~Saturday~ Ricardo and I were up at around 10:30, by which time Kevin was long gone out to Morrisville to referee his first tournament soccer game that started at 8:00.
We had a bagel and some coffee, and after about an hour-and-a-half we headed out to Morrisville to watch a couple of (potentially, depending on how cold it got) games that Kevin was refereeing. What we found waiting for us was a nice field, but with absolutely no amenities—and by amenities, I mean seating. That, combined with the cold, limited our stay to one game.
It’s been years since I’ve played soccer—on a co-ed, IBM intramural team, with my then wife, coached by my friend who I was secretly and totally in love with—but I digress…
Anyhow, two things struck me while watching the game and listening to parents along the sideline:
- Some things never change, such as things to yell while watching a soccer game, of which four of the top five have to be:
- “Man on!”
- “Mark up!”
- “Send it!”
- “He was off sides!”
- Today’s word of the day from A.Word.A.Day was ploce, and while the examples they gave in the entry were both writing-related (from Blake and Shakespeare), I noticed that there was a lot of use of ploce going on in the commentary of the sports spectators today. They included, from the people around us:
- “Send it! Send it!”
- “Move the ball up. Move the ball up!”
- “Come on guys, Come on.”
The three or four guys (presumably dads of the 16-year-old players, so my age-ish) to Ricardo’s and my left were obviously all for the “green” (uniform color) team by the way they were yelling and using the players’ names. At one point, the one closest to me leaned over to me and said, “Are you guys with the other team?” presumably going to ask us a question about the (“red”) team, or perhaps one of the players.
“Actually,” I replied, “We’re with the ref.”
“Oh,” he replied understandably surprised at the response, and then quipped, “You’ve probably got the hardest job here.” We all laughed.
This is the first time I’ve seen Kevin ref, and he did a great job, looking very professional out there, and making very few calls that people (the ones near us, at least) seemed to disagree with.
Since there was no seating and it got cold, Ricardo and I left after that game. We stopped at a Starbucks on the way home, at which Ricardo treated me to a Hot Chocolate, which was most delicious!
Ricardo, Kevin, and I met Eric and two of his friends, Patrick and either John or Doug. Kevin and I both thought the guy introduced himself to us as John when we were making introductions, but later on during dinner, we’re quite sure Eric referred to him as Doug. Ricardo thought he heard him introduce himself as Doug. We’ll get some clarification on that tomorrow from Eric.
We ate an Italian restaurant called Nina’s in North Raleigh, and in spite of it being an Italian place, I ordered one of the specials of the day, which was a Filet Mignon cooked in some kind of bourbon glaze. It turned out to be one of the best pieces of meat that I’ve ever had. (And, yes, Virginia, I’ve had a lot of meat.)
Our waiter was adorable, although his time was way too usurped by the Mrs. Slocombesque patron at the table to one side of us. Bless her heart.
Ricardo, Kevin, and I met Joe at Flex where it was “Mash-up Video” night.
I finally recognized someone in real life off bear411.com, a guy named Les who has recently moved to Raleigh. When he walked by, I introduced myself to him and “brought him into the fold” for the evening. Brianrdu and Chris from White Rabbit were also in the fold.