"And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going)" (DREAMGIRLS)

Okay, I've been pretty bad about not updating. I've got no excuse because it's not like I got busy schedule or anything.

For work it is a slow period for us. In fact, this is the month where so many people take vacation time that the office seems so empty. We have more people out of the office than we do in the office. With a staff of just about 40, we have more than 20 people out of the office. It's been very relaxing being in the office, but this is the month where we can take a breath the whole year because every other month is crazy with some type of event or planning. Next month, we have our annual Flea Market and Grand Auction and also my office has to prep for end of the fiscal year. Then everything steamrolls after that until next July. So for now, I'm just enjoying playing my iPod in the office and singing along. Nothing beats a little Gretchen Wilson, Linda Eder, and Stevie Wonder on a nice day like today.

Well, I've certainly been playing this summer season, just not that great. I've got to remember basic skills and continue to develop those. My passing is the most inconsistent thing with me. Hitting, not always going to be a power one, but I attempt to play the hit against the blocker. As for blocking, still working on timing with that, sometimes I get it, other times I don't. My serves are decent, just need to be a little more consistent with it.

A friend of mine from the old Brandeis backcourt days, Mel, asked me to sub for her Big City league team. I said sure. They are a good fun group and their team name says it, "Just For Fun." They asked me to continue with them for the rest of the season so I said sure. It is great to hang around with Mel because it reminds me of a time of new adventures in a new place. It was Sunday at Brandeis on the far backcourt when a few people would show up to play a little volleyball for four hours. That was a new adventure because there were these people starting out playing volleyball and by the end of that spring season we had become friends. Not too many from that backcourt crew still play volleyball, many have moved onto different things and that is so great. I don't get to see them anymore but they remain in my hearts because it was a special time for all of us. We were brought together at that point in our lives to fulfill something, simple and complete, that is all. Now Mel is running her own company, Zach is getting married, among other things. But I"M STILL THERE.

This next month will mark my fourth anniversary of playing volleyball. I started with a team in Big City in September 2003. Don't know where those original folks are but it has been such a crazy ride since then. I'm still trying to get assigned some games through NYUrban but haven't heard anything from the assignor yet. I do have a NYC board of officials meeting next week for the new school year so maybe I'll start doing some games as a replacement. They do their scheduling months in advance and I wasn't sure how my schedule would be especially leaving work early and stuff during busy event time. So I'll just go and see how it is and trying to figure something out. I did have a chance to try my skills out when one of our league games had no referee show up. We later found out that the referee had been in a car accident. He's okay but it was on his way to the game and there was no one to replace him. So teams scheduled to play used the court during their time to practice and scrimmage. So when it was time for us to play, I asked the other team if I could act as a referee and do a scrimmage match. They agreed and I got up on the stand. My own team was doing a lot of laughing but they stopped when I called them on their first fault. But I was fair to both sides and I may have missed a call and should have re-played it but it was nice to do. The other team we scrimmaged was not very kind to my team and they kept speaking in Spanish so I had no clue on what they were saying. But they were calling my teammates names and they weren't very pleasant, luckily one of our subs knew Spanish and surprised them when he started speaking. So when we get the rescheduled match, we're going to have a whole crew there to support us and make sure we give them a really good match with translators.

We also heard about this other place for beach volleyball, Water Taxi Beach over in Queens. It's been open a couple of years and we heard about it last year but just didn't ever get over there. So we ventured over there on Saturday and found it to be a nice place. They only have one court and you get on the court by putting your shirt on the pole marking your spot in the line-up. When I got there, my friends had been playing around and we ended up just sitting on the sand enjoying the evening. It was a gorgeous evening with perfect temperatures and a wonderful view on the Manhattan skyline. But they had okay music (house music, not so much of a fan) and after it got dark it turned into somewhat of a bar just in the open air. A nice venue for a change of pace.

And so excited because this weekend we are heading out to Brooklyn for the AVP Tour stop there. We have tickets for Saturday and can't wait to watch the men's finals.