August 30, 2008

• Kickin

  Stan was a football player for exactly 8 days.  Hopefully, he will follow all medical (and motherly) advice and be able to return.  Yeah.  The dreaded phone call.  “Mrs. Route, your son was hurt during football practice and needs medical attention.  Can you come pick him up?”  Of course I’m thinking concussion, snapped tibia, shattered elbow… nope.  He pulled a ligament – outer knee – guess it’s pretty common.  No bone chips, no evident damage to the meniscus, should be a quick fix.  It scared him, but he wants to go back.  He totally gets how romantic footballism is around here.  8^th grade girls go ga-ga and he likey likey.  He wants to play.  I want him to play!  What great physical conditioning!  What a great activity for a kid who has been bigger all his life, told to be careful with smaller people all his life, felt awkward for his size all his life, never been part of the popular crowd all his life … he was literally made for football.  He comes home from practice, makes it through a shower and his homework, and crashes.  Yes, he’s doing his homework this year (huzzah!).  But dudes, I don’t want him to be hurt.  I don’t want him to play scared that he might get hurt.  His injury, minor as it is, is critical.

   

  Plus there’s this fucking mountain we’re climbing in two weeks.  Two weeks!  Humphrey’s Peak, the Arizona state Highpoint, at 12,600’.  It’s already such a huge deal, the kids missing school, Stan missing the big Little Sioux heroism award ceremony, the reservations made and paid for the rooms in Flagstaff, the Convention, the Grand Canyon train ride, the Lava River Cave tour, the substitutes found for my class, Stan’s Mass serving, and on and on.  We need to continue the aggressive training we started (too late) about 45 days ago, but we can’t risk injury!  Not any of us. 

   

  I mean, how lame. 

  “How’d you get hurt?” 

  “Football practice”

  (Cool.)

   

  How’d you get hurt?

  Mountain climbing.

  (Cool.)

   

  How’d you get hurt?

  Elliptical trainer.

  (Ummmm.)

  No, really, I was on a 10% incline with a 40-pound pack….

  (Ummmm)

   

  See?  Lame.

  • 2:07 pm
  • 1 Comment