The Ball has been Dropped.

Last week I pulled the bonehead officiating maneuver of all time. 

I was scheduled to referee a double header (varsity/jv) last Tuesday. It was a great league match-up, and I had been looking forward to this game all season.  So, I left on-time to arrive at School A at about 3:15 to 3:20, and got there right on time (about 30 minutes before game time).  One huge problem though --- there were no girls lacrosse teams on the turf warming up.  "Holy EXPLETIVE!" I thought.  Where are the teams???!!!  Then, I noticed they were having a track meet, so I though they might be playing up on the grass field on the other side of the school, even though that would be kind of strange.  So, I went up to the old grass field.  Still no teams!!!   I tried to call my assignor and other scheduled official, but no one picked up.

Then, I realized I went to the wrong field --- the entire other school wrong field.  I've NEVER done that before.  So, while driving as quickly but safely as possible with construction, school buses, and an amazingly high percentage of left-turners back to School B (which, incidentally, I passed on the way to School A), I called my parents who were babysitting my kids to check my email to review the assignment.  Fortunately, when I got to School B both teams were there (whew!) but there was of course no parking since everyone was already there to watch the game.  So, I parked in the middle school lot kind of nearby and ran possibly the fastest half-mile sprint of my life (~3 minutes -- great pace, right?!).  And, I was only 3 minutes late for the game.  Since officials are really supposed to get there 30 minutes ahead, I was really about 30 minutes late.  After gushing apologies to the coaches and athletic director, we got started and had a great afternoon in the sunny weather.  I have been more than a tad distraught about doing something as absent-minded as that, but I have been extra careful to triple check the game times and locations since then.

After successfully passing my self-induced stress test (I'm fairly sure my heart rate and blood pressure reached new record levels on the drive back to School B), I settled into the toughest 3-day stretch I had been scheduled for the entire season:  6 lacrosse games in less than 48 hours.  I knew that number of games would be physically tiring, but I had no idea that the games would be so close score-wise.  Two games Thursday night (the varsity game was still tied with 29 seconds to go), two more games Friday night (the varsity game was also tied with 2 minutes to go), and then 2 more games Saturday morning at the Katie Sampson Tournament.  As much as I do love umpring, I was seriously glad to have a "break" on Sunday and Monday to try to catchup on chores.  By the way, I cannot believe how quickly my house transformed from clean(ish) to utter shambles (<48 hours).