made up in number. Quite frequently my friend Joe would find himself up the field, alone, with about seven sixth-graders covering him and four more standing in the goal.

Still, with those conditions, the eighth-graders claimed victory time and time again. So, I ultimately decided to play for both sides. I wouldn't enter the game until after the first goal, or the first few minutes. When I saw that one side clearly had an advantage, I'd join the other. Usually I wound up helping the sixth-graders. Heh, that made for some very interesting games. ~_^

Joe's going for the goal, he dribbles it around eight sixth-graders and......


....the ball is stolen by Ben. O-o

Ben races down the field with a pre-formed attack force of sixth-graders standing in front of the opposing goal!

Fun stuff. ^_^

Anyways, yeah. I'm reading a book about goal-keeping. I was thinking about maybe playing soccer next year, or maybe over the summer. I'd really like to get back into it, after having spent so much of my life playing. I could probably play positions other than goalkeeper, and possibly play them better, but...eh. I didn't shelve any books about playing forward or halfback. :p


Also, I checked Spirited Away out and watched it last night. Great movie. I absolutely loved it. :D

*insert other praises full of exuberance*

My favorite characters were No-Face and the old man in the boiler room. I can't think of his name at the moment, but he was cool. ^-^

I've got Mass and Coffee and Donuts to attend tomorrow morning, anywhere from 8:30-12ish or 10:30-12ish. Then I have work from 12-5. In the children's room, no less. I sincerely hope they either shift me over to Circulation, or they don't have tons of kids running around in costume. v.v;;

I don't have any plans for a costume for tomorrow night. I suppose I could just walk around in my fencing gear again, but I wanted to do something different. =/

Next year, for sure, I am being either Inigo Montoya, or the Man in Black. I'll go out and get the materials next weekend, if that's what it takes. But it will happen, gosh dangit.

My costume for the Halloween-a-thon, by the way, went off without a hitch. Matt and I swapped masks, so he wore my face and I wore his. We got a laugh out of the teachers, and any number of rolled eyes from our peers. Mr. Leone in particular was struck by our costumes.

"Oh, geez guys. I have enough trouble telling you apart as it is."

Heh, we were both wearing the exact same shirt, and had very similar tan cargo pants on. It was fun.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Catch you later. ^-^
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