'Dek-Toe'

I played ball hockey on Sunday with 'The Black Mamba's', my team from last year. It is a co-ed league played on a roller hockey rink and it is a heck of a workout. One thing that you have to realize in ball hockey is that there is no gliding. Unlike ice hockey, in ball hockey if you aren't moving your feet, you aren't moving. It is an amazing workout and loads of fun.

I have always liked floor hockey. I remember in the 6th grade we used to have these house league floor hockey games at lunch and I loved them. I was the only girl in the school who could raise the puck and actually make a pass. This one game in particular I played the entire game without subbing off even once. We were supposed to sub off every few minutes and let our classmates come on for a turn, but I just loitered around while they were changing lines and never stepped off the entire lunch hour haha...what a brat eh?

Anyway after the game was over, Mr. Vickers (a teacher you didn't want to mess with) came over to me and confronted me about not subbing off and reprimanded me for my action. How did I respond to that? Well, how any 11 year old girl who was getting yelled at by an intimidating adult would...I rolled my eyes at him and walked away.

"GET TO THE OFFICE" he yelled.

Can you really blame him?

By the time I got to the office I was scared straight, realized my insubordination and don't recall repeating that offense ever again. These days, there is no way in heck I could ever make it game without subbing off. I can barely play the game, WITH subs, without puking.

This Sunday I was getting used to playing again...I mean it is much, MUCH different than sitting on the couch playing xbox let me tell you. Anyway, my defenseman Keith, headmanned the ball to me and I chipped it passed the defender. All I had to do was catch up to it and I would be home free. However, my portly defender was a lot faster than he looked and he gave me a good race. We both had to stop on a dime, and for some reason my shoe stopped but my foot kept going and I rammed my toe into the end of my shoe...hard. It felt like my toe nail ripped off. I went down momentarily and then got up...hobbled to get onside and took the bench.

4 days later I am convinced I am going to lose that nail and the toe is still much bigger than it ought to be...it has also started to turn blue. Hitch asked me if I wanted the jackets trainer to look at it, but for some reason I felt far to ashamed to be peeling off my sock and exposing my delicately polished toe nail so I opted to just tough it out and be tough about it.

See for yourself (and no, that is not my thumb it just looks like it):



It is hard to see the discolouration, but trust me, it is there.

I have pickup ice hockey on Friday and another ball hockey game on Sunday, I hope I can get my jog on by then whether it is with all 10 toenails or not.