Picnics and sand volleyball and injuries and then some

Since I finally got the story of my birthday party posted, now I can talk about last weekend's adventures.

Saturday I was busy all day running errands, trying to do some cleaning, purging the bookshelves (for their quarterly sort when I run out of room for new books. LOL), and digging up all the dead plants in my pots out on the balcony. I was filthy and dirty and sweaty but at least I got a decent amount accomplished. Though I still need to do some massive cleaning of the apartment. This weekend's activity.

I was supposed to go dancing Saturday night with our usual crowd but never made it. What's funny is I had just a few hours before the planned meet time been on the phone with my friend B and we were talking about whether or not we were going dancing with everyone. He had worked all day and didn't feel like going back out since the club chosen was farther away for him and he wasn't in the mood to drive there. (He's the usual gentlemanly escort for all the ladies in our group. I always text him when I get to the club so he can meet me at the door to walk me in so I'm not wandering the club alone looking for our gang. And he always tries to walk the ladies out to their cars at the end of the night as well.) I told him I was planning on going but knowing me I'd be so wrapped up in the work I was doing at home that I'd forget to stop in time to take a shower to head out. He was laughing about it and said it's only three or so hours away everyone was meeting so how could I forget when it was that soon? Well, wouldn't you know it even though when we got off the phone after chatting for about an hour (which was surprising since we're usually 5 minute conversation people when we talk to each other) I only had about an hour or so till I'd have to quit everything to go take a shower. And sure enough I got distracted working on stuff and next thing I know it's 9:30 (which was when we all usually try to meet) and at that point didn't feel like getting cleaned up to go out. So I never went.

Sunday my singles' group was having a big picnic afternoon at a local park. The meet time was noon but in our group, hardly anyone is ever actually on time. I got there about 12:30 since I know how our group is and there were only a couple there so far. It was a "everyone bring your own meal" shindig and then we all were going to just hang out and do whatever activity struck our fancy. So I ate my lunch when I got there and about the time I finished eating everyone was showing up. We all sat around the picnic tables for a while then headed down to the sand volleyball courts for a few games. Some folks when roller blading, some went to play catch with a football or softball, some were playing frisbee, and some were just sitting on the sidelines watching all the fun and talking.

I went straight to the sand volleyball game. Now, I'm a terrible volleyball player though I can spike the ball something fierce and serve pretty well about 50% of the time. But I didn't care how bad I was, and no one else cares either. It's all for fun. So I was in the fray with all the guys and there was only one or two other women playing initially though more came in as the game progressed. Now I'm also a klutz to begin with and when trying to run in sand I'm even worse. Awfully hard to run when the ground shifts under you with every step. But I'm not afraid to dive for the ball and get dirty and I tripped and fell more times than I could count. But I had a blast anyhow.

Then comes the injury portion of the program. So be prepared for some extensive details about what happened!

Behind the volleyball courts there is a big pond. There is netting up immediately behind the courts so the ball doesn't go in the water, but off to the sides the netting is not there. And the sand volleyball courts are each bermed with concrete about 12-16 inches wide to keep the sand in the court. Let me just say concrete berms, ponds, sand volleyball courts and clumsy people do not mix well. Inevitably, as we expected since most of us are not very good players, the balls were all over the place and in the second game my team was on the pond side of the courts. One of the balls hit by the other team went way wide and was headed straight for the water. So I of course go chasing after it to grab the ball before it reaches the water. Wouldn't you know it that darned sand tripped me up and I went flying. Slammed hard on the concrete. Messed up my right shin pretty bad and tore up my left knee. Sure it hurt, but no more than it would for a nasty bruise. My shin was bleeding but didn't look too bad and my left knee was hardly hurting. So I jump right back in to the game after I picked myself up. I was more upset over thinking I ruined my brand new shorts with nasty grass stains I wouldn't get out than I was with my busted up legs. LOL (Which BTW in an aside, I washed them the other night and the grass stains came out except for on the thread stitching the seams. So I didn't ruin my brand new shorts after all!)

So I'm back in the game chasing the ball diving and everything like normal. And guys on the other team kept telling me I was bleeding pretty bad. I said no it wasn't anything serious and I wasn't worried. I was referring to my right leg since it hurt and I could see where I tore it up. Finally after the fifth or sixth time they told me I was bleeding and I said it was no big deal one of the guys said "no, your other leg!" So I pull up my shorts on the left leg (they were just-below-knee length) and there is blood everywhere! My left knee is just a nasty mess of blood and dirt and many layers of ripped up skin. (Lovely graphic image isn't it? LOL) And my response? "Oh I guess I am bleeding pretty bad huh?" And I went right back to the game. I wasn't about to quit till the game was over. But I stopped diving for the ball after that as I didn't want to make an uglier mess.

Game ends and I head off to where everyone is sitting. We have TWO nurses there for the picnic and neither one of them has any sort of first aid kit with them. Go figure. I went straight to them assuming they'd be the most likely folks to have something. Then C, one of the ladies I've really just started getting to know the past few months says lets head up to the bathroom and you can wash it all off. I had forgotten they had full bathrooms at the picnic pavilion! So we headed up and wouldn't you know, no paper towels and the soap dispensers are empty! So we started gathering toilet paper to clean me up with. As you can imagine we went through quite a bit since toilet paper falls apart the second water hits it. At this point I found I had little rocks imbedded in my knee and my shin. Nothing to pull them out with except my own stubby fingernails. So I spent a while trying to remove the rocks from my legs.

After we cleaned me up as best we could C remembered she had a little first aid kit in her car. Which reminded me I have a good sized one in my car too! Mine is still in its shrink wrapped packaging and has never been opened. Easy to forget I had in other words. But my keys were down at the courts so C pulled hers out. We found a bandage almost big enough for my knee and put a regular band aid over the worst of the raw spot on my right leg.

And back down to the courts I went. LOL Played a little while longer on the second court where some folks had gone to just hit the ball around and not really play a real game. I did that for a while then I went to play frisbee with some of the others.

We all left about 5:00 or so and headed to a local BBQ joint for dinner. After dinner, on my way home, I stopped at the store to get some bandages since I knew I had nothing big enough at home. After I got home, out came the peroxide and cotton balls and I was finally able to really clean myself up really well. And I saw just how big of a mess I had made of my legs. The cuts and scrapes on my right leg, though smaller were the worst of the injuries as they were much deeper. On my knee I just took off the entire surface of it. But hey, yeah it hurt like the dickens that night after it all had a chance to stiffen up and looks dreadful but you know what, I don't care! I had a great time, injuries and all. It's not the first time I've torn up my legs and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Monday I was limping a bit as my knee had a bruise the size of a baseball on it and there's a bruise around the cuts on my right leg almost as big and both were all swollen. I wore gaucho pants to work as they were loose and short, but long enough I thought to cover the bandages. Well the knee was covered but my right leg bandages kept showing themselves off to everyone. LOL Yesterday I was hurting worse though because I had jeans on since I had to do a site visit so the denim pulling across my knee and all was a little painful.

I heal pretty quick though. Took both bandages off last night before my shower. My knee is healing nicely and I was able to go down to a much smaller bandage already. My shin was worse since it was deeper so it was still pretty ugly last night. But it's also smaller so I was able to go down to just putting a couple Band-Aids side by side to cover that all up. Another day or so and I'll only need a regular size band aid on the worst part of my knee and I won't need anything on the other leg.

And that is the details of my weekend adventure. LOL

Last night was half price movie night at the mall so L and I went to see the new Sandra Bullock movie, Premonition (good movie but weird!) Tonight I have my monthly book club dinner (postponed from last week since the hostess was sick). Tomorrow I was invited to a wine tasting event right after work I'm thinking of attending so long as I don't need to be there as soon as it starts. And of course it's Starbucks Thursday too. Friday is my normal Friday off so the cleaning will commence at home full steam ahead. Saturday I'm meeting S and her boss for lunch. And I still have two chicken breasts in the fridge I pulled out to make Saturday night/Sunday morning but didn't since we went out to dinner. Hopefully 5 or 6 days isn't too long for it to be not frozen but still refrigerated since I won't be home to cook it until Friday night. LOL

Man! This is been a busy week! No wonder I was dog tired yesterday and today when I got up! It didn't register how much I had going on this week till just now! LOL