Annoyances

I have to get a few things off of my chest that have been bothering me for a couple of months now.  Back in January I decided to start playing soccer.  When looking for a league to play on I chose to play in the lowest league possible as this was my first time playing.  Now by lowest league I mean the elderly and the injured.  I am coming off of a back injury and didn't want to hurt myself again.  Yet, every team we have played so far has thought that they were playing in the world cup.  At the first couple of games I was quite intimidated.  After last nights game I am angry.  When did recreational sports become so competitive?  This league was formed to give those with handicaps the ability to play and get exercise.  Yet when others resort to cheating and ruff play that is taking it to far.  In an act of frustration someone on the other team decided to wail the ball down to the other end of the field.  He did not really care about the people surrounding him.  And in true Mary style I was at the right place at the right moment and stopped the ball with my face.  As of this morning I still can't feel my left cheek.  This individual was on the other team by the way.  Seconds later I am tackled from behind, yet again (and with out the ball) and taken to the ground.  Now I have a cut on the palm of my hand and I am missing feeling on the entire left side of my face.  What did the experience teach me.  Well in the moment to fight fire with fire.  Now do not think that I have nor will ever have stoop to such a low level.  But, what I did do was ask a member on my team how to handle the situation fairly.  He explained to me the rules when in comes to charging and what I was to do to not get a penalty.  So yes, I would be lying if I didn't say I did not get pissed at the lack of sportsmanship.  But instead of hurting others I used that anger to safeguard myself while getting my point across.  You want to charge me? I am OK with that.  You have the look of kill in your eyes as you are doing the charge? I am OK with that too.  But know that I am now a wall and I will not be knocked around so easily.  When the old tactics didn't work they decided to wine to the ref and get me called on certain plays.  Nothing happened.  I didn't do anything but stand my ground as you were charging me to knock me on my ass.  can I help it that I had a few seconds to plant my feet and position my body so that I was a wall and you were the tennis ball bouncing off of it? NO.  Lesson learned with this first annoyance.  Getting angry in this situation can be both bad and good it is what we choose to do with that anger in the moment that will make all the difference.  I chose to use my anger as a strength rather than a weakness.  I let it fuel the energy I was feeling to do well.  I didn't choose to use it to hurt someone else.  Might I add that I have noticed I am really developing some mad skills with the footwork.  guess I can use the garage gym to practice my fake outs. 


Second annoyance,
Why is it that no matter what we are doing on the Internet if we have to sign in they put that stupid screen up (making sure we are not computers) and asking us to type a world that is jumbled and altered.  Um hello, that program was created by a computer and there are several way to get around it if you have the know how.  The reason why I am annoyed with this is 9 out of 10 times I can't figure out what the word is and have to repeat the process over and over and over again. 


Just had to get those off of my chest and I feel so much better right now (emotionally) physically I feel like I was hit by a mack truck.  With post a picture of the injury on my hand when I get a chance.  By the way I did a poll a month ago asking is it worse to get a grass burn or a fake grass burn.  As I have received several of both I must stated that the fake grass hurts so much more!


Till next time!

MS