oh, man...i had the best night.  it all started when i got off work.  i was dead tired.  they had asked me to stay an extra hour and a half after an already long day full of those creepy customers that i have previously mentioned, but i said "what the heck...i need the hours."  so when i finally dragged myself home my buddy tim asked me if i wanted to play soccer...just an easy going game with a few other guys from the house.  now i played soccer for about nine years, but it has also been nearly that long since.  but what the heck...i could always use the exercise and i could at least pretend to be all good and manly.

     when we arrived at the field (it is a huge outdoor field covered in some weird springy rubber stuff) there was already a group of guys playing soccer on one end and wow...they were very good.  so we went down to the far side (half of the reason being to avoid bothering them, the other half to avoid them altogether) and while we were "warming up" of course they came over and asked if we wanted to play.  yeah...we suck.  but we did it anyway...we could at least pretend to be all good and manly.

     i'll spare you the details of the game, but it was an incredible experience.  we divided our own groups to form the two teams a little more evenly and we just played to our hearts' content.  we didn't really keep score and everyone was laughing and having a great time, but, wow, it was a hard game.  we didn't even speak the same language as the other guys, but you don't really need to know the language to understand a people (what english they spoke was very good, but they didn't do that often).  our team was slaughtered, but it was the most fun i've ever had losing a game.  i remember one of the other players telling me "if the other guy is better than you, always keep him in front of you.  never look away from the goal."  for some reason that really struck a chord with me.  i find that to be incredible advice, well known, but too often forgotten.  always keep your eyes on what you are facing now, but never lose sight of what's beyond.  

     in the end i turned my ankle while diving for the ball (or rather losing my balance and plopping down in front of it) and it is now aching and very swollen, but i wouldn't have traded it.  now we are about to start a movie, but i'll be back.  i promised that i would catch up with all of you and i will hold to that.  have a great weekend!