2023 - Week 38

A table decoration from the 2023 OQSL Athletic Banquet.

With 14 weeks left of 2023, it's time to switch to my autumn schedule. My plans include a return to Twitch streaming, playing in two curling leagues, indulging in spooky activities, writing, and continuing home improvements.

First up on Monday was moving some donations to my car and fixing the cabin air filter door. Apparently, it is easy to put it back in place when it isn't hot in the car. Lesson learned. Or perhaps I had more muscles after 3 days in a row of softball? The RPMs are looking much better now that the airflow is better and the car smells better inside. After work, I watched some curling and got my bag ready for next week.

Next this week was the Annual General Meeting for the Getting Started League. This is the league that will be teaching me how to curl in a thorough way. I didn't end up going. While I'm super excited about all the things planned for the fall, part of me also has difficulty with change, so I've been in a funk. I also figured that an AGM for a curling league that I'm brand new to was OK to miss, especially for self care reasons. I figured I could wait until the actual start day to go and make friends in my cohort.

My in-office day moved to Wednesday for this week. I planned to get home and stuff my face before my Diablo IV stream. Lunch was provided, so I didn't have to work hard to figure out dinner, which was excellent after a full weekend where I had no time for luxuries like grocery shopping. I think stream went OK, though I better check it out before next week as I was using a different headset that has a built-in microphone and it's possible the audio was actually awful.

I had a ticket to a queer singles night called Queer Tribes on Thursday. This was not at all what I thought it was going to be like. There was no one remotely in my age range. They were all a lot younger, so much so that I could be their mother. It was also set up as a dance party on a Thursday when I had to work the next day. It's probably fun if you're in your 20s and don't have a lot of committments.

Friday was originally set to be a Mayfair outing for Rocky Horror, but my friends couldn't make it, so I decided to stay in. I watched my friend S.M. Carrière stream Shadows of Mordor while playing some Minecraft on Mal Ganis.

I have Rocky Horror at home, so I popped it on as I was getting ready on Saturday for the softball banquet. My plans included much celebrating. I didn't drink a lot through this summer. It's quite dehydrating for me and I was almost always driving to the game and home from the bar. For whatever reason, I couldn't get drunk, but I had a great time with my team and friends from other teams.

Sunday was at home and I looked forward to mostly resting. I was overtired all day and spent the bulk of it playing Minecraft on the Dinocraft server and watching Jack Ryan. Having just one thing booked on a day has been rare for me these past few months. I'm actually aiming to have more days with nothing at all booked in the near future.

Overall, I'm excited about what's coming, but making new friends is always anxiety producing for me and there has been a lot of change in recent days. I was really worried I wouldn't see a lot of the softball folks over the winter months, but quite a lot of them are in curling this year now that the league has expanded. My team still has a couple of get togethers planned. And several non curling friends want to get together in a month or so.

A number of my other friends have wondered why I joined softball. They didn't know I used to play pickup baseball in high school. The field I used to meet Indigenous friends on is now only used for little kids to play soccer. I was sad to see that on the last visit to my hometown. 

I never liked the running part, but I could usually hit the ball. I used to play catch with a friend on the road as well. Soccer always had too much running. I'm short, so basketball and volleyball weren't my forte. Baseball, I could do. Years ago, I subbed on an adult beer league team and I caught the ball at home plate then tagged this woman out who used to bully me. It's a favourite memory of mine. 

But pickup, catch, and subbing aren't like being a team member. Playing on a team has improved my confidence. It has changed my perspective on some things. It has even made me like orange. Now, I see orange and I think of the love of our co-captains, team spirit, friends, smiling faces, and wonderful summer nights spent playing the game. Playing on a team has made me better because I wanted to get better for my team. It has also been quite healing with all the hugs.

But I'm socially burnt out after all the things lately. I have more empty days in the coming week to recover. Probably not as many as I should, but it's better than my usual.

#smackthat #allonthefloor #givemesomemore #tilwecanscore