Slightly Bruised

Typical Friday afternoons this year:
3:00 Play basketball with colleagues in the school gymnasium
5:00 Change out of basketball clothes, go to happy hour with said colleagues to meet other colleagues
6:00 Leave bar to go to soccer practice
6:45 Get back to Astoria, change into soccer clothes in my car, hop out and start running laps with my teammates
9:00 Finish soccer practice, begin that weekly debate: go out with soccer friends or go to bed

I love my Friday afternoons, but usually they are so busy that by 9:00 I know there's no way I'm going out. Last night I stayed awake long enough to shower just because I needed to warm up after two hours of playing soccer in the rain. I woke up this morning with a variety of bruises like I have never seen before: cleat marks on the instep of my left foot, a bruise in the shape of the seams of a soccer ball running along my ribcage, and a rainbow of colors on both knees.

Don't get confused, though. There is that warped, athlete-mentality that loves these things. By the time I get to soccer, I'm so ecstatic after playing ball and socializing all afternoon, that my teammates often ask if I'm drunk. (Which I'm not, by the way, keeping it to a one-beer minimum between basketball and soccer...) I think that it's endorphin-overload, and I might just be addicted to it. I already can't wait till next Friday, bruised or not.