Bitter Sweet
The last twenty-four hours has been bitter sweet. Sweet because I had the time of my life at Government last night and also because we won our second volleyball game this morning. Bitter because all the issues I have with myself and my relationships have resurfaced and it's leaving me with very little self esteem.
Last night was the launch of Madonna's new album Confessions On A Dancefloor and Government was literally filled with bodies. Richie and the rest of the barkading were at Government way ahead of me because I had to meet Camille and Aileen in the uber straight Arruba Bar in Metrowalk. I didn't know I could have fun in a straight bar sans Richie after nearly five years of being out of my transparent closet, but to my surprise I had a great time. They say high school is the best time of your scholarly life and the friends you develop during that time are for keeps. Indeed, this rendez-vous with high school friends validated this.
When I got to Government I headed to the toilet to get rid of killer scotch seven I had at Arubba, but found myself ordering another one after flushing the previous out of my system. When I tried to follow Richie and the rest of the gang to the dancefloor, I shortly discovered it would be impossible on this night; there were just too many people. Thankfully, L.A., Mon, Jigs, Vince, and Omar arrived so we kept each other company on the second floor. I had to resort to texting Richie to inform him that we were on the top floor. During the entire night (er, morning) we were dancing the nightaway... too much dancing actually that my foot was starting to cramp. I was alarmed because I usually have cramps in the middle of the night after a long night of partying. I couldn't afford to have a cramp on this specific night because I was to coach a volleyball game four hours later. Since Anna is injured, I have to conduct all the court drills and this cramping foot would spell disaster.
It turns out there would be no cramping foot in the two hours of sleep that I had and no disaster; instead, we won our first game of the season (this is only our second game of the season--we lost the first). It's funny how accurate one's intuition is. At the beginning of the match, the referees hand out three pieces of paper with boxes where you place the starting line-up of each set; this is called an R-5. Anna, my assistant coach, asked me to sign an R-5 for the first set (to make the line-up official) and then says, sign all three R-5's so we don't have to do so in between sets. The moment I signed the third R-5, I had this gut feeling this was going to be a three-set thriller instead of my usual plan of straight sets victory.
We won the first set. The girls got extremely over confident in the first half of the second set which resulted in mild scolding. Shortly after the scolding, they got back on track but it was already too late to make a comeback. In all fairness, they tried their best to save the set, but I think they shaped up only cos they were afraid I would be furious. I can get very very angry and sometimes I am shocked at my behavior. I make all these protests, I make large hand and leg gestures, I throw and kick things, my face gets all scrunched up and NO ONE can talk to me.
Anna often calls me Bernardo Rezende, the former Brazilian coach, because I behave like him on the court. He gets very very emotional and tempermental. In previous years, I would fight with the referees, court assistants, and court officials, which is bad behavior because they are the gods of the match and they could give me really bad calls. This year, I promised myself that I'd have more control over my emotions and my temper. With great difficulty, I think I pretty much had control; though, I broke my service chart when I slammed it on the floor after reacting to bad ball handling error. He he he. But, we won the third set seamlessly cos the girls were on fire!
In my five years in AC, I'd have to say that the win today is second to the championship two years ago in terms of importance. The AC team has been having problems closing a set when we are down, and today I called two very crutial timeouts just to remind the girls of the solution to our problems. It wasn't even a technical or skill problem, it was more mental. Thankfully, we overcame the problems that plagued us in every match for the last five years, and I think the girls learned a huge lesson today. A lesson that will remain with them during their lifetime. I almost got emotional during the final huddle, but I held back. I didn't need tears of joy. The thought that we solved a major hurdle that they could not only apply to volleyball but also to their other problems left me with the feeling of satisfaction.
Last night was the launch of Madonna's new album Confessions On A Dancefloor and Government was literally filled with bodies. Richie and the rest of the barkading were at Government way ahead of me because I had to meet Camille and Aileen in the uber straight Arruba Bar in Metrowalk. I didn't know I could have fun in a straight bar sans Richie after nearly five years of being out of my transparent closet, but to my surprise I had a great time. They say high school is the best time of your scholarly life and the friends you develop during that time are for keeps. Indeed, this rendez-vous with high school friends validated this.
When I got to Government I headed to the toilet to get rid of killer scotch seven I had at Arubba, but found myself ordering another one after flushing the previous out of my system. When I tried to follow Richie and the rest of the gang to the dancefloor, I shortly discovered it would be impossible on this night; there were just too many people. Thankfully, L.A., Mon, Jigs, Vince, and Omar arrived so we kept each other company on the second floor. I had to resort to texting Richie to inform him that we were on the top floor. During the entire night (er, morning) we were dancing the nightaway... too much dancing actually that my foot was starting to cramp. I was alarmed because I usually have cramps in the middle of the night after a long night of partying. I couldn't afford to have a cramp on this specific night because I was to coach a volleyball game four hours later. Since Anna is injured, I have to conduct all the court drills and this cramping foot would spell disaster.
It turns out there would be no cramping foot in the two hours of sleep that I had and no disaster; instead, we won our first game of the season (this is only our second game of the season--we lost the first). It's funny how accurate one's intuition is. At the beginning of the match, the referees hand out three pieces of paper with boxes where you place the starting line-up of each set; this is called an R-5. Anna, my assistant coach, asked me to sign an R-5 for the first set (to make the line-up official) and then says, sign all three R-5's so we don't have to do so in between sets. The moment I signed the third R-5, I had this gut feeling this was going to be a three-set thriller instead of my usual plan of straight sets victory.
We won the first set. The girls got extremely over confident in the first half of the second set which resulted in mild scolding. Shortly after the scolding, they got back on track but it was already too late to make a comeback. In all fairness, they tried their best to save the set, but I think they shaped up only cos they were afraid I would be furious. I can get very very angry and sometimes I am shocked at my behavior. I make all these protests, I make large hand and leg gestures, I throw and kick things, my face gets all scrunched up and NO ONE can talk to me.
Anna often calls me Bernardo Rezende, the former Brazilian coach, because I behave like him on the court. He gets very very emotional and tempermental. In previous years, I would fight with the referees, court assistants, and court officials, which is bad behavior because they are the gods of the match and they could give me really bad calls. This year, I promised myself that I'd have more control over my emotions and my temper. With great difficulty, I think I pretty much had control; though, I broke my service chart when I slammed it on the floor after reacting to bad ball handling error. He he he. But, we won the third set seamlessly cos the girls were on fire!
In my five years in AC, I'd have to say that the win today is second to the championship two years ago in terms of importance. The AC team has been having problems closing a set when we are down, and today I called two very crutial timeouts just to remind the girls of the solution to our problems. It wasn't even a technical or skill problem, it was more mental. Thankfully, we overcame the problems that plagued us in every match for the last five years, and I think the girls learned a huge lesson today. A lesson that will remain with them during their lifetime. I almost got emotional during the final huddle, but I held back. I didn't need tears of joy. The thought that we solved a major hurdle that they could not only apply to volleyball but also to their other problems left me with the feeling of satisfaction.
posted by Spiker at
2:14 PM
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