Big news for Mika!

And what better reason to apply the baseball war paint on then to play in your first softball championship? The girls finished their regular season over 2 weeks ago (clinching 1st place very solidly) but there were still playoffs to be had. The 2nd and 3rd place teams duked it out a few days earlier with a stunning upset - the team that had lost ALL but their last 2 games creamed the opposition. They were quite the Cinderella team (last season bloomers!) but the Wildcats ended their dreams of glory...

I couldn't believe that the playoff trophies were as big as the regular season trophies! The girls really need their own trophy mantel now (*hint, hint* to DaddyDude). On the bright side, although the Cinderella team was beaten, they still received 2nd place trophies - the same size as 1st place finishers - so I think they were pretty happy, too.

In other news, my friend Michelle stopped by - she stopped overnight before heading out for a cross-country trek (via car). After a couple of month on the east coast, she'll head off to Japan for a year of research on a (drumroll, please) Fulbright scholarship. Woohoo! You go, girl!!!

And for those of you wondering, you can see my knee above, one week post-traumatic injury. I was really hopeful, but apparently pretty delusional, that I'd get to play in my soccer tournament on June 4th.

Here are my soccer friends in action - I was signed up with the blue team, but my "home" team is the red team - they are the team I first played with, after 9 years off, and the team I went to Vegas with a couple of months ago. Red team decided too late to join the tourney, so I had already joined another. Next time, they promise I can play with them - if I'm not injured. Both teams told me I couldn't/shouldn't play (blue team should have let me on the field - red team had already discussed it and told everybody NOT to touch me if I stepped on - I could have scored!!!). In fact, everybody kept staring at my knee! I didn't think it was THAT bad (I mean, the swelling has gone down) but I got advice from lots of people.

I finally found somebody who had a similar injury - the UCR goalie. She said she had dove on the ground and landed on a rock. As a result, her knee had swollen up just like mine. Upon inquiry, she said couldn't play for a month, it had taken months for the swelling to go down, and that a pocket of fluid still remained. She also suggested that I talk to the UCR trainer and finally, I decided to do so, since the poor woman looked bored (which is probably a good thing at a soccer tournament!).

On the bright side, the trainer ascertained that my ACL was completely intact (yay!). She thought (like I had) that a bursa sac had burst and that's why there was so much fluid, but when I told her I had had my doctor try to drain it (without success, the previous Tuesday), she was puzzled. Yes, folks, they called all the nurses in from the office to watch the doctor drain my knee and after several punctures, she couldn't get anything but viscous blood to come out. The trainer also said it was possible that the origin of my quadriceps leg muscle had ruptured (gosh, I hope not!)... but nothing can really be determined until more of the swelling has gone down and I can regain some more movement. I asked my doctor about scheduling an MRI but since nobody really thinks I have a major injury (ha ha) and nothing is torn, there's no rush.

Gosh, I really hate this sitting around and waiting. Everybody told me to sit down and rest and it made me want to scream. It is simply not my style to be a couch potato!!! While I know that I am very lucky I didn't do any major damage, it is very difficult for me to sit and wait for nature to take its course. My blue team captain left a message last night that there was another soccer tournament on June 26th and did I want to play? AAAAGGGGGHHHH... I told her that even though it was for charity, if I handed any money over, it was going to make me crazy if I didn't play. Better not to commit, at least not yet.

For every week I take off, it will take 3 weeks of running to get back to that point. At this juncture, I'll be lucky to be back in top shape by the end of the summer. *sigh*...

Please send fast healing vibes my way! :)