Altruism: Pass it on

"Life is like a catapult; the more strength you apply, the higher you fly."
-Yours Truly

For those of you who don't know, I'm a rec league soccer coach for a team of 6th-10th grade boys. This morning, we had our third game of the season - it was the first we won, and it was quite convincing (10-3). Albeit one of our games we had five people due to a Boy Scout trip, we have a pretty nice team.

Coaching is more difficult than I expected. In some ways, though, it's easier. The actual soccer teaching is the easy part; everything else is the hard part. For example, I ran a goal kick drill last practice that literally involved just kicking the ball as hard as the kids could across the field. First, I had to gather all the balls and put them in a line. When I told everyone to go find one, they started fighting over whose was whose and had a hard time watching my first demonstration. Some kids even picked up the ball and punted it, even though I specifically said it was a goal kick drill. After they kicked, they moseyed across the field and bickered again over whose was whose. They kept kicking others' balls away. Eventually as the drill progressed, one kid got really mad and chucked his ball over the barbed wire fence (guess who went to get that one). I just don't understand what's so hard about just doing a simple and somewhat fun drill. Technically, by the last kick, it looked like they had improved (or at least had a better idea of how to do it), but we could have done twice as many kicks if they hadn't been so unruly. Of course, about half of the players were cooperative, but a personal distraction is always a distraction for everyone. This, coupled with the politics of parents and playing time and bad refs (I told our last white trash ref to stick to farming after he told me to shut up for asking him about a questionable handball non-call) makes for a good challenge. I certainly enjoy it, but like anything I'm passionate about, it's annoying sometimes.

Anyway, sorry for that rant. In other news, I pissed my choral director off by not going to a choir festival that he tried to mandate for everyone..haha. I enjoy singing, but not for 8 hours straight. With 200 other people. Twice.

Today I attended a local chili festival with my girlfriend and her parents..it was fun and the blues band was fantastic. Apparently the lead guitar/singer guy has been doing it for 40 years, which is incredible. Just imagine the passion it takes to not get bored or mad at your bandmates for that long..that's quite respectable. All the instruments were on point the whole time. It was rare appearance of outside talent in the Boro. My only regret is that we arrived too late to try many chilies.

The past few nights, the moon has been incredible. Tonight was probably the best, but on Thursday I ended up walking out at like 4 in the morning. I wrote a poem about it, actually. I did it in couplets with iambic pentameter (I've been reading the Canterbury Tales for English..). I can write so much better when I have a specific topic to cover. Expository just comes easily to me, just like the structured poem I wrote. When I try to think of my own ideas, they're usually alright when I'm doing prose, but my creative poetry is terrible. I do so much better when I have a template to fit my ideas into - two pages, address these topics, __ syllables per line, whatever. I feel like my comprehension and creativity are at their peak when I follow a pattern. Plus, good free verse poetry is hard to come by because everyone thinks they can do it..

Anyway, I think I'm about done. I may post my poem later..until then, peace.