A cautionary tale of friendship and slow pitch...

 

Have you ever had the email from a friend that asks you to participate in something that seems so harmless; saying no isn’t even an option?  I have, and this tale is about that.  I caution you, pick sanity over friendship!

My friend Tracey sent me an email last month saying she and her business networking group, The Driven Dragons, were participating in the 2012 BNI slow-pitch tournament and were short players, and would I like to play.

I read the email in about ten seconds and sent an efficient reply, “sure, sounds fun” (or something like that).  The reality of what I had committed myself to did not hit me until ten o’clock the night before the tournament (last night).  At that point it was obviously too late to back out, although my strange and imaginative brain did think “What if I got the plague?” Thankfully that thought did not get heard by the universe and I woke up whole and healthy this morning.

That’s another thing I should mention, I had to be there for 8am. Another reality check hit me in the shower while I was trying to will my body to wake up this morning for the tournament.  I suddenly thought of:

·         The fact that I hadn’t played softball in almost 20 years (and I wasn’t that great back then when I was thirty pounds lighter and 20 years younger)

·         The fact that I don’t exactly work out on a regular basis these days (intentions are there, 70 hr a week job, 3 kids, working on my designation, trying to get writing in there somewhere, kind of puts a kink in that – by the time I have time to work out, I’m beat – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)

·         The fact that I was going to drag a 4 year old and a nine year old and my husband out of the house by 7am when only the nine year old is a morning person

So what had possessed me to say those three words, “Sure, sounds fun”?  I still can’t reason that one out; it obviously seemed like a good idea at the time.  That or friendship played the trump card and won.  If Tracey is suggesting it, obviously it can’t be that bad, right?

So I dragged my sorry ass out of the shower, dressed, hustled people into the van and drove to Softball City at the crack of 7 (well more like 7:30, getting kids and husbands organized is kind of like herding cats...).  We got there, dragged our chairs, ourselves and our super sized coffee to the field.

The first game was fun, except the ultra serious, stick up his derriere, cantankerous old umpire who had dreams of umping for the big leagues and got us.  Every chance the ump got, he called an out, a foul or yelled at us about the rules.  I was truthfully too busy trying to remember to breathe than to worry about a bunch of silly “rules”.

We won two and lost two today, and in the end I’ll grudgingly admit I did have fun (the people were fantastic and supportive).  Fun won’t help me now though, as I sit here typing this, sprawled on my bed, stiffer than that stick up the umpire’s rear end and sore in places I forgot I had.  Just a tip – if you don’t exercise regularly, playing 4 games of softball in a day probably isn’t the smartest decision you’ll ever make.  In fact, I’m staring longingly at the ice cold beverage sitting just out of my reach, and instead of reaching for it and taking the first, thirst quenching sip I’m sitting here trying to convince myself I’m not THAT thirsty.

Some crazy fitness instructor somewhere once said that pain is gain.  Yes but at what cost.  I did gain a fun day but I also lost the ability to move my legs and arms.  It’s all a compromise I suppose.  Do you think my team at work would be willing to wheel me around in my chair for the next couple of days?