The Challenge of the Challenge

So two weekends ago was the Hotlanta Softball Challenge and I was pretty damn tired.

Having been super-volunteer for the league this year, I offered my services as volunteer coordinator since I figure I can be pretty bossy and why not put that skill to good use? :) I thought it was going to be easier than it was...HOOEY was I ever wrong about that.

So Friday I started the day with a work meeting, but after that I took a 1/2 day vacation since I had chores to run around and do for the Challenge. I had to drop back home, get my luggage (as I was staying at the host hotel) and get the Mackie 450s (powered speakers) from the rental place. Once I got those into the hands of one of the DJ's, I drove back downtown to the Georgia Tech Hotel and conference center to start helping the board for the weekend's tournament.

Once I got there I was put to work making banners that said stuff like "Welcome to the Challenge" and "Thank You Fans" and the like. It felt like a trip back to high-school homecoming :) Once that was done I had to run to the business center and make some quick labels for some binders for the coaches (the lady was nice enough to let me in although they were closed...ah...it's fortunate I'm so adorable *giggle*).

After that I did some additional secretarial work that they needed done and finished coloring in my large banners. Once finished, I went up to the Challenge registration area where there was open bar and lots of people were congregating after signing up (nothing like free liqour to get a party started) where two of my friends were DJing (and did a great job for it being their first time). I personally had to sample the free liqour to make sure our guests were getting good stuff. *mischevious smile*

After pretty much meeting over 100 people (I get very extroverted after a few cocktails) I settled into just making sure things ran smoothly. Things went off without a hitch pretty much until about 11:00 when people started heading out to the bars and my volunteers were getting restless. There weren't too many new registrants so we let them go early and a few of the board members and I hung out until 12 (which is when we said we were closing registration).

After registration was closed, we decided that we had to get some food so we went over to Hong Kong Harbor for some chinese food at 1:30AM. :) When it's that late and you're hungry...it's the best food in the world...no matter what it is. :) After that I was tired and headed back to the hotel to crash in a major way since I had a 10:00AM game.

Saturday was what is called "Pool Play" which is basically jockeying for a good seed to start the double-elimination tournament in. We played two teams (and won) the "Grizzlies" (who had met most of my team before but I hadn't been there...great set of guys) and the "Purple Haze" who at the time I thought were pretty nice and funny. Boy...how first impressions can be deceiving...

Saturday night I went to Woofs for a drink but was home early since we had a 9AM game on Sunday.

So Sunday's first game was against the Purple Haze AGAIN (we were thinking do we get to play anyone else) and though it was a good game, their players were being downright assinine. I mean...I can handle talking smack and trying to unnerve the opposition (our coach always says that any sports game is 1/2 physical skills and 1/2 mental focus) but they were taking the cake. Our coaches decided to protest a few of their players (meaning that they didn't follow the rules and possibly had players that should not have been playing in the lowest division). We "won" the protest by SIX POINTS (which is alot) and they were pretty much kicked out of the tournament. It's a crappy way to "win" but honest ratings are important.

The second game of the day was against the Grizzlies (yet again) and we got beat. It was a fun game but it put us into the losers bracket against the Ft. Lauderdale Heat. Well we WON that game and then played against the Nashville Chute Shock and won AGAIN (by this time we had been playing for 4.5 hours total that day). Winning in a tournament is a double-edged sword because we once again had to face off against the Portland Grizzlies. If we lost we were out of the tournament but if we won...we had to play a FULL seven innings against the Tampa Titans AND if we won we had to play ANOTHER full game of seven innings. Needless to say I was glad to be the last out of the tournament LOL :)

So the weekend was done and we placed Third :)

A week later (this past weekend) Arkansas came down for the weekend (yay) and we had a nice time watching "Revelations" together and we went out and met with some of my friends and had food all over the place. He wanted to see Atlanta "downtown" and I showed him exactly WHY I don't go downtown :) We also drove around Buckhead and I showed him the hoity toity area. :) He even woke up early on Sunday to be a "softball wife" for a weekend LOL :) From what I can tell it's still somewhat "casual dating" I guess. He's hard to read and I am NOT going to assume anything. I want to be the type of guy that isn't clingy and ready to jump on that U-Haul LOL :) "Just Dating" is not an ugly word. *laugh*

Now my current adventure is that I am a contestant in the "Mr HSL Pageant" of which I am certain I won't win, but in the least my team will get money for being in the show. What's a little public humiliation when you possibly have a World Series trip in your future to pay for? (third time for me...can I shoot myself now? :) We won't know for a few weeks if we are going for sure BUT we are in first place now and if we keep it up...then we're going. I think it's time to start endurance training...ugh.