The Stopper

Played ball hockey tonight, and in an unusual move, I ended up playing goalie for one game. Usually we have a couple of guys on each squad who are pretty decent goalies, and they rotate every few games to give each a chance to play out. But there was only one such guy there tonight on our side, and when the time came for him to play out, nobody else wanted to don the glove and blocker and get between the pipes. So I did. Just for one game.

Now, I'm not much of a goalie, but I did okay in my own awkward way. Stopped their best player on a break-away, which was nice. Then with their team pressing, the ball went to one of their guys (my friend Ross, actually) coming in on my right with a clear shot, and I went down on my knees to cover off as much of the bottom part of the net as possible. His shot went high, and was zipping towards the top corner, but I was there to make the playóbrilliantly stopping it with my left eye socket.

Ouch.

I was wearing my contacts, but it hit the outside corner of the eye, so the contact didn't split or get damaged in any way, which is good. But there'll be a shiner. It's a little purple and swollen-like right now and I've got ice on it. Actually it's not that bad. Looks like a bad mascara job. I look like Michael Stipe during his eye make-up phaseówell, one eye does anyway.

We'll see how it looks tomorrow. Not much I can do about it. Just let it run its course.

I don't have prescription sunglasses, so I'll just have to put up with the public leering for a few days. "You wanna piece o' me too, Granny! Bring it On!"

Maybe it won't be as noticeable when I wear my glasses.