It's OK

Last night was the big bout between LA and Texas. Texas won on our own turf.

But it's OK.

On Thursday during a practice scrimmage each team had a player taken out due to injury. An LA skater got a multiple fracture in her ankle and foot. A Texas skater splintered the bone behind her knee after falling over little ol' me. Last night each team also had injuries...our own Jihad was blocked into the kickrail, and in the process her shin was scraped down to exposed bone. Insert painful wince here. One of the Texas skaters got a skate to the rib, and it may have a hairline fracture. Dayum.

But they'll be OK.

We are a very defense-oriented league; our blocking can be very good. But the majority of our team was off their game just enough to make things difficult for ourselves. Texas' defense was alright, but their jammers were just amazingly fast and they were able to outrun our blockers almost every jam. We have a lot to learn about our jammers...we have no one that compares to their top jammers and we need to fix that.

But it's OK.

The referee crew seemed disorganized and very inconsistent with their calls. Each team were called on the same amount of penalties, but there were times that each team either got over-penalized, or under-penalized. I had some screaming fits with them over points disputes and I think the league needs to overhaul who's reffing and what kind of requirements are needed to ref.

But it's OK.

Our team manager(who managed to fuck up our lineups at one point and seemed to show favoritism towards a player who shouldn't have been played as much as she was) broke my favorite clipboard. It shouldn't be anything to even think about, but I used that clipboard all last season for my team, and it sucks that I don't have that superstitious token of winning in my mind. I now have to search for a replacement, which annoys me because I got the original clipboard under unusual circumstances.

But it's OK.

I'm feeling somewhat serene at the moment. I got to have a quick talk with someone with whom I didn't think I'd get the chance to chat with about past grievances in the league, and I got to apologize to her. It made a world of difference in my attitude. And she seemed to appreciate it, which is even better.

It's one of those instances where I realize that we all can have quite an effect on others.

Now I gotta get back to reality and go back to the track to help clean up. Having the afterparty at the track is, IMO, not a great idea. Mopping the floor because of beer spillage isn't fun!