Friday 12 November 2010

October: Hell Month Part 2

Scrabble 'moment' in October...

I’ve been listening to the Braveheart Soundtrack while writing this. Just thought I’d let you know.

Work

Mathematically the worse month in work for performance ever. EVER. Total arse-crap.

University (of the Creative, Open variety)

I started my first month in an Open University course on Creative Writing. I was stoked, prepared, on the boil and ready to show the world just how good I was at writing. It was going oh-so-well, the course work was fun, I was finding it challenging and could even understand the bits about poetry. [Man points -1]. I completed the first assignment, writing short piece of fiction (about the time I was stuck in my car in total darkness on a motorway for five hours cause someone decided to jump off a bridge and kill themselves on Christmas Eve. Nice.). I was confident of an easy pass.

October refused to play ball. I BARELY passed the first assignment. Two points off failure.

Confidence in writing reached lowest ebb for years – not only was my writing not good enough for the job I went for, but it wasn’t up to standard for University also. Gutted.

Concussion

Here’s the sucker punch to the month. I play field hockey [Man points -1]. It was a derby match near the end of the month and we were determined not to lose against our greatest rivals. I turn up on the day, prepared for battle, ready to win. Then our Goal Keeper doesn’t turn up. How could we win a bloody game of hockey without our keeper? Gutted again.

But this made the team even more determined to win. Imagine beating our rivals without a keeper? So we fought hard. Really hard. Near the end of the match we were impossibly winning 5-4 and I was one on one with their attacker – if he got passed me he would easily score – and was so SURE I could tackle him and get the ball. So I dived in, nay, charged in [Man points +1].

A brain-numbing clash of heads/hockey stick to the body later I collapsed to the ground clutching my head. [Man points -1 (I’m Scottish; I should easily handle a wee head-butting)] Fuzzy Time had begun. But the attacker didn’t get past me and we were still winning. After some abuse from my team mates for being soft I got back up and carried on playing [Man points +1].  We won 6-4. But the October curse had literally hit again.

It took me a few days to realise I needed to go to the Doctors [Man points +1] and was told to take time off as I had concussion. Curse you October, curse you.

Halloween (with added concussion)

Now, when I hosted my Halloween party I did not realise I had concussion. I decided that having a big lump on the side of my face would suit for such a dark night and bruising was a nice touch to boot. I may have had a few beers and fun was had. I think. Can’t really remember much [Man points +1] (note: alcohol and concussion is a deadly mix.), but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

We watched Paranormal Activity and I didn’t jump too much this time and with so little of October felt I became at ease, thinking ‘that’s it, no more bad luck or strange goings on!’ Of course, October, being a sneaky bar-steward, had one final thing up its nasty little sleeve.

We checked out the extras on the DVD, and found the home made horror competition winner (check it out if you dare). Now, it’s not the best, nor scary. But, just at the end, the very, very end (around midnight too) I jumped out of my skin and yelped like one of Paris Hiltons’ piddily dogs getting its tail trapped in a door [Man Points -1]. THAT got the biggest laugh of the night. Immediately updates were on Facebook.

Oh, how I will remember you October 2010. Revenge will be mine.

Surviving October 2010

And so that was October. So glad it’s finished.

Many may feel hard done by because of such an, well, interesting month. But, in hindsight, it wasn’t too bad: I’m over the concussion and we won at hockey; I did get some great feedback for my writing from my university tutor and the job application; Gran is doing well; I had a holiday; work is way better and the shenanigans of last month gave me idea’s for writing (where this blog entry clearly came from!). You can wallow in negativity or find opportunity and learn from the experiences. I’m learning and living.

October 2011 – bring it bitch, bring it.

October Man Points overall total: -1. Not bad.

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