Some firsts and a third

This weekend was the tour vball championship in South Beach. Last year it was shortened because of Hurricane Jeanne. It is a weird format starting at noon on Friday and wrapping up on Saturday. I was leary of it because I haven’t played back to back days of volleyball for probably at least 6 years. I think the last time I did it was at Rehoboth when I played with Rich and Heather on a Sunday after playing men’s on Saturday. South Beach is a dog friendly area so we took Nicki with as well.

The drive over took longer than I expected, nearly 2 and a half hours. The traffic was heavy. I commented to Ali about how heavy the traffic was on the east coast. I was on a section of I-95 with 5 lanes and every single lane was jammed with vehicles. I guess it will be good prep for driving in LA. We got there and surprisingly arrived there the exact same time as Randall whom had a nice and tidy half hour drive to get there. South Beach is a very unique venue to hold a tournment with the sidewalk restaurants and clubs fronting the beach you are playing on. The activity is constant with currents of people flowing in all directions. Oddly the worst part of South Beach is the actual beach itself. It is in a word, horrible. The sand is hard, filled with rocks, coral and broken glass and looks to be basically construction sand. It really is surprising that they don’t clean it up, it was downright dangerous to play on.

When we checked in we were disappointed to see there were only 2 nets of BB. Hell last year with a hurricane coming there were 4 nets. I don’t know why the turnout was so low. Getting all of the supplies in place was a large pain in the ass. We had a shitload of stuff to drag to the beach and then once we got it all setup, we found out they were moving our nets about 200 yards down the beach because the sand at our original court was unplayable. So we carried 2 shelters down the beach and then came back to get the other bags/coolers/chairs. We got play underway around 1:30 or so. Our pool play was a struggle but we were one point away from being undefeated in pool. We had a team down 24-20 (game to 25) and we managed to lose. I was pissed about the loss but we shook it off to win the last pool play game which cemented our position in the playoffs. We ended the day there around 6 and we would do the playoffs the next day.

I was dirty, sweaty smelly mess. The sand, besides being filled with sharp objects was also very dirty so I was basically different shades of brown. We lugged our stuff back to the parking garage and headed out to find our hotel, the Aqua. The hotel was easy to find and when we stepped in the lobby we thought it looked cool. It is a South Beach trendy type of place. It has a wall mount aquarium, subtle blue lighting everywhere and a surfboard as the front counter. I thought for that minute that maybe this place was worth the high price ($140 a night) which may be the most I ever paid for one night at a hotel. We got our room key and headed up the stairs to our room. The hotel had a quaint courtyard and upstairs was an open area with furniture including 2 outdoor bed type things. There was a group of guys hanging out up there drinking beer as they looked over the wall at the activity on Collins Avenue. We made our way back to our room, opened the door and then we were a bit taken back at the sight. We looked down and were a bit shocked that it was a bare cement/concrete floor. Hmm ok I guess that is trendy or something. Looking around the room we saw bright colored plastic furniture and tables. The back part of the room had some laminate wood flooring and the tiny bathroom had bright blue tile below a toilet that looked to be right out of a public bathroom. We were underwhelmed with the room but it would do. I was sunburned so I felt warm. I looked for the thermostat but there was none to be found. Evidently you had no control over the AC, wtf…. Well I had to use the bathroom. I lift the lid on the public toilet and it promptly falls off in my hand. The lustre has quickly worn off by now. Well at least it has a shower. It was a very loud shower. As the water came out of the shower head the pipes vibrated making a very loud noise throughout the duration of the shower. Oh well at least the water was warm. Ali and I both cleaned up and then we went out to meet Randall for dinner.

The amount of people and activity picked up significantly as nightime approached. One thing I noticed about South Beach is it is one of the few places I can remember where the national epidemic of obesity is not apparent. South Beach is filled with in shape, good looking people. Fat asses are outnumbered by hard bodies. It really is amazing. Navigating through the crowded sidewalk with Nicki was a bit of a challenge. Some people wanted to interact with Nicki but for the most part, Nicki’s skepticism of anybody new or different kept her firmly by our side. She held up well at the beach. It was cute how she would come out to see me whenever I came close to the shelter. I’d give her a quick pat and tell her to go back to mom. Anyway, as we walked we stopped at a place that had outdoor seating and some of the tables had benches, which Ali thought Nicki could sit up on. Well the pooch wasn’t into sitting on the bench but instead found shelter under the bench and table as she watched the endless feet shuffle by. We had a good dinner. If we were there for a non-volleyball event, didn’t have the dog with, and didn’t feel dead tired, we may have explored the nightlife further. Instead we said our goodbyes and agreed to meet up the next morning for day 2 of vball action.

After we got back to the room I walked down to a gas station a couple blocks away to grab some milk I could have with my pop tarts the next morning. I then collapsed into bed hoping for a good night sleep. Nicki laid on her dog bed next to us on the concrete floor. Even though I was exhausted I couldn’t sleep. There was constant noise from outside from both sides of the room, I was warm with no way to lower the temperature and then later in the night there were 2 tremendous blasts of thunder that shook the room. I doubt I got more than 2 or 3 hours of actual sleep.

Even with the lack of sleep I woke up Saturday around 7 and got up feeling sore from the day before but somewhat energized by the prospect of playing part 2 that day. I took my pop tarts and milk and went down to the hot tub in the courtyard and soaked my legs in the super warm water while eating my breakfast. I thought it might help with the aches and pains. I got Ali up and while she went down to eat the continental breakfast, Nicki and I hung out upstairs by the benches and outdoor beds. Nicki walked around and explored while I just sat back and relaxed and watched over the balcony. I saw what looked to be 2 hookers strolling down the street. I watched the doorman at the fancy hotel across the street flagging down taxi’s for guests. I wondered why they made these guys wear long pants as he was constantly running up and down the driveway. He must be a sweaty mess in no time. Ali came back upstairs, we packed up, checked out and agreed that it was our first and last stay at the Aqua.

We got to park a little closer to the beach this time and we took a little less junk with us, learning from the prior day. We ran into Randall who was eating his breakfast. We went down to our net and were happy to see that the one team on our net had spent the time to do a thorough raking of the court in an attempt to get some of the debris out. It was in much better shape than the day before.

We got playoffs started. Our first game was against two younger guys who were no older than early 20’s. They were both good, high energy players. Early on they jumped ahead. They made several incredible saves, running down balls that I thought were our points for sure. But slowly we chipped away and played consistent, smart ball. The other team made too many unforced errors and we wound up winning the game by a few points. We played well, better than the day before. I was surprised that I was able to move much but the adrenalin from playing masks aches and pains pretty well.

Our next playoff game was against a team from our pool that we beat the prior day. They normally play A but we handled them on Friday and figured we could do the same today. We didn’t. They played much better than the day before and we had a few key errors at bad points in the game and wound up losing 25-20. After we lost, I chucked my hat in frustration, I was able to throw it from our side to beyond the endline on the far side. Throwing it upside down gave the hat better aerodynamics.

Well we still had the 3/4 playoff game. It meant something because 3rd place gets prizes, 4th place does not. Again we were playing some younger guys that took 1st place off their net. We pretty much dominated this match. We played very well and won the game easily. It turned out that the 3 teams from our net wound up taking first, second and third which is a nice accomplishment. It took a loooong time until the tournament officials to get around to handing out the prizes, probably and hour and a half. We got some decent stuff for third. Once play was over and the adrenalin subsided, the aches and pains returned. My knees were covered with brushburns from some dives into the hard sand. My hitting shoulder was dead weight and I was just pooped out. After we got our prizes we threw our stuff into the car and then had one last meal at South Beach. This time at Johnny Rocket’s, a 50’s style burger and shake joint. It was a nice lunch. I had a burger and a milkshake, a combo I haven’t had forever. We said our goodbye’s to Randall and made our way through the beautiful people heading towards the beach. We exited South Beach without incident and drove back across the state, getting home a little after 6pm Saturday.

I was a bit stressed because I knew there was a lot of stuff that should get done and I only had Saturday night and Sunday to do it. The Eagles played at 1 so I needed to get most of it done prior to that. When we got home I was inspired and put away most of the stuff from the trip and cleaned the bird cages, but after that my inspiration waned. I was tired as hell and fell asleep like a rock at 10.

On Sunday I got up early and went outside to do some weeding. I told Ali that I would be willing to try our run even though in reality I would have been fine with skipping it that day. Ali came out in her running gear a little before 10 so I threw on my running shoes and we headed to the track. My knees were covered with band aids so it was tough to do a quad stretch without pulling off all of them. The first 2 running laps were not fun, my legs were just tired. But I just kept plodding along, happy that Ali is into running. Ali set another record, running 7 laps continuous. It was tough for her but she did it, I’m impressed with her desire to improve at running. After walking 2 laps we tacked on another 3 running laps to give us 2.5 miles ran. (plus 1.5 walked)

When we got back I dove right back into the outside work, finishing weeding and then weed whacking while Ali mowed with the tractor. The grass is getting brown as we have had almost dry season conditions at our place even though dry season normally isn’t until November. I got done just in time for the Eagles game. We watched most of the first half from the pool on the little TV I installed outside. It was a different kind of way to take in a game and the pool felt good on my overheated body. The Eagles ran wild over the Niners, it was a great game.

After the game there were a few little things I wrapped up but I even found the time to play some WoW. I have been feeling increasingly guilty when playing the game. In the back of my mind I keep thinking about how much time I have poured into the game and how that time could have been used differently. I even ran scenarios through my head about what it will be like when I decide to shelve the game and how difficult it will be.

I woke up this morning tired and sore but happy from an exciting weekend that wound up pretty damn well.