a week in review

I find my thoughts increasingly dominated by volleyball. So I'll start there.

We had a good practice Monday but still lost on Tuesday. Man, they just weren't playing. Wednesday was more eventful. First of all, the team captain missed the bus. So he had to scramble and get one of the seniors to drive him. Plus, we got our first win. By the skin of our teeth. Best of three - we were up 9-0 in the third, let them come back till it was 12-9 and we won 15-13 in the third. Yikes. But you would have thought we just won the national title, they were so excited. I also got to coach the seniors because Peter couldn't make it. So much easier. They know what's going on, and frankly, I could have said nothing and done nothing and they still would have won. On the bus home, I asked the junior boys what they learned by watching the senior boys. "So-and-so can hits the ball really hard." "So-and-so jumps really high." Cute but I wished they would have learned something. Although one kid was very perceptive. He asked if coaching the seniors was easier and observed that the senior boys can and do play all positions in the back court.

Friday, we were at a tournament at Woburn all day. It would have been more fun if we had a few wins but alas, it was not meant to be. I might have been able to get us another win with better lineups but it was very important to me to get everyone playing time. Things will change from now on. Playing time is no longer automatic. I'm also going to play with a libero from here forward. I have one player who is very capable and aggressive in the back court but not very tall though still somewhat effective in the front court. I have two other players who are effective in the back court but not all there in the back court. Perfect.

But getting ready for Friday was not so good. I had a lesson planned for my 12U Physics class that involved going to the library with the supply teacher to use the computer lab and study the Physics simulations on a particular website. Well, if I didn't discover at 5:30 pm on Thursday that the website was down for repairs. Arg. Start all over. I didn't get out of the school till 8 pm, I think.

Friday night, I hung out with Kevin. My one condition was that we not do anything loud. I had just spent the day in a gym with over 100 15-year-old boys and referees with whistles. So we got takeout Chinese food and watched Robots. I wasn't very impressed. It was moderately entertaining but there wasn't much story and many scenes were unnecessarily frenetic. Anyway, I hadn't seen Kevin for a bit and it was good to catch up.

Saturday, I spent most of the day cleaning the apartment then we went uptown for the Thanksgiving dinner. Way too much food. I did a cheese tray, luckily, because there weren't any other appetizers and dinner got started pretty late. I did the cheese tray because it was popular the last time I brought it and it takes next to no effort to produce.

Sunday was a great day of slacking off. Lots of Geography Olympics. Steak for dinner. Yummy.