So close, and yet so far. A 13-14 defeat last night, but I'll take that over getting crushed any time. To just stay competitive was a step in the right direction for the entire team. I never play as well as I would like to, but that goes out the window when everyone else does. Plays from third to first, short to first, center to first, all looked good last night for most of the game.

On top of which, this is by far the most positive team I've ever been on. Ever. Emails get sent all week, either patting everyone on the back or drumming up excitement for the next game. I suppose that this is all a symptom of the horrible "everyone gets a trophy" mentality but what the hell, we're all adults. Personally I love it; my circle of friends post-college are mostly from grad school and not the most sports-centric (no one ever really understood when I would stay in the car to catch the end of a Notre Dame game on the radio while everyone else was raring to go apple-picking). So to have a chance to do some sports-related bonding with coworkers close to my age is something I'm really enjoying. Hell, after my last job, I'm excited just to have coworkers my age, let alone enough of them to get a team together. The winning and losing easily becomes secondary.

So now begins the longest part of the week. While I do have bike the drive to break up the countdown to the next game, I find myself looking forward to playing more and more each week. This is also my last full week of Tuesday-Saturday, thank god. After Memorial Day I come in Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then get Friday and Saturday off before I switch to a Sunday-Thursday schedule. Not the easiest to deal with, but the Sunday start makes every week feel like a short one, and then I only have two days to work after softball. Which is awesome, b/c after sprinting home on the bike again last night after a stop at Sedgwicks, the idea of working 4 more days while I'm this tired is not really appealing to me.