I’m going to start with the football game
report tonight because both the good and the bad from the game are on my mind;
and a bit of venting is in order.
The top good news is that we won our game
against Maple Valley. Michael and Tim
each had two touchdowns and Lucas added one more to earn that thirty-three to
thirty “Victory in the Valley”, as some of the seniors put it; but then that
score total for us might give some of you a hint at a bit of the bad news on
the day. For the non-football fans of
the future, I mean that our team Captain and kicker missed two of five extra
point attempts. He also missed the only
field goal attempt he had for the game because the kick was out of his kicking
range – at least for right now. That
wasn’t the worst of it for the night – and not even the worst from Captain JJ.
Seven quarterback turnovers was the worst
of it for our team; and the only thing that saved us from total football
disaster was that Maple Valley was only able to turn all of those opportunities
into two touchdowns and two field goals.
Add to that the fact that Michael and Tim each broke up other bad passes
that could have been even more interceptions without their help; and you get
the idea that our team has some serious problems on offense. As with our first game, I’m not trying to put
all of the blame for that on our quarterback.
Ray has issues, but our offensive line is fairly weak so far this season
too; and it shows in how often Ray’s hurried, knocked down, or sacked. It is on him for not being able to hand onto
the ball when hit hard or for making bad throwing choices; but that wouldn’t be
as tough for him if he wasn’t so worried about getting smacked on nearly every
play.
If you’re thinking that was the worst of it
for tonight, you’re right from the actual, physical game; but I’m particularly
annoyed right now because of Captain JJ’s attitude both during and after the
game. He really is turning out to be
what he probably thinks is a tough-love kind of leader; but he sounds rude,
insensitive, and arrogant – and that’s before I even get to his seriously poor
sportsmanship. We’re from Witch Falls,
so none of that is aired in public; but I am allowed to vent to my journal – or
with my best friends.
To keep my rant short for this, let’s just
list my Captain JJ pet peeves and move along.
First is picking on my boyfriend for things that aren’t his fault and
being oblivious to the fact that he played a brilliant game. Ditto that for Tim and Lucas, but I’ll also
leave it up to Rowen and Rebecca to be mad at Jason for how he treats their
boyfriends. More generally, it really
bugged me to overhear him berate any of his team mates during the game, and
while that isn’t really all that unusual to hear from other team’s players; it’s
not the way we’re supposed to do things at our school. It’s obvious that he’s trying to be the kind
of Captain that Kyle was, but doesn’t get how Kyle pulled off being demanding
and driven while still being a supportive, loved leader. Finally, if only for the top three; Jason is
as bad at winning as he was last week when we lost. He wasn’t rude right to the Maple Valley
players’ faces, but he said a lot of rude things about them and their team to
his buddies where the Maple Valley guys or their families, friends, and
neighbors could overhear – and didn’t care.
We may not deal with things like that publicly, but I sure hope that
somebody talks to him about it in private soon.
Yes, I am willing to be that person if
someone closer to him doesn’t intervene first; but I’d prefer not to get into
that kind of teen drama if I can avoid it – and I’m not just saying that
because I’m afraid of turning him into a donkey or something! ;^)
No, we can’t really do that; but it is fun
to think about – and would be appropriate considering that he was being one
tonight.
Moving along now, I’ll add that our
cheerleading was amazing tonight; and our half-time routine was a hit with the
Maple Valley fans. Our routine theme
this week was all about Labor Day; the music mash-up was all work-related
songs; and we had fun with mostly making fun of different jobs with micro-skits
and mimes along with some minor acrobatics that Rowen and I used for the
transitions between ‘scenes’.
Getting back to the football for one last
comment, I’ll add that we did have a lot to cheer about despite all of the bad
plays; and most of that was because of Michael, Tim, and a few other guys
making big defensive plays. For Michael
and Tim, their four combined touchdowns were again done with long runs after
the short-yardage catches; and they piled up a lot of yards that would have
turned into more touchdowns if not for the subsequent interceptions or
turnovers that abruptly ended good drives.
They had help from our safeties too for defense, and while Maple Valley
had some successes too; they were held to just one touchdown and one field goal
for all of their non-turnover drives. It
was the short-field chances they had that our defense had issues with – and that
was mostly on the running side of the game.
Let’s wrap up the football part of my day
with the post-game news. It’s been a
hot, beautiful night, so the post-game action on the field dragged out for
quite a while. We eventually hit the locker
rooms; got cleaned up and changed; packed up all of our gear; and headed for
home. It was midnight by the time we got
to the school, and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I all stayed to help out with
getting all of the football and cheerleader gear put away before heading over
to Tim’s house for a short post-game snack and drinks with a few other football
and cheerleader friends. Michael and I
walked home with Rowen after that; did our goodnight hugs and kisses on my
front porch after seeing Rowen home to her house; and then I came straight up
to bed because Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were all sleeping by then.
Jayden is staying with Ethan because Aunt
Grace didn’t mind giving him up for the night while getting to hang out with
Jaimie and Kaitlyn at her house; but he’s also the only weekend guest we have
at our house tonight. While the Proctors
are here for the weekend, they’re staying with Grandma and Grandpa or the
Everetts. About half of the Johnson clan
is in town too; and they’re split between the Carrington and Ayres’ homes. The Rice family stayed in Woodvale; and the
McEwans decided to stay home too – though Jonathan is the only kid in their
family not at college this year anyway; and he probably wanted to stay and work
his summer job for one bonus blast of spending money.
I’ll keep you posted on the family side of
the holiday weekend news as we go along over the next few days, but I was out
of the loop for all of that tonight; and will have to wait until morning to get
the reports about what I’ve missed while in Maple Valley. There was a family dinner at Uncle Mark and
Aunt Grace’s for sure, and Mom, Dad, and the twins likely just stayed there or
around Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house for the evening to welcome our
incoming guests; but I’m just guessing for part two of that. Our connections to each other are amazing,
but I can’t pinpoint location that specifically from another town.
Maybe we should test that out a bit to put
some range on those abilities some day!
With my schedule lately; we should be able to get to that in a decade or
three.
That nearly brings us up to right now for
my report except for the nightly computing, family business work, and email
check that I’ve been doing since climbing into bed with Mandy; but I skipped
all of the pre-football news. Since I’m
also pretty much out of steam now that I’m done venting about the game, though;
let’s keep the rest of this short.
Tai Chi by the river and breakfast were
great. I helped Mom and worked all
morning until we stopped for lunch at about one-thirty. She put me on kid control after that for a
couple of hours until I needed to get cleaned up and ready to head over to the
school for the trip to Maple Valley; and I spent that time swimming or playing
at the park with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden. Michael couldn’t spend any time with us today
because he had a morning practice that was mostly a meeting with an hour of
light exercise; and then he was at the Inn until he needed to be at the school
too. The team goes on buses to away
games, but the cheerleaders have volunteer drivers. Rowen and I were with Shannon and Diane for
the trips to and from Maple Valley; and we had fun together – if not as much
fun as Jenny and Tammy had tonight.
Joel’s home by now, and Jenny advised us
that they did their goodbyes in a mostly non-verbal way while he was on his
lunch break at work today; so Jenny was coping with that by getting us to help
her out with the search for her next boyfriend.
That wouldn’t work for me, but it does for her; so we went along with
it. Tammy was most-enthusiastic about
that, and I was probably the least helpful; but we still all managed to keep
entertained with the effort – and it was a fun little bonus to everything else
that was great about our night in Maple Valley.
No, we didn’t find a new boyfriend for her;
but she did run into an old one. Lance
was there with his current girlfriend, and looked to be very happy; but I’m
also sure that Jenny didn’t miss the fact that he noticed just how great she
looked tonight – and she probably had him in mind while taking the time to get
ready for the game today. Sure, that’s
at least a little bit wrong, but even Magi Master teens get why something like
that helps out in the ego department after a not-so-great end to a
relationship.
I’d rather head off to sleep with happy
thoughts; so let’s not dwell on Jenny’s past relationships and wrap this
up. We have two championship baseball
games tomorrow afternoon, and the coed match on Sunday; so I’m going to be very
busy this weekend – especially since I also want to help out at the Inn for the
buffets on Monday and we’ll have the teen praise team service on Sunday morning
too. There isn’t likely to be a lot of
rest between now and Monday night, but I’m ready for all of the fun – and the
work too; so I’ll get what sleep I can now and call it a night.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
