softball

Co-ed church-league softball. Now there's a series of words to strike fear into the hearts of bystanders. Co-ed! Church-league! Softball! Hmm. Ok, so maybe it doesn't sound so tough. But it sure is fun. My dad's little church has three teams in the league; the people here do love softball. I'm on a team with Dad, brother Dave (now at college - booo), my 70-year old aunt, and an assortment of others, and we are surprising ourselves and our loyal fans by kicking some hiney in the year-end tournament right now! Last night was a win that has us in the seat for a top placement. Two more games and we take it, but naturally we're coming up against the hardest teams next.

My family is into brackets. Dad always coached us girls in softball and the boys in wrestling, and he's a strategizer. There's much bracket-talk before, after, and in between games. We have the bracket for this tournament all drawn up, and we're filling it in as we go with the names of the winners and losers. Sounds so harsh. How about winners and....people who get to go home and do other things than softball with the last days of summer. Church-league softball is a staple around my folks' place, so I guess it took Jason's objective perspective to clue us in to the hilarity of the conversations: "Did St. Matthews ten-run Trinity?" "New Covenant beat the liver out of Dwelling Place." And then there's the favorite, which we happily got to use last night: "We spanked Risen Christ." Expect to hear word of our house being struck by lightening very soon.