Wednesday, September 24, 2008

You played volleyball in the Olympics?!

I have been going to Gold's Gym and playing volleyball on Mon. and Wed. nights for over 6 months now. There are some really good players that come and we get some competitive games going. The bad thing is that since it is an "open gym" setup, we also get the occasionally "I haven't played in years" but they should say "I haven't played in years and even then I wasn't any good" type. Mostly, the people who show up on a regular basis are really good.
Two weeks ago all that changed...I walked into the gym to 2 new faces. I always get nervous when I see new people because I wonder if they are going to mess up the game. (I know it sounds mean, but it just isn't fun if people can't play.) These two men looked a little...let's say...awkward, and I didn't have high hopes in their volleyball abilities.
Then came the words... "Hi, I'm James. I haven't played volleyball since the Special Olympics."
My jaw dropped and I was a bit stunned and thought maybe this guy was playing a joke on me. Then I took in my surroundings and realized that both men were the "Special Olympic" type. Now, I don't want to sound ignorant here and I was all for the two guys having some fun and playing for little while. They are very nice guys and one of them has a pretty good serve, but they can't play at this caliber. {Tonight, one of them told me that he can't hit the ball twice. He hit it and then I set it for him and he just let it fall. I asked why he didn't get it (I asked nicely, I am nice to them...I don't know how it is sounding in my writing, but everyone is really nice to them.) He told me that he learned he can't hit theball twice when he was in the Special Olympics.} I know that what we play is a far cry from Olympic volleyball, but it falls pretty far from the Special Olympic side of the spectrum.
The bad part of all this is that they have been coming every time now, and keep saying "see you next week." when they leave. I think everyone is being too nice to them...they keep wanting to come back. jk Like I said, I wouldn't have a problem with them coming for a half hour or so, but the Kid's Club closes at 8pm and I have to leave...they stay for over an hour and leave at about 7:45. I only get 15 mins of normal volleyball time? That just isn't right. The other bad thing about this situation is that a lot of the other people who always come, don't come in to play until they see these guys leave. So we have small numbers and that just makes it worse.
I have loved playing volleyball...it is a kind of release time for me. I have looked forward to that time for when Justin is gone; if it is all messed up now, I will be really disappointed. Maybe it's selfish of me to think this way, and expect their fun to be sacrificed so I can have fun...but can't they have fun doing something else? Is that too much to ask?


go ahead, tell me what a jerk I am

6 comments:

Vicki said...

TERI!
I can't believe you posted that...
I can believe you felt that way though...
oh well, i guess most people that know you, know by now that you never keep anything to yourself... even for fear of sounding rude.

Burton Family said...

All I can do is shake my head....you big meanie! :-)

Teri said...

Really? I even suprised my fam with that one? It must sound more mean than I meant it to. For what it is worth, I was in the heat of the moment and thinking about Justin being gone and not being able to have my fun Mon. and Wed. nights...Is my whining about not having a husband around for a year for an excuse not gonna work for everything? dang it, i was counting on it to work for most things ;)

Kalli Ko said...

dude, don't feel bad, I probably would feel the same way. It's the competitive nature.

and I'm totally jealous you even have a place to go play vball. When I lived in San Diego and when I was in college I always had a good group of people to play with and now I don't know ANYONE who plays here (and doesn't suck). Sadly I probably suck at this point.

I used to get pissed when people would show up at our games and want to play and then just dink around because they SUCKED.

Burton Family said...

All I can say is your new name is let me use initials jm. Spoiled little cakefart.

HA HA
Ger

Jamie said...

Teri can you look into the possibility of playing a t the Chilson Center instead? I dont know what kind of program they have, but it was just an idea I had. Hope you get it figured out because you need that "ME" time. I know you are a nice person, so dont feel bad. I'm sure you'd be willing to play with these two at ANY other time than your "ME" time.