Yesterday, I wrote about a colleague's newly-formed blog that I helped name. The name is kind of ridiculous, but she went with it anyway, so in yesterday's entry I wrote (only half-jokingly) "joke's on her".
Well, even though I was kidding (kind of), what went around came around, and I was the butt of not one but two running jokes yesterday, which I will now elaborate on.
After school yesterday, the regular crew of Friday soccer players, which includes a mix of teachers and maintenance workers, headed off to another school to play our first match against a different team. Upon arrival, I discovered that I didn't have my shorts. I could've sworn I had packed them in the morning, so I was somewhat baffled. Just when I was about to go ask a colleague if he had an extra pair, the affable (and non-English speaking) phys. ed teacher Jairo held up a pair of shorts that looked suspiciously like mine.
Before I go on, allow me to describe these shorts. I've had them for a very long time, more than 5 years for sure. They're just a regular pair of athletic shorts, and really the only ones I've had for, probably, the entire time I've had them. I've just never needed another pair, because they're good enough. A year or two ago, the drawstring broke, and now they look kind of ridiculous, because the waistband is kind of frayed upwards, but as long as I cover it with a shirt it's okay, and despite the lack of drawstring they still stay up.
That is, they did until yesterday. When Jairo found them, the lack of drawstring led him to believe they were the property of a very large person, and so he held them up and stretched them out for all to see, while joking that they must belong to Ivan, the large English teacher. Soon I recognized them as mine and was relieved that I wouldn't have to scrounge for an extra pair of shorts.
But when I got out on to the field to warm up, I realized that Jairo's stretching had made them a little too big, and I could only run for a few seconds before they started to fall down. By the time the game started, I hadn't yet devised a system for keeping them up, because I wasn't sure how big a deal it would be. But I quickly discovered it was, in fact, a big deal, when on my first ball possession I had to basically run while holding my shorts. Soon after I figured out that I could tuck my shorts into my boxers to hold them up, but not before my teammates had a good laugh.
The game was pretty good; the other team was better than us, but we kept it close, and trailed 3-1 at half-time. The second half was a more lackadaisical affair, especially on our part, since it was pretty hot (like usual) and we were playing on an actual-size soccer field, much bigger than what we're used to. Despite our lack of effort, though, we kept the score at 3-1 and it looked like it would stay there.
But then, somehow, we ended up on a 3 on 1 attack, with me being one of the three. Aldrin, one of the janitors, passed across to me, and I shot... right into the goalkeeper's stomach. But he couldn't hold on, the rebound came right back to me, and I tapped it into the open net.
This led to what could have been a great moment. Upon scoring a goal, a common celebration for soccer players is to take off their shirt and run around. It occurred to me that I could perform the same type of celebration, except instead of taking off my shirt I could pull my shorts down and run around with them around my ankles. It would have been hilarious. But I chickened out. Such a missed opportunity.
Anyway, the game ended 3-2, but we were all in good spirits afterward. The conversation inevitably turned to my shorts, and the joke became that I should be on the receiving end of the charity clothing drive that is currently happening at school for the holidays. Actually, that might be a good thing to do with my newly-gigantic shorts...
No comments:
Post a Comment