drama and fights

9-30-13

I am shocked that I am not exhausted.

It was another jam packed weekend for us. It also was punctuated with a handful of more intense moments including quite the yelling match at the soccer field. Yeah, shit went down.

Friday night Moonshine went home. She is the little calico kitty that we were fostering. Nicole and Ally came over to Steve and were super tickled with the little fur ball. How could you not be? In many ways, she was always the pick of the litter. She was the one who at out of a bowl first, seemed the most boisterous and was the kitten in charge. Nicole is well versed in kitty care and her daughter was thrilled to have her own kitten. Ally was a little nervous but after a bit she could see that holding kittens is easy.

This left the little orange and white one with us overnight. She was not as thrilled with the placement of her sister, and was up from about 2 am on, yelling for someone to come to her. I finally got up after tossing and turning for 2 hours and brought her to bed with me where she pretty much promptly curled up and fell asleep next to me. I should have done that when she first cried out. LOL! Either way, we slept fine after that. I was still pretty beat, though.

Dax’s game was first, and Dax really is starting to feel the effects of not winning a game. I feel bad since really, the game was crazy close. It was only 1 to 0, and we outplayed the heck out of them. Still, I would like to have him taste victory.

The day was getting warm and we watched Bobby’s team really struggle. The other team was quite good, and we just ran out of juice. I blame a couple of things, including the heat. I also thought that having the team “warm up” for 45 minutes before the game was excessive. That being said, we would have lost anyway since they just had the upper hand.

Sadly, the assistant coach, Tom, didn’t feel that way.

Tom is an asshole. His twin boys are on the team (both amazing players) and he yells at them with such anger while they play. He is one of those coaches who yells at these kids as if losing would lose millions of dollars. It is truly awful. This game was tough because one of the boys had a recent surgery due to his bones growing too fast (I will admit I forget the exact ailment, but I know he was in a lot of pain). It was clear he was still limping to some degree. It was hot, the kid was frustrated, and here was his dad, bitching him out in front of everyone. It was awful.

Tom was already being a dick having snipped at Bobby once and then at the kids when we gave them cold wet rags at half time, as if this would somehow break them. He was just awful. He was yelling and essentially telling these kids they suck.

The game was over, we lost. It was at this point as the parents went out to do the tunnel the kids run through. I noted one of the twins sobbing in a chair on the sideline. I felt bad for him, thinking he was just being too hard on himself. Then my mom told me he was crying because his dad had just thrown him in the chair.

Yeah, that happened.

The kids were supposed to be saying good game to the other team. The kid went to go do this when his dad grabbed him roughly and tossed him into the chair again. I lost it.

I have had an out of body experience once before. I am sure it was just because I was relaxed. It was at the beach and I remember feeling like I was just watching myself sitting at the shore. It was really cool.

This one was way different.

I could see myself in front of me, storming up to Tom with a purpose. I heard myself yell, “No! There is no reason for you to be shoving your kid!” I was surprised at myself, really. At this point I rejoined the angry me and we went off.

Tom never really dealt with me. He looked shocked that I would question his actions. His wife, this just short of trailer trash whore got up in my face to defend her husband. I made it clear that there was no reason for this kind of violence against a child. She then told me what he had done.

He said Fuck.

Yep, that’s it. He dropped an F bomb so they dropped his ass. What the fuck???? He was frustrated and he said a curse word? And you threw him because of this? Tom’s actions made the whole team nervous and yet somehow he felt his kid was the bad guy???

She was an idiot. She tried to argue to the point that her kids should not use such language and that it is forbidden. I told her that I didn’t give a rat’s ass (I was shocked at my lack of cursing, actually. I wanted to drop my own F bombs but restrained myself) what this kid did. It was no excuse for Tom’s actions.

It felt like the conversation went on for 10 minutes, but I know it couldn’t be more than 30 seconds. Maybe longer, but either way, it was heated and I was livid. Ken came up and took the role of board member. He was awesome. He quietly told me to walk away. I wanted to argue, but I knew he was right. I was not making any headway and I was no longer a part of this.

I stood off a little ways while Ken spoke to her and Tom and others who saw the event. I was at a loss, and on the verge of tears. It occurred to me at this point that I had two board members (one being part of the executive board) on the field as the refs for this game. I went out to them and reported what happened. I was shaking and teary, but Scott said he would take care of it.

At this point I gathered my children and things and headed to the car. I needed to be away from all of this. I did talk to another set of parents as we were leaving who were feeling sad for the twins who were both crying by now. The mom said, “Oh, they are way too hard on themselves.” I then told her he wasn’t crying because they lost. He was crying because his dad had just thrown him into a chair. The parents looked shocked and I explained what had occurred. They asked what provoked this. I told them it was language based, to which they actually became sympathetic towards the PARENTS?!?!!?!? WTF????????????

I had to get off that field.

We waited for Ken at the car. Thank goodness there were like a half dozen board members there. No joke. They talked to Tom, who Ken said was rather sheepish about all of it and agreed he was over the top. It was discussed that there cannot be this kind of behavior on the field. They talked to the kid, too, and did point out that had the ref heard him drop that kind of language he would be given a red card. That is fine with me, too. However, the violence is something AYSO would not tolerate. Tom has been given an official warning and the next time this happens, he will be banned from the fields.

I take this as a win.

I did enjoy that all of the soccer folks I have spoken to agree with what I did. Sure, I might have been a little too heated, but that being said, I had to step in quickly. Word also got around. LOL! I went to Levy about later where I spoke to some of my soccer peeps and they were impressed with what I had done. Jim even thought Tom should have been tossed right then and there! I was glad I had backing. I know this will be discussed at the board meeting this week, which will certainly make things lively. This isn’t the first time he has been noted to be an asshole. When I told Jerry and Jim which guy, Jerry just nodded with the knowing of what an asshole this guy is.

I was pretty upset for a little while after, but thankfully I had house stuff to keep me occupied. Plus, Sarah came over to meet Riley! Yes, she has been named and her new mama is Miss Sarah, which is awesome. Sarah had not intended to take her, but was feeling good about it. It meant I would get to have a night of no screaming kitties. Of course, it did mean 4 of my cats felt the need to sleep on me. LOL!!

Sunday was more house stuff. We had done a Lowe’s run Saturday afternoon which got light fixtures for the bathrooms along with some other supplies. We also went back and obtained paint for the bathrooms and kitchen. The bathrooms have now been painted, the kitchen needs one more coat, and we started living room prep for painting. Ken even put in one light fixture, but it will need to come out since there was an issue with a wire.

Friday night we noted the gas smell again and called the gas company this time. It was determined there are 4 leaks under the house. 3 are apparently super easy to fix, and the 4^th will need our guy to come back out. The gas will be off until then, but this is just one of the things that needs to be done. Actually, because we had put plastic drop cloths over the kitchen, it helped us discover it. I happened to be out on the back porch that has the hole in it still. I smelled the gas and it meant we could get it taken care of. I am actually pretty glad since it could have been a bad thing.

Yesterday’s work was productive. Sarah then texted me at around 3 in the afternoon to tell me Riley seemed off. She had thrown up and looked sluggish. So I told her to come over. She brought Riley and you could tell she was off. She had eaten fine the night before and even in the morning. She threw up though, and on the way over, she had a small bout of loose stool. It was clear she was dehydrated, so for piece of mind, we went to the emergency clinic.

Clinics suck. Look, I know that there are some doctors at these places that mean well, but I was appalled at this place. I am now looking on Yelp and it looks like my experience wasn’t unusual. Sigh. The lady at the front was lovely, but the doctor was an idiot. It was clear this kitten needed fluids. She had good vitals, weighed fine and just was lethargic. The doctor wanted to fun this mini diagnostic, which was x-rays and blood work and an FIV test, etc. When they gave us the estimates, it was almost $400. No. Just no. So I held my ground and told her to treat the kitten for the dehydration and we would take her to our real vet in the morning. I am telling you, she just kept pushing for more tests. She wanted to do IV fluids, which would have been another $200. I told her to just give her subcutaneous fluids to get her stable. She looked annoyed that I was suggesting this. She was chipper, but clearly stopped talking to me and was talking directly to Sarah, trying to make Sarah think she was on death’s door. I pointed out that she would feel better with some fluids. We were there for almost 2 hours before they finally got her some fluids. They did the blood work, which showed she was anemic, but really, all of the things she had issues with would all be corrected with some fucking fluids!!

When we were finally able to get her out of there, you could tell she was so much better. She was perky and playful and had gone back to giving me her kitten kisses. Poor Sarah was a wreck, sure that she had broken this kitten. In reality, she probably just got a little dehydrated from it being hot and is better now. I ended up taking her home with us and she napped a bit and then played some more. She ate some formula and even peed fine. This morning, I gave her some wet food before I went to work and she dug right in. Ken will give her formula around now, which means she will be well hydrated.

This vet was clearly taking advantage of a worried kitty mom and was giving her an estimated cost of $1200 to get the kitten better. Turned out that it took a $40 dose of fluids. Fucking bitch.

I was going to let Riley watch Breaking Bad with me, but she needed to run, so I let her go back in her cage and she played. She also curled up in the blanket (the flimsy blanket was something the vet let us take, so I felt we should use it) I put in there and she slept well. YAY!

Breaking Bad was good. I was so glad that Jesse (Spoilers, peeps!!) didn’t die. That was really all I cared. It was fairly calm as far as episodes go, but after digesting it overnight, I feel it was a solid ending. I am glad that I was able to watch it live and not see any spoilers. I will miss having this show to watch, but it means I have time to read or watch something else. LOL!

I have been typing this for what looks like 3 hours. I suppose I should work.