Moon over Miami, vball near victory

On Friday I was in an especially bad mood. Life pretty much sucked, nothing seemed ok. Then as I was grumpily walking Nicki that night I look up and see it is another god damn full moon. Was the talk I heard for years from my mom saying that my Dad would transform during the times the moon is full also affecting me? It sure seems it. It seems more and more when I feel the worst, the moon is the brightest. Damn the lunar cycle!

Saturday was my first volleyball tournament of the year. I had concerns of my ever increasingly brittle body not being able to hold up to a day of jumping, running and diving. Plus the fact that I have played zero volleyball in 4 months multiplied the possibility for a poor showing. The weather in Lauderdale was around 80 but the reflection off the dark sand made it feel quite warm as the day went on. This tour decided to go to rally scoring this year which meant missed serves would become quite costly, resulting in more conservative serving.

Our first match was against one of my least favorite combinations, two high school kids (high school = never getting tired) whom also wore matching shorts and visors. (another one of my pet peeves) They were indoor players whom only had played a few games of beach ball. Even with this handicap, we managed to get behind to these kids. We had tons of unforced errors which isn’t surprising. However we managed to creep back and win the match by a few points. It wasn’t a good showing but hey, it was a win.

Match 2 again was against two young kids, (17 & 21)great….. Again they were primarily indoor players. A number of times they gave us easy points by hand setting the serve which is allowed indoors but illegal outdoors. Later in the game, just as the one kid was about to handset yet another serve, he last second realized his error and instead headed the ball. Not only did he head it but he headed it well enough that his partner was able to set the ball, very impressive. He performed this trick again successfully later in the match. We were ahead the entire match but actually let them get close later in the game. Again our play was sloppy, but good enough to win.

Our third match was against a team we have played several times. Randall likes to give the one guy a hard time even though he is good guy. Last year we shut them out one match and Randall never let them forget it. Well this time they got the jump on us. More sloppy play by us gave them an early lead that we couldn’t make up. We lost by 4 or 5 points. It was sweet revenge for them. I didn’t really rant or rave about the loss. We didn’t play great and we lost, move on to the next match.

Match number 4 was against the undefeated team on our net. The situation was if we lost we were not going to the playoffs, if we win, we would force a playoff for the playoffs. This is the game we started playing better. I was hitting better, setting better and we made some nice defensive hustle points. We won the game by 5 or 6 points.

The way the point differential worked out, even though 3 teams were 3-1, we had to play the team we just beat again in order to make the playoffs. It was a quick game to 11 (rally) This time we handled them easier than the first time. My favorite moment of the day occured in this match. On match point we served to them, the stronger hitter of the two got the serve, made a nice pass and went up for the hit. He was frustrated by the way the match went and I could tell he was trying to relieve some of the frustration on this swing. He wound up and blasted away. However I happened to be blocking as well. The hit banged right off the palms of my hands and went straight down on their side, game over. It was the perfect punctuation mark for their match. He hit the shit out of the ball because both my hands were stinging. We made the playoffs.

Playoff game number one was pretty easy. The one player on the other team seemed rather tired so we went after him repeatedly. We won the game quickly by a score of somewhere around 25-12, 25-13. We had limited unforced errors and played well.

Our semi-final match was against the team that beat us in pool play. We now had a shot to return the revenge. The match started out tight at first but then we ran a bunch of points and wound up winning by double digits. We played much better than the first time around. I made no effort to rub it in because as I said, both of these guys are nice guys. However, it was nice to bump them off again.

The finals were against a guy we had played several times before, teamed with a diferent partner than he usually plays with. His new teammate was an upgrade. He could easily play (and win) in A ball. He had great control of his hits, his serves and set like a pro. The net we played on was a bit higher and the court was very uneven with a little uphill mound to the net. Most of the game they served Randall who was having a hard time converting on hits. The game wasn’t really very close and we lost by 7 or 8 points. I was bummed out a bit but nothing severe. My play had improved throughout the day. I had some nice hits, made some good saves and generally had a good time playing. Last year our first match resulted in being 1-2 and not making the playoffs so a 6-2, 2nd place finish is nothing to complain about. If things progress as I think they could, I think we will be playing in the A division later this season. We won’t win tournaments but I think we can at least be competitive, maybe even making the playoffs now and then. Saturday was a good way to rejuvenate my desire to keep playing ball until my body just says NO. No serious injuries to report. My vball site has been updated and a few new tips have been added.

Sunday I got up and spent the entire morning playing WoW. I had a big mental checklist of small things I wanted to get done. As each hour passed with me sitting at the desk I felt increasingly guilty about not getting started with my work. It is a common trap with WoW. You get involved in quests that require you to group with other players, then you invest time into hitting the objective that you feel compelled to see it out to the end, less you leave your teammates hung out to dry. That was the case Sunday when I wound up spending 3 hours longer on the puter than I originally had alotted.

Finally I got started. I did most of what I planned but there was plenty I skipped. I still was not in a good mood. I felt unmotivated, tired and achy. I actually laid down and took a nap which is something that I normally would never do. Hopefully the lunar shift is coming soon. I need to shake up my world somehow, I need to do something out of the box.