The KCS Christmas Fandango

Warning: There will sports talk in this post! You may want to wear your cup while reading this.

So today was the Kihei Charter School holiday get-together. As I said before it was a softball bash. I'll consider it a success seeing as I (nor anyone else) didn't get hurt).

Actually, it was pretty cool. There wasn't enough people to go a full 9-on-9 game, but it was fun. Think of it as a PE class with beer. Before everyone was there a few of us hung out and took infield. Here's the deal: my achilles tendon actually held up well. I needed a little ice when I got home but it's way better than a few months ago. My arm is OK. The elbow's a little tender, but it was really nothing. I can make infield throws pretty well, but I can't air out anything from the outfield...yet.

The "game" was fun. It was like a PE class. One of the teachers from the high school showed up with eye black on and cletes (which fell apart and he needed tape from my bag to keep them from falling off his feet), but overall, it was just people getting together to mess around. I was told that I made the "play of the day". A slow roller that I barehanded and threw someone out. Aw shucks. I got on base every at bat but couldn't hit anything in the air. Nothing but groundballs. It was nice.

Afterwards we hung out, ate & drank. Talked about everything under the sun (or rain clouds as eventually showed up). At the end I even got to talk a little shop with the director. I didn't plan on it, but I think someone else opened the door and I busted it open.

I brought up the sign language thing (see previous post). I hadn't planned on it, but it just happened. I made sure to tell Mark that I realized that the lead teacher wasn't that up on it and that it looks like that I'm doing an "end around"...which I guess technically I was. But Mark loved the idea and it may end up happening that I get to teach it on a daily basis. I'm just going to have to make this happen very diplomatically. I didn't mean to do it this way. That's just another reason I don't normally drink while I play ball.

So it started to rain a little at the end and that's what gave everyone the excuse to call it a day, which was fine. It would have been cooler if Renee & Peggy were there (two of my co-workers), but it was a good day.

One more little anecdote. Just an example of how bad I am at small talk. I noticed that through out the day, people asked me questions and it seemed pretty natural. You know, stuff like "what are you doing for the holidays?" Relatively lame stuff like that.

Well, at today's shindig a friend of one of the teachers was there. She was a marine biologist from Ireland. She played softball, even though she had no clue what do to (I think she had 3 hits). So while we were hanging out I just started asking her questions...you know..."how long are you here?" etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. But it all seemed so awkward like I had Asperger's Sydrome. At least I wasn't a close-talker.

And I never needed my cup.