Tae Kwon Do Nationals
Well, I've been stressing out insanely, waiting for Junior Olympics where my darling daughter was to compete. I stress MUCH more for her than for myself when I compete, and this was the national championships, so I was scared to pieces. Anyway, we carefully packed, went off to DCA to board the airplane, and expected not much problem. I hadn't encountered DCA (Washington National) security, however I had no clue that an UNDERWIRE BRA would set off the machine. Now remember how they used to wand you after setting off the detector? Not anymore. Now they drag you off, find a female TSA dweeb, and they have to FEEL your undergarments to make sure it really is an underwire bra and not something really dangerous like a pair of tweezers or nail clippers.
When we checked in, we found that there were two seats left on the entire plane, even though we were 2 hours early for the flight. Those two seats were on different ends of the airplane, both in the middle. So, me and 11 year old were to be separated. However, she was sitting next to one VA judge for the tournament, and I was sitting next to the other. They wanted to sit together. We changed seats. All fixed? Not quite. They'd double booked my seat and issued two boarding passes. *argh* While they were straightening that one out, the judge next to me told me what a wonderful idea it would be for me to take the judge's seminar and learn how to be a referee. Gee, well I had not much else to do hanging around waiting for her, so I tried to check it out when we arrived. I told them I had taken my black belt test, but hadn't yet received the actual black belt. They called over this Korean guy who said - "good enough" and next thing I know, I was in the Referee seminar, AND scheduled to ref the National Competition! Seems they were SO desperate for referees, that they would BEG for anyone with most of the credentials to just plain DO IT. And of course I found out why. It's a volunteer position that everyone loves to yell at and blame. Waaaaa. 5500 competitors made this the largest Tae Kwon Do event in the world (including Korea) and only 100 judges made life rather uh...difficult.
Ok, so the referee seminar was 8 hours worth of being yelled at by crazy Korean people and reading a crazy rule book. I learned many new Korean words, naughty hand signals, and other insanities. Only one problem. I didn't have the pre-requisite referee clothes. Black pants, white shirt, black jacket, and red tie. They provide the tie. Woo hoo.
Next day, Morgan was doing forms and sparring, so I decided to watch and cheer for her first. She did better than at least 1/2 of the division, and there were about 30 kids in the division. It was really difficult, and she did a great job. I was very proud of her. She didn't medal though, and she's a bit disappointed. However, I let her stew, and she said she'd work harder next year. A great idea. Then, during opening ceremonies, there I was, going to the insane outlet mall and buying clothes. Then I ran back to the arena to become "TA DA!!!! The Referee of DOOM!." Which really wasn't as easy as it sounds, and I was very nervous. There is a LOT to this job. So I was assigned to a ring, and next thing I know, kids are being brought in, and I'm supposed to judge them. Egads. So we judged them in both forms and sparring. I got to be center referee, corner referee, and all kinds of other things. Unfortunately for me, I ran around too much on hard concrete floor (it's tough chasing these kids, trust me) so the next day my knees hurt and I could only do corner reffing. From 8 am until 11 pm. Woo hoo. Second group in included - guess who - Morgan. Out of 20 rings, they have to put her in MINE. I had to recuse myself. But that's not all :-) During this time, I was run over by a sparring pair, further hurting my knee. But wait, there's more. I saw a nasty display of poor sportsmanship from at least 5 contestants, 10 coaches, and far more of the parents. One 17 year old heavyweight stomped off screaming "fucking bullshit!" in front of a bunch of children, various coaches screamed various things, and various parents did various other bad things. I was quite sad given the way that Tae Kwon Do is SUPPOSED to work. It's SUPPOSED to be about sportsmanship. Grrrr.
So today I go back and my technical administrator person, my boss essentially, tells me that I need to go to the medical tent and get it looked at. Doc there says there's all kinds of fluid on the knee and well, I wouldn't be center refereeing that day and I was told to sit down and take it easy. I did. Now I'm laying in bed until tomorrow. Maybe the ice will work.