I got my ASS kicked in soccer today. And I don't mean that I got beat on the field, which, by the way, I did, I mean that I got beat on the field.

Around the end of the first half, there was a somewhat open ball (a guy was dribbling it, but I'd noticed that he dribbled the ball a bit ahead of him, without total control over the ball.) I felt that I could take it away. So I went for the ball. He went for the ball. And we collided.

Not a gentle collision. A total collision. I went up on the air. I landed on my back. I laid there a moment, gasping for air. I tried to sit up, and realized that I wasn't able to breathe. I panicked (the way you always do in the moment when you realize that you have had the wind knocked out of you and you can't catch your breath), and my head was pounding from hitting the ground, and I collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, unable to move.

Now understand this was a total clean hit. It was a hard hit (those who saw it commented on how hard it was). But it was totally clean. It wasn't a dirty hit at all. It was just a hard hit.

And now (about an hour and a half afterwards) my entire chest right now is bruised. A rather disturbing shade of purple right now about the size of my hand. Attractive... It really hurts when I lay on my stomach as well.

The problem? (I mean, other than hurting.) That made me timid attacking. If you are gonna be timid attacking, you may as well not play. I took myself out of the game for a brief period, swearing at myself. I was pissed, I mean, pissed, at myself. I'd run for a loose ball, and as someone else was running for it and I felt I wasn't going to get there first, I'd turn my back at the last minute (so the ball would hit me on the back rather than in my chest, which as I said, is really sore. But umm...a soccer player afraid of colliding and getting hit by the ball? Not good at all. I'm sure it's temporary - I've played 15 years, and I've been hit before. I'm sure I'll be ok next week. But I sure was worthless today.

Actually, ok, my timidness wasn't solely that. In the second half I went for the ball two other times. Both time I again collided with the opposing player (being neither time quite as hard). One time I hurt my left knee when I hit it against the other player. The other time I stopped short on my right side (colliding on the left - I think that's why my right side stopped moving) and my right knee, suddently not moving when my momentum still was, popped out.) And to make the game a complete success, near the end of the game, I pulled a muscle in my left leg. So I'm hobbling. Bad.



What the hell are nice wrists? I was told that I have nice wrists. Umm...ok. Sure. That was a new one. So now I'm staring at people's wrists. I'd never noticed wrists before.