End of it All

This weekend is practically over, and while some parts were pleasant surprises, there was also the unfortunate return of disappointment.

With it being fresh in my mind, first I'll touch on how my team did this weekend in the Thanksgiving Tournament in West Deptford. Aside from the fact that I didn't get to sleep in any day this weekend, which absolutely blows as a 20 year old with the first four day weekend of his co-op, it was a good experience seeing how the team played against a more talented opponent.

Friday we played two games, the first at 8 am. It was a very good performance, Mike had two goals and Bob had the first in the game, which turned out to be the game winner when the final score was 5-0. It was good because everyone played well, being aggressive and going after the ball, and really connecting well on offense. We even got this kid Chris up on offense in the second half and saw him score his first goal of the season. The second game that day was against a tougher opponent, but I think that the team playing around in between the games made them tired. We still won 2-1, but I know we coulda/shoulda played better. Here are some good pics for our game.

Saturday we had a game at 10:30. This game ended in a tie, and I think the reason is that we got complacent after seeing that we were playing against a team that had a couple of girls on it. They came out of the gate real hungry and scored first, and actually I think the girls were some of the best players we had played against all year. Some of the frustration from this game, unfortunately, spilled over to today. Two wins and a tie clinched our seat in the semi's today, and there we faced a really talented team who played two leagues above us in the regular season. It was not easy watching our team get picked apart, not only were we not playing well but the other team was playing the best soccer we'd seen all year. We got absolutely crushed, 6-0, and it was a real shitty way to end the season. I think it was a bit of a wake up call though for the team in regards to showing us what we need to work on for next year. Overall though, we still got far for a small club and the boys really did have a great season.

Another "big" event of this weekend was the traditional homecoming game back home against our town rivals. No one pays attention to the game, you basically just go to schmooze with people from HS that you haven't seen in a while. Some people that I wanted to see I saw, but mostly no one was there. I spent most of the time there talking with my friend Amy who I hadn't seen in a coons age. She has a baby now, so that was interesting, but it was good to talk with her and see what she's been up to since school ended. I also saw the magnanimous Jon Proulx. I talked to him often in school, and played soccer with him, and actually he went to Drexel freshman year. Why didn't he come back you ask? Well, he married his HS sweetheart, moved to Georgia and joined the army. He's a good guy who kinda rubbed people the wrong way for his brutal honesty and positive outlook when things of that nature were looked down upon in the big scheme of a little town. Truly, a man before his time.

Aside from these bright spots, the day didn't see anyone else come. Girls like Samantha O and Schlitz were no where to be found. Bob Walsh was a no show. I really wanted to see Melissa, its been so long, and with things that I've heard have happened recently I wanted to see how she was, but she didn't come.

And then there's Ray and Mike. What can I say about true friends like these. Not only have common interests that we shared been disappearing more and more every year, and not only have they been so impressive with the way they handle themselves with alcohol and weed, but then they continued their historic streak of friendly outreach by not telling me about the large gathering of people I'd consider friends that took place Wednesday night. Add this to not showing up for a second year in a row to the football game, and the word disappointing comes to mind.

Wow.... this weekend DID suck a fuck. I didn't get to sleep in, my team lost in terrible fashion in the semi-finals, my friends continued on their "der" fest, and with Kent at the Lanc and Jay procuring a ticket for the Eagles game today (lucky bastard, what a titty), I essentially did nothing interesting to speak of this whole weekend. Awesome.